Red’s the colour as Origi seals Everton’s fate on Merseyside
LIVERPOOL 3 Mane (8), Coutinho (31), Origi (60) EVERTON 1 Pennington (28)
MERSEYSIDE remains Red after Liverpool dished out more derby misery on Everton.
Jurgen Klopp kept up his 100% in this fixture, with a third win over the neighbours as his side kept up their pursuit of a Champions League spot.
Once again against a team near the top of the league, they produced a performance full of energy and were deserved winners.
But for Ronald Koeman, there was never a sign of his Everton team gaining a first win at Anfield since 1999.
Injuries to Seamus Coleman and Ramiro Funes Mori picked up on international duty badly hampered his preparations and his team rarely looked comfortable.
In place of the injured duo, he had to bring in 20- year- old Mason Holgate, and 22- year- old Matthew Pennington for his first start of the season.
Afterwards, the Dutchman couldn’t help but blame those absences as a big influence on the outcome.
Although that was not a surprise, coming less than 24 hours after the Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill had referred to Koeman as the “Master Tactician of the blame game”.
“Liverpool missed some good players through injury, but they still had top quality players to come in,” he said.
“Our youngsters can be top quality, but others have more experience. I am not afraid to put in young players in and they deserved to play.
“That is football. But we played in the way I like and I am proud of my team.”
Everton’s youthful line-up needed to stand firm to Liverpool’s customary flying start, but their rejigged backline was breached inside the opening 10 minutes.
Sadio Mane picked up the ball on the right and set off on an electric run across the field, before finding the bottom corner with no one in blue able to stop him.
There was almost a second when Philippe Coutinho cut inside Pennington and forced Joel Robles
Reds’ Lucas Leiva tackles Idrissa Gueye of Everton. to save with Phil Jagielka in place to head clear. But almost from nowhere, Pennington made a huge impact at the other end.
When Jagielka flicked on a Leighton Baines corner and the ball fell loose, Pennington reacted quickest to slam home the equaliser for his first Everton goal.
However, the Reds restored their advantage just over two minutes later. Coutinho rode a challenge from Idrissa Gueye and advanced into the area and with two defenders closing him down, the little Brazilian curled a lovely effort past Robles.
In an incident-packed half, tempers were raised towards the end of it as Ross Barkley went in late on Dejan Lovren.
It was the third such challenge Barkley had made and with everyone in red furious, referee Anthony Taylor finally produced a yellow card.
However, Koeman was furious about how Klopp’s backroom team had reacted, with Serbian assistant Zeljko Buvac believed to be the main culprit.
“Maybe Ross deserved two yellows for two tackles,” he admitted.
“But if I watch the bench of Liverpool, one of the coaches looks at the referee as if he has to show eight red cards to Everton.
“Please behave a little bit more. I don’t like people making that show.”
Naturally Klopp had a different take on things, and he was keen to emphasise his side’s approach.
“I know a few people from other clubs think I am crazy, but my teams are always top of the fair play table,” he said.
“My staff are fine. We understand the game, we want to be hard against ourselves and we wanted all the players to leave without injuries.”
The visitors enjoyed the better of things just after the interval, but the game was killed off by Liverpool’s third goal on the hour.
Divock Origi had just replaced Mane, when the Belgian substitute received a ball from Coutinho, got the wrong side of Ashley Williams and buried his finish.
The victory consolidated Liverpool’s place in the top four and Klopp was delighted with how his players returned from the international break.
“We had one day to train and bring in players from 10 different countries with 10 different ideas and 10 different jobs,” he said. “My boys showed they are ready to fight.”