Daniel’s Debrief: Burnley 0-2 Liverpool

Boxes are ticked and business is completed for Liverpool.

Jurgen Klopp will be very content with what he sees tonight. Liverpool don’t rack up the number of goals that their performance merits but they also win the game with (apart from a twenty-minute spell) ease.

It’s been Liverpool’s Achilles heel for a while but they’ve won 0-2 away at newly-promoted sides twice in the last three weeks and both in pretty similar fashion.

There are so many positives tonight. Individual performances, as well as link-up and combination play, and a ruthlessness about Liverpool in their pressing and defensive actions.

There’s a period in the second half where Liverpool have to suffer but it’s important to remember that these periods happen to every team in every game and Liverpool ride this one out well, conceding only one even half-decent chance.

December is Klopp’s favourite month, he builds so much importance around the quantity of fixtures and points on the table in the month, and he’s got fourteen out of a possible eighteen this time around.

He’d have loved to have won at least one of the United or Arsenal games but what Liverpool can say is they didn’t drop any silly points this month.

And from the word go, there’s no hint of that happening here. The Reds are in front within six minutes thanks to a sumptuous Darwin Nunez strike. 

It’s great work down the left flank and half-space. It starts with Joe Gomez fizzing one into Cody Gakpo, and Gakpo plays a quick one-two with Nunez. Nunez is actually taken out after playing his pass but gets to his feet quickly and makes the run towards the edge of the box. 

Gakpo does so well to stand up Vitinho and buy Nunez the time to get where he wants to be. It’s a great finish from Nunez.

There’s not an enormous amount of power on the shot but what there is is guide and direction. It’s a lovely effort similar to Luis Suarez’s at home to Cardiff in 2013.

It’s a very un-Nunez like goal and he is still a footballer who I find mystifyingly difficult to analyse.

For all the criticism of him, a lot of which has been fair, he has scored eight goals and got seven assists in all competitions this season, and gets a goal or assist every 98 minutes.

Very, very good numbers yet there’s times and games where he looks so awkward and sub-standard.

What’s great about him and Gakpo tonight is how well they work together not just with one another, but with other members of the team. 

This is probably Gakpo’s best game of the season, and is the first time he’s deployed on the left wing. While he’s not got a great amount of pace, his footwork is neat and tidy and he is pretty effective out there tonight.

Gakpo and Nunez are at the centre of the next major flashpoint in the half. With Liverpool continuing to rip Burnley apart with the speed and precision of their passing, Gakpo finishes with aplomb into the top left corner.

The goal is ruled out for an apparent foul by Nunez, awarded by Klopp’s flavour of the month, Paul Tierney. 

There isn’t anywhere near enough contact for a foul to be given here and it’s immensely frustrating that the goal isn’t given by VAR, which was never going to overturn the decision, regardless of what the referee opted for.

Tierney is getting a bit of a free pass here because VAR didn’t overturn his awful decision, but where is this foul he’s seen? Christ’s sake.

Officiating continues to be the centre of the show in this game when Harvey Elliott sees a goal of his own disallowed by VAR because of Mohamed Salah, in an offside position, blocking the view of James Trafford.

By the letter of the law, this one is possibly correct. Where I struggle with it is that Trafford isn’t getting close to saving it, whether Salah is there or not, and there’s also the fact that Louis Beyer pushes Salah into the offside position in the first place.

Thankfully for Liverpool, they keep going and ride a small wave of Burnley pressure. Defensively, there’s some excellent performances in there.

Virgil Van Dijk is supreme again. He is not messing around at the back and as well as being ridiculously good defensively, some of his passing and playmaking is world-class too.

Jarell Quansah is another who has a great afternoon, having being trusted to come in to rest Ibrahima Konate. There’s one tackle from Quansah on Zeki Amdouni which is so well timed and is something you’d expect of Van Dijk, not a 20-year-old.

There’s Trent Alexander-Arnold, who has had a brilliant month. His defending tonight is good and his passing is always such a way forward. 

At left-back, Joe Gomez goes about his business brilliantly and gives me hope that we can still attack down that left flank despite a right-footer there. He has been outstanding this season.

Some of Liverpool’s football in attack, particularly in the first half, is glorious. Elliott keeps things ticking so well and is technically a wonderful footballer. I think he’s starting to become a bit more competitive physically too.

Physicality is something Liverpool excel at tonight. Second balls, interceptions, duels, regains. They’re everywhere. Burnley struggle desperately to keep the ball and are under a constant stream of pressure.

Ryan Gravenberch is still drifting in and out of games far too much and while there’s some nice link-up with Gakpo, he just isn’t effective often enough for my liking right now.

It’s another good performance from Wataru Endo though. I think he tires a bit towards the end of the game and it’s worth saying he’s played an almighty amount of football lately, but once again is flawless for much of this one.

It’s only been a month but Liverpool have missed Diogo Jota so very much. I think he’s a great forward and is so underrated. He’s not as showy as any of the other four forwards in this squad but his effectiveness cannot be understated and he wraps the game up after being on the pitch for less than ten minutes.

It’s Endo and he who combine before Luis Diaz flicks the ball back into Jota’s path and it’s a super finish from such a tight angle. There’s so many Jota goals that I think he’s the only Liverpool player that would score them - Spurs at home last season is one I always come back to.

He’s Liverpool’s most natural goalscorer.

There’s relief when this goes in as a game that should’ve been put to bed much sooner - and but for VAR and Trafford would’ve been - is finally done.

Exactly halfway through the season now, nineteen games in and Liverpool are (probably briefly) top of the pile on 42 points.

While we’ve been used to leagues being won with 90+ points in the Klopp era, I’m not sure such a tally will be needed this time around and I could definitely foresee a mid-to-late-80s being a winning total.

There were, and still are, doubts, but I think some of those have been addressed recently.

We concede too many goals, we thought. Well, that’s now three clean sheets in the last five games and just two conceded in that period, one of which was a penalty.

Our away form isn’t good enough, we thought. It’s now three away wins in a row and no side in the Premier League has picked up more points on the road than Liverpool this season.

We don’t have a DM, we thought. Well, Endo is one of the Reds’ most in-form players right now.

Liverpool may still be underdogs in this title race but the fact is, we’re now at the halfway stage and they’re still very much in it.

Daniel