Liverpool 3-0 Bournemouth

The game turned into a fairly routine 3-0 win in the end against a plucky Bournemouth team who unlike Forest last week, actually came to play and have a go themselves. The routine nature of the win could’ve been very different however, as we rode our luck with Bournemouth’s goal was ruled out for marginal offside. There’s been times where we’ve been accused of being lucky with goals against us being ruled offside when actually it’s not been luck, it’s been by design with the nature of our high line. This was not one of those occasions however and had that goal stood, the sense of Deja vu and familiar frustration would’ve been palpable and these things affect the mindset of players, as well as giving our opponents something to hold on to. Conceding early became a psychological thing last season in my opinion, it happened SO often. Up to now this season, we’ve exorcised that demon and it’s not a trap we want to fall back into it.

At the other end we had a couple of chances before we broke the deadlock. Diaz had a good effort from outside the box tipped over by Kepa and then showed great skill and tenacity to fathom another chance for himself, beating a couple of defenders and forcing Kepa into another save from a tight angle. It was Salah’s turn next, as a glorious through ball from Mac Allister sent Mo through but his attempt to curl it near post with his left foot was quite tame in the end, as he really should’ve shot across goal with his right.

We didn’t need to wait much longer however before once again it was that man Diaz continuing his excellent early season form in front of goal. Konate isn’t generally known for his extensive passing range, that’s usually more Van Dijk’s game but yesterday the big Frenchman played a number of excellent passes, with the ball for Diaz opener being the pick of the bunch. There was still plenty for Diaz to do however but he delivered expertly, showing beautiful control to bring the ball down on his thigh before going around the keeper and slotting home. It must be said though that he was helped immensely by the Kepa’s baffling decision to come charging out his box into no-man’s land. Only he knows what he thought he was going to do there and once again demonstrated how ludicrous it was when Chelsea made him the world’s most expensive keeper.

We only had to wait anothercouple of minutes bedore Diaz doubled his tally, this time Trent given too much space to run into by Bournemouth, allowing him to get his head up and pick the pass to Diaz who this time made no mistake from a similar angle to his earlier chance. His second brace of the season was also enough to earn him this week’s McMOTM. It’s crazy to think we were open to offers for Diaz this summer if reports are to be believed and given our early season pursuit of Gordon, the reports are likely true. It may have been that his profligacy in front of goal at times, especially last season when that period we went through where our inability to convert chances caused our title challenge to fizzle out, made the club open to selling him had a big offer come in, which thankfully it didn’t. A lot of us have been saying for a while that if Diaz could add consistent finishing to his game, he truly would be world class and I’ve always felt he had at least one more level to his game. This is hopefully what we’re witnessing this season, as he’s started like a train with only Haaland having scored more so far this season. Keep it up Luis!

The goal that really had the fans buzzing though, was Darwin’s. Once again the move was started by a lovely long pass from Konate, followed up by a nice interchange between Nunez and Salah. Nunez’s cushioned header, followed by a nice reverse pass back to him from Salah, had the big Uruguayan charging down the flank and into space. The angle was against him though and I doubt anyone expected what came next. A dummy and change of direction allowed him to steal a yard of space from the defender before he curled a stunning effort into the far corner with his weaker left foot. After 12 games without a goal, which had seen him drop so far down the pecking order that yesterday was his first start since April, you could almost see the weight lift off his shoulders and his beaming smile showed what it meant to him. That should do his confidence the world of good but I’m not getting carried away just yet, as we’ve seen this from Darwin before through a number of false dawns. He’s scored some wonderful goals in his time with us, demonstrating just how good he CAN be at times. The problem is the amount of sitters he misses. He’s developed a reputation as a player who scores the hardest of chances but misses the easiest. If he can improve that aspect of his finishing and someone could teach him the offside rule, he could still become the player we’ve all hoped he’d develop into. One swallow doesn’t make a summer though and I do feel like time is running out for Darwin and this season really is make or break for him.

What is very encouraging however, is our squad players are coming into the team and doing a job. I thought Gakpo had a really good game against Milan midweek and then Darwin produced that yesterday. It gives the manager something to think about, as well as Jota who will now be mindful of his own place in the team. Kelleher also came in for the (once again) injured Alisson and put in a very solid display, with a couple of smart saves. It’s a strange story is Kelleher’s. You generally know very little about teams backup goalies, even your own sometimes. With Alisson being the most injury prone keeper the world has ever seen however, it has given Kelleher game time that’s rarely seen from a second choice goalie and he’s never let us down, as well as adding some trophies to his name that he can feel he genuinely played a big part in, again something not that common for a player in his position. Even given all that though and despite the fact almost everyone believes he’s good enough and it’s time for him to be a no1 somewhere, I don’t think too many fans really ever believed he’d be our first choice one day. He’s a good, solid keeper but for me he just lacks the X factor of truly elite keepers, along with being a bit on the small side physically. He has however been provided a platform that most keepers in his position aren’t and I’ve no doubt he’ll get a good move next summer and generate a very respectable transfer fee for the club.

I’m not going to go over the second half, as it was something of a non event given the halftime scoreline but I can’t finish the article without once again paying tribute to Gravenberch. He really has excelled in his deeper position under Slot and is so far this season consistently delivering and showing what a good player he is. We all saw his raw talent in flashes last season but he was in and out the team and lacking consistency. This season though, he’s arguably been our best player. I notice it in particular because writing the post match articles, I feel like every week McMOTM has been between him and one other. He’s only been awarded it once as I tend to favour game changing moments in my decision, so yesterday for example I feel like Diaz’s two goals can’t be ignored as they’re ultimately what won us the game and his all round performance was good as well. I still thought about Gravenberch though and it’s been like that in pretty much every game this season. His ability to take the ball on the half turn even when being pressed, is such a difficult skill but also so important for playing through the press and breaking the lines. I’ve spoken so many times in previous articles about our horrible playing out from the back and how it only ever worked properly when Thiago was playing and it was for that reason – Thiago was the only one of our midfielders who could receive the ball from any angle and even when dealing with an intense press, could either turn his way out of it or control it and recycle possession. Fabinho and Hendo had their strengths and attributes but that wasn’t one of them. Hendo’s technique was never great and while Fabinho’s was better, he turned like the Titanic and was hardly what you’d have called a graceful player.

Gravenberch though, while similar in stature to Fabinho, very much IS a technical and graceful player. His physical attributes make him so difficult to dispossess but he has wonderful technique and ability on the ball to complement that physicality, along with good vision and an excellent passing range. He has all the attributes to be one of the best midfielders in the world and because he’s such a big lad, it’s easy to forget how young he is. He should just get better and better over the next few years and if all goes to plan, we potentially have in him a world class midfielder who could be with us for a decade. After a torrid time at Bayern, I think he really needed to feel loved again and he only kind of got that last season. This season though, the manager has shown great belief in him and made him an integral part of his system and boy has Ryan delivered. Looks to be another absolute bargain of a rabbit pulled out the hat by our recruitment team, when you think what we paid for a player of his age and potential.

Reasons to be optimistic again then. The Forest game last week was a frustratingly familiar reminder of the flaws we still need to iron out our game if we’re going to mount a serious title challenge this season but in some ways I’m glad Slot experienced his first blip reasonably early, otherwise the question would’ve just kept being asked of how he and the team would respond to the first bit of hardship and I won’t lie, when we conceded that early goal against Milan I was worried for a minute. The answer though, was emphatic. Our experience showed at the San Siro as we didn’t panic, took control of the game and ran out comfortable winners in the end and then yesterday we finally did what I’ve been crying out for for the last 2-3 seasons and put a game against a lesser team to bed by halftime. I’ve long viewed that issue as a contributing factor to us running out of steam and falling just short so many times in the Klopp era and yesterday you can see the difference it makes. The second half lacked the same intensity of most PL games, as both sides knew the game was over and so we were able to knock the ball around, make a raft of early subs and basically take the second half off. It has to make a difference both physically and mentally over the course of the season, rather than having to play balls to the wall for the best part of 100 minutes in every single game, especially having to come from behind so often last season. The stress of chasing the game against teams you should be beating every single week, where even if you ultimately turn it around and win it in stoppage time as we so often did, that surge in emotion from stress and anxiety to elation and overwhelming relief is exhausting as a fan, never mind a player. A one off game like that can invigorate a team but doing it every week is just exhausting.

Carabou cup action next which will give us a good indication of how much value Slot will place on the domestic cups this season, especially as once again we’ve been pretty unlucky in drawing West Ham in our first round. To be honest, I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t care about the domestic cups this season. We won a few later in the Klopp era so it’s easy to forget that in the first half of his reign, Klopp didn’t take the domestic cups seriously at all. He didn’t have the squad for it at the time though, whereas now we can still rotate and play a good side and we have players that need minutes in their legs, so this should be a good opportunity to do just that while giving others a rest. To that end, my team for the cup game would be as follows…

Kelleher, Bradley, Quansah, Gomez, Tsimikas, Endo, Jones, Nyoni, Chiesa, Darwin, Gakpo

I know it’s 11 changes but barring Nyoni and Chiesa, the rest of the lads have all been teammates for a while and played together multiple times so you wouldn’t expect it to be too disjointed, albeit there’s likely to be a good bit of ring rust in that team. The big hitters will be on the bench if needed though.

Anyway, that’s enough waffling from me for one night. Things looking a lot rosier than they were this time last week however and another box ticked for Slot, who is slowly but surely turning doubters into believers, albeit in a much quieter manner than his predecessor did. Looks like we have an exciting season ahead though. Walk on!