Liverpool (1) Sunderland (0): Markovic Off the Mark in Wearside Win

I find it highly unlikely that anyone is going to argue with me if I say that we could have done way better, but I’m also pretty sure even few are going to complain too loud about picking up three points at the Stadium of Light.

Lazar Markovic, filling in for the injured Adam Lallana as one of Liverpool’s front three, was denied a stonewall penalty early in the first half, but he got his revenge not long after when he ran onto a Fabio Borini lay-off on the edge of the area to slot home between Black Cats ‘keeper Costel Pantilimon’s legs and give the visitors a deserved lead. The Reds were the only team with the ball in the first half, and though they looked like they were going to push on and get more than a few more, no one decided to bring their shooting boots for the short trip to Wearside.

Need me to qualify that? We put four of our 21-shots on target.

Terrible aim aside, Brendan Rodgers side looked to be a completely different outfit to the one that drew 2-2 with Leicester City in their last league outing — that is, until Steven Gerrard was withdrawn at the half as a precaution. After that, anything resembling composure went out the window.

Liverpool made easy work of Gus Poyet’s struggling side during the first half; after bagging his first, Markovic looked set for a spectacular second, only to have his jumping, scissor-kicked volley cannon off the cross-bar. More chances for the visitors quickly followed as Philippe Coutinho teed up Jordan Henderson on the edge of the area only for the former Sunderland man to also hit the woodwork and Fabio Borini, standing in for the vacationing Raheem Sterling, found the side-netting from a tight angle after picking up a slick pass from Emre Can.

With any luck, this one would have been wrapped up by half-time; needless to say, the Reds kept it par for the course and despite seeing their hosts drop to 10-men, a nervy second half followed.

With Dejan Lovren on in place of the Captain and Emre Can pushed into midfield, all hell broke loose. The German was involved early, bullying his way up the field when Liam Bridcutt picked up his second yellow card for clipping his heels. Advantage Liverpool? Wrong. Maybe Sunderland are used to playing a man down on account of the fact that they’ve had just one less sent off than league leading Newcastle United, but the defender’s dismissal galvanized Poyet’s side.

Thankfully it’s Sunderland and their just terrible — but that doesn’t mean they made it easy for us with Adam Johnson hitting the underside of the crossbar with a vicious strike as Simon Mignolet not only stayed rooted to the spot, but inexplicably fell over.

Yeah, it was one of those days. Regardless, three points is three points and our first half performance was encouraging to say the least. With Lallana out for the next couple of weeks, Markovic will only go from strength to strength playing the kind of role that he’s made for and scoring today will do nothing but give him a much needed boost of confidence. Now, if only we could get that out of the boys over 90-minutes…

–Steven