Paradox. That’s the word that simply describes Liverpool’s 2-1 victory over hosts Southampton on Saturday. The Reds’ goals in this match were scored by Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, while Soton’s counter-goal was scored by Danny Ings, who in this match dropped off the bench in the second half, replacing Oriol Romeu.
It is suitable to be called as paradox, because Liverpool’s approach to play contrast scheme in both halves. In the first half, Virgil Van Dijk and the defenders are able to survive more, while Soton was able to force Adrian to work hard under the Liverpool’s crossbar.
As a result, Liverpool rely more on the speed of the Firmino-Mane-Salah trio to occasionally counterattack. However, this strategy proved effective, with Mane successfully breaking into his former club’s goal at the end of the first half.
This goal makes Liverpool started the second half with a different approach. This time, Juergen Klopp’s team change to attacking strategy, and Soton only occasionally countered back. This approach paid off with goals from Roberto Firmino using Sadio Mane’s assists.
At first glance, this goal managed to make the situation safer for Liverpool, although they continued to play aggressively, by creating a number of dangerous opportunities. Klopp also rotated players, by replacing Mohamed Salah, James Milner, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, by Divock Origi, Fabinho, and Jordan Henderson.
But, instead of winning comfortably, Liverpool and Soton were forced into a good fight at the end of the second half, due to Danny Ings’s goal seven minutes before normal time was over. This goal was created, due to Adrian’s careless pass because Ings did a pressing on him. This blunder ruined Adrian’s good record, which in this match was able to make a number of crucial saves. Luckily, Liverpool remained able to secure full points until the fight was over.
Despite winning, Adrian’s fatal blunders confirmed the existence of quite serious problems under the Liverpool crossbar after Alisson was sidelined with a calf injury. Indeed, Adrian was able to help Liverpool win the European Super Cup trophy, by thwarting Chelsea’s last penalty kick in Istanbul, but he is not a modern style goalkeeper like Alisson.
As known, besides having a good reflex, Alisson is known to have good passing accuracy. In addition, the Brazilian goalkeeper is also known to be able to play the ball with his feet. This is clearly different from Adrian, who tends to play classic style.
So, it would be dangerous if Klopp still forced Adrian to play exactly like Alisson. Moreover, Liverpool will host Arsenal at Anfield next week. Arsenal is clearly not an easy opponent, because it has dangerous striker like Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, who last season shared the English Premier League top scoring title with Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah through his 22 goals.
Certainly, Liverpool will try to achieve positive results against Arsenal, to maintain positive momentum at the start of the season, but they still have to make sure, their goal is fine as long as Alisson is absent. If not, we will prepare to see another “Karius Tragedy” in Liverpool.
ASL
