The Reds start by winning in the Europa League, but there are some suspicious performances…
It’s starting to get a bit repetitive, but that was another real Jekyll and Hyde display from Liverpool.
The Reds extended their season-opening unbeaten run with victory over LASK in Austria as Jurgen Klopp’s side began their Europa League season in triumph but another slow start allowed midfielder Florian Flecker to score a brilliant goal from the edge of the penalty area.
As a disjointed Liverpool collapsed before half-time, they came to life again in the second half, with the devastating attack wreaking havoc again and Athletic’s James Pearce heralding the “forces of the recovery”.
Having achieved a similar result last week following a first-half setback against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League, Klopp fielded a much-changed XI in Linz, and it is perhaps understandable that an unknown crop has taken some time to arrive .
In any case, journalist Neil Jones complained about the ‘sloppiness’ of the English team and while a quick brace from Nunez and Luis Diaz turned the tide and substitute Mohamed Salah scored late on (of course), the German manager of club will regret the failure to take control. the initial phase again.
This was particularly exacerbated by the midfielder’s inability to develop composed and consistent patterns of play, and by Wataru Endo, a £16m signing this summer, who failed to produce a confident performance despite his tenacity in defense.
The Japanese captain wasn’t great, but he didn’t take his chance to shine, missing a few simple passes, while only winning one ground duel all night, dribbling once and making just one tackle.
Perhaps it was Ian Doyle of the Liverpool Echo who put it best in his post-match assessments of the players: “He seemed to miss half a yard in the opening exchanges and he gave the ball away too often.
“A difficult night.However, he wasn’t the only one to underperform on Thursday night.
While Endo’s overall quality was at times embarrassingly exposed, it was left-back Kostas Tsimikas who suffered the worst performances from Klopp’s side, with Paul Gorst noting that he did not have his “best hour” in the left channel.
The Greek ace has played second fiddle to Andy Robertson since arriving from Olympiacos for around £12m in 2020, and although he is a creative player with his left foot, producing 12 assists in just 63 appearances, he would be lucky if he had avoided a reprimand.
The 27-year-old actually played the full 90 minutes, making three interceptions and one tackle, but failed to contribute a single key pass and only managed to do so with four of his fourteen long-range passes, without producing anything of significance.
Note.There was a moment, towards the end of the first half, when Liverpool defended a set piece and had a glorious chance to respond.
The ball fell to the defender, who sprinted forward and had enough time to launch a through ball towards Ben Doak or Darwin Nunez – forwards of equal electrical power – but instead was indecisive and was caught in the center outside the field, forcing him to waste. to possess.
That was one of 25 times he gave the ball away, an incredibly high number and truly worrying.
One LFC podcaster even went so far as to describe the 86-touch miss as “disastrous” and while that may seem a bit harsh, it’s fair to say Tsimikas took no pleasure in keeping a game to remember.
Even though he didn’t complete a single successful dribble, it was a pretty dismal performance from the left-back, who earns £50,000-a-week.
Klopp has done little to convince Klopp of his worth and he will be happy that Liverpool’s incisive attack grabbed three points to begin their European journey.
