Seventh heaven
What a strange season this is turning out to be. From the optimism of the Charity shield game to the despair at recent results and a couple of huge victories thrown into the mix, it’s impossible to know which Liverpool is going to turn up at the moment.
I warned before the game that Ibrox would be bouncing and Rangers would have much more of a go than they had at Anfield and that proved to be the case as we conceded what feels like the inevitable first goal inside 20 minutes AGAIN and Rangers arguably had the better of the first half. The saying football is a game of two halves never rang more true however as we absolutely blitzed them in the second half, including the fastest ever CL hat trick from Salah.
It was a strange team selection I thought, with both Salah and Jota dropping to the bench, although Klopp cleared up today that he’d planned on starting Jota but had been advised not to by the medical staff, giving young Carvalho another start. I mentioned on the thread that I’m not keen on him as a starter at the moment and he again struggled to impact the game, although he showed flashes of what he’s about with some nice footwork and dribbling at times. Elliot was full of energy on the other flank and I was delighted for him to get his first CL goal and it was a really nice moment he had with Salah, while waiting on the VAR decision.
It was Bobby (McMOTM) once again though who stepped up, scoring the equaliser by easily holding off Tavernier to nod home a Tsimikas corner, before firing us in front second half and setting up Darwin’s goal with a beautiful backheel assist. His form is providing the club with something of a conundrum with regards to his contract situation. After two years where the general consensus has been he’s a player in decline, he’s been in top form so far this season and bailing us out at times. To renew or not to renew? Personally I think he can still do a job for the team and is worthy of perhaps a two year extension with an option for a third year but it seems all quiet on that front at the moment.
Darwin followed up his goal against Arsenal with a very well taken finish. That’s the Darwin we saw last season at Benfica, making difficult finishes look easy. There’s a lot of work to be done on his all round game however, most notably looking along the line to check he’s onside. He’s starting to look a real handful however, no CB is going to relish facing him.
For a number of weeks (months?) we’ve been asking for the real Mo Salah to stand up and he arrived last night with some aplomb. Took all three of his goals brilliantly and finally we saw the Salah we’ve become accustomed to. Whatever tactic we’ve been employing recently that’s kept him out wide needs to be abandoned. It hasn’t worked, we need Salah in and around the box to be most effective.
Jota’s return has lifted the team as well and he racked up three assists last night. That’s five for the season now I believe, a big improvement on his usual returns and answering the criticism that he isn’t involved in the buildup enough. He’s going to be a big player for us in Diaz absence.
Our defence looked in better shape considering Konate, Gomez and Tsimikas haven’t played together that much. Good to see Konate’s no nonsense defending back in the team and Gomez once again proving it’s a complete myth he can’t play RB as he put in a beautiful cross that Trent would have been proud of for Bobby’s second and his added pace and physicality gives us another dimension down the right flank. Virgil looked a bit more stable and Kostas was decent going forward but was given a bit of a torrid time by Fashion Sakala in the first half, as he struggled to deal with his pace and physicality. Was good to see Robbo get some minutes after injury as well and he looked lively and energetic when he came on.
It’s a difficult game to judge whether we’ve turned a corner or not. First half we saw a lot of the same issues that have been plaguing us in recent weeks and second half we looked totally irrepressible and simply blew them away. The standard of opposition obviously isn’t great but you can only beat what’s in front of you and we did that and then some.
The acid test comes on Sunday though, with City coming to town and while I still feel some trepidation ahead of the game, I feel more confident than I did prior to last night. If we can get a result against them on the back of last night’s result, it could really be a turning point in our season. If we concede in the opening 20 year again however, I’ll be concerned.
Anyway, with last night’s result we’ve all but qualified for the knockout stages and can focus on climbing the league table, starting with City on Sunday. Walk on!!
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