Date: 24th September 2014 at 8:13pm
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Liverpool came into the game on Tuesday night knowing that they had to start to find some sort of form again, and they just about achieved that with a 14-13 win on penalties against Middlesborough.

Although it was another fairly poor performance by the Reds, there were a few positives in the display that Liverpool could take out of it.

The first one has to be our youth products at the moment. Jordan Rossiter and Jordan Williams both did really well against a decent Boro’ midfield and they were both very good on the ball. In fact, they did not look like youngsters at all and that is the biggest compliment I can pay to two Liverpool debutants.

Look at Rossiters goal, most young players would have tried to smash that but he did not. Instead he just rolled the ball into the net with ease. His passing was quality as well, and he had a very good touch. He is certainly somebody for the future, and if he continues to improve then Liverpool have a very special talent on their hands once again.

There was also Jose Enrique, the Spanish full back who has barely played a minute of first team football for nearly a year now, who looked very solid at the back.

Enrique did his job well all evening, and barely let the winger get away from him. The fact he also came through the whole 120 minute affair tells you something about his fitness as well. A real bonus for Liverpool because our recent displays have relied on Moreno bombing forward and if anything were to happen to him, we know Enrique is more than capable.

Another positive was Adam Lallana, who finally started showing the crowd what he is capable of. He was finding great pockets of space in the midfield and was constantly looking to create a chance or take on his man. All in all a terrific display from the £25million man. With the derby at the weekend as well, I would certainly expect Lallana to feature now he looks like he is at full fitness.

Of course we can find positives from Javi Manquillo again, who did well during the game and of course we all have come to expect this now from the Spaniard. Despite his age we have all set very high expectations for him because of his recent displays.

My final positive is Suso, who came off the bench for Lazar Markovic and looked very very good. He showed Brendan exactly what he is capable of, and perhaps now he can have a run at the first team.

Because despite there apparently being a contract agreement in place with AC Milan, I think Suso still wants to be at Anfield. He wants to be a part of this great attack we have, and showed that he can contribute to that with his goal and two very well taken penalties in that dramatic shootout.

Overall the performance was not that great but these positives that leave me optimistic going into this weekends derby against Everton.

What did you make of the performance last night? Which players stood out for you? Let us know your thoughts below. 

 

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