Firmino scores two as champions are put to the sword

It is becoming a habit around Anfield: this defeat of Leicester City meant that over the past nine seasons, Liverpool have won six and drawn three of their home encounters with the previous year’s league winners.

Not that it is a statistic likely to feature high up in the club’s list of distinctions. What the fans would much prefer is, rather than regularly debunking the title holders,

Liverpool were winning the thing themselves. Which is why this freewheeling attacking performance against a defence that was almost unbreachable last term will have sent so many home delighted: there were elements within in it that suggested that at last hope is appearing on the horizon.

It might have been played in a warm glow of evening sunshine, but what this game represented was a new dawn at Liverpool. The sparkling grandstand that towers over Stanley Park was for the first time filled with supporters. Outside before the game everyone was enthusing about its scale, its comfort, about how it spoke of the club’s ambition.

Though what mattered more to the 20,500 fans luxuriating in the new edifice was not so much the speed of service at the refreshment outlets or the wide open spaces of the toilet facilities. It was the ability of Jurgen Klopp’s new Liverpool team to match their surroundings. Leicester, the champions of England, were there to provide the most telling measure of progress.

“It’s a really exciting moment,” said Jurgen Klopp “But we knew we had to do the job today. Against a strong opponent, it’s our job to prove we are as strong as I think we are.”

The good news for those filling the vertiginous superstructure was Klopp’s refashioned side started as if determined to mirror the expansive architectural developments.

Within moments of the kick off Nathaniel Clyne was enjoying even more space down the right wing than the owner John Henry and his guests were in the new directors’ box. He, Adam Lallana and the excellent Saido Mane were soon tearing sizeable holes in the Leicester back line.

The first suggestion of goal threat was not long in coming: James Milner played the ball in from the left, Daniel Sturridge fed the Leicester defence an outrageous dummy, Lallana played him back in and the redoubtable Wes Morgan was obliged to scramble clear as Sturridge shaped to shoot.

But it was on 13 minutes that the new stand’s ability properly to project the noise of the crowd was given its first substantial test.

Picking the ball up in defence, Lucas strode forward and passed to Milner. As Sturridge ran across on a decoy gallop, the England man played in Roberto Firmino. He stepped inside, sent Robert Huth sprawling and finished beautifully past Kasper Schmeichel. It was a delightful goal, a perfect example of how Klopp wants his Liverpool to play: quick, clever but most importantly, efficient.

And on half an hour came real demonstration of their control. Sturridge went galloping on to Henderson’s through ball, Danny Simpson ran across in the attempt to block, and the England man back heeled the most delightful invitation to Mane, which – to Klopp’s evident pleasure – the Senegalese international clipped over the advancing Schmeichel. Simpson hurt more than his pride in the tussle and, after limping to the touchline, was replaced by Luis Hernandez.

A huge mix of expectation, possibility and hope now roared out of the new stand. But Leicester didn’t win the championship by folding. And if the first goal had provided dividend from Klopp’s decision to field a defence largely made up of midfielders, just before half time the emergency centre-back Lucas showed that experienced defenders have their purpose.

He sent a misguided square ball beyond Simon Mignolet straight into the path of Jamie Vardy, who only had to side-foot the gift into the net.

Panic suddenly began to inform Liverpool’s play. Mignolet gave the ball away moments later. Leicester attacked again and Huth headed against the bar from Hernandez’s long throw.

Jitters began to echo through the new stand. With Drinkwater increasingly breaking up the home attacks, Leicester were only another error from getting back in the game. Liverpool’s nerves were not helped when Mignolet collided with Huth. There was only ever going to be one winner from such a square-up, which left the Belgian bleeding profusely from the nose.

But then Liverpool once more located the wherewithal to seize the ascendant. Giorginio Wijnaldum took the ball on the edge of the area, stopped, changed direction and passed to Lallana who swept a glorious rising shot past Schmeichel. Mane and Sturridge then both went close, before Firmino added a late fourth after Mane had left Schmiechel, attempting to play the sweeper keeper, marooned near the halfway line.

“When we are good we are really good,” said Klopp. “When we had problems we could not always to perform. This is the challenge not only for today but for the whole season.”

What the manager was keen to communicate, not least in his furious reaction when the fans chanted his name long before victory was assured (“it’s like celebrating a penalty before you’ve scored” he complained) was that his Liverpool remain a work in progress. But at least what they proved against the champions is that, at the new Anfield, progress is not restricted to the architecture.

Source: Telegraph

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