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The Reds stumbled in December, with losses to Watford and Newcastle and a draw with West Brom marring a month that also saw them put six past Southampton, beat then-league leaders Leicester, and advance in Europe. In the end, it leaves them sat seventh heading into the new year, level on points with rivals Manchester United but behind on goal differential.
In the end, it also makes performances across the month a little hard to judge. Still, we’ve got the results of every post-match ranking on hand, and granting five points for being named Man of the Match through to one point for coming in fifth in voting gives us a solid list of contenders for Liverpool’s best performer in the month of December and the man who will join last month’s winner Lucas Leiva.
Leading the list this time out are a pair of players nobody would have tabbed heading into December as Player of the Month contenders: centre half Dejan Lovren and striker Divock Origi. The duo dominated voting over the past seven matches, with Lovren racking up an impressive 20 points (including two Man of the Match awards) and Origi netting 18 (with one Man of the Match award).
Their closest competition comes from Jordan Henderson (13 points), Nathaniel Clyne (nine), and Jordon Ibe (six). Daniel Sturridge, Brad Smith, and Emre Can round out voting with five points each—Sturridge and Smith getting theirs from a single Man of the Match award and Can’s coming piecemeal from two fourth-place finishes and a fifth-place finish in the month's post-match voting.
In addition to Lucas’ November Player of the Month award, Mamadou Sakho took the honours in October, Danny Ings won Sepetmber, and Clyne was named best of August by Liverpool Offside readers.