Perhaps the most surprising moment of Liverpool’s pedestrian 3-1 win over LASK was quite how flabbergasted Jurgen Klopp was when his side conceded after 14 minutes.
Klopp, whose face wears utter stupefaction with such aplomb, was as aghast as he always seems to be at a phenomenon which is now commonplace for his side.
This was the fourth time in their last five games Liverpool had conceded first, almost all to demonstrably weaker teams. They conceded first in 48 per cent of their games last season. This is normal now. It seems to be what they need to focus their minds, to trigger a motivation borne of fear they cannot muster of their own accords.
Despite eventually winning their last five matches, this trend is at the very least concerning. It indicates either a laziness or an arrogance that can only be dispelled by the demoralisation forged by being 1-0 down. It also demonstrates the work still needed to regenerate Liverpool’s defence to the same quality as their midfield and attack.
Against LASK, the lingering ghost of Virgil van Dijk partnered Ibrahima Konate, flanked by an out-of-position Stefan Bajcetic and a wishes-he-played-a-different-position Kostas Tsimikas. This was Bajcetic’s first game at right-back and first of the season full stop. It showed.
The young Spaniard provided the cross that led to Liverpool’s penalty, yet understandably struggled to make sense of his makeshift role off the ball. Tsimikas, as he often does, seemed stuck between wanted to play as a left-winger and then reluctantly being reminded of his defensive responsibilities. They replaced Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson as effectively as dandruff does sugar.
Despite 11 changes, Liverpool’s starting XI was stronger than expected, yet still experimental – although really, any line-up without Mo Salah, and perhaps now also Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, can be considered experimental.
The same can probably be said for any side featuring Darwin Nunez, given how difficult it is to predict what this ponytailed arbiter of pandemonium will do at any given moment.
In this game he missed a simple header from arm’s length, before elegantly dispatching his penalty. He ran and ran and ran in directions of wildly varying intelligence and effectiveness. Early on, he received the ball in an identical position to his two brilliantly clinical goals against Newcastle a month ago, yet shanked the ball into the stands.
To watch Nunez is to passively study chaos theory, to take a crash course in the dichotomy of the human condition over 90 minutes – genius and moron, id and ego, brain fighting brawn for supremacy and both losing and winning simultaneously. That Klopp trusts him to take a penalty means he either sees something the common man doesn’t, or that he perhaps believes a goalkeeper can’t predict what Nunez will do if he doesn’t know himself.
Flanking Nunez, there was a much-hailed first start for former Celtic youngster Ben Doak, a Scalextric right-winger who heaves his elfin frame forward with such power and purpose as to appear to lean on thin air.
As is to be expected from a 17-year-old European debutant, he was overeager, with his decision-making largely lacking the sharpness and calm which should come with experience. Yet Liverpool’s fourth-youngest player ever in European competition flickered with brief excellence in his hour-long stint, although often holding onto the ball for too long after a characteristically direct run.
Ryan Gravenberch enjoyed more success in his first start since joining from Bayern Munich in the summer in search of early career rehabilitation. A serenely powerful midfielder with catwalk legs, he strolled through LASK’s midfield as if this were simply a late summer mooch on the Danube. Of Liverpool’s supporting cast of back-ups and debutants, he looked closest to establishing himself in the group of regular Premier League starters.
But the strongest performance of the evening, at least for the team in blotched lavender, was Luis Diaz. Recovering from a knee ligament injury suffered before the World Cup, he never quite regained the form which took him to 17th in the 2022 Ballon d’Or voting.
By winning the penalty (albeit very softly) and then scoring the eventual winner, the Colombian scored his third goal in six 2023-24 games and registered his first assist. This will be a much-needed confidence boost for both him and his side.
Liverpool still needed Szoboszlai and Mac Allister on the field to score their second, and Salah nutmegged Tobias Lawal for their third. They needed to concede first to spark an ultimately comfortable comeback. The team third in the Premier League made heavy work of beating the side third in the Austrian Bundesliga.
Yet Klopp’s side are now 17 games unbeaten in all competitions, and took the requisite three points from their first Europa League game since the 2016 final loss to Sevilla. Klopp has reinjected a spirit into this side that allows them to overcome early deficits with ease – they have already managed it as many times this season as they did last.
Maybe Klopp will eventually come to be comforted by conceding an early goal. If it continues to produce the same positive results, he might even look forward to them.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/tYEUeSO
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