THE BIG RED STEAMROLLER
Liverpool’s fab four show how it’s done by flattening teams who park the bus
AFTER watching Brighton disappear under his big red steamroller on Saturday, Jurgen Klopp turned his attention to buses and the things people used to say about his side.
It was interesting, he said, that folk would criticise Liverpool last season for their failure to break down the lesser sides, the teams that would hold firm on the edge of their own areas and repeatedly cost his team points.
Having slapped five past Brighton, 72 hours after putting three on Stoke, Klopp evidently felt it was time to revisit the subject.
‘Last year, a few people said we didn’t have a plan against busparking teams — however people said it — and now we score five, we score three, we do things like this,’ he said. ‘It’s development.’
It remains to be seen how far that development will extend – at this point last season, they were actually a place higher up the table in third and marginally better on wins and goals scored.
But while the Liverpool wagon went off road last winter, this time round they look far more durable, not merely able to work their way around parked buses, but quite capable of shunting them off roads altogether.
When Chris Hughton was asked if Liverpool was the best side his team had faced this season, he said: ‘Yes.’
And that having played Manchester City already. When he was asked if they could compete for the title, Hughton replied: ‘Liverpool are certainly good enough. Manchester City are extraordinary at the moment, but we all know in this game that what is now can be different in a month or two months if they pick up injuries. Can Liverpool continue to push? They certainly have the quality to do so.’ While that might be a polite response to a loaded question, the specific areas of Liverpool’s quality are extremely easy to identify. And impossible to deny. The defence has stopped conceding, even though it is still a concern, but it is the attack that offers so many possibilities. To that end, it is not necessarily as relentlessly effective as City’s but it is quite possibly the best of the rest in terms of its pace and diversity. Take Saturday, for instance, in which Roberto Firmino scored twice, Philippe Coutinho got one and made three and Mo Salah was excellent on one of the rare occasions when he hasn’t netted. As a unit, they are an incredible blend of flair, pace and finishing, a full package lacking only in height.
Their numbers are marvellous — Salah has 17 goals in all competitions and three assists, Firmino has 11 goals and four, Coutinho has six and seven. They could get away with leaving Sadio Mane (five goals, four assists) on the bench, but as a collective it truly is a Fab Four. Any bus would struggle.
Goalkeeper Simon Mignolet offered an interesting perspective on it, going as far as to suggest that the attack is even more unpredictable now than it was when Luis Suarez led the line.
‘Liverpool has always had that kind of talent up front, prolific goalscorers and strikers who can make the difference,’ he said. ‘But Luis was more like a real goalscorer waiting for his chance whereas now we have players who play together are creating the chances and sharing the goals, which is nice because the opponent can’t really set up to defend one player. They have to defend a few boys now and because of that they give each other the space they need.’
With 16 points from their past six games, and 19 goals scored, the results are devastating in ways that only Manchester City can relate to.