Jack Hallows brings you all the talking points from Liverpool’s win over Red Star Belgrade at Anfield in the Champions League.
It wasn’t perfect but Liverpool’s 4-0 victory over Red Star Belgrade on Wednesday night was much more like what we’re used to seeing from Klopp’s side.
The Reds took a little while to get going in the match but by the time Roberto Firmino rifled home the opening goal in the 21st minute, the game and result were all but sealed.
In truth, it could’ve been another one of Liverpool’s seemingly customary five-goal European outings or if they’d been perfect, one of those 7-0’s that we saw a couple of times last campaign!
The Reds’ outclassed their visiting opponents in every way possible and as PSG’s clash with Napoli finished in a draw, Group C suddenly got a lot more interesting!
There were plenty of talking points such as a half-century, conflicting penalty luck, Fabinho’s big night, Shaqiri shouldering the creative burden and more, so let’s get into it!
Salah’s half century!
It was another funny night for Mohamed Salah who endured an especially frustrating first half.
The Egyptian missed a pair of good chances – one of which was called for offside seconds later anyway – when put through on goal but his fortunes changed just on the cusp of half-time when he rifled home Liverpool’s second goal from close range with his right foot.
That goal was his 49th in Liverpool Red and he didn’t have to wait long for his 50th.
Sadio Mané – branded post-match as a ‘nightmare‘ by Rio Ferdinand – was taken down in the box, winning a penalty that Salah stepped up to take.
While the former Chelsea and Roma man’s spot kicks have never been the most convincing, Salah wasn’t missing the opportunity this time and slammed the ball past Belgrade’s keeper to make it 3-0.
The brace means Salah now has 50 goals in 65 appearances for the club and has taken his tally for the current season to six from 13 games – still not quite as impressive as last season but a respectable rate nonetheless.
It was a double against Maribor around this time last season that really saw the Egyptian’s Liverpool career spark into life – he had six goals from 13 appearances in all competitions this time last season as well – and everyone from the fans to Klopp will be hoping that this serves as the catalyst for his return to top form.
FABulous and big Shaq
Two players to keep an eye on, starting in a big game for the first time for the Reds, were Fabinho and Xherdan Shaqiri.
Both were acquired in the summer for different purposes – Fabinho to help shore things up at the back, Shaqiri to help move things forward with more pace – and the pair’s respective roles were on full display against Red Star.
It wasn’t just me who thought so either with Fabinho receiving WhoScored’s Man of the Match award with an 8.7/10 and tweets flying in left, right and centre lauding the pair’s contributions to the win.
Starting with Fabinho, the Brazilian made an incredible NINE tackles… Nine! The same number as Liverpool’s entire defence combined and more than Belgrade’s.
He also registered a 90% pass accuracy, created two chances, won six aerial duels and was dispossessed just once – the joint least of any of Liverpool’s forward-thinking outfield players.
The most important part however, was that he looked comfortable, confident and athletic – three things that fans had worried he may be lacking given his exclusion from prior match-day squads.
Shaqiri started out on the right hand side to accommodate both Firmino and Salah through the middle and registered a 7.5/10 on WhoScored.
The Swiss international was a busy presence in the Reds attacking quartet, buzzing around the pitch and picking up possession constantly on the inside right channel.
The combination of Shaqiri and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s overlapping runs served as Liverpool’s creative hub for much of the match, with the pair creating five chances from the right hand side – one of Shaqiri’s resulting in Salah’s first goal as he cushioned a lovely pass into the Egyptian’s path.
It was a more than encouraging performance from both players who will have benefitted from the extra game time, priming them for the busy fixture list that looms on the horizon.
Penalty madness
It was nice to see Salah score his 50th goal for the club from the penalty spot but personally, given the Brazilian’s record for his former club Monaco, I think Fabinho should’ve pulled rank in the same way Milner does when he’s on the field.
A lot is made of some of the bigger players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Harry Kane and Eden Hazard ‘stat padding’ from the penalty spot over the course of the season but there is one key difference between all these players and Salah/Mané. They’re genuinely very good at penalties.
Mané’s miss on Wednesday night means he now has a 0/1 record for the Reds, while Salah’s sits at 2/3 for Klopp’s men. A 50% success rate from the pair combined, proving that even if you’re a stellar attacking talent, penalties aren’t as straightforward to net as you might think.
Neither player quite finds the corner with their spot kicks in the way that Milner has proven unerringly capable of with Salah often opting for the Jamie Vardy-esque rifle and Mané’s stutter run up meaning he’s forced to get the placement exactly right due to less force production.
I’m all for our forwards grabbing an extra goal or two over the season from the spot and the fact that we were 2-0 up and 3-0 up when both took their respective spot kicks means the situation wasn’t such an eyebrow raiser, however, if we were 0-0 or 1-0 up, I’d much rather see the likes of Fabinho or Milner (if he’s on the pitch) pulling rank every single time.
A change in formation
Klopp seemed to experiment against Huddersfield with what looked to be a 4-2-3-1 during the final 20 minutes or so, pairing Wijnaldum with Fabinho in midfield and letting Firmino, Salah and Shaqiri play in behind Daniel Sturridge.
It looked an interesting decision at the time, with Liverpool only one goal to the good and seeming to opt for more firepower rather than just seeing out the game but it was a precursor to this fixture.
Klopp lined the Reds up in a similar system, starting Salah up top as the striker and playing Mané from the left, Shaqiri from the right and Firmino in a free role behind – and at times alongside – the Egyptian.
The result was a far more flowing attacking performance and a clearer divide between defence, midfield and attack whereas in the 4-3-3, all three lines of the formation seem to blend into one.
Fabinho’s presence in the midfield meant that there was always extra cover for the full-backs to push on, allowing the Reds to completely overload the opposition box, pushing almost as many as five people into the area at times and using Robertson and Alexander-Arnold as stand-in wingers almost. A tactic that Guardiola is obsessed with at Man City.
We already know that the more players you get into the opposition box, the more chaos you can cause and the more likely you are to create a goal or at least, a chance and the Reds did just that.
4-0 was the eventual scoreline but had their finishing early on been a little more ruthless and had Mané buried his penalty, it could quite easily have read 7-0.
The 4-2-3-1 could be something we see a lot more this season, especially once Naby Keïta is back fit and firing as the Guinean like Fabinho, is more accustomed to operating in a double pivot midfield than the 1-2 that features in Klopp’s 4-3-3.
We’ve also seen Gini Wijnaldum perform superbly in a double pivot previously, while if paired with a dynamic midfielder *cough* Keïta *cough* Henderson is also more than good enough to do so.
It’s another option for Klopp and hopefully, one he uses more often as it seems to better suit the new boys in particular.
Top of the pile
I actually didn’t keep up with the Paris Saint Germain VS Napoli game during this one, deciding just to check the score after it was done to assess where we are in the table.
Incredibly, Napoli seemed to bottle the occasion, a Mario Rui own goal squaring things at 1-1 on the hour before Angel Di Maria had to seal a literal last minute point after Mertens had restored the visitors lead 10 minutes from time.
The result means that Liverpool now sit top of Group C after three games on six points with a GD of +4, Napoli sit second on five points with a GD of +1, PSG sit third with four points and a GD of +4 and Belgrade bring up the rear on one point with a GD of -9.
The Reds are in a fantastic position with their away fixture at Belgrade up next, meaning that if they can do the double over last night’s opponents, they could be as many as three points ahead of second place in the group if the rematch between Napoli and PSG ends in another stalemate.
It’s always a case of one game at a time in Europe’s elite competition, something that after last season’s run to the final in particular we as fans are well aware of but it’s hard not to be impressed by Liverpool’s attitude and application in what is probably one of the toughest groups in the entire competition.
Up Jürgen’s conquering Reds!!!!
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