FLASH GORDON HELPS TO SEE OFF SHREWS
FOR seven minutes, the grand heist was on — and for another ten, this game was even. Let’s call it the age of innocence before Liverpool found sufficient holes in the yellow wall. They weren’t especially brilliant in doing so, and neither were they poor in a game which occasionally came across as too much of a slog for those given game time by Jurgen Klopp. That was predominantly down to Shrewsbury. They turned up for a fight and they delivered. First, in going 1-0 up against all logic through Daniel Udoh, and then in limiting the subsequent damage. It wasn’t enough to stop a heavy loss, Kaide Gordon equalising before
Fabinho scored a double either side of Roberto Firmino’s back-heeled goal. For Liverpool, there wasnt much to shout about in a win over the 15thplaced side in League One, but Klopp will have mined some encouraging information from a heavily-rotated side. Mostly involving the equaliser, with the assist coming from Conor Bradley, 18, and a fine finish from
Gordon, 17, the second youngest scorer in Liverpool’s history. The prime emotion for Klopp appeared to be relief at the end of a week in which Covid ravaged preparations. Liverpool’s training ground was briefly closed, with their Carabao Cup clash against Arsenal postponed because of an apparent outbreak in the squad and staff, including Klopp himself. Back on the sidelines after seven days in isolation, the German was forced to field four teenagers, before later detailing how many of the absentees were caused by ‘false positives’. ‘We thought we had a proper outbreak last week and it showed up we had a
lot of false positives,’ said Klopp, who confirmed Trent Alexander-Arnold has returned a legitimate positive test. Yet it will have frustrated Klopp that his team so often lacked the wit to break through a team happy to sit back. Especially when they still had the quality of Virgil van Dijk, Andrew Robertson and Fabinho. The early scraps favoured Klopp’s side, before Shrewsbury jolted Anfield with a goal from a rare attack. The move started with a long diagonal from Ethan Ebanks-Landell, which Nathanael Ogbeta took down on his chest on the left. His cross from the left should have been cut out by Ibrahima Konate, but instead found
Udoh, who beat Caoimhin Kelleher. For a brief period, the dream was on, but Gordon finished well for the equaliser, with one touch to control Bradley’s cross and another to turn Josh Vela ahead of a clever finish. Liverpool edged ahead when Fabinho sent Marko Marosi the wrong way from the spot after Ebanks-Landell handled a cross. Klopp brought on Firmino late on and among his first touches was a backheel for 3-1. Fabinho got his second from close range in stoppage time. Shrews boss Steve Cotterill said: ‘I didn’t think it was a 4-1 game. I thought it was a 2-1. I am very proud of my players.’