Player ratings: Liverpool 1-1 Burnley
A very frustrating afternoon then as our patchy form since the restart continues. Let’s see how the lads got on.
Alisson (7) – A difficult game for Alisson as the ref basically allowed the Burnley players to foul him at every corner but he coped admirably for the most part. Made a couple of smart saves and distribution was decent. Blameless for the goal.
Williams (6) – Promising stuff from Williams as he got forward well and isn’t afraid to run at defenders. His delivery let him down today and needs to work on his upper body strength, as it is too easy for opposition attackers to run him at the moment. That’ll come though, for now it’s valuable minutes.
Gomez (7) – Bit of a strange game from Joe, as he brought the ball out from the back well on a number of occasions and hit a lovely long diagonal to Robbo in the first half. On the flip side however, he completely missed a straight forward header, getting us in trouble and his passing became wayward in the latter stages.
Van Dijk (6) – A rare off day from the big Dutchman. Passing not at its usual standard and slow to close Burnley down on a couple of occasions, including their goal. Dealt well with most high balls that came his way but needed to make himself more of a threat in the Burnley box from set pieces.
Robertson (11) – Looked on it from the first whistle as he relished taking on more creative responsibility in Trent’s absence and what a header! Unlucky not to have two assists first half as well, once denied by a fine piece of Burnley defending to prevent a Salah tap in and another where he put a brilliant ball in that was screaming out to be tapped home at the back post but for some strange reason both Salah and Firmino had stopped on the edge of the box, with Klopp visibly furious. Comfortably today’s McMOTM.
Fabinho (7) – Good game from Fabinho, especially first half as he nicked possession back again and again and it was his dinked cross that Robbo headed home from. Displayed some good passing throughout but got a bit flustered in the latter stages of the game, much like the rest of them.
Jones (6) – Slightly nervy start saw him taking a few too many touches when receiving the ball and he’ll be annoyed with himself for not getting on the scoresheet, after spurning a couple of good shooting opportunities. Gave a reasonable account of himself but this kid has a lot more in his locker than was shown today. More work on the counter press and winning the ball back is needed in training also but there’s plenty time for him to perfect that. Decent, if unspectacular display.
Wijnaldum (6) – Did what Gini does, which is receive, recycle and press. He does that well but offered nothing at all in an attacking sense and had a tendency to underhit his passes when trying to play through Robbo and Mane.
Salah (6) – Forced Pope into a brilliant save first half but spurned chance after chance with poor finishing. There was one where he cut inside and for some bizarre reason, decided to cut it back to the near post when it seemed so easy to just smash it into the far side of the net. The tamely struck effort in the dying minutes, summed his game up. Got his 6 for endeavour more than anything else.
Firmino (6) – His woeful goal scoring record at Anfield continues. Squandered another good chance today, scuffing his shot against the post. I know he contributes in other ways but I think every single one of our outfield players that start regularly have scored at Anfield this season, with the exception of Firmino and Gomez. That must be something of a source of embarrassment for our number 9 and something he really needs to improve on.
Mane (7) – As is so often the case, Mane looked the most likely of our forwards to force something to happen. Made a lovely run in the box only for Bobby to nick the ball off his toe and promptly mess it up. Made another fine run that should have seen him in but Salah made a mess of the one-two. Forced Pope into a smart save as well.
Subs:
Keita (5) – Not often I score subs so low but he was awful when he came on. He made two of the worst passes I’ve seen all season in his short time on – one that he absolutely thundered at Firmino’s chest from about 8 yards away, under no pressure and another in the final minutes where he literally just hoofed the ball out for a goal kick. Almost redeemed himself with a bursting run into the box late on but was unable to capitalise. Weak in the challenge and too easily dispossessed as well, considering he had fresh legs. I’d like to see more aggression from Naby.
TAA (6.5) – Did his best to make something happen and very nearly did when he picked Salah out with a delightful pass, only for the Egyptian to tamely strike straight at the keeper. Forced Pope into a smart save with a shot from distance too
Ox (N/A) – Ran around but struggled to get involved. Annoyed me with one opportunity at the end when he clearly should have controlled the ball as he was never catching it but let it run and conceded a goal kick to Burnley.
Klopp-watch (6) – I thought Klopp got his team selection wrong today. I could understand his resting Trent and starting Neco but if he was going to rest our primary creator, he should have started Keita or Ox through the middle, to give us more of a goal threat from there. We know Jones has that in him but was asked to play the Hendo role today and I noticed it was him dropping deep when we had our corners, so his job today wasn’t to be particularly creative. Again, that would have been fine if Trent were playing but without Trent, we lacked a final ball on numerous occasions.
Summary:
As I said then, a frustrating afternoon for the champions. Despite what I said above in Klopp’s ratings, we created more than enough chances to win that game today. It’s becoming too much of a theme, us needing to create bucket loads of chances for every one goal and today displayed the danger of a one goal lead. We’ve got away with it on a number of occasions this season but today it came home to roost.
On the flip side, we are champions and I don’t think we can understate the impact of having no fans at Anfield. We’ve gone from having one of the most intimidating stadiums in the world, to it just being the same as the rest. Not to mention the way our players draw energy from the crowd, so with all that said, it’s not surprising our levels have dropped 5%.
No more margin for error however, if we want the points record. We shouldn’t be too despondent though. Just be thankful for our flying Scotsman at left back or god knows where we’d be 😉
Walk on troops.
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