Liverpool proving to be the real deal – even if they’re not passing to each other

CAN you imagine how good Liverpool will be when Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane start passing to each other again?

Granted, this tops the charts of flippant and churlish observations after five successive wins – victory over Tottenham Hotspur the most meaningful – but it would have been a source of greater angst had the referee, Michael Oliver, awarded a last-minute penalty to Son Heung-min.

What a different world it would have seemed to Jurgen Klopp in the Wembley tunnel, fending off questions about lingering fallibility instead of the secrets behind constructing a title challenge.

Liverpool were marvellous on Saturday, but only up to a point – the point being where opportunities were squandered to put three or four goals between themselves and a beleaguered opposition.

In fairness, the passing statistics suggest Liverpool’s star duo are working in tandem more than ever, but the reality in key areas near the edge of the penalty area is that too often the wrong pass was selected or, worse, not considered. Klopp’s response when one mesmeric Salah run ended with a lame shot, as Daniel Sturridge waited for a tap-in, betrayed his emotion more than the calm exterior 30 minutes later.

“It’s not greedy. It’s normal,” insisted Klopp. “I want them to score and encourage them to do so, but there are moments when they have to pass. Maybe one situation I would say a pass would have been better. All the others were OK.

“The boys are used to the situation when they score from these positions. These runs, they do give us the space to get in between. That is how we scored the second goal. So if they don’t score one day I have no problem with that.”

Privately, you still have to assume there will be reminders before Paris Saint Germain visit tomorrow.

Liverpool can win in different ways now, but goals have flowed in the Klopp era due to selflessness. Roberto Firmino typifies that; always playing like he is complementing, not competing with strike partners.

It was fitting that the Brazilian scored the winner by pouncing from one yard, while others sought the spectacular.

Klopp might make that point and his defenders might want to underline it as they briefly buckled in injury-time. If that does not work, maybe Klopp’s other half will get in on the act, as he revealed the greatest critic of his side’s habit of transforming positions of comfort into insecurity.

“My wife hates it,” said Klopp. “I would love to say it is the first time in my life I have been in a situation like that, but it happens so often.”

Obviously this does not chime with the positivity epidemic engulfing Anfield, but demands on title challengers are so severe, the margins so small, that identifying minor defects after a significant win should be curiously satisfying for a manager, players and fans.

None of this undermines Liverpool’s broader excellence, recognised by Klopp after what leftback Andy Robertson described as “probably our best performance of the season”. It was.

Robertson, Firmino, James

Milner, Gini Wijnaldum and Virgil van Dijk could debate who deserved to be man of the match, each just in their own claims.

This Liverpool team can compete for the title. Klopp knows it, even if no amount of persuasion will make him say it.

Asked about the moment at Borussia Dortmund he knew his team might secure the first of two Bundesligas, Klopp would not compare. “Matchday 32,” he said (two games before the end). “Around that day. No earlier. It is early in the season, we mention it constantly, but it’s true. There is not one second that is easy.”

When reminded PSG, Chelsea (twice), Napoli and Man City are coming next, Klopp intervened: “You forgot Southampton.”

For now, it feels like Liverpool are successfully manoeuvring their way through a series of reference points – each victory compared to a previous setback and thus qualifying as a statement of intent.

Klopp knows another is needed every three days, the measuring of his team’s true quality perpetual.

The results so far show the club have studied and corrected the weaknesses of previous seasons, particularly in defence.

The imminent arrival of world class-strikers Neymar and Kylian Mbappe not only offers another challenge to the improving back four, but to Liverpool’s goal-getters to reassert harmonising skills that earned similar reverence.

Liverpool can win in different ways now, but goals have flowed in the Klopp era due to selflessness