Jurgen Klopp delivered a statement of intent for once without muttering a word by choosing what be considered a full strength line-up from those available with the likes of Benteke, Firmino, Lucas and Ibe on the bench.
Noticeable was John W Henry, Tom Werner and Mike Gordon in attendance on Klopp’s home debut.
The resounding sound of the You’ll Never Walk Alone bounced around the old stadium as if it was an attempt by the the Anfield faithful to show their new master The Kop could be a cauldron of noise to rival if not surpass Dortmund’s fantastic Yellow Wall.
Liverpool started with the standard Klopp fast tempo, although without the pressing element, looking especially sharp down the right with Lallana, Milner and Clyne showing up well. Emre Can came close early on striding forward before seeing a measured shot on the run brush the side netting.
Against the run and play and against the script we’d all imagined, Devic cushioned on his chest a superb floated cross before holding off Clyne, caught out on the wrong side, before delicately placing a half-volley into the far corner. Simply a stunning finish.
Lallana, Liverpool’s main source of creativity, pulled a right-footed shot just past the post before seeing his flicked header land on the roof of the net from a Coutinho free-kick. Coutinho intercepted a wayward pass before running and twisting past the defender only to drag his left-foot shot wide.
Although dominating play Liverpool as has been the way of late lacked a cutting edge with the creative players unable to provide decent service for Origi. For all the possession, Liverpool were nearly made made to play, but for a superb instinctive save from Mignolet tipping the ball over after Georgiev chested down the cross and volleyed on the turn from 10 yards.
Rubin Kazan’s captain Kuzmin in a moment of madness brought Liverpool back into the game with the midfielder running up a cul-de-sac with nowhere to go, deciding to haul him down.
Liverpool immediately gained parity from the free-kick with Coutinho’s ball to the back post impressively headed back across the goal by Origi for Can to mop up by sliding home.
Coutinho again came close dragging another shot wide from Origi’s pass back.
It was a half where we enjoyed plenty of possession, but struggled to fashioned out quality service and the narrowness of play going forward made the play rather predictable with most of the attacks coming down the right.
Worryingly, we were lucky not to have gone in behind through poor lapses of concentration and poor defending by Clyne and Can, respectively.
With defensive responsibility in mind Lucas replaced Joe Allen for the second-half.
The inertia in the final the first ten minutes with Liverpool struggled to unlock a Ruben Kazan defence camped on the 18-yard box with intricately pass our way through. Clyne, almost found a way through after a one-two with Lallana slicing through before seeing his attempt to cross blocked with Origi waiting in vain.
Benteke replaced Coutinho just after the hour mark and while the little maestro has not been at his impish best it could just have easily been any member of the Liverpool midfield who had thus far been part of an average performance. That said, there were now two strikers up top.
Perhaps for the first time in open play a Liverpool player in the shape of Clyne whipped in a beautiful cross only for Benteke to show his ring rust in volleying over from close range.
A great attacking move involving Lallana found it’s way to Benteke whose measured shot hit the base of the post. The resulting corner found saw Lallana’s volley well saved by the sprawling Ryzhikov.
If Portnyagin had caught his header flush from with 15 minutes to go given our performance in the last third a lost would have been on the cards.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and as the manager as the manager stated, the decision making process in the last third wasn’t up to scratch and 21 shots outside the box lays testimony to that.
There were always going to be teething problems going forward, but we have the right man at the helm to steady the ship.
Man of the match: Adam Lallana – the best of a bad bunch on an average night.
Liverpool:
22 Mignolet, 2, Clyne, 37 Skrtel, 17 Sakho, 18 Moreno, 7 Milner, 24 Allen (Lucas – 45 minutes), 23 Can, 20 Lallana, 27 Origi (Firmino – 74 minutes), 10 Coutinho (Benteke – 63 minutes)
Substitutes: 4 K Toure, 9 Benteke, 11 Firmino, 21 Lucas, 33 Lucas, 34 Bogdan, 56 Randall
Rubin Kazan:
1 Ryzkikov, 2 Kuzmin, 5 Kverkvelia, 88 Kambolov, 3 Nabiullin, 27 Ozdoev, 77 Georgiev, 99 Kanunnikov, 10 Marques (Portnyagin – 64 minutes), 61 Karadeniz (Dyadyun – 81 minutes), 11 Devic (Cotugo – 45 minutes)
Substitutes: 4 Lemos, 7 Portyagin, 13 Haghighi, 14 Bilyaletdinov, 21 Cotugono, 22 Dyadyun, 85 Akhmetov
Referee: Robert Schorgenhofer
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