/ 29 September 2012

Liverpool’s young stars shine against Norwich

A Luis Suarez hat-trick and goals from Steven Gerrard and Nuri Sahin has ended Liverpool's worst start to a Premier League season for 101 years.
A Luis Suarez hat-trick and goals from Steven Gerrard and Nuri Sahin has ended Liverpool's worst start to a Premier League season for 101 years.

After drawing twice and losing three times in their opening five games under new manager Brendan Rodgers, Liverpool started the day in the relegation zone but ended it mid-table after a youthful-looking side gave a possible glimpse of the future at Carrow Road on Saturday, destroying Norwich City –2.

When they beat West Bromwich Albion in the League Cup on Wednesday, Rodgers brought on Jerome Sinclair, aged 16 years and six days for the last nine minutes to become the youngest player ever to pull on a red shirt for the senior team.

On Saturday Rodgers started with teenagers Andre Wisdom (19) in defence, 17-year-old Raheem Sterling out wide and 18-year-old Spaniard Suso in midfield and they combined to help destroy a Norwich who are still to win after six matches and fell into the 18th place Liverpool vacated.

The star of the show was Suarez, who opened the scoring after two minutes and added two more after 38 and 57 minutes to follow up the hat-trick he scored there when Liverpool won 3-0 at Carrow Road last April.

'Outstanding'
Suarez scored the first with a shot from the edge of the box before taking advantage of a defensive mistake for his second. His third was curled in while he also set up Sahin, who scored both against West Brom, for his goal.

Gerrard's strike took a deflection as Liverpool dominated from start to finish.

Rodgers told the BBC afterwards: "We were outstanding, but I am not surprised. We played well and took our chances and I thought we were fantastic … For us to come here and score five goals was outstanding."

He said he was also impressed with his young players, explaining: "They know they are not on their own, they have nice technique on the ball which is important. They are learning tactically all the time and they have got wonderful senior players who can help them."

The only negative, said Rodgers, was that Norwich scored twice through Steve Morison and Grant Holt, "that would be the only negative from today," he said.

It was the second time this season that Liverpool have scored five away from home after winning 5-3 in Berne against Young Boys in the Europa League on September 20, but Rodgers was delighted with his first league win.

"The result was incredible and hopefully we can get more wins and keep scoring more goals," he said. – Sapa-AP