Ruthless, relentless, rampant and destructive. You can’t help but love Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool these days. An utterly dominant performance against Hull saw the Reds run out 5-1 winners in a match that saw the home side in complete control from the first minute.
It would’ve been a perfect performance had they not gifted Hull a goal. James Milner’s poor touch under no pressure lead to the corner and for some reason Meyler was able to lash the ball home from inside the penalty area with relative ease after being left unmarked.
Aside from that it was positives galore. It’s genuinely exciting and enjoyable to watch Liverpool again and Jurgen Klopp deserves massive credit.
Breaking the hoodoo
Liverpool traditionally struggle against teams using a set-up with the sole purpose of sitting back, especially against teams at Anfield. Last season the Reds only took 36 from a possible 60 against the bottom 10 sides whereas the top 4 sides in the league averaged 47 points. Liverpool only finished 6 points off a Champions League spot so you can see just how important it is to pick points up against those types of teams.
Winning in such a way against Hull lays down a marker and sends a message to the teams in the Premier League. The team is a completely different animal under Jurgen Klopp.
Goals Galore
Firmino, Coutinho and co could’ve, and probably should’ve, hit double figures but on this occasion had to settle for just the five. It’s the second successive home game that Liverpool have scored 4 or more at home and it takes their tally for goals in the league this season to 16, 12 goals more than they’d scored in the same amount of league games this time last season.
They’re currently scoring at a rate of 2.5 goals per game, meaning if they continue at this rate of the rest of the season they’ll score 98 goals. The average goal difference needed for a top 4 finish is just +25. What’s even more encouraging is the fact Liverpool aren’t overly reliant on one or two players. The 16 goals in the league this season have been shared amongst Adam Lallana, Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane, Dejan Lovren, James Milner and Jordan Henderson.
Depth is showing
At 4-1 Liverpool brought on Daniel Sturridge. At 5-1 on came Emre Can and Marko Grujic. Divock Origi was left on the bench for the entire 90. Have Liverpool ever had such strength in depth? Origi, Can and Grujic are by no means world class players but they’re upgrades on players Liverpool would’ve had on their bench in years gone by, aren’t they?
…and long may it continue
I like the point of the varying goalscorers reminds me of 13/14 when we had 12 different goalscorers in the league.
Nice article, and no none of them are world class yet but all three have the potential to be so! YNWA!!!!!!!
Oh and are definitely upgrades
I am happy with the squad as it is, and all the things that happened last couple years, Suarez becoming world class, leaving, exposing rodgers, led us to have Klopp at the helm and let him build a world class team. The dreamer in me does wonder about relentless Suarez leading the front three of him, Mane and Firmino and what kind of damage could we do. Suarez energy, relentless pressing, his movement from the front would be amazing to watch. Watching Klopp loosing his mind after each Suarez crazy move, good and bad, would be fun too.