Lessons Learned as Resilient Liverpool Salvage Point in Anfield Thriller | OneFootball

Battling Point With Lots To Like

Christ that was a mile-a-minute intense stuff for a 3pm Saturday afternoon kick-off against a side in mid-table. Liverpool made life very difficult for themselves in this one and whilst a point at home against Fulham would normally be considered a bad point, this one had real context to it. A red card, ten men, a raucous crowd, a terrible referee and a superb comeback all went into the mix in this one. We look at the lessons learned from a 2-2 draw at Anfield.

Qualities To Be Delighted By

As we’ve seen with Newcastle away and other games, these Reds are always a massive threat with ten men still. They controlled the game with a man less and maybe will even feel they could have won it with the chances they had. Most importantly, they battled back twice from a goal down and responded to the backing that Anfield gave them. There are a few individual performances it’s right that we talk about, but when you have players in an unnatural position shining and tactical tweaks by Arne Slot that keep them in the ascendancy, there’s a lot to like. It’s only a point, but there’s a lot to like about how it was earned.

Photo: IMAGO

Shining Stars In This One

There were some brilliant individual performances. Ryan Gravenberch added breakout centre-back star of the season to his resume and the Dutchman underlined his importance again. He made 8 recoveries in this one, won all his aerial duels and made 2 interceptions.

Dominic Szoboszlai ran himself into the ground here too with 6 recoveries and two tackles and it was tiring just watching him. Diogo Jota reminded us why he is the best finisher at the club and produced a superb cameo in a slightly deeer role too. Van Dijk and Salah well….the elite is the elite and that’s maybe the only thing that needs saying.

Photo: IMAGO

Full Back and Ref Questions

The best thing about Andy Robertson’s day is at least he’ll miss the Carabao game. Diogo should have seen red and maybe the knock affected him, but it was an abortive touch and challenge. That’s two penalties and a red card given away in his last four matches now and there are concerns around full-back. Trent gave one of those perm aves where you wonder about his headspace and carries real responsibility for the second goal they scored.

Tony Harrington bettered Simon Hooper and John Brookes in giving the west refereeing performance a feat Anfield for some time, which is a real achievement. Even Arne Slot lost his head at him. Let’s hope we never see him back as he was well out of his depth.