Liverpool recorded their sixth successive victory in all competitions, with a 3-1 victory over West Ham United on Sunday.
Goals from Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota were enough to secure the three points for the Reds, to leave them just two points behind league leaders Manchester City.
Salah converted a penalty in the 16th minute, before potential Liverpool transfer target Jarrod Bowen levelled the score later in the first half.
The Reds took control of the game in the second half, where Nunez volleyed home a sublime Alexis Mac Allister long pass.
Diogo Jota put the final nail in the coffin with a late goal from a corner, with Virgil Van Dijk registering the assist.
Jurgen Klopp’s side had many standout performers at both ends of the pitch such as Alisson Becker, Van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez.
However, Klopp’s new-look midfield again proved to be game changers for the Reds in a way that we haven’t seen too often throughout the German’s reign.
Klopp’s new-look midfield:
After fully rotating the midfield in the victory over LASK on Thursday, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones all returned to the starting lineup.
The trio seem to have nailed down their places as Klopp’s starting midfield three, with the likes of Wataru Endo, Ryan Gravenberch and Harvey Elliott waiting to make an impact from the bench.
All three impressed in the victory over West Ham United and managed to turn the tide of the game back in favour of the Reds after Bowen’s equaliser.
Not only does this midfield have an abundance of work effort and high pressing numbers, but also a huge amount of creative ability that can change the game in a quick moment, as we saw today.
Performance against West Ham:
After a shaky start with a few sloppy moments like Tomas Soucek’s early chance from a Mac Allister error, the midfielders managed to get a real grip on the game.
On the ball, the three midfielders were an absolute joy to watch and managed to get complete hold of the game in the end.
Both Szoboszlai and Mac Allister had over 100 touches each throughout the game, with 103 and 101 touches respectively.
When it comes to their passing, they took their game to a whole other level.
Mac Allister completed 83 out of his 87 attempted passes with a 95% pass completion rate, whilst Szoboszlai completed 81 of his 87 attempted passes with a 93% pass completion rate.
Curtis Jones also contributed to Klopp’s passing machine, completing 49 of his 51 attempted passes with a completion rate of 96%.
These passing numbers weren’t all just safe sideways passes either, with Szoboszlai notching four key passes and Mac Allister notching two of his own with one of them proving to be unbelievable assist for Nunez’s winning goal.
Defensively, the three youngsters proved their worth once again with a high intensity but disciplined performance.
The three midfielders made a combined number of eight tackles and were only dribbled past on four occasions throughout the 90 minutes.
Although Klopp seems settled on these three at the minute, Curtis Jones will be facing fierce competition from Ryan Gravenberch for his slot in the midfield over the next few months.
Klopp will also have the returns of the likes of Stefan Bajcetic and Thiago Alcantara to consider as well, but this will likely only increase the levels of performances.
