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Photo by Matt McNulty/Getty Images
After the Reds make it seven wins on the trot, we dig into the winners, losers and narratives on the night.
It is undeniably funny how utterly unbothered the majority of the Liverpool fan base was about going down a goal in the third minute against Leicester City tonight, having watched the Reds make the comeback four times already this season, and indeed it seemed the players were unbothered as well, as they dismantled an ambitious but vastly inferior opponent and got the win — which in truth could have been far greater — they deserved in the end.
Winners
Mentality: As mentioned previously, going down a goal did not seem to dent the Reds’ self-confidence one little bit. They simply camped out around the Leicester box, where they feasted on the Foxes’ insistence on playing out with short, intricate passes and created turnovers and shots aplenty — the final tally was 29 shots to Leicester's 4 shots.
New Boys: Liverpool saw 3 of their new guys playing in some capacity and all three contributed to a goal in some form or fashion. Shortly after the half time break, Ryan Gravenberch combined with Cody Gakpo to open Liverpool’s scoring. By far the highlight of the game, Dominik Szoboszlai scored an absolute thunderbastard, but Wataru Endō actually assisted him on that play. You can’t argue with stats.
Szaddy: Few would argue that Szoboszlai hasn’t been Liverpool’s best player so far this season, and those numbers will have dwindled further yet tonight, as the Hungarian scored the go-ahead goal five minutes after coming onto the pitch, hammering an absolute belter from 20 yards in off the crossbar.
It was a goal reminiscent of those scored by a certain previous #8 for Liverpool.
Losers
Dollar Store Guardiola: Listen, we here at TLO have a lot of respect for teams attempting to play good football rather than relying on bone-crunching tackles and the institutional cowardice of PGMOL, but at some point, when things aren’t working out, one should consider a Plan B.
Leicester persisted in their attempts at playing out from the back for the full 90 minutes, and only some overly excited touches and pure happenstance were to blame for that strategy not ending in a much heavier defeat than ended up the case. Liverpool were relentless in their pressing and were consistently rewarded with turnovers that they turned into numerous transition opportunities.
What Happens Next
Liverpool have drawn Bournemouth away in the next round of the competition. With Newcastle beating Manchester City, that means only 3 of the Premier League’s current top 6 remain in the competition: Liverpool, Arsenal, and the Toon. Could Klopp’s 2.0 Liverpool have a cup run on their hands? We will see.
All eyes turn towards the big matchup on the weekend. Liverpool travel to London to take on a revitalized Tottenham team. With the form the Reds are in, you’d bet on them against anyone. However, Spurs are in such a good vein of form themselves. This weekend’s match has the billing to be an early season classic, let’s hope the Reds are on the winning side.
