Daniel’s Debrief: Wolves 1-3 Liverpool

They’re back.

I’ve been saying in the first four games - and particularly the two most recent ones - that Liverpool are serious.

I think we see even more confirmation of that here despite parts of that performance being concerning. But Liverpool do so well to stick in the game and then come out a completely different side in the second half and end up with a big away win and a fourth consecutive victory.

One that isn’t the prettiest, but one that requires major doses of character and mentality.

And that’s the Liverpool of 2018-2022, the Liverpool that would never die, that were never out of a game no matter what. I think we’re getting back to that.

All the ingredients for a classic banana skin are there - 12.30 kick-off, away from home, straight after an international break etc. And for 45 minutes it appears like the Reds are going to fall victim to all of these circumstances after a first half that can be generously described as horseshit.

But to come from behind and claim a fully deserved win despite being way off it is a mark of a serious team, and that’s what I think Liverpool are.

Jurgen Klopp finds himself a bit betwixt and between with his team selection. He chooses not to start Darwin Nunez or Luis Diaz after they arrive back late from South America, yet does start Alexis Mac Allister, and this decision doesn’t really pay off. The Argentine has his worst game for Liverpool so far and is all over the place. In an ideal world, had Ryan Gravenberch been more up-to-speed or Thiago at full fitness, they would’ve started ahead of Mac Allister.

Ibrahima Konate is named on the bench yet deemed not fit enough to start so it is a remarkably makeshift backline of Joe Gomez, Joel Matip, Jarell Quansah and Andy Robertson. Despite our superb start to the season, it worries me desperately that we’re only five games in and we’ve named that back four. It still staggers me that we didn’t sign a centre-back.

The first half starts awfully for the Reds and is one that sees them out-enthused and out-worked by a lively Wolves side. Joao Gomes and Mario Lemina have the better of Liverpool’s midfield from the off and they are assisted hugely by debutant Jeanricner Bellegarde. 

As mentioned, Mac Allister looks way off the pace but he’s not the only one as a general lethargy bug seems to have infected a good three quarters of the team. 

Gomez and Matip completely fail to engage with Pedro Neto, who was magical in the first half, and it’s soon 1-0 when Hwang Hee Chan turns home the winger’s cutback, despite Alisson’s best attempts.

We’ve seen this before from Gomez. Sometimes he just backs off too much. That first 45 is so hard for him, Neto has his beating time and time again and he is again beaten far too easily for a chance which Matheus Cunha really should score to make it 2-0.

I want to say that there were gradual improvements as the half wore on but I’m not even sure improvements would be the right word - perhaps too kind to a Liverpool performance that deserves no kindness. 

Anyway, a few small chances come. Diogo Jota has half a chance, as does Cody Gakpo, who struggles to get into this game at all, and there is a bit of a scramble late on which sees both Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai have strikes blocked.

The crucial thing is that the Reds are only 1-0 down at the break. They deserved to be further behind. But somehow, they’re in the game. Robertson is pretty much the only player with any credit in the bank from the first half, though Quansah was reasonable too, in the circumstances.

Klopp makes one personnel change at half-time and one systematic change, bringing on Diaz for Mac Allister. Whilst it’s true to say he had his worst game for Liverpool so far, it’s also true to say that he wasn’t helped at all by being given a truly laughable yellow card early on.

Anyway, Diaz comes on and is immediately involved and nearly scores with a back-post header. Already there is more life and synergy about the Reds. The system change works a treat and gets Salah heavily involved in the game, while Diaz and Robertson are running amok on the left side.

Nunez and Harvey Elliott are stripped and ready to come on for Jota and Gakpo, both of whom have difficult days but end it in the best possible way. 

The Dutchman initiates the move from deep before arriving to finish it off. Fantastic intricacy and skill from Jota to find the pass to Salah, and the Egyptian’s cross is turned home easily by Gakpo.

Don’t underestimate Szoboszlai’s involvement in the goal too. A good driving run where he carries the ball forward. Pretty much the first time he’d been able to do that all game. The system change allowed he and Curtis Jones to influence things from deeper and I thought they both did excellent jobs in the second half.

Jermaine Jenas was rambling on about our lack of aggression in midfield in the first half and whilst he can be a bit of a bore to listen to at times, he was right. Gomes, Lemina and Bellagarde were winning that battle with ease and it was always likely Klopp would change something at the break, and the change he makes works to great effect.

An equaliser at a good time. Early in the second half. And it had been coming. 

Jota and Gakpo will both feel unfortunate to be brought off after playing instrumental parts in the goal, but the truth it both (especially Gakpo) had been on the periphery for so much of the game.

Diaz had already made a huge difference. Nunez and Elliott were terrific from the bench. Max Kilman and Craig Dawson had coped relatively easily with the Reds’ attackers up until this point, but they couldn’t live with Nunez.

I thought he was unplayable. 

Pace. Power. Strength. Aggression. Physicality. Direction and then misdirection.

Without scoring, this was a fabulous cameo that any striker in the ‘classic number nine’ mould would be proud of.

I’ve compared Nunez to Edinson Cavani a few times and I think the similarities are really stark. I’m also convinced that Nunez has become a smarter forward since Marcelo Bielsa got the Uruguay job.

He has a chance after some delightful link-up with Diaz where he perhaps could’ve lifted it over Jose Sa rather than try to sidefoot it, but the movement was electric. 

Elliott is making a habit now of these highly impressive appearances from the bench. He did so well. Used the ball well and is good without it too. His form is good enough for him to be in the consideration for starting games and for me he’d be one of the first names on the sheet on Thursday evening in Austria.

Wave after wave of attack. It felt ominous and it felt like it was coming.

Eventually it does.

Andy Robertson. Arguably Liverpool’s best player to this point already but if there was any doubt over the destination of the player of the match award, then it was soon settled.

Reacts quickly to an erratic goal-kick from Sa and progresses the ball forward. 

This is the value of having a good ball-player lying deep at set-pieces. He plays a good ball to Salah and it ends up being a glorious one-two. Robertson slots home, with his left foot, obviously.

And Liverpool had got themselves in front. Late on. Away from home. After being behind.

How many times did we do that in the title-contending seasons? 08/09, 13/14, 18/19, 19/20 and 21/22. There were loads of them. And winning late and winning despite adversity and winning when you don’t think you’re going to is the mark of a team that is in the serious business.

You know what’s really good, though? Is that I didn’t doubt it. I felt it was coming. I thought what we were doing was putting Wolves under too much pressure and I felt it was going to give eventually.

If I, sat watching the game on a television screen, feel like it’s coming, then the confidence and belief must be seeping through the players’ bodies.

That belief wasn’t there last season. How could it be? But it’s definitely back now.

Phenomenal work from Nunez as he showcases his pace, strength and then precision of passing to tee up Salah. His first attempt is blocked but he soon finds Elliott, who gets the break of the ball and his deflected shot finds the net, via Hugo Bueno and the post.

Gravenberch then comes on for his maiden appearance and nearly scores and Wolves are falling apart at the seams, looking extremely vulnerable from every attack.

They looked like us in the first half.

This was another big win for Liverpool. I keep using the word circumstances but if you look at that back four in isolation, you probably would expect to be seeing it in the Europa League group stages, not the cauldron of a Premier League banana skin.

I think Quansah does well, by the way, and both Matip and Gomez improve considerably after Neto comes off. A bit like in the Newcastle game where Eddie Howe took off Sandro Tonali and Alexander Isak, I think Gary O’Neil loses Wolves any semblance of control with his game management.

I talked about Robertson and how I thought he was Liverpool’s player of the match. Salah would’ve been a close runner-up with three assists and another monstrous shift. His playmaking is such a feature of his game now that for oppositions, he is as much of a worry for creating as he is scoring.

So, Robertson or Salah for the player of the match. But Liverpool’s man of the match is actually the manager, who uses both his brain and his bench to get Liverpool back in the game.

He takes a bit of a gamble by not naming Diaz and Nunez due to the late arrivals, but does name Mac Allister. It is clear early on that this hasn’t worked. That’s not to say Klopp got it wrong, just that it didn’t work and he wasn’t ready.

I think the Klopp of last season doubles down and keeps Mac Allister on.

How many times did he keep the likes of Henderson, Milner, Firmino, Fabinho et on last season when they were stinking the place out?

But the manager takes his medicine and brings him off at half time. I thought it was more likely we’d see a like-for-like change with either Gravenberch or Elliott coming on, but what Klopp instead does is change shape completely.

We go to a 4-2-2-2 which transforms the game. He recognises that we are unable to play through Wolves’ midfield, where they are strong, and that we need to play around them instead.

Dummy runners, more passing options and more for Wolves to think about now.

Szoboszlai and Jones in a deep double pivot do so, so well. Not only do they regain control of the middle of the park, but between them they dictate play from deep as well as contribute towards the recycling and retention of the ball.

The job Jones does will go unnoticed but it was key to the turnaround. Szoboszlai is just a joke of a footballer.

Diaz was a livewire and his introduction limited the influence of Hwang, who was a menace in the first half. Klopp also removes the inverted full-back part from Gomez’s job description and he has a much nicer time of it in the second half, now that Neto can’t exploit the space.

With one substitution and two tactical tweaks, Klopp had transformed a game that Liverpool were losing and looking rancid in, to one that it felt like they were bound to win.

Then come Nunez and Elliott, whose telling contributions I’ve already discussed.

The manager won this game for us. He doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all approach any more and in the last three games, has exemplified his tactical flexibility and creativity, something he has been accused of lacking in the past.

Jota, Nunez and Elliott at Newcastle. Game-changers. Quansah going right-back so Alexander-Arnold could dictate from deep. Having Trent in that deep position for the full game against Villa. Bringing in Jones for a physically-challenging Unai Emery midfield.

And then yesterday.

Thirteen points from fifteen. 

We’ve come from behind to win three times so far this season.

We did it three times in the entirety of last season.

Daniel