Liverpool 2-0 Wolves (Van Dijk 73′, Salah 77′)
ANFIELD — Anfield used to play host to some of the most high-octane football the Premier League has ever witnessed, making what has happened to Liverpool in less than a year so extraordinary.
Victory over Wolves, their third in four league games, would suggest a Liverpool season that has been the antithesis of their near-immortal campaign last term finally has lift off and a top-four challenge can now begin.
The performance and energy, or lack there of, on display at Anfield, however, suggests while the results may be picking up, there is little sign of Jurgen Klopp’s team rekindling the fire of last season. Anything but.
Goals from Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah lifted Liverpool to sixth and within six points of the top four. Getting over the next hurdle still appears far from certain.
This was never going to be classic, given Liverpool had not scored in four of their last six league games and only Everton had a lower number in the goals for column than Wolves.
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Those who ventured out on a cold Merseyside night for the fourth meeting between Liverpool and Wolves in 53 days in all competitions deserved better than the show put on for them at Anfield.
The same supporters, who nine months previously took their same seat in the Kop with an unprecedented quadruple more than a strong possibility on the final day of last season, witnessed many of the same players struggle to string more than a couple of passes together against a Wolves team who could not believe their luck.
Joao Moutinho brought a fine save out of Alisson early on as the visitors saw their opportunity for a win that would no longer labelled an upset, given how far this Liverpool team has fallen.
The final pass eluded the visitors from there on in, however, with Harvey Elliot twice missing presentable first-half chances, the most glaring being a header from point-blank range, to give an underwhelming Liverpool an undeserved lead at the break. The irony of the Anfield public address system warning supporters during the interval against the use of pyrotechnics was not lost on those in attendance.
The only real bright spark for Liverpool was Darwin Nunez. Very much the figure of fun on social media for his strike rate, the Uruguayan brings energy to a team in a near vegetative state.
Nunez has become Liverpool’s main threat and his single-handed endeavours seemed to have got their reward as he arrowed the hosts in front midway through the second half, only for VAR to rule the strike out for a foul by Diogo Jota in the build-up.
The goal that settled Anfield nerves was typical of the entire match – scrappy – but Anfield did not care one bit as Jota squared for Van Dijk to head home after the Dutch defender’s header had not been effectively dealt with by Wolevs goalkeeper Jose Sa.
Nunez’s efforts did not diminish and another barnstorming run down left brought about the match-clinching second, bundled home by Salah, who is now one goal away from Liverpool’s all-time top goalscorer in the Premier League – Robbie Fowler.
Yet the result, like several others of late, masks problems that are not going away for Klopp. Too many big players look like a shadow of their former selves all at once. It is not a blip in form, blips don’t last two-thirds of a season.
If they are to sneak into the top four this season, Liverpool cannot keep playing as they are. On this evidence, even given the amount of games they have been forced to play since the World Cup, Manchester United supporters will not only be eyeing a first win at Anfield since 2016 on Sunday, but a Real Madrid-style drubbing.
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