A 2-0 win at Anfield was exactly the response Jurgen Klopp will have been looking for from his Liverpool side after falling short of mounting a terrific comeback victory against Brighton at the start of October.
There will be concerns that this is merely another false dawn for the Merseysiders ahead of a meeting with in-form Premier League outfit Arsenal, though that shouldn’t take away from the impact the ex-Mainz head coach’s changes delivered.
One player that seemed to benefit in particular was his skipper, Jordan Henderson, who helped a two-man midfield dominate the middle of the park and exert control.
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The England international recorded the highest passing percentage of the night for Liverpool at 94% and made two key passes – one of which was a sumptuous ball played over the top to Darwin Nunez that should really have resulted in an assist being added to his stat sheet.
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It’s testament to the 32-year-old’s immediate improvement, not to mention the support Thiago Alcantara provided, that Fabinho’s absence wasn’t really felt against Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s outfit.
Admittedly, the Brazilian international has been far from at his best for us when he has featured this season, though a ground duel win rate of 75% (from four), according to Sofascore, represents a step in the right direction for our No.14 after registering a 33% success rate in the prior fixture.
The temptation for some will be for Klopp to return to a three-man midfield for the visit to the Emirates Stadium – on the basis of our performance against the Scots, we shouldn’t.
Meanwhile, Henderson has proven he can be relied upon to protect the backline in a two-man midfield.