Philippe Coutinho’s brilliant late goal secured all three points for Liverpool today, giving us the perfect start to the new Premier League season at the Britannia Stadium.
For Brendan Rodgers’ side, it was redemption after the 6-1 thrashing we received at the hands of Stoke on the final day of last season, and a much-needed statement about the qualities of our new-look squad.
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Here are five things we learned from the game:
5) We lack another natural wide-player
At the risk of starting things off on a sour note, one thing that disappointed us today was the performance of Adam Lallana. This wasn’t necessarily his fault either, it was more of a positional thing, something which has to change.
Out on right hand-side, Jordon Ibe was hugging the touchline and occasionally cutting in, causing plenty of problems until Stoke began to leave a couple of men on him. In contrast, Lallana was too often found playing in a central position, with him and Coutinho falling over each other in the number ten role. Considering that we had Glen Johnson up against us at Stoke’s right-back, it’s astonishing that we did not test him more down that side.
4) Emre Can has an important role to play this year
Where Brendan Rodgers did get it right today was with his substitutions. Bringing on Emre Can was a real game changer. We certainly didn’t look likely to lose the game from that moment on – something which looked a real possibility for a period either side of half-time.
The German offers something unlike anything any other member of the squad can do. He’s a big, physical presence, who is both strong an quick. He gets about the opposition players, disrupts the course of their attacks, and always has that capability to pick up the ball and stride forward.
It was a subtle change in formation, but it worked. Having started with a 4-2-3-1, the introduction of Can saw us move to 4-3-3. With Coutinho, and later Firmino, playing behind Benteke, there was a lot more fluidity of movement, something which eventually proved too much for Stoke to handle – with the former afforded all the time in the world to get his shot off for the winning goal.
3) Brendan Rodgers wants more variety
There was an interesting tactical tweak today as well. There was far more variety in our distribution from the back. Whereas usually we would go short and roll it out to one of the full-backs, today we mixed it up, with a lot of balls going long up towards Benteke. The big Belgian won a lot of the long stuff in the air as well, although many supporters were predictably unhappy about this tactic being repeated time and again.
It’s good to have the option certainly, but we mustn’t become totally reliant on it, as we did at times today. It all got very obvious at times against Stoke, with Mignolet killing the ball and waiting for his target to make a move.
2) It doesn’t matter how old you are, if you’re ready
Joe Gomez had a couple of nervy moments today. There was one particularly rushed pass that he managed to send rolling back across his own penalty area and we were lucky that his error wasn’t pounced upon. However, for the most part, he did well. Considering this kid is just 18 and was making his Premier League debut today, it was truly an outstanding effort, and one that puts Alberto Moreno to shame – he’s had a year to adjust and still makes mistakes like that.
The Britannia Stadium can’t be a nice place to go first up and he dealt with it in a thoroughly professional manner. We’d be more than happy to see him keep his place against Bournemouth next time out.
1) The new signings have improved us all over the pitch
It was so much better than our last visit to Stoke. It was hard to believe it was still the same team. Of course, for the most part, it wasn’t. There were four new signings in from the start today and they all worked hard for us.
We’ve already spoken about Gomez, who looked decent on his Premier League debut. On the opposite flank, Nathaniel Clyne looked dangerous, and just what we’ve been crying out for from a right-back. He was solid in both an attacking and a defensive sense and was always up in support of Ibe. Benteke ran his heart out up front, competed for everything, and always gave the defenders something to think about. He might have been a little quiet, but he was that presence that we were missing last season. And a special mention must go to James Milner, who was everywhere today and actually made several crucial interventions when tracking back.
For a first game of the season, there were a lot of positives to take from today.
