Aldridge impressed by Norwich City’s resilience

Former Liverpool striker John Aldridge has hailed Norwich's bravery after denying his old club all three Premier League points last time out.

Aldridge praised Paul Lambert's men for cashing in on defensive uncertainty in the Reds' ranks when second half substitute Grant Holt's powerful header cancelled out Craig Bellamy's opener.

'Give Norwich credit because they did really well,' said Aldridge, who won the old First Division and FA Cup during a prolific spell at Anfield in the late 1980s. 'They defended bravely and played some nice football, but Liverpool should have been out of sight by half-time. In the first half we played really well. The movement was good and we got in behind Norwich frequently. We created some great chances but failed to take them.

'The problem with not putting teams to bed is that as a result of that we're getting edgy defensively. Clean sheets breed confidence and we haven't been keeping enough of them.

'Norwich exploited that edginess at the back with their equaliser. We had three players going for the same ball and none of them dealt with it. The fact that we haven't kept a clean sheet at Anfield so far this season speaks for itself. While strikers talk about scoring goals, defenders talk about clean sheets. They pride themselves on it. They mean the world to players like Pepe Reina and Jamie Carragher.'

Aldridge also backed Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez to come good after misfiring against the Canaries.

'I don't want to knock him because he's a brilliant player and has scored some great goals already this season,' said Aldridge. 'But for some reason he seems to be lacking a bit of confidence in front of goal. We need him to start taking a bigger percentage of the chances. Suarez also found that a number of decisions went against him.

'The stick he's had for diving recently is bound to influence referees. What I will say is that strikers who don't go down easily are few and far between these days. Every club has them. It used to happen more abroad. I saw it in Spain when I was playing over there and my children went to school.

'Diving to win decisions was an accepted part of the game even at a young age. Now you see English players doing it more and more. It's the way the game has gone. Suarez is certainly no worse than many others. I just fear that due to all the criticism he's had he's not going to get 50/50 decisions going his way.'