Another 4am match. Liverpool started with their strongest possible available XI while Wolves left some of their stars on the bench. As I saw the lineups I opined that Liverpool would surely win this, but it eventually took a close offside call for Liverpool to escape with a draw and a replay.
Good to see Gakpo have a decent debut. Hope he becomes a great player for us.
Nice for Nunez to score too. Was a good finish. Still feels like the supporting infrastructure around him is insufficient, though. Nunez looks like a player who thrives better when surrounded with creativity.
Happy to see Keita being integrated into the team and offering more midfield penetration for us.
It’s difficult to see why we could not win or deserve to with such an overwhelming advantage in starting lineup.
Hot takes:
I like Thiago, he’s good, probably the most skilful player in the team, a pleasure to watch when on the ball, and I would hate to see him dropped, but he is less suited to play as part of a 4-3-3 and more suited to provide flair and distribution beside a holding midfielder as a 2 in a 4-2-3-1, like he did so well at Bayern. That’s why Thiago was rejected at Barcelona, who have traditionally always played 4-3-3. Don’t know if the Liverpool management considered this when we bought Thiago.
Wijnaldum-Mane-Robertson on the left was so well-oiled and was an engine room. Complements the (past) threat of Salah too. Salah is no longer as good as he used to be. Mane was more important for us than Salah in a large part of the Salah-Mane era.
With Mane, we would have won this game and obviated the need for an extra game at the Molineux.
BLOGOPUS 