Manchester City’s double point lead at the top of the Premier League is in danger of being cut to three points after Liverpool bear Norwich 3-1 at Anfield on Saturday.
As we saw at the San Siro in midweek, this Liverpool team’s experience and poise allows Jurgen Klopp’s side to weather the storm during a match when they are not playing well and under pressure.
In midweek they went to the champions of Italy, soaked up inevitable pressure and just waited to strike. On Saturday they clawed a game back and hammered around 30 shots at goal before full-time came around. Dogged, resilient or scintillating, Klopp has built a side that can win so many ways.
And in Klopp, they have a manager who can influence the game from the touchline. It was his changes not the hour that turned the game against Norwich, who could not adjust to the extra attacking body on the pitch and by the time they had worked out their new environment they’d gone from leading to chasing.
Speaking to Match of the Day after the win Klopp spoke about that tactical change saying:
“It’s a coaching team effort. We bring the boys on but change the system as well. It’s absolutely necessary in a moment like this you throw all the knowledge you have together.
“The 4-4-2 gave them a proper challenge to deal with. All of a sudden we had better positions and were a proper threat.”
“It had its moments, the longer the game went on the more I could enjoy it, obviously. A week or go when we played at Burnley, they give you a proper fight and over the years you learn to deal with these situations, again today. Norwich have a very different style but played a proper game, defended deep, had their counter attacks, made it really tricky for us.
“We had moments and then the game can look completely different, then a deflected ball can be pretty decisive, but these boys just don’t give up, we could help from the bench, bringing really good players on and that was like three days ago the game changer.”
Liverpool Stats
Liverpool have now scored 100 goals in 39 matches in all competitions this season, becoming the first Premier League club to reach that total in 2021-22. The Reds had scored 97 goals in 53 matches in the whole of last season.
This game was the 30th time that both Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane scored in the same Premier League match for Liverpool – the most of any pair of players for a side in the competition’s history. Buddie
