Unsurprisingly, it's the Suarez and Sturridge show: five from Suarez, three from Sturridge, and one each from Coutinho and Flanagan.
10) Coutinho 3-0 Tottenham (h) : This is why Brendan Rodgers likes his teams to play out from the back. Okay, there's nothing on, so go backward. Draw Tottenham out of position with intelligent short passes, encouraging the opposition to fruitlessly chase the ball. One clever turn upfield – from Flanagan, no less – and there are miles and miles of space to run into, capped off with an actual, honest-to-goodness shot-on-target from outside the box by Coutinho.
9) Suarez 2-1 Everton (a): I wasn't gonna include any direct free kicks this season. Suarez has scored eight of them in the last two seasons, after all, while Gerrard also notched two this season. But this one was too fun, the bend around the wall and the placement into the one place he'd actually score too perfect. And that it happened against Everton, at Everton no less, is a fairly big bonus.
8) Suarez 3-0 Cardiff (h): Passing across the back to pull Cardiff out of shape? Yep. Suarez's non-stop work rate setting the whole thing in motion? Yep. A back-heeled assist from Henderson? Yep. A physics-defying curler into the only space where the keeper couldn't stop the shot? Yep yep yep. Suarez continues to make the difficult look incredibly simple. Just another day at the office. This spot was a toss-up between this and his first in the same match, an ostentatious volley again from a Henderson assist. It was a hell of a way to mark signing his new contract.
7) Sturridge 4-0 Arsenal (h): 75% holy shit what a pass from Coutinho, 15% Sturridge's perfectly-timed run between the center-backs and subsequent finish, 10% "hahahaha Liverpool are 4-0 up on Arsenal within 20 minutes what is going on?"
6) Flanagan 3-0 Tottenham (a): This was probably my favorite goal of the season. This compilation was almost just this goal replayed 10 times over. It remains wonderful and hilarious and wonderlarious. Also,
Oh fuck off even Flanagan has scored.
— Tottenham Hotspur (@THFC__Fans) December 15, 20135) Suarez 2-0 West Brom (h): This was the best Liverpool headed goal since Luis Garcia against Anderlecht. He's outside the box! There's no power on the cross! He's outside the box! Aly Cissokho assist! I absolutely adore difficult headed goals and really, really wanted to put this higher on the list, but the next four goals wouldn't let me.
4) Sturridge 3-0 Everton (h): A straight ball over the top following a quick free kick, a no-look chip from 20 yards out. That is so much harder than Sturridge makes it look. That he was able to make such clean contact on a ball bouncing over his shoulder is amazing enough, let alone placing it as perfectly as he did, over an onrushing Tim Howard. But, as the next goal demonstrates, it certainly was not a fluke.
3) Sturridge 4-1 West Brom (h): Because Sturridge's goal against Everton was his second unbelievable chip of the season. This was the first. I struggled to decide which was more impressive – consider them 3a and 3b – but went with this one because he was under more pressure from an opposition defender and has much much much less space to find the back of the net, with Myhill much closer to his goal line. And yet Sturridge still found said back of the net, with typical aplomb.
2) Suarez 1-0 Norwich (h): Yeah, this seemed to be everyone else's #1. And it's really, really, really good. Deserving of being #1. But we've also seen him try similar and miss horribly. No matter how undeniably, unbelievably talented Suarez is, there's an awful lot of luck involved. If it's against anyone other than Norwich, it's probably 75% less likely to go in. His next goal, though.
1) Suarez 3-0 Norwich (h): Holy wow. The ability to chest control a difficult pass. The ball-on-a-string embarrassment of Leroy Fer. The guile to wait a second longer than everyone expected before taking the shot, fooling the defenders and keeper into giving him the space he needed to strike. This was special. Even for Luis Suarez.
Honorable Mention:
Sterling 1-0 City (h)
Suarez 1-0 Cardiff (h)
Suarez 4-0 Tottenham (a)
Sturridge 1-0 Swansea [Sterling assist] (h)
Sturridge 1-1 Fulham [Gerrard assist] (a)
Skrtel 2-0 Arsenal (h)
Suarez 4-2 Cardiff (a)
Coutinho 1-0 City (a)
Suarez 3-0 Fulham (h)
Sturridge 1-0 West Brom (a)
6 comments :
Tough calls, but would have liked to see a ridiculous Gerrard pass assist, like for our 3rd goal (suarez) at home to sunderland. I'm also partial to Sterling's at City
Sterling's at home to City rather
Yeah you're absolutely right about Sterling v City. That should have at least made honorable mention, if not replacing one of the goals between 8th and 10th. We'll just put it at the top of honorable mention because that's easier than redoing the video.
As for the first you mentioned. I'm not sure which you mean. Gerrard only had three open play assists: second goal vs Notts County, the fourth vs Fulham, and the first at Fulham listed in honorable mention. That assist at Fulham was awesome, and is the reason that goal's listed in honorable mention. Liverpool only scored 2 against Sunderland at home, and he wasn't involved in the third goal at Sunderland.
I'm sure there was at least one goal, if not more, where he made the move with a long pass over the top, even if he wasn't credited with an assist, but I'm not remembering specifics off the top of my head.
Love the video. Highlight for me was Sturridge and Coutinho celebrating together after that ridiculous through ball against arsenal (#7). Magic.
I also like Sturridge's goal against Stoke, where he juggles the ball briefly. He refused to give up on it.
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