Liverpool play out a comfortable victory in the FA Cup replay against Exeter, seeing them progress to face West Ham in the next round. Rush the Kop’s Liverpool player ratings.
An improvement upon the first leg struggles as Liverpool earn a win at Anfield, allowing them a shot at revenge when they face West Ham on the 30th of January. The red-men looked comfortable playing on their own turf, as made evident by the result, and three goals knocked Exeter out of the cup competition.
Brad Smith’s assist allowed Joe Allen to open the scoring after just ten minutes. Then in the 74th minute, Sheyi Ojo placed a beautiful left-footed shot into the top left corner, taking the reds two ahead. Finally, a calm João Teixeira fired in a third to wrap up the game.
The reds had 61% of possession, and dominated the game throughout. With 26 shots compared to the meagre 6 Exeter conjured, Liverpool landed 11 on target whereas Exeter only managed to land 1. Liverpool were (thankfully) only tasked to defend 1 corner this game, and had 10 of their own.
A welcome return for Jon Flanagan tonight as well, as the player received a standing ovation as he entered the game in the 50th minute – replacing Connor Randall. A strong and motivated player, who returns as a valued asset to both the team and the moral of the fans, Flanagan has been missed due to a long term injury. It was good to see him back, and we’ll review his performance in the coming slides.
Liverpool looked better as a team tonight, and there wasn’t much to trouble the reds against this Exeter side. The cup competitions seem to be a good call when looking at what to focus on this season, given the ‘lost cause’ feeling about a potential top-four finish.
Here’s Rush the Kop’s player ratings for this game, and as always, don’t be afraid to tell us how wrong we are!
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