Another week, another load of VAR controversy. It would be easy for Jurgen Klopp to have something of a complex about video refereeing given how much his team has been affected, and that was evident in technicolour against Brighton on Saturday.
The devastation caused to Liverpool’s squad due to injuries and absentees was laid bare in the 0-2 defeat to Atalanta on Wednesday evening. Jurgen Klopp’s team selection was a nod to the need to protect his key figures, and the new faces struggled to gel with one another – evidenced by the fact that the Reds failed to fire in a single shot on target.
My, how the sight of a Brazilian can warm the cockles…. Fabinho’s return ahead of schedule was exactly (and literally) what the doctor ordered for a beleaguered Jurgen Klopp, whose post-match rant against Sky and BT Sport is not without merits – once again this week, the Reds face three games in the space of seven days. It certainly feels as though the broadcasters are running the sport right now.
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.
In some respects, the 2-0 win over FC Midtjylland on Tuesday night in the Champions League went perfectly to plan.
Jurgen Klopp rotated his side, got some important game time into the legs of fringe players while giving the night off to a number of his key stars, and the comfortable victory over the Danish champions was exactly what the doctor ordered.
There was more VAR controversy – that’s almost a given these days – but Liverpool were able to shake that off and complete a decent 2-1 victory over a resilient Sheffield United side on Saturday.
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.