Derby delight
Finally something to cheer about. I felt more than a little trepidation going into this game, wary of both the potential new manager bounce for Everton, coupled with our own dire form. Thankfully neither happened as we ran out comfortable 2-0 winners in the end.
On to the game itself and I was frustrated at Nunez starting out wide, with Gakpo through the middle again. It hasn’t worked up until now but last night we saw how it could be effective. I still don’t fully understand the logic behind playing your £85 million CF out wide but I do wonder if Klopp thinks that with everyone fit, Gakpo isn’t going to play on the left and it may be that the boss sees him rotating with Nunez through the middle in the long term, especially if Bobby moves on in the summer.
My biggest issue with Nunez out wide is that his passing and crossing is pretty poor as a rule, despite him getting an assist yesterday. His pace is frightening however, as witnessed in the devastating counter attack that led to Salah’s goal. It was great to see actually as we used to be such a potent counter attacking team but that has been absent from our game all season. Good to see Salah end his drought as well, although when you see the angle from behind the goal, what Pickford was doing only he knows.
Gakpo finally got off the mark as well in his 7th game for the club and a tap in from two yards is exactly the type of finish you want when low on confidence. It came from another excellent counter attack as well, with Robbo bursting past two players before passing to Trent who delivered one of his trademark back post crosses for Gakpo to finish. You immediately saw the difference it made to Cody, his all round game suddenly looking a lot more polished. Amazing what a hit of confidence can do.
Our defence, so wretched against Wolves, held strong for the most part, couple of dodgy moments from Matip aside, although we can’t forget just how poor Everton are as an attacking side but with Virgil back on the bench, we should get stronger in that department in the coming weeks.
That brings us to the real bright spark of our season so far, young Bajcetic. He put in another fine display of tough tackling and an excellent passing range. His emergence also likely means we’ll only need to target two midfielders this summer, rather than the three many expected we would and his performance last night was enough to earn him the most prestigious of football awards – 4KK’s McMOTM.
Hendo brought some added intensity to the press, although Fabinho still has a lot of work to do to get back to his best. All in all though, a positive night and with Jota and Firmino joining Van Dijk on the bench, suddenly our squad depth is looking stronger.
Newcastle next then, in what is really a must win game if we have any lingering ambitions of achieving anything this season. It’s imperative we build on the feel good factor from last night and get some momentum going for a strong finish to the season. With only one game a week from here on in, we should have plenty time to iron out the tactical deficiencies that have plagued our season so far and with plenty rest and returning players, dare I say the future looks somewhat brighter? Time will tell but our resurgence has to start somewhere and there was no better game than the derby. Walk on!!
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