Crystal Palace had chances to take a first half lead but couldn’t take them with Liverpool scoring twice after the break to inflict a Premier League Asia Trophy defeat on Palace.
Goals from Dominic Solanke and Divock Origi put Liverpool into the final after a 2-0 win in Hong Kong with Palace now facing West Brom in the third/fourth place play-off game.
Palace: Hennessey, Ward, Dann (Kelly 77), Delaney, Townsend (Wan-Bissaka 59), Milivojevic (Loftus-Cheek 77), Puncheon (Kirby 77), Schlupp (Van Aanholt 59), Zaha (Phillips 77), Benteke (Ladapo 72), Anderson (Sako 65).
Sub not used: Speroni.
Liverpool: Mignolet, Alexander-Arnold (Flanagan 46), Matip (Lovren 46), Gomez (Klavan 46), Moreno (Milner 46), Henderson (Kent 50), Lallana (Grujic 48), Woodburn (Wijnaldum 48), Salah (Solanke 50), Firmino (Coutinho), Sturridge (Origi 48).
Subs not used: Karius, Ward.
Involving a number of youngsters de Boer, who gave on-loan Chelsea midfielder Ruben Loftus Cheek a run out at the end, obviously didn’t want to lose but wasn’t too unhappy in defeat.
He told the Official Website he was pleased with a ‘very disciplined’ performance in a new 3-4-3 formation.
‘I think we learned that we were very disciplined today; that is our main goal as well as to play as a team and that starting point for me is very important. Of course we have to improve still, a lot, and work on details but first of we had to play as a team and I saw that today.
Adding: ‘We played against a very good opponent that everybody knows, and it was our first real game – we played internal games but this was a game played under quite hard circumstances with a new system. Only Ruben Loftus-Cheek played that system at Chelsea so we have to learn and adapt to it, and we`re not even had three weeks on it, so from my point of view it was a good performance.’
The Dutchman handed Palace debuts to six players adding his side was full of ‘fantastic players’ leaving him ‘very satisfied.’
‘I saw a team that wants to play the role that we want them to. We had our small chances but they freshened their team up in the second half, and they are all fantastic players. We had six players who made their debut today so that is the difference between a club like Liverpool and Crystal Palace. I`m very satisfied.’
He wasn’t so happy with Marko Drujic’s tackle on Wilfried Zaha though, fortunately it didn’t cause any damage to Wilf.
De Boer said: ‘It was not a nice challenge, I don`t know who it was but it was not appropriate as it could have injured one of our most important players. He`s creative and he played a fantastic first half so you don`t want to lose this kind of player, so I`m happy he`s OK.’
As for Ruben Loftus-Cheek, de Boer knows he can play in his preferred formation but the England U21 international has to work his way into the team.
The boss went on to say he wasn’t exactly sure where the midfielder would play yet.
‘Ruben knows the system and he is a very young lad so he can improve and learn a lot still. I think it`s a quality injection for the squad, and the position he played today was a sitting midfielder but he can also play offensive midfield, so we can use him in a lot of situations. It`s a long season and he has to play himself into the team, but I think he has the quality to do that.’
Concluding: ‘It depends what we need, as a manager you always look at what is best for the team. Sometimes it is not always about a player playing in his best position. He played a lot of times as an offensive midfielder but with his physical abilities, his power, speed and technique, he could also play as a defensive midfielder. I saw some good challenges from him in the midfield.’
