Liverpool’s lurid, garish neon kit may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but on Wednesday night in the north-east of England, they were the robes of victors. After the game, which ended in a 0-3 win for the Reds, the players could be spotted flinging their shirts to the travelling supporters.
There were not many degrees of separation between the shirts of the Liverpool players and the jackets of the stewards who separated them from the fans in the stand, but they must have looked the most desirable outfits in the world to the travelling match-goers.
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Liverpool had come to the Riverside Stadium on the back of two poor results, hoping to restore themselves to their pre-Bournemouth form, and followed a customary pattern of dominating possession and pressure in search of goals. For 45 minutes, though, Middlesbrough had at least one foot in the game.
Once the game restarted, however, Liverpool were irresistible. Divock Origi doubled his side’s lead on the hour, while Adam Lallana could delight in his second goal of the night eight minutes later. In a game where the buildup had featured the Liverpool defence and the now-deposed German goalkeeper Loris Karius in great proportion, the Reds’ prolific attack stole the show once again, taking the season’s tally to two-score goals from sixteen games and boosting the Merseysiders to second place in the table.
Revenge and rowdiness at Riverside
In truth, Liverpool’s infamous defeat at the Riverside Stadium in February 2009 barely figured in the consciousness – not, at least, when news came in that Simon Mignolet replaced Karius in goal.
Klopp – who, along with Karius, has filled the quiet period between games defending his choices against the Neville brothers with sometimes brutal indifference – was quick to justify the dropping of the £4.7 million summer signing as motivated by concern for the pressure on the goalkeeper. He also emphasised the chance it represented for Mignolet.
It may or may not have been fair to drop Mignolet in the first place – that is a discussion for another day – but the Belgian did just enough against Middlesbrough, helped partly by the fact that he didn’t have that much to do. Lining up in a 4-3-3 with the ball, Middlesbrough compressed into a 4-5-1 – sometimes a 5-4-1 – like a hydraulic spring when not in possession.
The central zone of the pitch, some 25-30 from the Boro goal, was clogged with red shirts. The difference here, as compared to, say, the visit to Chelsea earlier in the season, was that the home side pressed through the middle, leaving the four Liverpool attackers surrounded.
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The visitors’ normal 4-3-3 had to seek the wings, instead, for inspiration. With only Alvaro Negredo not pressing behind the ball, this was at times easier said than done. Nathaniel Clyne found a brief flicker of a moment when he found space on the right, but his cross could not find his man. Still, though, it was a sign.
As they have, Liverpool began to switch play from flank to flank. This move found reward just short of the half-hour mark when, with play building on the left, Georginio Wijnaldum released Clyne on the right in vast space. The right-back pitched his cross and found Lallana, whose propensity for picking gaps has been missed, to finish at the far post.
Middlesbrough came close to equalising almost immediately. Mignolet did well to stop Viktor Fischer at his near post, but it also highlighted Boro’s chosen form of attack. The home side seemingly lost interest in playing through the middle and sought entirely to open the wings themselves.
James Milner was caught wrong-footed at times, and Fábio attempted an ambitious shot in the first half, but Sadio Mané came agonisingly close to making it 0-2 when a smart counter attack led to a through ball from Origi which Mané had only to finish. It hit the foot of the post.
A class apart
If Liverpool were fair in the first half, then they were superb in the second. The results against Bournemouth and West Ham, poor as they may have been, were not cause for any serious alarm given Liverpool still lay third in the table and Manchester City lost to Leicester on the weekend. This game against Middlesbrough, though, suddenly assumed greater significance; more dropped points here, and there would be a cause for genuine concern.
Mané, however, was one of the players who ensured that didn’t happen. Running, pressing and probing, the Senegalese gave Liverpool's attacks a direct, piercing quality. The one in the sixtieth minute began when Lallana’s pressing forced a turnover of possession inside the Boro half.
It ended seventeen seconds later, with the ball in the back of the net, Mané’s touch allowing Wijnaldum to set up Lallana for the assist. Origi, switched to the left after the break as Roberto Firmino was being crowded out, was on hand to finish a wonderful, smooth team move for 0-2.
Lallana’s second goal was of comparable verve and style. Origi and Mané dovetailed beautifully here, openings squares and lanes of space on the right. The former’s low, swerving cross eluded the sliding Middlesbrough defenders before the Englishman flew in, unmarked, at the back post to seal a sweet 0-3 win.
It was triumph for Klopp. Gegenpressing might be the buzzword associated with the Liverpool boss, but this was a display of silky attacking football matched by clever pressing high up the field, switching attacks from side to side. It was also a successful day for Origi - his fifth goal in five games, and Liverpool now seemingly have another option to lead the line.
The Merseyside Derby beckons
One cannot ignore, of course, the supposedly much vaunted clean sheet, which was Liverpool’s fourth of the season. It appears deceptively simple that ‘Karius out, Mignolet in’ equals clean sheet, because there are other factors at play here. A non-sequitur to the clean sheet is television camera’s focus on Joël Matip in the stands, missing through injury – the first clean sheet Liverpool have kept without him.
The replacement of Lucas with a more natural, assured defender in Ragnar Klavan is not to be missed. Neither is the fact that Middlesbrough are the division’s lowest scorers.
Klopp’s comments suggest that there is no reason either to doubt Mignolet’s place in the team for Monday’s derby against Everton. It is a weekend where Manchester City play Arsenal on Sunday, and there is the possibility of serious gains to be made, the knowledge of which will be clear to Liverpool by the time their game against the Toffees kicks off.
One thing is certain, though. With Phil Jagielka suspended, don’t expect any last-minute screamers leaving his boot this time.
