Daniel’s Debrief: AC Milan 1-3 Liverpool

One thing I always liked about Jurgen Klopp teams was how you could usually trust them to follow up a bad performance with a better one.

It may be four months since Klopp left Liverpool but it still feels like it’s early on in the new era and we as fans are experiencing firsts.

Not only is tonight the first time Arne Slot rotates his team but it’s also the first time he has come into a game on the back of any negativity.

I was of the opinion that a point away from home in one of our trickier-looking fixtures would’ve been an acceptable start to the Champions League campaign, but the events of the weekend make tonight’s game about more than just its own isolated outcome and more about the wider context.

Winning tonight means that we all now view Nottingham Forest as a blip, a one-off, an aberration.

And we may all be wrong. It may be this game that’s the anomaly. But we won’t know any of that until we’ve faced this situation several times. 

All we know for now is that Slot is 1/1 for bouncing back from defeats. And what that does is turn the narrative from being Forest-dominated to being one ‘four wins from five’.

The really positive thing is that is not just a top result, but a very impressive performance too.

About 20 minutes in, I texted my mate with the exact words: “Sounds a very daft thing to say but if it hadn’t been for the goal we’d be happy so far”. 

I just talked about anomalies and aberrations. In this game, the AC Milan goal is the aberration. That’s the outlier.

Because apart from that moment, even at 1-0, Liverpool go the San Siro and are the more accomplished of the two teams throughout.

It’s a performance that fuses the best bits of two of Liverpool’s best ever managers in Europe: Rafael Benitez’s professional pragmatism with Klopp’s adventure and attack.

Liverpool are wise and efficient on the night but they are also aggressive and front-footed. It’s the kind of thing we saw in the first three games, before the Forest affair.

It’s a brave performance. If you were ranking the players on bravery tonight, Mike Maignan would be top but the rest of the Liverpool squad would follow closely behind.

The players who Slot has placed a lot of faith in once again do the business.

The Forest game and the AC Milan goal may be aberrations in their own wider context but Ryan Gravenberch has put in five very good performances now and it’s close to being too many to be seen as an aberration. 

I’m amazed by how good he’s been and also how confident and esteemed he seems in a new role. His physical and technical attributes are shining through every game at the minute.

He runs the midfield from deep in this game and is also tracking back and supporting the defence: his block from Tammy Abraham’s cut-back in the second half is heroic.

Next to him, Alexis Mac Allister is quietly excellent. I think he’s one of our most important players. He keeps everything ticking in the midfield, his game-intelligence is one of the highest I’ve ever seen from a Liverpool player.

Dominik Szoboszlai is somebody who many would’ve given a lot of thought to dropping after his performance at the weekend, and he starts poorly tonight, but comes into it and is our best player in the second half. His goal is slightly fortunate but it’s a break that his efforts probably deserved.

I do wonder about Szoboszlai’s long-term role. He’s playing more like an 8 than a 10 at the minute and I’d be interested to see how he would get on in the pivot.

At the back, Ibrahima Konate and Virgil Van Dijk are absolutely imperious. Of course, both score from well-crafted set-pieces, and both are players who we’d like to see score more often given their obvious physical advantage over most players. 

Konate is flat-footed for the Christian Pulisic goal, a little indecisive just as he is for Callum Hudson-Odoi’s match-winner at the weekend. His performance from that moment onwards was exceptional and it felt like he was determined to make amends for the goal.

It’s the fourth game in a row he’s started and he looks like he’s in a rhythm now.

Kostas Tsimikas is perhaps a surprise inclusion in the starting lineup. I’ve been brutally honest about this before: I don’t think he’s good enough. The fact is, Andy Robertson has been on a slow decline for three seasons and yet not once has Tsimikas threatened being first choice.

Sure, he’s had some good games and in fact has probably had more good ones than bad ones but his mistakes are nearly always costly and his lack of pace is genuinely astonishing.

I’d have started Joe Gomez. If Slot wants to drop or rest Robertson; I’d rather see Gomez at left-back.

But, I have to be fair and give credit here: Tsimikas is really quite good after the first five minutes. It’s his brilliantly-weighted corner that sets up the Van Dijk goal and he manages to be assured at the back and an outlet going forward as well in the rest of the game.

It’s another player who Slot places faith in on the night that repays him.

Let’s look at the other full-back, who a lot of attention was placed on in the build-up to the game. Trent Alexander-Arnold was up against Rafa Leao, one of the best and most dangerous wingers in Europe at the minute. 

I can count on one hand the number of times Leao actually threatened. Liverpool, and Alexander-Arnold in particular, defended his considerable presence so well.

As well, Alexander-Arnold assists the Konate goal with a gorgeous floated free-kick, delivered into a horrible area to defend. It’s a mirror of the goal Arsenal’s Jakub Kiwior heads into his own net in our FA Cup win at the Emirates in January.

We knew he could do that though, he’s done it so many times before. What gives me so much pleasure tonight is watching Alexander-Arnold dominate his duels and his battles in his own half.

Actually, Leao isn’t even the best left-winger on the pitch tonight, because Cody Gakpo produces one of his best Liverpool performances to date.

He works unbelievably hard and most of what he does comes off. We talked about bravery, and it’s his bravery in taking a boot from Davide Calabria that gets us the free-kick that Konate scores from.

His work in the attacking third is so good. He holds it up well, he drives hard and he displays intensity and dynamism. He gets the assist for the Szoboszlai goal which he richly deserves.

He does seem to play better on the left wing for both club and country. He’s unfortunate that Luis Diaz has started the season on fire because his performance tonight gives Slot something to consider on that side.

He looks like a left winger. Actually, he doesn’t look like one but he plays like one.

Until tonight, our goals had all been scored by Diogo Jota, Mohamed Salah and Diaz and they have been our only assisters too. So it’s encouraging to get three goals from different scorers and providers here, while still noting that Salah and Jota contribute to our impressive 2.94xG.

The pattern of the game is similar to several from the first half of last season: going behind early but having more than enough class and quality to win comfortably in the end.

It happens with Man City at the weekend too against Brentford and while the top teams don’t want to be conceding early, it’s something they can usually respond to.

The most concerning thing about Saturday wasn’t the result, it was the lifeless and pathetic reaction to going a goal down.

Here, the Reds fall behind early but don’t allow it to unsettle them too much and quickly mentally reset, forage a way back into the game and deservedly win.

Maybe Forest was the aberration.

Daniel