Sometimes a lot of things haven’t gone Liverpool’s way recently in games. At Wolves, there were a couple of little sticky goals which might not have happened before.
Against Newcastle, in the first 10 minutes they had two chances before Liverpool got the first goal. They were good chances, but Alisson Becker has been brilliant, and they didn’t take them.
Liverpool get two chances and take them, and then Nick Pope makes a mistake for Newcastle by getting sent off. Things went for us a little bit, with them being down to 10 men.
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Another thing is I was a bit disappointed with how Liverpool played against 10 men. Made up with the result, everything is great with the two good goals.
But with 10 men, the game plan was okay, but Newcastle had another three really good chances despite having a player sent off. We should have done better, but that’s being hyper-critical.
When you’re playing 11 vs 11 against Real Madrid or Crystal Palace, it will be difficult. But I understand some players are coming back from injury and may be a bit rusty, Virgil van Dijk has been out for six weeks for example, and his presence made a big difference.
We still have to defend. We can’t keep on relying on our best player of the season in Alisson to keep on having to make saves like he had to, so we have to defend better.
That is being a bit negative, sometimes you win you have to make sure you do the right things. Stop conceding goals, stop conceding big chances, and once Liverpool get the players back from injury up front then we will be sharper.
Cody Gakpo gaining in confidence
I think Cody Gakpo was maybe a little overawed when he first arrived at Liverpool. Maybe he couldn’t settle with being in new surroundings, and you’ve got to get used to things.
Some people take that in their stride, with the magnitude of playing for Liverpool. We’ve got loads of injuries, as well.
All of a sudden you’ve got players coming back from injury who are first team players. Strikers coming back like Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz will compliment the others.
Gakpo has gone through the rough part and he’s come out of it now, hopefully. Two goals in two games, and we’re starting to see a bit of confidence coming back.
I think you lack a bit of confidence sometimes, and that will come back when he’s got these other players around him. He took his goal really well, and from what it looks to me like Jurgen Klopp is trying to show him the Roberto Firmino role.
He is dropping back deep and holding the ball up. He’s not in the same bracket as Firmino and doing that at this moment in time, but I think the manager is seeing potential there and he might be able to play on the left or through the middle.
Stick with same players - and keep others hungry to play
If Darwin Nunez is fit then you keep the other forwards chomping at the bit. Because you know that when they come on, they will want to prove their value and that they’re worthy of a first-team place. That’s the way it should be.
Then you see players going through a brick wall because they want to play, score goals and be in the first-team.
That’s an ideal situation which Liverpool haven’t had. We haven’t had all six options available much this season.
If you look at the goal scoring ratio this season, it’s the worst it’s been for a long, long time. That comes down to a lack of firepower, as well as midfield.
The creativity has not been great, and the team has been suffering from a lack of confidence. But if that comes back then all of a sudden it just grows and grows.
That’s what Liverpool hope, to go on a run of a couple of months without defeat. That will improve the chances of getting into the top four and progress in the Champions League.
Scoring goals will help that, and it will take the pressure away from the defence. It’s not good conceding goals, but if you’ve got the six forwards that Liverpool have then they should be scoring two goals a game.
As long as you’ve got the right supply, we should be scoring two goals a game. Because we’ve got some very good forwards.
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