Away from home, Liverpool has already played Chelsea, Newcastle, Spurs, Brighton and now Manchester City. Everton, West Ham and Aston Villa have all been dispatched at Anfield as well. The wins need to keep on coming, but any sort of doubt about whether or not Liverpool would be back this year must surely now have been extinguished.
Up next is Fulham at home, followed by trips to Sheffield United and Crystal Palace. Win each of those fixtures and that will perfectly set up a tantalizing week that includes three Anfield games: Manchester United and Arsenal in the Premier League, with West Ham in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup in between. One thing we learned Being compact against Manchester City, especially away from home, is not always easy. But Liverpool did well and Mac Allister ended the game with a 93 per cent pass accuracy. If you can get away with it from a defensive point of view, his ability to pick a forward pass from deep is really impressive and influential.
Biggest takeaway Curtis Jones was the right player for the game but looked a little short of match sharpness. Ryan Gravenberch came on and made a real impact for the goal and Harvey Elliott is another player who can excel in those areas. The contrast to last season could not be clearer.
Gravenberch’s ability to carry the ball offers something completely new to Liverpool and then there is Dominik Szoboszlai, of course, even if the Hungarian’s form has tailed off a little bit compared to his first few appearances. After a summer revamp, Klopp’s midfield department looks really strong — even though getting an elite defensive midfielder would make it even better.
A moment you might have missed Núñez was not in his best form on the day and still has more to prove, but he is clearly well up for the fight. In such a tight match, tensions were always going to be high.
Elsewhere, you can be forgiven for not having spotted the banner flown over the stadium in the second half by some Everton fans unhappy with their points deduction. It accused the Premier League of being ‘corrupt’ and was displayed in this fixture because it was light (tomorrow’s Everton vs Manchester United game will be in the dark).
Even so, just as few people will have seen or been bothered by it, Everton’s complaints cannot really be about being deducted points but more that other teams have not yet been sanctioned as investigations continue. Until there is an outcome in the Manchester City case and others, though, we will not know whether or not Everton has been harshly treated.
The Premier League table could look even better for Liverpool but the Reds would have taken being two points off the top spot at this stage of the campaign heading into the new season. Jürgen Klopp’s men have also had difficult games.
Alexis Mac Allister was always the most likely player to play holding midfield but this was a test of what Klopp claimed during his pre-match press conference: that the Argentine suits that role when Liverpool is able to stay compact. Klopp was definitely proven right.
There is a real battle going to unfold at Liverpool in midfield over the coming seasons. Even if Mac Allister ends up being the holding player around which the rest of the center of the field is based around, there is so much competition for places.
If you switched off the television quickly after watching the game, you might not have seen the confrontation between Darwin Núñez and Pep Guardiola on the final whistle, with Klopp quickly intervening. Both parties played it down in post-match interviews with it all seemingly much ado about nothing.
