Liverpool fly to Dubai with defensive dilemma
Liverpool fly to Dubai with defensive dilemma
London: Mention the title to Klopp and he tends to go into meltdown but there are days and there are games when a 29-year-old dream sharpens into focus.
Liverpool endured and enjoyed one of those days against Crystal Palace when their manager’s fist-pumping celebrations resurfaced long after he left the Anfield pitch to reinforce the point he is understandably averse to say. The countdown is under way.
Liverpool did not perform like title favourites against Roy Hodgson’s dangerous side, who scored as many goals as 10 previous visiting teams to Anfield combined this season yet departed ruing their lack of points, fortune and goalkeeping options. The nature of Liverpool’s 19th victory in 23 league outings, a truly outstanding return, will not have been lost on Pep Guardiola, however. The single-minded pursuit of three more invaluable points, the breaks and the composure shown at 0-1 and 2-2 were not lost on Klopp either.
“I don’t know how many ways there are to win a football game but we had pretty much a few of them already,” the Liverpool manager said. “I know we are a really good football team but that is not enough. It is really not enough to be a good or a fantastic or even a world-class football team because we are playing in a competition with a couple of world-class football teams and hundreds of fantastic football teams. We have to make sure that we just fight in each game like it’s the last game and the boys did that. I’m completely fine with 4-3.”
Klopp’s team are in the phase of eking out victory by any means necessary and demonstrated again on Saturday how adept they are at it. Liverpool were reduced to 10 men in the 89th minute when James Milner was dismissed for a second bookable offence on his tormentor-in-chief, Wilfried Zaha. Makeshifts for the makeshift right-back arrived in the unlikely forms of Xherdan Shaqiri and Roberto Firmino, the latter eventually getting the job and an ear-bashing from Klopp for instinctively joining an attack at 3-2.
“We had to react pretty quick and Bobby was a centre-half when he started playing, I remembered that at least, but of course it’s difficult,” his manager explained.
“We had to defend Zaha with two or three players anyway and Bobby is a very smart player. In the moment when he was involved in the counterattack I thought ‘My God’ but that’s what happens with a lack of oxygen, you do things you wouldn’t normally do, but that’s his desire and I loved that. He’s always involved in pretty much everything and in that moment I had to shout ‘You are now right full-back’. In the end we defended with big heart and not with the best organisation.”
Rafa Camacho, an 18-year-old winger by trade, finished the game as Liverpool’s right-back. The teenager rewarded Klopp’s decision to reject a loan offer from Sporting in Lisbon for his services this month with a perfectly executed tackle on Zaha inside the area in the final second. Asked for his thoughts on Camacho’s contribution Klopp punched the air in celebration, having done likewise in front of the Kop following the final whistle. “I told him immediately after the game that he’d already made the most important challenge of his life,” the manager said. “I’m not sure he really got it — he looked at me like; ‘What is he talking about?’ — but it was really massive.”
Fortune favoured Liverpool with their first two goals, deflections aiding Mohammad Salah’s improvised equaliser and Firmino’s finish; a dreadful mistake by Julian Speroni, the stand-in keeper, gave Liverpool the third and Palace claims for handball by Andy Robertson in the build-up to Sadio Mane’s fourth were ignored by the referee, Jon Moss. But there was more to the crucial third goal than a 39-year-old’s error. “We used Zaha’s position for our offensive moments,” Klopp explained. “That is the risk you take. Milly was most of the time behind his back and the third goal was like this — a chip over Zaha and Milly went in and set up the goal.”
Klopp will take advantage
London: Mention the title to Klopp and he tends to go into meltdown but there are days and there are games when a 29-year-old dream sharpens into focus.
Liverpool endured and enjoyed one of those days against Crystal Palace when their manager’s fist-pumping celebrations resurfaced long after he left the Anfield pitch to reinforce the point he is understandably averse to say. The countdown is under way.
Liverpool did not perform like title favourites against Roy Hodgson’s dangerous side, who scored as many goals as 10 previous visiting teams to Anfield combined this season yet departed ruing their lack of points, fortune and goalkeeping options. The nature of Liverpool’s 19th victory in 23 league outings, a truly outstanding return, will not have been lost on Pep Guardiola, however. The single-minded pursuit of three more invaluable points, the breaks and the composure shown at 0-1 and 2-2 were not lost on Klopp either.
“I don’t know how many ways there are to win a football game but we had pretty much a few of them already,” the Liverpool manager said. “I know we are a really good football team but that is not enough. It is really not enough to be a good or a fantastic or even a world-class football team because we are playing in a competition with a couple of world-class football teams and hundreds of fantastic football teams. We have to make sure that we just fight in each game like it’s the last game and the boys did that. I’m completely fine with 4-3.”
Klopp’s team are in the phase of eking out victory by any means necessary and demonstrated again on Saturday how adept they are at it. Liverpool were reduced to 10 men in the 89th minute when James Milner was dismissed for a second bookable offence on his tormentor-in-chief, Wilfried Zaha. Makeshifts for the makeshift right-back arrived in the unlikely forms of Xherdan Shaqiri and Roberto Firmino, the latter eventually getting the job and an ear-bashing from Klopp for instinctively joining an attack at 3-2.
“We had to react pretty quick and Bobby was a centre-half when he started playing, I remembered that at least, but of course it’s difficult,” his manager explained.
“We had to defend Zaha with two or three players anyway and Bobby is a very smart player. In the moment when he was involved in the counterattack I thought ‘My God’ but that’s what happens with a lack of oxygen, you do things you wouldn’t normally do, but that’s his desire and I loved that. He’s always involved in pretty much everything and in that moment I had to shout ‘You are now right full-back’. In the end we defended with big heart and not with the best organisation.”
Rafa Camacho, an 18-year-old winger by trade, finished the game as Liverpool’s right-back. The teenager rewarded Klopp’s decision to reject a loan offer from Sporting in Lisbon for his services this month with a perfectly executed tackle on Zaha inside the area in the final second. Asked for his thoughts on Camacho’s contribution Klopp punched the air in celebration, having done likewise in front of the Kop following the final whistle. “I told him immediately after the game that he’d already made the most important challenge of his life,” the manager said. “I’m not sure he really got it — he looked at me like; ‘What is he talking about?’ — but it was really massive.”
Fortune favoured Liverpool with their first two goals, deflections aiding Mohammad Salah’s improvised equaliser and Firmino’s finish; a dreadful mistake by Julian Speroni, the stand-in keeper, gave Liverpool the third and Palace claims for handball by Andy Robertson in the build-up to Sadio Mane’s fourth were ignored by the referee, Jon Moss. But there was more to the crucial third goal than a 39-year-old’s error. “We used Zaha’s position for our offensive moments,” Klopp explained. “That is the risk you take. Milly was most of the time behind his back and the third goal was like this — a chip over Zaha and Milly went in and set up the goal.”
Klopp will take advantage