Liverpool beat Bordeaux 2-1 in the Europa League last night, coming from a goal behind to defeat the French and qualify from Group B into the Last 32.
It was an interesting night at Anfield, which ultimately should be remembered for the win and not Mignolet’s blunder.
But his mind-wobble still makes our list!
1) Roberto Firmino needs Coutinho buzzing around alongside him…
Firmino started in a free role at no.10 behind Christian Benteke, but failed to put in anything like the performance he gave us at the Etihad. He didn’t link up well with Jordon Ibe or the giant forward, and instead was sloppy in possession, although his movement was impressive. Firmino notably missed the cleverness and intricacy of Coutinho, who’ll hopefully be back for Sunday. Simply, nobody was on Firmino’s wavelength last night.
SEE MORE:
Klopp trolls Mignolet with brilliant post-match joke
Liverpool player ratings v Bordeaux – Benteke scores and has two disallowed in 2-1 win
2) Bruce Grobbelaar might just have a point regarding Simon Mignolet…
The Zimbabwean stopper slammed Mignolet before the game and our no.1 went and proved him right after 30 minutes of the game. The Belgian unfathomably held onto the ball for 22 seconds, rightly seeing the referee blow up and award an indirect free-kick. Bordeaux scored, and the internet lost its mind. What’s worse is that Mignolet is a confidence keeper. Very good when good, very bad when bad. Let’s hope he can put it behind him, until January at least…
3) Christian Benteke is very dangerous, talented and powerful, but remains an enigma…
A thumping goal, a dangerous aerial presence and two more efforts disallowed. Benteke offered us his best last night, and it won us the game – but Liverpool – on the whole – were poor. We lacked pace in the counter-attack, clever one-twos around the area. While Benteke seems a brilliant squad option, it looks as though his style probably doesn’t complement our playmakers. There’s no chemistry with Firmino, and he feeds mainly off crosses instead. Will the £32.5m striker only ever be a ‘Plan B’ in the long term, or can he adapt and fit into the kind of swashbuckling Liverpool attack we saw against Manchester City?
4) Anfield did its best to impress Klopp, but the team need to give more at home…
Anfield was arguably the noisiest it’s been since Klopp’s arrival. Few fans left before the end, and the manager apologised for his comments regarding the matter in his programme notes. It wasn’t a ferocious atmosphere, but improved on some of the stale offerings we’ve seen so far in 2015/16. It lacked aesthetically as the Spion Kop 1906 group, who fly flags on the Kop, are still rowing with the club. The sooner that gets fixed the better. Still, we need a real dynamic, all-action home performance under Klopp to get the crowd going. If we can do it at Stamford Bridge and the Etihad, we can do it an Anfield! Saying that, we’d take a scrappy 2-1 win at Swansea on Sunday.
5) More and more fans are now turning on perpetually injured Daniel Sturridge…
Can you ever be annoyed at a player getting injured? Probably not – but with Sturridge, there seems to be something going on behind the scenes. It just doesn’t make sense. Nobody can be that unlucky; and he’s not actually made of glass with biscuit legs – he’s a professional athlete. Is it mental? It would be wrong to claim either way, but the striker only ever gets injured in training. He doesn’t hobble off after nasty challenges during matches – which would garner sympathy among supporters. Are Liverpool players really putting strong, injury inducing challenges in on him during training sessions? We doubt it. What’s happening?! As it is, Twitter turned on the forward last night, who went for a scan on his foot after complaining of discomfort. If this injury keeps him out for a period of time, it could be right to cut our losses.
