Reds crush Leeds to go within three points of Man City

 

A remarkable result for Liverpool, which has put them in touching distance of league leaders Manchester City and has many pundits and Reds’ fans not only lauding the 6-0 mauling of Leeds but also suggesting that it is Jurgen Klopp’s men who now have the momentum to take them to title glory.

Yet, as strange as it sounds, 6-0, while seemingly reflecting a dominant, overwhelming performance from the home side, doesn’t reveal how complicated the game was for the Reds and how, once again, on this run of nine wins in a row, Liverpool’s loose play could easily have found them in trouble and led to a different outcome.

Thus, Leeds got off to a good start and posed a threat to the Liverpool defence – to which Klopp had restored Andy Robertson, Trent Alexander Arnold and Joel Matip to play alongside captain for the night Virgil van Dijk – and, indeed, on six minutes Marcelo Bielsa’s side should’ve had a penalty when Alisson Becker, tardy in clearing the ball with his feet, was suprised by the lurking Dan James.

In his anxiety to get rid, in his follow through, it seemed as if Becker had kicked James in the air.

If the Leeds striker had stayed down after Becker’s challenge, then the foul would have been obvious and a penalty the likely outcome; but James sprung to his feet desperate to get to the loose ball ahead of the covering Matip – the Liverpool defender getting their first and clearing successfully – and it was much harder for the officials, both onfield and VAR, to penalise the Brazilian stopper, deciding that there was more of a natural collision between two players going for the ball rather than something more untoward.

Next, Liverpool went ahead on 15 minutes with a fortuitous penalty.

Robertson’s cross from the left hit the arm of Stuart Dallas, who had instinctively twisted his head and body to block the ball as it came hurtling towards him. By the letter of the law, referee Michael Oliver had no alternative other than to give a penalty, but it was soft, with Dallas’s arm barely outside of the silhouette of his body – which is when a penalty is deemed to have been conceded.

Still, Mo Salah stepped up to confidently score his 18th league goal of the season and put Liverpool ahead.

Leeds’ luck was further out when on 27 minutes Raphinha appeared to have equalised after good play down the Liverpool right by Jack Harrison, who slid the ball across the six-yard area for a tap-in.

However, the Brazilian striker, in his enthusiasm to get himself in position to score, had lost concentration and needlessly strayed offside.

Three minutes later, Matip, having characteristically rampaged through the opposition lines, exchanged passes with Salah, before cleverly chipping over the advancing Illan Meslier to make it 2-0 to the Reds.

Another soft penalty on 33 minutes, this time after Sadio Mané, brilliantly put through on goal by Salah, losing control of the ball, cut across the chasing Luke Ayling, who inevitably – albeit barely – clipped the Liverpool forward, allowing the Egyptian king to make it three from the spot.

In the second half, Liverpool looked to conserve energy and take the sting out of any potential for a Leeds comeback.

Thus, it wasn’t until the 80th minute that the Reds added to the score, when substitute Jordan Henderson latched on to a poor clearance from Meslier, the Liverpool stalwart then running into the Leeds box, where he was brilliantly found with a reverse pass by the outstanding Salah, before crossing precisely for Mané to stroke the ball into the net.

Mané added a fifth in the 90th minute after Divock Origi, who’d come on for Luis Diaz, had his effort saved by Meslier, the ball kindly ricocheting to the Senegalese, who couldn’t miss from five yards out.

The rout was completed with the last play of the game after Robertson’s corner was met by the unmarked van Dijk with a thumping header that Melier had no chance of stopping.

In this way, Liverpool not only closed the gap to Man City to three points – with the two title contenders set to meet at the Etihad on 9 April – but also overtook Pep Guardiola’s side on goal difference. The Reds are +50 while City are +46.

Next up for Liverpool is a much-anticipated Carabao Cup final against Chelsea on Sunday.

The Reds have yet to win a domestic cup competition under Jurgen Klopp and despite struggling against Chelsea in both league games this season – drawing 1-1 at Anfield at 2-2 at Stamford Bridge – Thomas Tuchel’s side have shown indifferent form of late, which makes Liverpool slight favourites going into the game.

Liverpool drop vital points against battling Leeds

Another frustrating, disappointing and unsatisfactory performance from Liverpool saw them come away from Elland Road with a 1-1 draw when they badly needed three points to retrieve what has been a terrible season, exiting early from all competitions they were involved in.

What made the performance even more annoying was that the Reds had deservedly gone ahead after 31 minutes with a Sadio Mané goal – set up by Trent Alexander Arnold after a cross-field pass from Diogo Jota – and looked in complete command of the game throughout the first half.

Even in the first 10 minutes of the second half, Liverpool were on top and should have gone further ahead, but Jota’s header from the edge of the six-yard-box went over the bar when it should have ended in the back of the net.

From that point on, inexplicably, Leeds came back into the match and created several presentable opportunities – Alisson Becker saved excellently twice from close-range efforts, once with his legs, the other with his chest, while Patrick Bamford saw his clever lob from the edge of the area strike the face of the crossbar.

Liverpool were relying on the counter-attack to score the second and finish off the game – Mo Salah, who’d started on the bench came on for Mané after an hour for precisely this purpose – but the Reds were sloppy in passing and possession breaking out and didn’t create a serious scoring chance.

Inevitably, and deservedly, Leeds equalised.

On the 85th minute, a corner from the Liverpool left was appallingly defended by Ozan Kabak and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who left the United centre-back Diego Lloronte to leap unchallenged from three-yards out to score a simple header. Horrific defending, but quite typical of Liverpool’s season. Again, we ask the question why, when Nat Philips was declared unfit with a hamstring injury, he wasn’t replaced by the January signing Ben Davies but by Fabinho, depriving Liverpool of their best midfielder? This tactic of dropping Fabinho into defence has been a disastrous innovation and it was asking for trouble when Jurgen Klopp reverted to it against a side known for unrelenting pressure and never giving up. A defender, brave in the air, capable of the last-ditch tackle, was what Liverpool required tonight and the fact that they didn’t have one is what ultimately cost them, with the softest of set-piece goals.

Oxlade-Chamberlain had the chance to score a winner in the 92nd minute after being set up by a mazy run from Roberto Firmino, who found the England international on the edge of the area with the net beckoning but the hapless ex-Arsenal man, epitomising his undistinguished Liverpool career, couldn’t sort out his feet quickly enough and the chance went begging.

Liverpool’s dropped two points leaves them in sixth place, behind Chelsea, West Ham and Leicester in the fight for the 3rd and 4th spots. All of these teams have a game in hand over the Reds and it’s not so much that the games are running out for Liverpool to climb the table; it’s that the performances remain so weak that there’s nothing to suggest that the Reds are capable of putting a winning run together to qualify for next year’s Champions League – assuming it goes ahead after today’s announcement of a European Super League, in which Liverpool would be a founding member and guaranteed a place in any elite competition.

Reds struggle to overcome newly-promoted Leeds in season opener

The Premier League is in for a treat on the evidence of Leeds’ first top flight appearance for 5,964 days but Marcelo Bielsa is not one for plaudits. It was points he wanted at Liverpool and one was firmly within his team’s grasp until Rodrigo, the club’s £30m record signing, foolishly gifted the champions an 88th-minute penalty at Anfield. “At this level errors equal goals,” Bielsa lamented. Mohamed Salah accepted the invitation to complete an opening day hat-trick and Liverpool were up and running, just about.

Leeds levelled three times in an enthralling duel with Jürgen Klopp’s team, who were indebted to Salah’s precision on an evening of uncharacteristic sluggishness in defence. The Egypt international scored on the opening day for the fourth season in succession, the first Liverpool player to do so, and registered the club’s first opening day hat-trick since John Aldridge in 1988-89. He should not have been given the chance, however.

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