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Report by
Dave Usher at Anfield
It wasn’t always vintage but any time you can make this many changes and still win the game it’s a big positive. When you advance to a cup semi final in the process, even better. And when you introduce a kid who’s barely turned 17 and he scores at the Kop end, well does it get much better than that?
Despite these positives I’ve still seen plenty of complaining about the performance. Honestly though, I don’t really see anything to be concerned about. I’m not saying we played well, but think about how many of these games we’ve had over the last 20 years and how many times we’ve made hard work of it and often ended up losing, or needed penalties to win.
We seem to have finally developed the habit of getting the job done even when not firing on all cylinders and we're just not losing any games. We're into December and we've lost only once.
No team plays well all the time though and when you make eight changes to the regular line up it can often result in a disjointed performance. That’s what happened, yet aside from a wobbly spell in the second half when we could - probably even should - have fallen behind, we were still on top throughout and always looked the more likely winner.
Leeds are one of the best teams in the Championship and this game was their cup final, so all in all I thought this was a good night’s work. Remember when our managers would shuffle their pack for these games and the team would resemble "slapdick central", with all kinds of flops, jabronis and kids who were never going to make the grade? That’s no longer the case. There isn’t a single bum in our current squad and if a kid gets a chance this season it’s because he’s got a real chance of making it here.
We’ve gone from having the likes of Itandje and Brad ‘Dodgeball’ Jones as back up keeper to having Mignolet there. He’s got his critics but he’s one of the top dozen or so keepers in the Premier League and he’s our second choice. In front of him the likes of Lucas and Klavan are steady, reliable back ups and we’ve got good players right throughout our second eleven.
Despite that, it’s unreasonable to expect us to just swat aside a team like Leeds. Every year premier League sides lose to lower league opposition and these games are often difficult. This one was too, but as they did against Sunderland at the weekend the players stayed patient and scored twice in the last 15 minutes to win the game.
Klopp’s starting line up wasn’t especially surprising, but it was interesting to see that Wijnaldum was utilised almost in Coutinho’s role. I thought maybe Ejaria would have played there (or that Ben Woodburn would have started) but the kid is better in midfield so it made sense to play him where he’s most comfortable. I thought Wijnaldum did his best but found it difficult there. He looked great when he eventually moved back into midfield though, and the sooner we have him and Lallana back in tandem the better.
We had loads of the ball in the first half but found it difficult to create anything. The closest we came to scoring was a nice ball from Ejaria that produced a good effort from Wijnaldum that was well saved by the Leeds keeper.
Leeds had a few good moments of their own on the break and Mignolet had to make a really good stop to deny Sacko (who I thought was offside). Generally though Lucas and Klavan were in control and the biggest threat to us was the Main Stand linesman who didn’t have a clue what he was doing. He missed a couple of clear offsides and then flagged for one when it looked like the Leeds player ran from inside his own half.
Can spent most of the half berating him, although he wasn’t in a position to be ripping anyone’s performance. In a game like this you’re looking to the senior players to stamp their class on proceedings, but Can and Mané just didn’t do it. Origi threatened to but then completely lost his way until he eventually came good and got the decisive opener, but truth be told I expected more from all of them.
I’d have made a change at half time and brought Woodburn on for Kev Stewart, as we didn’t really need him in this type of game. It was like having a third centre back on the pitch and although generally he was doing very little wrong, this wasn’t like the Spurs game when his contribution was vital to winning the game. The one mistake he made almost allowed Leeds to go in front too. Others contributed too by overplaying, but when Stewart was robbed we were in real trouble and only the post saved us.
He picked up a knock soon after and that saw Klopp eventually make the change I thought he should have made earlier. Woodburn on, Wijnaldum back into midfield and Can dropping into the holding role. That benefited everybody and it’s the reason we eventually won the game. Suddenly we looked much more cohesive.
Woodburn had a shot blocked within minutes of coming on and Wijnaldum was then denied by the post as we began to turn the screw. If the Dutchman had squared it Woodburn would have had a tap in but it’s difficult to criticise him for going for goal as it was a clear chance.
The last thing anyone wanted was extra time but it was beginning to look like that was where we were heading. Then out of absolutely nothing we were ahead. Origi had been having a wretched second half, taking too many touches and over complicating everything, but credit to him for making the run and getting something on the end of Alexander-Arnold’s cross.
It didn’t look like a good ball in initially as it seemed too close to the keeper, but it was a very difficult one for him to deal with and he didn’t know whether to stick or twist. Had he come for it I’m not sure he’d have gotten there, but there was enough on it to tease him and cause uncertainty which Big Div capitalised on. Massive relief all round when that hit the net.
Then came the moment everyone inside Anfield was desperate to see; Woodburn scoring at the Kop end. It was a great goal too, the kind of sweeping, lightning quick attack that we’re becoming synonymous with these days. Mané and Origi pressured a defender and won the ball in the Leeds half. Origi carried it forward and laid it off to Mané before setting off into the box. Mané found him with a lovely first time back heel and Origi got his head up to pick out Wijnaldum, who controlled and then showed a lovely touch and awareness to move it on to Woodburn who gleefully smashed it into the roof of the net.
Klopp immediately sent Milner on for Ejaria to see the game out, which we did without any real incident. The only real concern surrounded Origi who had been limping around at various points in the second half and was clearly troubled by something. Klopp took him off in stoppage time after he was ludicrously booked, presumably for dissent, after a Leeds player just fucking booted him well after the ball had gone. The Leeds player escaped a caution but Divock didn’t. Terrible jobsworth officiating that.
So onto the semis then, and it will be interesting to see how Klopp approaches it. I suspect he’ll end up going full strength, or at least close to it, and the kids will have to wait until the FA Cup before they get another chance. Maybe not Woodburn though, we might need him for the league with Coutinho out. Imagine if he comes in and has the same kind of immediate impact that Fowler and Owen had? How great would that be!
As for Leeds, well there’s a part of me would like them to come back up as they’re such a big club they belong in the top flight. But then there’s another part of me, a bigger part, that feels the same way I do about Newcastle and Villa: “Fuck ‘em, they can rot in the Championship”.
Star man is a tough one as I didn’t think anybody was that great. The two centre backs did well and Trent AA was impressive, but I’ll go with Wijnaldum I think because he got through so much work and got stronger the longer the game went on.
Team: Mignolet; Alexander-Arnold, Lucas, Klavan, Moreno; Stewart (Woodburn), Can, Ejaria (Milner); Mané, Origi (Grujic), Wijnaldum:
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