They say that in life it never rains but it pours. When Virgil van Dijk suffered his knee injury against Everton, it was considered to be a headache but not insurmountable for Jurgen Klopp and his hopes for domestic and continental success.
The original ‘Fab Four’, The Beatles, are arguably Liverpool’s most famous sons. But now the red half of the city has a new fabulous quartet to savour, with Diego Jota joining Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Bobby Firmino as the top of the pops.
As we expected, West Ham gave Liverpool a tremendously tough night’s work on Saturday. But there are no prizes for valour in football, no medals for playing well. This is a sport where winning is the only outcome of any merit.
At the end of Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Ajax, Jurgen Klopp made a beeline for Fabinho. The manager, beaming from ear to ear and showing off his trademark pearly whites, dashed over to the Brazilian and whispered….well, presumably not sweet nothings, but certainly words of praise for the performance of his makeshift centre back.
It’s hard to feel any positivity from the 2-2 draw with Everton last time out. There were dropped points against a bitter rival, of course, which is less than ideal, but the fact that Virgil van Dijk picked up an excruciating knee injury that will keep him out for six months – and possibly the rest of the season – while Jordan Pickford, the assailant, got away scot-free.
When we previewed the Aston Villa game just prior to the international break, we warned the Reds to be on their guard against a side that had performed far better than their status as relegation candidates would suggest so far this term. And boy, we weren’t wrong, were we?
Once more, Jurgen Klopp sprung a surprise in his team selection for the EFL Cup tie against Arsenal….but this time the joke was on him as his side were knocked out of the competition on penalties.
A meme-worthy video clip emerged in the immediate aftermath of Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Arsenal of Jurgen Klopp taking Roy Keane to task over accusations that the Reds put in a ‘sloppy’ performance. As the manager rightly pointed out, Liverpool had beaten an in-form Arsenal side with only a handful of moments of concern, and really the Sky Sports pundit should have been praising the Reds for a ‘champion’s performance’ in turning around a one-goal deficit.
There was a joyfulness in Liverpool’s play in their 7-2 win over Lincoln City in the EFL Cup on Thursday night that was a pleasure to behold. In between incisive passing and creative interchanges came goals for Curtis Jones (x2), Takumi Minamino (x2), Xherdan Shaqiri, Divock Origi and Marko Grujic, and a number of those were strikes of the highest order.
For a game that most expected to be a stern test of Liverpool’s credentials as far as retaining the Premier League title is concerned, the 2-0 win over Chelsea was anything but. Of course, the sending off of Andreas Christensen on the stroke of half-time helped, but let’s be honest: the Reds were well in control throughout, and it seemed only a matter of time before the breakthrough would come.