A win in the Merseyside derby was a welcome relief for Anfield but bigger tests loom in the Premier League and Champions League
It may have been a trademark celebration but Jurgen Klopp insisted it was a reluctant one. There were three fist-pumps, in front of the Kop and in time-honoured fashion. There was a self-deprecating response. “I didn’t want to do the fist pumps but you never know when you can do it next,” laughed Klopp: he could not against Brighton or Brentford or Wolves, in some of the worst performances of his reign and what is shaping up as his poorest season in England.
Any victory might have prompted it. That Everton were the losers, that Liverpool played well, that there was a rousing atmosphere helped prompt Klopp to give his public what they wanted. “Whatever the crowd asked me I would have done except for getting rid of my clothes,” he said. “But it should be a thank you for them, not a torture.”
Rather than a naked manager, the firsts were more welcome sights: a first league win in 2023 for Liverpool, a first goal in their colours for Cody Gakpo. Maybe his luck turned after 545 barren minutes with a tap-in. “It was not the most difficult goal he ever scored but exactly the goal every striker dreams of,” Klopp reflected. Maybe Liverpool’s did in the 15-second passage of play when James Tarkowski hit the post at one end and Mohamed Salah scored at the other.
The fist-pump celebration is back, but are Liverpool? Their season has been littered with false dawns, with steps forward that have preceded leaps back, with glimpses of a formula for progress before injuries or poor performances force them to search for another blueprint.
Liverpool had been outstanding in beating Manchester City in October, for instance, but a couple of games later they lost to Nottingham Forest. Back-to-back wins over Napoli and Tottenham suggested a side ready to accelerate after the World Cup, but they then regressed. When they beat Ajax in Amsterdam, they promptly lost to Leeds in Liverpool. Routs of Bournemouth and Rangers indicated an ability to run riot, but they kicked off the Merseyside derby with a lone league goal in 2023.
Two goals from devastating breaks came straight from the Klopp gameplan. “I loved both goals,” said the German. “Two sensational counter-attacks; can you remember the situation when we last had that many options in the counter-attack for a guy who had the ball? I can’t.” An irrepressible Salah and a marauding Nunez offered reminders of their most encouraging autumn displays. Gakpo’s role – “I played more like a false nine – it is another world to what I am used to,” the January signing said – brought echoes of Roberto Firmino’s duties for years; if the tactical dynamic had been altered by using Nunez as a more conventional No 9, now the Uruguayan has adopted Sadio Mane’s old role on the left. That Firmino and Diogo Jota returned as substitutes, three and four months after their previous game respectively, meant Klopp, down to two of his main forwards last month, now has five; yet, in a season of injuries, there have been moments of hope, occasions when they briefly had strength in depth before someone else was sidelined.
It was Thiago Alcantara’s turn on the treatment table. In his absence, and given the myriad of midfield combinations Klopp has tried, perhaps it was only a matter of time before he experimented with Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Stefan Bajectic. It is about as defensive a trio as he can unite but then the classic Klopp midfields – featuring three of Fabinho, Henderson, James Milner and Gini Wijnaldum – were selected for solidity and positional discipline, not flamboyance and flair. Provide the most durable of platforms, however, and there are precedents from the past that show the forwards can then be potent.
Bajcetic was arguably the man of the match; such is Fabinho’s decline that it seems safer to predict excellence from the young Spaniard than the experienced Brazilian in forthcoming weeks. Fabinho’s season has contained occasional impressive displays, such as against City, but they have been outnumbered by underwhelming ones. The captain, meanwhile, earned the sort of compliment that means a lot from Klopp. “Hendo was a one-man pressing machine,” he said.
A clean sheet against Everton’s powder-puff attack, shorn of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and only secured by the inches that prevented Tarkowski’s header from crossing the line, nevertheless brought improvement from Joe Gomez and Joel Matip, who were largely untroubled after wretched displays at Wolves. Yet the most auspicious element may have been the sight of a fit-again Virgil van Dijk on the bench. With Newcastle and Real Madrid next, he has to be parachuted back into the team despite what Klopp called “the performance for the full 96 minutes was the best I can remember for a while”.
Which was praise and indictment at the same time. The recent memories are of defeat and disappointment. A team who were a byword for consistency have been alarmingly inconsistent this season. The fist-bump celebration may be seen at St James’ Park or against the Champions League holders. But, as Klopp accepted, he can’t yet be sure.
