Jurgen Klopp was left burying his hands in his head inside the first few minutes of Liverpool’s clash against Burnley this evening.
Despite the Reds taking just five minutes to break the deadlock through Darwin Nunez, they passed up more than one opportunity in the opening quarter-hour to add to that lead.
One such moment in the 11th minute saw Cody Gakpo firing a shot off target after a typically pinpoint Trent Alexander-Arnold pass, the Dutchman squandering a fine chance to put his team into a more comfortable position, much to his manager’s despair.
BBC reporter Shamoon Hafez posted on the broadcaster’s website in response to that moment: “Liverpool should already be out of sight here. Jurgen Klopp, on the touchline, had his face in his hands after that Cody Gakpo miss. Burnley are being sliced to shreds in the opening of this game.”
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Liverpool’s forwards have come in for criticism over their reduced scoring output in recent weeks, and misses such as the one from Gakpo won’t help matters. Those are chances that the 24-year-old simply must pounce upon, and he knows he’s capable of doing far better.
The hope is that, at the time of writing, the Reds won’t come to regret not making more of their dominance in the opening quarter at Turf Moor, at which juncture they had eight shots to Burnley’s two (Sofascore).
The Dutchman showed in the Carabao Cup win over West Ham last week that he’s well able to conjure fine finishes, and hopefully he can put that early miss out of his mind by making the most of the next big chance which comes his way, duly building upon it over the next few games as well.
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