Stalemate at Swans as Rodgers returns

Liverpool and Swansea played out a rather uninspiring goalless draw yesterday afternoon, as Brendan Rodgers' heavily anticipated return to the Liberty Stadium failed to live up to expectations. Aside from Jose Enrique's wrongly disallowed goal, neither side came close to breaking the deadlock and, ironically considering their reputations as pass and move masters, a poor final pass was often what let both teams down.

Surprisingly, Stewart Downing and Jose Enrique swapped positions, with the former playing as an auxiliary left back while the latter revelled further forward down the left hand side. Meanwhile, Jordan Henderson made his first start in the Premier League since Liverpool's 1-0 defeat at Swansea last May. After impressing against Young Boys on Thursday, Joe Cole was awarded a seat on the bench.

The first chance of the encounter fell to the home side, as Wayne Routledge went close, rifling an attempt at goal that Reina punched away. The Merseysiders were in the ascendancy for the rest of the first 45, though, creating more goalscoring opportunities and controlling possession. On 17 minutes, Enrique made a good run into the box to unconventionally connect with Johnson's cross using his chest. Unfortunately, the ball rolled wide of the post.

The magnificent Raheem Sterling thundered a strike against the cross bar from a corner kick just past the half hour mark, moments before Enrique bundled the ball home from Suarez's clever pass but was wrongly flagged offside when he was actually in line with Swansea's defensive line.

Enrique looks to the linesman after turning home

Johnson and Suarez were also denied by goalkeeper Tremmel, as the Reds grew in confidence and asserted their superiority in the contest. Meanwhile, shots narrowly wide from Hernandez, who was Swansea's main threat in the first half, and de Guzman were all that Michael Laudrup's men managed to achieve.

There was a scarcity of decent goalscoring chances during a disappointing second half. After Hernandez's free kick went high and wide 10 minutes after the restart, Gerrard and Suarez tested Tremmel and former Swansea midfielder Joe Allen cleared off the line from Williams' header. 

But, apart from that, little of note took place until Reina and substitute Dyer collided on 73 minutes. A mistake from Downing allowed the number 12 to rush through on goal but thankfully Reina bravely came out to close the angle. After both received treatment, they commendably shook hands and got on with the game, which is a lamentably rare sight in modern football.

Eight minutes from time, Suarez and Sterling broke forward and faced only one defender. Frustratingly, a poor pass from Sterling took Suarez off course and gave the hosts time to recover. Eventually Suarez shot at goal, but it would have taken a lot to beat Tremmel from the position he was in. 

Frustrated- Sterling's final pass let Suarez down

In injury time, Shelvey almost diverted Gerrard's long range strike goalwards and also saw the goalkeeper beat away one of his own shots. However, by that stage, it was clear that neither side was going to clinch a winner.

Swansea will be happier with a point, although a draw and a clean sheet isn't a terrible outcome for Liverpool either. Sure, there's work still to be done up front, but at least our unbeaten run has been extended. 

A much better performance will be needed to take points from White Hart Lane on Wednesday, though.

YNWA