How we rated Crystal Palace’s players in Liverpool game
By Sam Smith
Wayne Hennessey: the Wales international kept the scoreline down with two excellent saves; the first to deny Naby Keita and then to tip a Mohamed Salah header over the bar. He will be keep out new recruit Vicente Guaita for the foreseeable future. 7
Aaron Wan-Bissaka: excellent, and so unfortunate to be sent off. Made two excellent tackles, although both were recoveries from his own errors. This was his best attacking performance and he threatened down the right, providing a constant passing option. Red card was correct, but shouldn’t go against him. 7
James Tomkins: 13-game winning run alongside Mamadou Sakho comes to an end, but not without a fight. Kept Roberto Firmino quiet, but that hardly makes a difference when there are also the threats of Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah. 6
Mamadou Sakho: it was perhaps naive of the Frenchman to dangle his legs out with Salah in close proximity, but it was never, ever a penalty. Was otherwise good on the ball and won his fair share of battles. 6
Patrick van Aanholt: made a poor tackle on James Milner midway through the first half and was correctly booked. Failed to cause his usual threat down the left and often found Wilfried Zaha in his way. 5
Andros Townsend: cracked an outstanding, long-range effort against the crossbar with the score still yet to be broken. Failed to do a whole lot else on a frustrating night for Palace’s attack. 5
James McArthur: used the ball effectively, exclusive of a poor back-pass almost gifting Salah a free run on goal early on. Made a few important challenges, too. 6
Luka Milivojevic: curled a free-kick towards the top corner, only to agonisingly see it excellently tipped away by Alisson Becker. Good in and out of possession. 6
Jeffrey Schlupp: the game appeared to merely pass the Ghanaian by. Not quite at the level he set during pre-season and at Fulham on the opening day. 5
Wilfried Zaha: Liverpool did an excellent job in keeping the Ivorian quiet, despite him having a bit of success when one-on-one with Trent Alexander-Arnold. Was the recipient of a poor challenge by Milner, but the rest of Liverpool’s treatment of him was fair. 6
Christian Benteke: nice hold-up play but ineffective when it truly matters is the story of his last 12 months. Withdrawn on 70 minutes with what appeared to be a knee injury. 5
Subs
Alexander Sorloth (for Benteke, ‘70): jury still out on whether he’s ready to play at this level. Didn’t make an impact despite having 20 minutes plus added time to do so. 4
Joel Ward (for Townsend, ‘79) NA
Max Meyer (for Schlupp, ‘83) NA
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Benteke is just not up to the job, and so far Sørloth looks intimidated by the level or speed of play. Why we did not go for Ayew instead of Benteke I don’t know.