Daniel’s Debrief: Liverpool 2-1 Fulham

A bit of a weird one, that.

A win from behind and for 30 minutes, a very good performance.

But our place in the final at Wembley is far from secure.

Having said that, there is a large period of that semi-final where it feels like Liverpool are going to be going into the second leg on the back foot.

And then, the turnaround is so dramatic that I walk out of the game and the immediate feeling is one of frustration that we don’t win by more than one goal.

A strange one.

And ‘a strange one’ is how I might describe Darwin Nunez, a mystery so enigmatic that he confuses even the most analytical brain.

I watch him at times and I hate him, yet I hate watching Liverpool without him.

He changes the game upon his introduction and I wish he’d started.

To be honest, I was surprised and disappointed that he didn’t. I get that we’re down to the bare bones in terms of bodies at the minute, but Jurgen Klopp throws a bit of a curveball with Harvey Elliott on the right wing, where he struggles on Sunday.

Luis Diaz needed to be picked there and tonight’s performance from him felt like a bit of a step backwards. Elliott in midfield would have made a lot more sense.

The first half is atrocious. Everything is lacking. Fluidity, creativity, connection, ideas and intensity.

We actually start quite brightly and look comfortable on the ball but fail to test Bernd Leno, who becomes a major antagonist for Liverpool in the second half.

In what is pretty much Fulham’s first foray forward all night, they take the lead, and it’s a poor one from a Liverpool perspective.

Virgil Van Dijk makes one of his first errors all season and misdirects a header. Andreas Pereira is straight onto it and pulls it back for Willian.

Conor Bradley’s tackle doesn’t make connection and a combination of Ibrahima Konate and Van Dijk don’t block his shot, which is slotted nicely into the net.

It is poor from Van Dijk but his mistakes are so scattered in amongst the regularity of his brilliance that they are easy forgive.

It’s worth pointing out as well that the goal could’ve been prevented even after Van Dijk’s header.

Caoimhin Kelleher may be unsighted but it’s yet another example of him being beaten at his near post. His distribution isn’t great on the night and as a goalkeeper, he is just so unconvincing to me.

Alisson Becker is on the bench and he is missed.

And there are stages of that first half where pretty much all of Liverpool’s absentees were missed.

Wataru Endo would’ve provided some of the steel that was missing in midfield, which enabled Fulham at times to get in behind the Reds too easily.

Dominik Szoboszlai might not have been sparkling with the ball recently but his work without it is unrivalled in the team and he was certainly missed in the pressing.

Trent Alexander-Arnold is a player who Liverpool have become used to playing with, whether that’s at right back or in midfield. His range and selection of passing would’ve surely brought life and precision to a performance that was lacking both.

Thiago (remember him?) was probably the one we miss most here, his ability to play that killer pass through the lines. Countless times Liverpool find themselves passing it from side to side with no real pace or end goal.

And Mohamed Salah makes things happen, whether that’s out wide or in the box. 

Andy Robertson’s engine and work down the left side gets Liverpool attacking and it’s a flank that just isn’t utilised well in that first half.

I love natural width and to me, Joe Gomez on the right with Owen Beck on the left might have worked better at points. 

He goes with Conor Bradley at right-back and Gomez on the opposite side.

To be fair, Bradley is tremendous. He loses his first duel against Willian but from there on in is largely faultless. He supports the attack really well and even though he perhaps lacks the pace or trickery of Alexander-Arnold and Gomez, redoubles his efforts in tight spaces to offer an outlet down that side.

He covers so much ground and I like Klopp’s assessment of his performance: “I think he will probably fall asleep in the dressing room.”

What a ball he puts in for Nunez’s chance late on, too. That is a sublime delivery.

I wasn’t surprised to see he had the ability with the ball to create chances, but what really impressed me is how well he competes physically. The stats show that he completed six tackles, six recoveries and wins nine ground duels.

It was a phenomenal shift.

There was only really Bradley and Konate that impressed throughout the game. Konate has hit form and when he’s in a rhythm of games, is one of the best around.

He looks after Raul Jimenez pretty well and his dominant in the air and on the floor.

Diogo Jota is so isolated in the first half, he works brilliantly with service but found himself starved of that due to the pedestrian nature of the pace Liverpool are playing at. He improves massively second half after the changes which bring him into the game.

Ryan Gravenberch has plenty of ability, we’ve seen that. What we see here though it a distinct change in attitude from pretty much every player that’s ever worked under Jurgen Klopp.

He’s had some that haven’t worked out for him - Christian Benteke, Simon Mignolet, Alberto Moreno, Naby Keita. But you’d never question their work ethic or commitment, even if their quality wasn’t up to it.

Gravenberch has infinitely more talent than the players I’ve referred to there but what he’s showing in recent weeks is an alarming lack of commitment and attitude.

You see him in that first half ducking out of challenges, not tracking his runners, jogging around. 

His use of the ball is diabolical in the first half, giving it away no fewer than eighteen teams and of the eleven duels he contests, he wins just one.

I can live with players having bad games because they all do it, and several of them do here, but what will never wash is a player not giving it their all.

His first half is rancid, one of the worst 45 minutes I’ve seen an individual produce under Klopp and it’s borderline disgraceful at times.

There’s a moment where he loses Liverpool possession and momentum with a headloss that sees him attempt to take a throw-in so quickly that he picks the ball up before it even goes out, and Fulham get a free-kick and a reprieve.

It’s shit like this, and the general laziness of his performance, that will not be tolerated by fans or manager. I can see why Thomas Tuchel didn’t want anything to do with him at Bayern. I think Klopp will have been apoplectic with him at half-time.

He comes out in the second half and immediately  has more of an energy around him and does well to change feet and fire a shot just wide.

Unsurprisingly, he is withdrawn, along with Elliott, for Nunez and Cody Gakpo.

I didn’t think Alexis Mac Allister was brilliant but in his defence, he was having to do a lot of extra work because of Gravenberch not turning up.

He is still fully getting to grips with the role of a DM but Mac Allister keeps things ticking nicely, though is perhaps a little tentative in the tackle at times.

Having said that, there’s a superb tackle he makes on Joao Palhinha early on in the second half which prevents a counter-attack and maintains Liverpool’s momentum.

Let’s keep him away from set-pieces, though.

The change that Nunez and Gakpo bring is not just personnel but shape - Liverpool go to a 4-4-2 and immediately Jota has someone to play with in Nunez, after looking isolated for so long.

It’s a sensational half an hour from Nunez. He finds himself central and in wide areas and looks equally as threatening in both. He drops deep to receive it and he hangs in the box for crosses. 

It was everything you’d hope for from a substitute.

And it’s Nunez attracting the attention of Tosin Adarabioyo and Issa Diop that creates the space for Curtis Jones to strike, and it’s deflected in.

Jones is good again and for me, is our most important midfielder. His 99% passing accuracy is testament to how good his use of the ball is and whilst he could’ve been a little more brave with it at times here, he’s someone who the rest of the team are looking to as a sensible option on it right now.

It’s a bit of a lucky goal but it’s one that immediately changes the direction of travel in the game and it feels like there’s only going to be one winner from here.

Two minutes later, it’s great interplay between three of the four attackers now on the field. Jota finds Nunez, who has done well to stay just on the verge of offside, and digs out a really good cut-back to Gakpo, and he comes up with a great finish, dragging his foot around it smartly to divert it home.

And just like in the league game against Fulham in December, two quick-fire goals change the story for Liverpool.

Gakpo is a very good sub here, too. I think his best work comes out wide, whether that’s on the right or the left, and he’s been a big figure in this run to the semi-finals - he’s now scored in every League Cup game this season.

There’s chances to bury the tie on the night after this. Leno makes two monstrous saves from Nunez - a header and a flicked finish from

Bradley’s cross.

Nunez does everything right for both of them and whilst his cameo deserves a goal, he does get himself two assists and but for a pair of excellent saves, he’d be having two goals as well and Liverpool would be 4-1 up in the tie.

But Nunez is about so much more than goals and whilst he can frustrate immensely at times, and believe me, I’ve lost my head over him on quite a few occasions, Liverpool are a more dangerous team with him in it.

A result that neither side will be unhappy with. Liverpool have a lead in the tie but for Fulham, it’s far from unassailable. They acquit themselves well for a lot of the game and Palhinha is a tackling machine, though Mac Allister outshone him technically.

I think Antonee Robinson is the best left-back in the league outside of the top 6, so good both defensively and going forward.

A word too for David Coote, who doesn’t really impress as a referee. There’s a counter-attack in the first half which is brought back for a free-kick so late that it kills all momentum. There’s the buying of Van Dijk’s yellow card from Andreas Pereira, too.

Liverpool aren’t great here but they do get the job done, and with the bodies missing and the minutes and hours in the available players’ legs, that is perhaps the best we can hope for.

This tie is far from over but Liverpool are in a good position to make the final.

Daniel