Pope is our saviour
Dyche hails keeper as Burnley leave Anfield with point despite 35 shots from Liverpool
BEFORE last weekend, Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope had only played in the lower leagues with Charlton Athletic, Bury, Cambridge United and York City.
Now he’ll be forever known by Clarets fans as the Hero of Anfield, marking the first Premier League start of his career by keeping Liverpool at bay when Jurgen Klopp’s men had 35 shots at goal and still couldn’t win.
Even with Philippe Coutinho returning to the home line-up after a summer of discontent, Liverpool couldn’t beat 25-year-old Pope once Mo Salah had cancelled out Scott Arfield’s opener.
Burnley’s defending was typically stout but when they cracked right at the end, Pope brilliantly kept out a deflected shot from Trent Alexander- Arnold and then got a vital touch to send Dominic Solanke’s effort on to the crossbar.
Not bad for a journeyman keeper who was only playing because of Tom Heaton’s shoulder injury.
‘A lot of his game was just good basics, but when the moment of truth came he made two fantastic saves,’ said Burnley manager Sean Dyche. ‘ Popey is very young in games if not years and coming to Anfield was a big ask for him. I can assure you our game plan was not to keep the ball all afternoon. You have to defend well at these places, you can’t out-football a team like Liverpool.’
The upshot is that little Burnley remain above Liverpool in the table after five matches, albeit on goal difference, and are unbeaten from trips to Chelsea, Spurs and now Anfield. Not that Klopp had any complaints about his side’s performance in bouncing back from a 5-0 defeat to Manchester City.
He made seven changes from the midweek Champions League game against Sevilla and they still created enough chances to win three matches besides having a strong penalty appeal turned down when Mo Salah was checked by Ben Mee in the build-up to Solanke hitting the woodwork.
‘I’m not in a perfect mood,’ confessed Klopp afterwards. ‘ The result feels strange. It feels wrong. But it is a fact, we drew. We made changes but our game was fluent, proper football, possession football. You can’t finish every situation that you create but we created often enough to win.’
Coutinho was given a big ovation by The Kop to mark his first start of the season. But after a promising opening Liverpool’s vulnerable defence let them down again.
Right-back Alexander-Arnold was beaten in the air by Stephen Ward and when centre- halves Ragnar Klavan and Joel Matip went to challenge Chris Wood at the same time, Arfield crept into the penalty area ahead of left-back Andrew Robertson and fired past Simon Mignolet first-time.
Klopp shrugged his shoulders in disbelief by the touchline and the only relief was that his side levelled within three minutes — £36million record signing Salah taking a pass from Emre Can, nudging it past Matt Lowton and firing past Pope for his fourth Liverpool goal. That should have forced the floodgates to open, particularly with Coutinho looking lively and embarking on several dribbles through midfeld.
Pope saved from Salah and Daniel Sturridge hit the side-netting to keep Burnley level at the interval and over time the home side’s shooting became more wayward.
‘The plan was to keep them as far away distance-wise as we could. It’s much harder to score from 30 yards than six,’ said Dyche.
When Liverpool did get closer, they still missed. Robertson dragged a shot wide and Can headed on to the roof of the net. Pope was booked for time-wasting but he did not let nerves get the better of him.
In front of him, Burnley centrehalves Mee and James Tarkowski blocked every shot in front of them. Mee also could have scored with two headers from corners, the first headed away by Matip and the second saved by Mignolet.
Alexander-Arnold finished more like a winger than a full-back. He had a bouncing shot clutched by Pope against his chest right on the goal-line. Then, when Salah’s penalty appeal was turned down, he reacted quickest to feed Solanke, who struck the woodwork from six yards as a combination of Pope and his defenders got the ball away in a breathless finish.
After conceding seven goals against City and Sevilla, a draw was not want Klopp wanted.
‘ It was our best game against Burnley but not result-wise,’ he said. ‘For me it was a penalty [on Salah] and then we still had a chance to score but we hit the crossbar. Fortune was not wearing a Liverpool shirt today. We also conceded one goal and that is where we have to improve most. To switch from being offensive to defensive. We forgot Arfield and he scored. I’m frustrated because we saw the kind of football we played even with seven changes. I don’t feel positivity now.’
Dyche enjoys upsetting the big guns.
‘Every season the players stay in the Premier League, you feel more at ease,’ he said. ‘Liverpool spend fortunes on players but it’s our job to find a way to get a point, get a win. And we’ve done that.’