Daniel’s Debrief: Liverpool 3-0 Southampton

And so, it goes on. 

This incredible season full of memories continues as Jurgen Klopp’s magical mystery farewell tour throws up the possibility of another momentous day at Old Trafford in the quarter-finals.

It feels like something is going to have to give eventually and that may be at Old Trafford, it may be in Prague or it may be in the league, because what Liverpool are doing right now doesn’t feel sustainable.

You can’t keep running a car that constantly has parts falling off and breaking but Klopp is proving to be the best mechanic imaginable this season.

Whatever the problem, he has an answer.

Wataru Endo is out? Ryan Gravenberch is out? Alexis Mac Allister is ill? Right then, it’s two kids and Joe Gomez in midfield.

He is finding solutions and sticking plasters to whatever issues present themselves.

Gomez makes a slow start in midfield but from about half an hour in, is very good. Even though he’s done a bit of inverting, it’s a different business actually starting in midfield and he took some time to get used to it.

But when he did, he was pretty good. His work with the ball was good, all he needed to improve was awareness and breaking up play.

We miss Endo and Mac Allister in the early stages. Both are so effective at intercepting and defying opposition attacks and it was too easy for Southampton to break in the first half.

They’re a well-coached team and Russell Martin took them on that phenomenal unbeaten run recently and as much as the likes of Hull and Ipswich are going well, I’ll be surprised if they don’t get promoted.

They play good football. Their wingers of Kamaldeen Sulemana and Samuel Edozie get quite a bit of joy early on and a lot of it comes from how quickly they play through the lines - Jack Stephens has always been good at this from centre-back and plays through the press that James McConnell and Bobby Clark sometimes overcommit to.

But Southampton’s strong start comes to nothing and a lot of this is down to Caoimhin Kelleher, whose good form continues. November and Toulouse and December and Fulham feels a long time ago now.

He seems to have got better with a run of games which is perhaps to be expected but is a luxury he has never had at Liverpool - five consecutive starts is his most ever for the club.

He faces 1.79xG tonight and doesn’t concede - the close-range save from Sekou Mara’s chip is excellent.

The goal comes at a great time for Liverpool because their pressing is starting to get better, their midfield is starting to understand what to do, the full-backs are getting involved and you look at the clock and think we could do without half-time, as it’s the first point in the match where we look comfortable.

And then, it pays.

Great play from Harvey Elliott and Clark as Clark comes inside and bullets it into the feet of Lewis Koumas. Koumas takes two touches and sends his strike goal-bound, via a deflection.

It’s good football and it’s one the academy would be proud of on an great night to cap off a sensational week for the academy.

Koumas’ debut is positive and he offers plenty of threat down the left flank and carries a fair amount of pace too. I like that he feels confident and smart enough to come inside when he needs to, and often finds himself receiving the ball in dangerous positions from about 30 onwards.

It’s worth a mention for the two people involved in the creation of the goal. Elliott has been colossal in the last seven days.

Elliott has played 300 minutes of football in Luton, Chelsea and Southampton and remarkably, was able to still give an effort and put in a shift tonight. 

His quality on the ball is majestic at times, some of his first-time passes are sublime.

Clark, for me, is one of the star men on the field. I’ve been so impressed with him every time I’ve seen him and my only criticism of him tonight is that I’d have liked him to shoot when he was found in good positions a bit more.

His composure on the ball is terrific and he is progressive with it too. He actually takes about 20 minutes to get a grip on the game but for the remaining 70 is really good.

There’s a bit of Adam Lallana to him in how he uses his body and his vision with the ball. Tidy player. I would not be at all surprised to see him start a league game soon.

The two full-backs are both good on the night - Conor Bradley continues to wow me with the duels he wins and what Kostas Tsimikas lacks technically, he makes up for with his work ethic.

There’s an interesting quandary at the back which is that Jarell Quansah and Virgil Van Dijk don’t seem to be the best partnership - Quansah’s worst games for Liverpool have come next to Van Dijk. Palace away springs to mind and while he was good in the final, when he comes on there is some confusion over who is playing on which side.

Quansah is perfectly fine tonight but Van Dijk is a little leggy and Liverpool’s defence looks more solid when Ibrahima Konate comes on in the second half. Klopp’s management of Konate and Van Dijk - the best centre-back partnership in Europe - is going to be so important. Both of them getting just 45 here works well ahead of the weekend.

There is daylight between the two teams when Elliott plays a delightful ball after intercepting a stray pass from Will Smallbone into the path of substitute Jayden Danns, who dinks it over Joe Lumley in impudent and beautiful fashion.

He doubles up when he turns home Bradley’s effort ten minutes later to make it 3-0 after some superb pressing from Clark and Mac Allister.

His anticipation here is very impressive. It just screamed ‘natural goalscorer’.

He’s a finisher, Danns. Remember he nearly scored against Luton and nearly had two against Chelsea. He’s a natural goalscorer and keeps finding himself in these positions. In three appearances and less than 70 minutes of football for Liverpool, he’s scored two and looked like getting a few more.

Look at how much the academy players have impacted this season. Bradley and Quansah have been key figures in all competitions. James McConnell ran the extra-time period at Wembley. 

I’ve just said I could see Clark starting a league game soon. And if we need a goal from the bench, I’d turn to Danns ahead of Cody Gakpo, who works hard tonight but loses far too many physical battles and doesn’t come close to converting the chances he gets.

Then there’s Kelleher, Elliott, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones who are much older but are still academy graduates.

Kaide Gordon gets minutes too and Trey Nyoni debuts at 16. It’s the best season for the academy in my lifetime, I reckon.

It’s worth saying that this is an even weaker lineup than what Liverpool name against Luton or at Wembley. With Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo missing from those elevens, as well as the ill Andy Robertson and then Mac Allister, Konate and Luis Diaz only fit enough for the bench, it’s a decent win to brush aside a top Championship side three days after the final heroics.

Martin doesn’t name his strongest eleven either, with promotion their main focus. Flynn Downes and Taylor Harwood-Bellis not being in the lineup made me more confident at around 7.02pm, but weathering the early storm of pressure was so key to this game.

For comparison purposes, Chelsea are close to full-strength tonight and get taken to added time by Leeds and Newcastle have to beat Blackburn on penalties.

Don’t underestimate the Championship, or what a good result that is.

Daniel