Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)

NO SALAH , NO GOALS, NO THREAT

Klopp will have serious concerns over Liverpool’s lack of strength in depth up front

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JURGEN KLOPP will be seriously concerned by Liverpool’s lack of cuttingedg­e depth ahead of Tuesday’s season-defining clash with Manchester City.

Without Mo Salah or Roberto Firmino, Liverpool were nowhere near sharp enough in the final third of the pitch.

In fact, they were about as sharp as a Primark suit. It is, though, understand­able.

Danny Ings and Dominic Solanke have had hardly any game time this season, and have never really played together, certainly not in a game with this intensity.

It was always going to be a big ask for them to reproduce Liverpool’s first-choice counteratt­acking verve.

Yet Klopp knows this lack of options is a real worry. All the top teams have strength in depth up front – I sometimes think Jose Mourinho at Manchester United is collecting forwards for his World Cup sticker album!

Liverpool have a front three... and then nothing too obvious beyond that, with both Divock Origi and Daniel Sturridge out on loan.

Obviously, Salah will be the key on Tuesday in the quarter-final second leg.

If he’s fit, then that is a massive weapon. If he’s not, then we saw in the derby how Klopp’s team will struggle to find any pace or penetratio­n on the break.

I’m not getting carried away about the lack of quality in this contest though.

For a start, Everton were given a bit of a humiliatin­g lesson at home last Saturday. The last thing Big Sam could do was risk getting turned over again.

In the first half, they sat deep and seemed content to chase the ball around a bit, making sure they didn’t allow any space for the counter-attack that Klopp’s men produced so effectivel­y against City.

It worked in the sense that at least Allardyce’s team clung on in the game, and actually had the moments at the end to win it.

He was always going to keep it as tight as possible, stay in the game as long as possible, and then try to snatch something in the final few minutes when

Liverpool tired and brought on their subs with an eye to Tuesday.

That’s exactly how it panned out, and I reckon the City scouts watching will have noticed how the Liverpool defence seemed to get a little flustered under pressure at the end here.

Then again, scouting reports are not entirely valid when you have a centre-half making his first start since January – at leftback. I think that Ragnar Klavan did pretty well in those circumstan­ces.

Of more interest to the City scouts was the way Klopp used Georginio Wijnaldum at the base of his midfield in the holding role, because Jordan Henderson is suspended for Tuesday, and Emre Can injured.

I thought Wijnaldum did well. Perhaps he took a few risks that come more naturally to attacking midfielder­s, but he looks athletic and physical in that position, and that could be a big attribute against City.

It will be fascinatin­g to watch how Pep Guardiola looks to exploit his lack of experience in that position. Everton didn’t have the legs or pace to do that.

Klopp will be delighted his team avoided any sort of war.

That may have made it a pretty passionles­s affair, but it also meant no more injuries – and that was the biggest result of all for Liverpool!

 ?? ROBBIE
FOWLER NO GAME TIME: Dominic Solanke
OUR ANFIELD LEGEND’S MERSEYSIDE DERBY VERDICT ??
ROBBIE FOWLER NO GAME TIME: Dominic Solanke OUR ANFIELD LEGEND’S MERSEYSIDE DERBY VERDICT
 ??  ?? HANDS UP, STRANGER Jurgen Klopp gave a rare start to Danny Ings as Liverpool rotated ahead of
Tuesday MISSED: Mo Salah
HANDS UP, STRANGER Jurgen Klopp gave a rare start to Danny Ings as Liverpool rotated ahead of Tuesday MISSED: Mo Salah

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