Another week, another nightmare for Fulham, as the Cottagers were comfortably beaten 4-0 by Liverpool at Anfield as Luis Suarez turned on the magic.
The Reds dominated from start to finish as Suarez scored twice, Martin Skrtel added another and Fulham defender Fernando Amorebieta headed his own net early on. Liverpool’s captain Steven Gerrard put in a sublime display of set-piece delivery that helped put the game to bed before half time. Fulham were woeful as Liverpool had 32 attempts at goal and enjoyed 68 percent of the possession.
Suarez’ header deflected off Cottagers’ defender Amorebieta for the first, before Skrtel headed in a second and then Suarez tucked away a neat move in the first half to make it 3-0 at the break.
After half time the game continued to get away from Fulham as Suarez made the most of some poor defending to grab his second and Liverpool’s fourth.
The win sees the Reds climb back up to second and are just two points off leaders Arsenal, while Fulham stay 16th and are just two points above the relegation zone.
Liverpool started the game on the front foot as Daniel Agger volleyed over within the first minute. Gerrard’s corner found the Danish center back in the penalty box but the 28-year-old couldn’t quite keep his effort down.
The Reds kept pouring forward and in the fifth minute Gerrard slotted in Suarez but the Uruguayan’s shot across goal was saved down low by Fulham’s Marteen Stekelenburg as Daniel Sturridge sniffed around.
Fulham barely threatened going forward in the first half, as Liverpool looked to get Suarez, Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho on the ball as much as possible.
But a long ball forward from Zverotic found Patjim Kasami at the back post and the Macedonian winger brought the ball down and saw his shot deflected into the side-netting.
Liverpool then took the lead in the 23rd minute as Gerrard’s free kick found Suarez on the edge of the six-yard box and the Uruguayan strikers effort deflected off Amorebieta and into the net to send Anfield wild.
Just moments later Liverpool made it 2-0 from Gerrard’s wonderful corner that found defender Martin Skrtel who beat Amorebieta to the ball and headed home.
The Reds were well on top and Fulham simply couldn’t get to grasps with the fluid attacking play Brendan Rodgers’ men were churning out.
In the 29th minute it could’ve been 3-0 as Coutinho riffled a right-footed volley towards the top corner but Stekelenburg saved superbly with his fingertips.
In the opening half hour Liverpool had 11 attempts on goal and were dismantling the West London club with ease.
Then, inevitably, the third goal arrived as Gerrard nutmegged Dimitar Berbatov before feeding the ball to Jordan Henderson. The midfielder then found Suarez with a fantastic through ball in the 36th minute and the Uruguayan forward tucked the ball home with ease.
For the rest of the first half Fulham stumbled around and tried to make sense of what was going on, in another terrible display from Martin Jol’s men.
But after the break normal service resumed as Kieran Richardson gave the ball away and Suarez capitalized to score his second goal of the afternoon, and eighth in six PL games this season, to make it 4-0 to the Reds.
Fulham boss Jol must be extremely worried about his future as manager of the Cottagers after another incredibly poor performance that makes it three defeats in a row.
The rest of the game was simple damage limitation for the West London side who sat back and hardly pressed forward. As for Liverpool, they were able to rest a few key players as the game petered out into a comfortable win for the Reds.
LINEUPS
Liverpool: Mignolet, Johnson, Skrtel, Agger, Cissokho (Jose Enrique, 61), Lucas, Gerrard (Allen, 67), Henderson, Coutinho, Suarez, Sturridge (Moses, 76)
Fulham: Stekelenburg, Zverotic (Hughes, 61) Senderos, Amorebieta, Richardson, Dejagah, Sidwell, Parker, Kacaniklic (Ruiz, 45), Kasami, Berbatov (Karagounis, 83)
