Liverpool scored a last-gasp winner to take all three points at Turf Moor, with Ragnar Klavan’s header changing the story after it looked like another case of the Reds letting a lead slip – following Gudmundsson’s equaliser and Mané’s screamer. But how did the Liverpool players rate?
Simon Mignolet – 6/10: Decent enough performance from Liverpool’s keeper. Question marks as ever over the goal but made some decent stops and didn’t make any glaring errors. Not sure his confidence will have been done any good though.
Trent Alexander-Arnold – 7/10: A scrappy sort of game for Trent, but he produced two moments of magic with the assist for Mané’s goal and a wicked effort that nearly made it 2-0. Defended solidly overall but looked nervy at times.
Dejan Lovren – 7/10: Had a very mixed afternoon with regards to his aerial battles with Ashley Barnes but pulled off one or two excellent pieces of defending when required and pulled off a stunning header at the death to assist Klavan’s goal.
Ragnar Klavan – 8/10: Build the man a statue. Klavan’s tenacity at the death to head in the winning goal is the sort of legendary moment that will take its place in minor LFC history. What a way to start 2018. In terms of defending, he did that pretty well too, although he lost his man slightly for the goal.
Joe Gomez – 5/10: Gomez was decent enough for the majority of the game. I had all three defenders, not Trent at a 6 in the 85th minute but whilst Lovren and Klavan combined for Burnley’s goal, Gomez dropped a clanger, falling asleep at the back post (again) to allow Burnley to equalise late on.
Emre Can – 7/10: Slaloming gracefully through the midfield, Can worked as hard as anyone and ultimately contributed to the win. His defensive work rate in the centre of midfield has been absolutely paramount in Henderson’s absence and again today he was excellent at that.
Georginio Wijnaldum – 6/10: This was one of Gini’s better performances in a Reds shirt. Worked really hard, defended pretty well and was a good partner for Emre. More graft like today and you can see where he belongs in this side.
Adam Lallana – 6/10: He looked rusty, but whilst the flicks and tricks weren’t quite coming off, it was clear to see Lallana’s talent. One brilliant tackle to prevent a good Burnley break, but not enough in terms of end product.
Sadio Mané – 7/10: Mané looked like a lost puppy at times in the first half, but his venomous, fantastic strike to open the scoring underlined his importance to this Liverpool team. In a game in which Liverpool created almost nothing, Mané’s goal was huge.
Dominic Solanke – 5/10: The lad simply isn’t ready for the Premier League. He’s young and talented and works hard but his quality on the ball, hold up play, finishing and first touch are nowhere near the required standard at the moment. Really struggled today to produce anything meaningful, although he did play a nice pass to Ox near the end.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – 6/10: Ox is another player who works hard and clearly has talent, but today he just struggled for consistency. One or two bright moments and decent chances, but he wasn’t able to produce enough quality.
Substitutes:
Roberto Firmino – 6/10: Liverpool needed an introduction with a touch of class, but sadly Bobby wasn’t able to influence play when he came on.
James Milner – N/A: Came on too late to make a difference.
Joel Matip – N/A: He technically played? I guess?
