SCRAMBLE A WIN

Liverpool recently managed a narrow home win over Swansea thanks to a late goal from Daniel Sturridge. The 4-3 win could have easily ended in a draw after Liverpool’s shaky defence allowed the away team to come back into the match numerous times over the 90 minutes. Defender Kolo Toure, who came to the club on a free transfer from Manchester City in the summer, was especially culpable with a poor performance. In fact, he has been very poor in recent weeks, but this has been overshadowed by the ability of the team to score more goals than the opposition.

This has helped them maintain a title challenge for most of the season, despite not being considered as favourites even for a top four place at the start. Toure has now expressed his confidence that the club can go through the entire season by managing to outscore their opposition. Liverpool have managed only two clean sheets in the last 11 matches in the league. However, this win coupled with a defeat for Tottenham at Norwich means that the Reds have opened a six-point advantage at the top of the table.

Toure, who won the league title with City, says that he is confident of helping the club to their first league title since 1990.

“We just need now to keep calm and do what we have been doing, if we continue that we will get the same results. There are going to be some tough games; Southampton [this Saturday] is a tough place to go but I think we can score goals and defend well as a team and we are working hard. We are in a good position at the moment but with 11 games to go there are still a lot of things that can happen,” said Touré.

POOR DRAW

Liverpool failed to get all three points after a 1-1 draw with West Brom, but it was largely down to their defender Kolo Toure. His lackadaisical pass was quickly intercepted by West Brom, who managed to score from the effort. Until then, Liverpool were dominating the encounter, but this equaliser appeared to take the wind out of them. The dropped points mean that the possibility of winning the title, which still remains realistic, has evaporated slightly. Brendan Rodgers said after the match that it was a great opportunity to maintain their latest top four race, but the team failed to take it.

Victor Anichebe capitalised on the mistake from Touré to score his first goal against Liverpool. The draw is a massive boost for the team, which has been struggling against relegation throughout this season. The recent appointment of Pepe Mel as the manager appears to have brought some stability to the club, but they still remain winless in their last three matches. Touré has stated that the entire squad is disappointed with the outcome, but Rodgers has not been angry with him because of the mistake. The former Arsenal and Manchester City player came to Liverpool in the summer on a free transfer.

He was in excellent form in the first half of the season, but has been making shaky in recent weeks.

“It was a game we should have won 1-0. It was a terrible pass by me. It’s hard because we played well. It was a tough game. I take the call because it was a very bad pass. I haven’t seen him [Anichebe]. I should have just played to Aly [Cissokho]. My pass just put the team in a difficult situation. I haven’t seen him and I shouldn’t have passed the ball there. You have to make decisions. Today I took a bad one,” Touré said.