Blog by dedlfc (David Douglas)
All Liverpool fans thoughts prior to this match in our topsy turvy season were that after beating a top side we continue to follow that up with a draw or defeat against a lower level side and this was to be another test of our top 4 credentials.
In the matchday programme prviewing the visit of Burnley, our captain Henderson
highlighted the excellent and valued performances of both Can and Origi in our 3-1 victory at home
to Arsenal.
The pair, central subjects of criticism for
parts of the season, (as our club’s ambitions slipped disastrously from a potential title challenge to
a top-four chase), proved decisive again.
With none of our immediate rivals playing we had
the perfect opportunity to go 5 points clear of both Arsenal and Man Utd – with
us just 10 games left after this Burnley game.
The team news ahead of the first whistle, as the
rain and wind swirled outside L4, the emphasis wasn’t on the players available,
but those absent through injury.
Henderson, Roberto Firmino, Dejan Lovren, Daniel
Sturridge and Danny Ings were missing from the matchday squad through varying
issues, with Marko Grujic still working his way back to full sharpness.
That left us with a lightweight bench consisting of four teenagers in
Joe Gomez, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ben Woodburn and Harry Wilson - the latter
named in a Premier League squad for the first time.
The anxiety amongst the LFC fans about Origi
playing stems from the fact since his goalscoring run of 5 goals in 5 games earlier
in the season, he has very rarely looked a goal threat.
There were also massive question marks over Can
too; the German locked in a contract impasse with the club, his
performances not consistent nor effective enough to justify the increased
package his camp continuing to request.
The opening plays saw us, showing Burnley too much
respect. We were passive, sluggish and clearly uncomfortable with the
penetrating runs and searching deliveries from the visitors, we looked primed
for punishment.
The lessons from the first game versus Burnley in
August saw Sean Dyche’s men move ahead within two minutes of kick off at Turf
Moor, and they only had to wait another five more minutes before doing the same
here.
A period of pressure, with Andre Gray in particular
twisting the blood of our rearguard of the hosts, resulted in a deserved
opener for the vistors.
Right-back Matt Lowton received possession 35 yards from goal and was
allowed the space and time to curl a splendid ball across the box.
Klavan disappointedly couldn’t clear the ball,
Burnley striker Gray didn’t connect, but Ashley Barnes - under no pressure from
Nathaniel Clyne - stuck out his right foot to beat a diving Simon Mignolet.
And they looked more likely to affect the scoreboard
again with us so off-colour and continuously going either long or wide on
every play, which did little to disorganise Burnley.
At times during the first half, it seemed as though
only Sadio Mane remembered the hosts were in a titanic tussle for Champions
League football.
We just were not creating clear-cut opportunities,
nor did we look like we were capable of asking any questions of Tom Heaton
until just before the interval.
Origi, taunted with chants of ‘you’re not Danny
Ings’ by the away support, crossed from the left for Gini Wijnaldum. The ball hit
the Netherlands international, then Ben Mee, but the midfielder composed
himself excellently and smashed past the keeper from close range.
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| Wijnaldum just after scoring the vital equaliser on the stroke of halftime |
We therefore went into halftime with a vital
equaliser which turned out to be the turning point of this match for us.
It was Origi again who supplied Can on 61 minutes for the winner,
teeing it up for the 23-year-old to take a touch before rifling a pacy low shot
into the bottom-right corner.
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| Can wheels away after scoring the winner vs Burnley |
His knee slide and the unfiltered passion of the
celebration also contained bundles of relief: it hadn’t been an easy afternoon
for the midfielder, let alone season.
In his bid to prove his value to our team, two
decisive displays in succession will serve Can’s cause, but he cannot let up
especially with our captain being unavailable at the moment (Henderson
currently seen on crutches with a potential season ending foot injury).
We have now scored the most goals from outside the box since Klopp took over - with this being our 21st long range goal.
Origi, meanwhile, ended his involvement to
different chants - the home fans singing his name. He received a standing
ovation as well when Lucas replaced him on 79 minutes and was pulled into a
bear hug with his appreciative manager.
Prior to all that, while there were
hands-over-heads looking at our bench, Klopp had enough faith in it to end a
miserable evening for Philippe Coutinho by yanking him on the hour-mark and
throwing on 17-year-old Woodburn.
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| Coutinho not best pleased at being subbed |
As the hosts we had to claw and wrestle for a win. We had to battle and bruise to stop Burnley from leaving Anfield with a triumph
for the first time since Burnley’s Ian Brennan scored the winner vs Bob Paisley’s side in September
1974.
It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t fluid and it was far
from fancy, but even more importantly we made it happen - chiefly through the men considered our misfits (Can and Origi).
We have now equalled our tally of wins [16]
recorded last season with 10 fixtures still to play, while stacking the
pressure on Arsenal and United in the fight for the top four.
For the first time this season we showed that we
were able to win ugly – not play well against a weaker side and still win.
Moving forward that will be the way we will
eventually be good enough to win a league title but for now we have 10 more
games to create a big enough gap to secure the top 4 spot and just hope Man Utd
do not win the Euro League to ultimately thwart us from getting back into the
Champions League.
Liverpool (4-3-3): Mignolet; Clyne, Matip, Klavan, Milner; Can,
Wijnaldum, Lallana; Coutinho (Woodburn 60), Origi (Lucas, 78), Mane
Unused Subs: Karius, Moreno, Wilson, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez
Booked: Can, Lallana
Goals: Wijnaldum 45, Can 61
Manager: Jurgen Klopp
Burnley (4-4-2): Heaton; Lowton, Keane, Mee, Ward; Boyd (Brady 73),
Barton, Hendrick, Arfield (Agyei 90); Barnes, Gray (Vokes 80)
Unused Subs: Westwood, Tarkowski, Robinson, Darikwa
Booked: Mee, Barton
Goal: Barnes 7
Manager: Sean Dyche
Referee: Craig Pawson
Attendance: 53,145
Man of the match: Georginio Wijnaldum – The defining moment of the
game was the equaliser - we scored when we deserved to be behind. It seemed we
were going to struggle to get back into the game without this vital moment.
This potentially could be our biggest goal of the season as this may define the
rest of our season.
My comments on Can - Yes he scored a good and very important goal, but then he did what he does in nearly every game he plays in and added yet another yellow card to his growing collection due to the fact that for some reason he refuses to learn how to tackle properly. His football positioning is not exactly that good either, so perhaps it would be far better for everyone, if he actually learnt how to improve his game before him and his advisors demand such an outrageous and unwarranted wage rise.
Klavan - Was again exposed to the pace of Gray and found wanting especially in the first half - Can was inexplicably assisting Klavan in defending by dropping back to clear headers when Can was supposed to be playing in the defensive midfield role. Klavan defended better in the second half culminating in an excellent block late on stopping a potential shot on goal. He is not the long term answer and therefore Klopp has a lot of work to do this summer.
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| Klopp's comments on our home win vs Burnley |
Manager’s comments:-
"We were obviously not dominant enough to
avoid their gameplan," Klopp admitted afterwards. In the first half, the
ball was always in the air as they wanted, and they were better in the
fight for second balls."
"If we want we stay where we are, we have to
win all kinds of games," agreed the Reds boss. "In average games and
bad games, you still need to be a competitor. It feels good today that we could
do it."
“Can is a player with an outstanding attitude,"
Klopp said of his countryman. "He had a problem with his calf for a few
months, we used a lot of specialists to find out what exactly was wrong.
"We found a solution and he doesn’t have those
problems now. Second half he was really good, but he could have been better
around their goal. These things happen, but he reacted very well and scored a
nice goal."
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