It’s amazing how the weekends are always that bit better when the Reds win eh? Victory in the early kick-off at Wolves meant that Liverpool have taken thirteen points out of fifteen from their opening league fixtures. That’s a start that most fans would have bitten your hand off for and there’s a lot to like about Jurgen Klopp and his charges just now.
CHALLENGES OF INTERNATIONAL BREAKS
With the majority of the players traveling abroad for the international break, the Wolves encounter was always going to present a difficult selection challenge. Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz had just returned to Merseyside the day before, as Klopp acknowledged in his Friday press conference. Before any roster decisions were made before the early kickoff, he would need to be evaluated along with players like Darwin Nunez and Allison who had not yet seen them. Nunez didn’t suffer the injury that had been predicted, despite the fact that Allison and everyone else had been expected to sit on the bench.
TACTICAL CONUNDRUMS AND DECISIONS
It felt incredible to watch Mac Allister start after spending time “up a mountain in Bolivia,” as the manager phrased it, and based on the first half’s performance, it appeared as though his mind was still there. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez are two entirely different athletes, and they will never be the same. No one was more amused by the fact that the manager felt it necessary to ask the 26-year-old to play the vice captain’s position and skill set against Wolves than Pedro Neto. Everyone in the stadium or watching at home anticipated a rocket for the vast majority at halftime, but there was a hushed undercurrent of “why has he done this?” once more.
While most, if not all, being honest with themselves would be happy for us to abandon the box midfield, Trent formation or whatever you want to call it and return to a 4-3-3, it wasn’t the first time that you’d been left scratching your head at starting line-up decisions. Opinions are like something else, but seeing Gakpo in the right-side of midfield against Bournemouth having been anonymous there against Chelsea, Newcastle outfight an imbalanced eleven or yesterday’s early events made you think if certain lessons are being heeded. The game is 90 minutes plus nowadays though, and the sign of a top manager is making the necessary adjustments.
THE POWER OF SUBSTITUTES
Substitutions were something Jurgen Klopp was pilloried for and rightly so at times last season, yet this campaign they’ve often been spot on. The easy one to turn to would be Nunez against Newcastle, but since the opening day against Chelsea they’ve tended to be correct and effective. Jota at St James Park, Endo at Bournemouth when down to ten couple nicely with the South American double of Diaz and Nunez at Molineux. Most noteworthy though should be the impact of Harvey Elliott, who’s come off the bench in every league game to great effect so far and made a real difference. The 20 year-old could soon find himself veering into David Fairclough-style territory if he maintains the current impact, although hopefully he’ll continue his progression even further.
FINAL REFLECTIONS
Having looked porous, weak and often devoid of anything away from home last season, it’s the substitutes bench that appears to be making the real difference so far this time out. Credit has to go to Jurgen Klopp, his staff and the players for that and it would be disingenuous to argue anything different. That being said, while any top team should have a bench that can change the course of events, getting the big decisions right at the start makes it far easier for all concerned. It’s all about how you finish in any context with elite sport and all credit to the manager for that just now. Definitely a few things to reflect upon and potentially consider from the start though.