Liverpool’s Europa League adventure began in Austria and the night ended with another comeback win as the Reds moved three points ahead of Group E.
Well, it was like going back in time – and not in a good way.
Being in the Champions League does not lend itself to these types of matches, let’s say too much for such an early “minor” trophy, but the trip to LASK was very reminiscent of Rafa Benitez’s group games in Europe’s second tier. or a terrible half-season under Roy Hodgson.
Basically what we ended up with was a completely disabled team, a complete lack of cohesion, very little pace or intensity in the game, lots of mistakes and about an hour of real speed to get through.
Fortunately, there are a lot of decent personalities at the moment, even if the team is lacking in a few games, and it is probably that individuality that got the Reds back in the first place – and the win was certainly overdue. This could be the kind of performance we need to manage if we want to change the squad that much in Europe, especially away from home.
But if the points are secured at Anfield with this road win, it probably won’t matter much.
The Reds can win the Europa League, but first it will take some awful viewing to get close.
As for potential new faces, perhaps the most interesting were the three central midfielders:
two new signings and a young player who has seemingly lost his starting place in around eight months.
Harvey Elliott has been among the first for Jurgen Klopp this season and his performances have been… good, good at times, but of course lacking the pace and precision that comes from non-stop minutes.
He was involved in many of the team’s better moments and certainly deserved his start after coming off the bench against Wolves, but it’s hard to argue that he did enough to recommend staying in the XI.
That goes for the other two as well, although Wataru Endo and Ryan Gravenberch were at opposite ends of the effectiveness spectrum if we can think of one quickly.
Endo is still looking at the pace, the ball in and out, although some good moments tried to push the team forward.
In this type of game, it is difficult for a defender to stand out – the team lacked consistency and the spaces were large. The Japanese captain is not far from where he needs to be now. As for Ryan Gravenberch,
he was much more impressive and even provided a great run and cross for Luis Diaz.
Hopefully the minor injury is nothing more than fatigue, as his burst forward, ability to carry the ball and desire to get into the box bode well for the future.
Well, Virgil van Dijk was quite clean in the first half, making good saves and shots. But as club captain and returning from a domestic suspension, his position isn’t exactly in jeopardy.
Likewise, despite conceding early – he couldn’t do anything with a great strike – Caoimhin Kelleher had a pretty good game and made two very good saves in the second half, but he didn’t really win Alisson Becker’s shirt.
Klopp may have been disappointed with full-back Kostas Tsimikas and Stefan Bajcetic, but both were making their first starts of the season and the latter was an outsider in the role.
Therefore, it is an offensive position where the biggest threats to starters in the league can come, where Diaz is a fairly constant threat and Darwin Nunez makes a lot of runs and shows a good catching game.
Currently, Mohamed Salah starts on the right and two out of four, with a small rotation for Klopp and Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota perhaps feeling they can be sidelined for the weekend, with the two South Americans getting the nod.
The two benches were immediately miles better than all the others, and although it was obvious, it is worth noting.
LASK was tiring, LASK is not that good, LASK hung a bit on the stage – Dominik Szoboszlai came. Despite this, the Hungarian immediately went through everything.
He is a mile better than most in the Premier League so it was like park football for him.
The same could be said of Salah, who created two chances and a goal despite only being on the pitch for around 10 minutes.
Consistency is huge and these two give us that even in such short games.
Okay, from Thursday to Sunday for eternity. Well, a few weeks this side of Christmas, starting with the visit of West Ham this coming weekend.
We’ll have to deal with that, but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem, especially with most players resting and rotating – and half an hour here or there isn’t the worst idea. either to maintain sharpness.
Wednesday’s action continues with the Carabao Cup next week, so two more wins should be considered the minimum, even on a game-by-game basis. Then it’s on to Spurs and we’re all interested in assessing both where we are and where they are at this stage.
Meanwhile, thanks to Toulouse and Union SG’s draw, we are already top of Group E in the Europa League, so as noted, we can reasonably feel that the last 16 is more or less tied8.
But it is beyond that; Now let’s get back to starting matches better and not having to score three goals in 45 minutes.
