Jurgen Klopp was fortunate to avoid being struck by a thrown bottle from behind Liverpool’s technical area after an Everton fan reacted poorly to VAR disallowing Conor Coady’s opener at Goodison Park.
Matters were hardly helped either by a pitch invasion from one disgruntled Everton fan who confronted Anthony Taylor following the overturning of the ex-Red’s goal, with both instances reported by Ian Parker on Twitter.
After VAR ruled out Coady's strike, it appears a bottle was thrown from behind the benches, narrowly missing Jurgen Klopp, while another fan ran on from the Gwladys Street End to confront Anthony Taylor#EVELIV
— Ian Parker (@iparkysport) September 3, 2022
It’s been a mixed bag as far as individual performances are concerned with the heroic goalkeeping of Jordan Pickford and Alisson Becker helping to keep the game level.
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Whilst we can understand emotions running high in a derby, there’s simply no excuse for the antics of a minority of Everton fans – particularly as far as projectile throwing is concerned, in an incident that could have brought harm to Klopp.
A switch to a 4-2-3-1, after Fabio Carvalho was swapped out for Bobby Firmino at the half-time break, appeared to initially work well for Liverpool who had suffered at the hands of their opponents quick counter-attacks.
Whilst alarm bells won’t necessarily be ringing for the German tactician should the tie end goalless (as expected), it will certainly have our coaching staff scratching their heads at how best to get our attacking options functioning well together after a particularly dysfunctional start to proceedings in the first-half.
#Ep58 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: Rating Liverpool’s UCL group, making a new signing… & more!