Prior to Monday’s Merseyside derby, Jurgen Klopp said that he wanted his under-performing side to show they were ‘really special’. After a comfortable 2-0 win he said, “It felt like us, it looked like us.”
And it did, to an extent. Their movement off the ball had more purpose and their passing was crisper than we’ve seen in recent weeks. The Reds restricted their neighbours to just one shot on target throughout and if they could have hand-picked two players to get on the score-sheet it would have been a previously misfiring Mo Salah and Cody Gakpo.
A word is warranted too for 18-year-old Stefan Bajcetic, that word being excellent.
Monday evening therefore amounted to a significant confidence boost as well as a reminder to themselves of who they are. Special though, they were not.
When their performance is placed under a harsher light so many of Liverpool’s failings in 2023 were still in evidence, not least the ceding of space and time from an inconsistent press. At the back meanwhile, a couple of individual errors ensured they looked vulnerable again and all told, if Everton had displayed a modicum of ambition it could have been a very different game.
If this was Liverpool fully motivated and ‘on it’ you have to wonder what has happened to the levels they once reached on a weekly basis.
Of course, it is entirely unreasonable to expect a sudden and substantial transformation from the struggling collective they’ve been to date in 2023, failing to win a league game until the Toffees helpfully facilitated them and furthermore, scoring just once against Brentford, Brighton, Chelsea and Wolves. In three consecutive away fixtures, the rocky Reds were breached three times, and for the most part they’ve been suspect in defence, decidedly ordinary in midfield and blunt up top. Monday night wasn’t only Mo Salah’s first league goal since Boxing Day. It was the first time he has worked a keeper for over 360 minutes.
As it was, Jordan Pickford decided to go for a break and have a KitKat.
So we look ahead to Liverpool’s trip to the North-East this weekend and in summary we can expect them to be improved on a side whose slump was becoming the norm. There remains concerns though and even with Virgil Van Dijk returning from injury those concerns are most prevalent at the back.
Thankfully, for the visitors, Newcastle are not currently in the best place to take full advantage of such fundamental flaws, the Magpies going all shot-shy just as a top four spot appeared to be probable, not merely possible.
In their last six league outings, Eddie Howe’s men have scored every 180 minutes and that contrasts sharply to their six previous games that had them finding the back of the net every 36 minutes. Callum Wilson has scored one in seven, albeit two of those appearances coming from the bench. Miguel Almiron, this season’s unlikeliest goal-machine, has notched one in six, his prolificacy seemingly reverting to an occasional strike here and there.
The stage may then be set for Alexander Isak, who now has a full game under his belt following a lengthy absence, but with Bruno Guimaraes and Joe Willock both ruled out for Saturday you question where the goals are going to come from, if Liverpool are to be consigned back to crisis.
Perhaps the answer lies in Kieran Trippier who has created a remarkable 65 chances this term, just four fewer than Kevin De Bruyne. That equates to 2.9 per game and it’s a defining feature of this contest that both teams possess right-backs as impactful as wingers. Isak too incidentally is a threat in the build-up as well as at the business end, averaging 1.2 key passes per 90.
If Newcastle are stuttering and spluttering up front though, at the back they remain imperious, a well-drilled back-line bolstered by a brilliant centre-back paring of Fabian Schar and Sven Botman and behind them a keeper in Nick Pope who boasts a formidable 80.6% save percentage in 2022/23. With 12 clean sheets this season, the former Burnley stopper looks a shoo-in to win the Golden Glove.
This terrific trio aside, there are a great many other aspects of Newcastle’s defensive parsimony to admire, chief among them their astonishing stinginess in the first half of games and if you factor in Liverpool’s habit of conceding first – going behind on 12 occasions this term – that does suggest it’s the host who are favourites to gain an advantage this Saturday.
And should that occur, serious doubts persist about the Reds’ ability to ignite in the final third, especially against the best rearguard in the league. Yes they are improving, or at least there were clear signs of this on Monday. But they’re still a long way from where they want to be. They’re still a long way from being special.
STE’S SIXFOLD
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