Four months after Jurgen Klopp was closing in on the quadruple, he has a less prestigious quartet. The German remains unbeaten at Goodison Park but a fourth goalless draw across Stanley Park of his reign meant that, winless as they remain, Everton emerged with more credit from the 241st Merseyside derby than Liverpool.
A game of 36 shots was far more dramatic than the scoreline suggested. It had everything but the goal, with one disallowed, the woodwork rattled four times and a quite brilliant performance by Jordan Pickford. His meetings with Liverpool have featured harrowing errors and a terrible injury to Virgil van Dijk. This time Pickford traded the role of villain for that of hero, with an extraordinary save from Darwin Nunez, a very fine one from Roberto Firmino and an invaluable injury-time stop to thwart Mohamed Salah, while the Dutchman may have been fortunate to avoid a red card for a challenge on Amadou Onana. If controversy can be a constant in such fixtures, along with an Everton wait for a home win that now dates back to 2010, Liverpool could be concerned by more recent trends.
Nine points have escaped their grasp already this season and, while they mounted a second-half onslaught, a new habit of slow starts is impeding them. At least this time they avoided conceding the first goal in a game, albeit because there were none.
All of which felt surprising given both the quantity and quality of efforts. The goalkeeper and the frame of the goal teamed up to deny Liverpool in a remarkable few seconds. Nunez latched on to Joe Gomez’s long pass to unleash a half-volley Pickford superbly tipped onto the bar. Luis Diaz collected the loose ball and curled a shot against the post.
Perhaps it was inevitable it would not be a quiet return for Nunez. Klopp trusted in his temperament and brought the Uruguayan straight back in after his suspension for his assault on Joachim Andersen. His prominence here came for different reasons, with one shot miscued wide and a volley drilled at Pickford, while he found a more conventional use for his head, though efforts from crosses by Trent Alexander-Arnold and Salah were headed wide and over respectively. Ultimately, however, he proved neither destructive nor self-destructive.
The trade-off from his comeback was that Firmino was benched. Given the Brazilian’s huge influence in his absence and in the second half, that may have been a mistake. Klopp is no stranger to rest and rotation in the derby; he trusted in youth by giving Fabio Carvalho a first Premier League start. The experiment only lasted 45 minutes in which Liverpool lacked fluency before Firmino was summoned in a switch to four forwards.
The Brazilian had three goals in his two previous games and could have had a hat-trick. Pickford denied him on each occasion, clawing away a shot bound for the corner, making a point-blank save from a header and parrying a late effort. Pickford was not finished: tipping Salah’s stoppage-time shot onto the near post preserved a point. And if he had allies in procuring it, with James Tarkowski, Onana and Demarai Gray all terrific and Everton spirited throughout, his was still a wonderful display.
The goalkeeping excellence was not confined to the Englishman. Alisson did superbly to turn the substitute Dwight McNeil’s deflected shot over the bar as Klopp’s tactical changes made Liverpool more open to being counterattacked.
Everton’s threat preceded that, however, and they were the first to strike wood. Both managers made telling striking decisions and Frank Lampard parachuted Neal Maupay in for a debut that had been delayed by a bank holiday. The Frenchman’s movement was a sign he was intent on making up for lost time. He dragged a shot wide when fed by Gray. His presence, challenging Van Dijk, was a factor when Tom Davies prodded a shot against the outside of the post.
Maupay brought a brightness and showed what Everton were lacking in their starts without a striker. He seemed like Salomon Rondon with a third, fourth and fifth gear. Yet the criticism that accompanied him across three years at Brighton was that he missed too many golden chances and when the livewire Gray ran half the length of the field to pick him out, his shot was directed too close to Alisson.
Another Maupay shot, struck from an acute angle, was not going in until Conor Coady applied a touch and celebrated with such fervour it was easy to forget he is a former Liverpool player. A couple of minutes and a VAR review later, the goal was chalked off, the Merseysider deemed fractionally offside. Coady was a rare boyhood Liverpool fan to be deflated by it. The majority could rue the result and the defiance of Pickford.
