Swansea midfielder Jonjo Shelvey had his hands all over Monday’s 2-2 draw at the Liberty Stadium against his former club, Liverpool. The 21-year-old recorded a goal and anassist on the night, but he was also at fault on both Liverpool goals, gifting passes to eventual goal-scorers Daniel Sturridge and Victor Moses, and he could havebeen sent off after clashing with former teammate Lucas Leiva, though referee Michael Oliver decided to only show him a yellow card.
“I just want to saysorry to the fans for the two bad mistakes that gifted Liverpool a draw,” Shelvey said after the game. “You just want to go into a hole where nobody can see you when you give the ball away for theother team to score, but it has happened to great players over time.”
Swansea coach Michael Laudrup noted: “When you do that you go from heaven to hell in just a couple ofminutes, scoring a goal in a very important game for you after two minutes but then you give away a goal — and another one with a ball lost. I told him [at halftime] ‘there are still 45 minutes, youhave to learn from this and pull yourself together’, and I think he did great.”
Liverpool coach Brendan Rodgers also offered support for his former player. “JonjoShelvey is an outstanding young player, but he knows he has things in his game he needs to improve on. He will only do that from playing. This was a steep learning curve for him.”