Hugely important win in difficult conditions. We totally dominated Newcastle, this match reminded me the early Klop days when the only option was attack. Later the manager and the players improved the overall control of the matches, but last night our players showed remarkable levels of stamina. Red wave after red wave, and at the end of the game Newcatsle looked much more knackered, after 4-2 they barely tried to attack. They were absolutely drained.
Gomez, VvD and Konate were really solid defensively, Ibou is slowly improving, he just needs to stay fit, the more match rhythm he gets, the better he will be. Gomez was so solid, Gordon could do nothing against him for 45 minutes, so Howe put him on the left side and he created their first goal, after TAA and Dom failed to stop and track him. Joe is a very interesting player - humble, loyal to the club, always ready to help his teammates, never heard him asking to leave the club, versatile, only 26 years old, but practically a veteran who is almost 10 years part of the first team.
Impressed with our starting midfielders. Endo is getting better and better, needed time, but he looks not only a leader, but also a player with high IQ. We will miss him, while being in Qatar.
Szoboszlai looked tired, but was still the creative force for our first penalty. Hopefully he won’t miss more than 2 weeks of football and looks like he needs a rest, Dom is one of the players that played most football this season.
Jones - the best midfielder on the pitch and a contender for MoM. Yesterday he looked like the finished article, pressin machine, using the right spaces, dropping deep to help Endo, but still being in dangerous offensive postions, scoring the hugely important 2nd goal, just hope he can continue in this track, he can be a very important player for LFC not only for this season, but for the next 10 years.
Salah - world class. Missed the penalty, but that did not stop him. Scored the first goal, fantastic pass to Jota for our second, beautiful ball for Gakpo for our third and scored the decisive 4th goal. 14 PL goals and 8 assists for Mo.
Diaz, Gakpo, Nunez and Jota have 16 PL goals and 9 assists combined between of them. Well, it will be a difficult task our 4 attackin players to stand up in Salah’s absence.
Nunez is missing too many chances, especially for a player with 80 mln. pounds price. Another vital assist /6th in the PL/, but had at least 4 good chances to score a goal - in the first half dominating the Newcastle defender and when he won the ball 1vs.1 with Dubravka shot straight at the goalie. In the second half - he had 2 fantastic opportunities after we scored our first goal. Great cross and he shot right at Dubravka from 5-6 metres, a minute later was played once again against Dubravka and again shot at the goalie’s range, seconds later Isak showed him how to score a goal from a similar situation. Then Endo put a perfect cross,.header and another miss…
Jota and Gakpo did much more for 25 minutes. Diogo with fantastic assist and later won us the penalty. Gakpo with a simple tap in /lucky, but knowing Darwin he would shoot with hist first touch right at the bar or Dubravka…/.
Nunez needs to improve his finishing and be calmer in front of goal, now we need his best version, because Salah won’t be here to save his coleagues blushes in attack.
Glad to see Luiz Diaz playing a really good game. He totally tormented Livramento and Tino is a very good player. Lucho scored a very good goal /sadly offside, but once again fantastic ball by Jones and still Nunez’s poor ball control let him down and the Newcastle defender touched the ball at Diaz’s path/, won us the 1st penalty and I was surprised to see him substituted.
And finally several words about Gravenberch, clearly Klopp likes him and it is easy to see his vast potential, but once again was not impressed with him. Absolutely bottled it and did not track Botman, leaving him absolutely free to score their second goal, Klopp looked mad. His overall display was not very convincing, similar to Manure’s match. Still a yound player, who is here for only 4 months and I am hopeful he will improve, but needs to show much more hunger and desire. That is maybe why I expected to see Elliott, but probably Ryan is better at the training ground, who knows…
Overall I think the club is overperforming. Losing it’s backbone in less than 18 months - Hendo, Mane, Firmino, Fabinho, Milner and Thiago injured for more than 9 months. Totally new midfield, the best left back in the league is out for around 4 months and his deputy will be out for months too. Matip out till the end of the season. Other teams spending 105 and 115 mln. pounds for defensive midfielders, while Klpp spent 16 mln. pounds for a player from Stuttgart, the same team that needed a playoff against HSV /3rd in 2 Bundesliga/ to stay in Germany’s elite football.
And this club has lost only 1 match this PL season and we know very well in what circumstances. We will need luck and probably at least one new signing /defender is the most pressing issue/, but Klopp is doing a very, very good job for our club once again.
