Xherdan Shaqiri may only have been a Liverpool player for a matter of months but there is little doubt he is turning into a Anfield favourite.
His reputation grew just little bit more on Sunday evening as the Swiss attacker scored two crucial goals after coming in as a substitute in the Reds 3-1 victory over bitter rivals Man United.
At the time of the arrival by the former Bayern Munich and Stoke City player, this fixture was taking on a familiar pattern and if you'd have used your bonus codes online on the draw you'd have been sitting pretty.
Liverpool had made all the running in a attacking sense but seemingly running out of ideas.
Whereas, United were more than happy to sit deep and soak up the pressure, clearly happy with the point that was in their possession.
Jurgen Klopp knew he needed to change something and with twenty minutes remaining, the German inserted Shaqiri into the contest.
Shaqiri has a knack of making things instantly and the diminutive attacker looked like he meant business the moment he stepped onto the Anfield turf.
Shaqiri found himself in the perfect spot to take advantage of some fine lead-up work from Sadio Mane to give the Reds the lead once again.
He then doubled their advantage seven minutes later with a deflected strike from 20 yards.
Speaking to the Official Site after the game, Shaqiri said while he was disappointed to not have started the contest, he was desperate to have a major say in proceedings.
"Every player is not happy when he is on the bench, that’s pretty normal.
"But only 11 players can play – the coach decides.
"I always try to make an impact when I come on or play from the beginning.
"Today was a very good impact with the two goals, I’m delighted.”
In a sign of Liverpool's dominance on the contest, Liverpool had 36 shots on goal (11 on target) to go along with 13 corners.
It was the most shots on goal in a Premier League game this season.
In comparison their opponents had six shots on Liverpool's goal with just two on target.
Seeing how the game was progressing, Shaqiri said he had no doubt what the end result would be .
"It was an amazing win and important, too. We played very well. In the second half, we did more than Manchester United – we tried and tried. In the end, we fully deserved to win this game.
"When you see the statistics, we did everything in this game to win. It was very intense and we kept the high intensity in this game.
"It was an important win and a nice win against Manchester United.”
It seems like a week doesn't go by when this Reds squad doesn't break a long standing club record.
It was the case again on Sunday when Liverpool stretched their unbeaten streak to 18 games in the league which began on the final game of last season against Brighton and the 27 year-old was well aware of those facts.
"Our start to the season is amazing – a record in the club’s history.
"But we have to keep going, we have to take it game by game.
" I hope we can have a lot of games like this and try to win a lot of games. If we play like this we can have an amazing season.”
The impact of Shaqiri gives Klopp another pleasant selection headache as we move into the second half of the season.
It can't be easy for a player to mentally prepare himself when they don't know whether they will be involved from the kickoff or coming off the subs bench on a week to week basis.
But with five league goals and a couple of assists already to his name, the £13 million man has proven he can answer the call whatever role he is asked to play.
Meanwhile after signing Andy Robertson last year, Klopp has shown yet again he has a eye for a bargain in a overpriced transfer market.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.