This was a great character win for the team. Put in a hole by a poor mistake, we were up against a decent side, who have shown their ability to counter-attack with such ability that they won a league title doing it. They were sitting deep, but we continued to create chances, some of which we were wasteful with. But we persevered with creating chances, did enough to hold off their counter (although not without some nervous moments) and got a couple of great goals to take the lead.
Klopp's first change brought on Ox who performed well, replacing Mane who I thought looked better today and created the first goal. The 2nd goal was all about controlling the match although I feel Gini, who is normally a very clean technical player, disappointed in giving the ball away a couple of times. In fact, I feel like he has been off the boil for a good bit now. Not sure what is going on there. Bringing Klavan on late was another move to shut things down and he did win an important header late, although he got punched in the head for his trouble. This was a good win for our team.
Nothing takes away from the enjoyment of the win for me, but a couple of negative takeaways would be Emre Can, who was back to his lack of industry, give-the-ball-away worst, especially in the first half, and that fact that the goalkeeper who many of us are hoping to see get more first team chances as the season unfolds, apparently cannot kick a football. So for me, midfield and goalkeeper are two concerns going forward. I know Keita is coming next year, but I don't think he's going to be a #6. No reason for me to try to add anything to the goalkeeper discussion.
Just enjoyed this match so much, and looking forward to what should again be a difficult challenge on Monday.
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