For the first time in two-and-a-half weeks, Jurgen Klopp picked up his pace, turned his right hand, made a small jump and hit the air 3 times amid shouts of cheers.
The last 4 rounds of Klopp’s farewell excursion had been celebrated, with his team’s ambitions suffering a series of upheavals. But this time he left satisfied and the blows returned, a sign that Liverpool had returned to their rhythm and were still alive in this Premier League. Race for the name of the league.
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In a 3-1 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage, Liverpool scored 74 points against leaders Arsenal, one ahead of champions Manchester City, who have a game in hand. The first two have to extend that lead: Arsenal at home to Chelsea. On Tuesday night, Liverpool visit Everton 24 hours later, before City play again at Brighton.
“An attractive race,” he said afterwards Klopp. No there was any grandstanding on Klopp’s part. He spoke quietly about his desire to take care of his own business, “try to win as many games as possible” and hope to get help from elsewhere.
For months now, a sense of drama has reigned around Klopp’s team: wild and chaotic matches, both against Manchester United at Old Trafford (4-3 defeat in the FA Cup quarter-finals and 2-2 draw in the Premier League). But it’s the kind of controlled, serene Liverpool functionality that has been rare in recent times. At this level of the race, when tensions and nerves flare, composure is essential.
The same applies to individual quality. Liverpool had already shown enough in recent weeks; Too many scoring opportunities were wasted or exploited.
And then Trent Alexander-Arnold stepped in in the 32nd minute against Fulham and fired a superb free-kick past Bernd Leno’s outstretched palm and just wide of the post. It makes a big difference when you have a player who can do that.
Opta measured Liverpool’s expected goals (xG) price for the match as a total of exactly 1. 00, by far their lowest point in 17 matches in all competitions since the 3-1 defeat to Arsenal in early February. Free kick, it’s as if every inmate at Craven Cottage knows exactly what’s going to happen next. It’s an expected purpose of a different kind.
Alexander-Arnold had a wonderful season before he was injured in January. In his absence, his young assistant Conor Bradley has made very good contributions, but Alexander-Arnold’s passes, crosses and (less often) shots bring another size to this Liverpool team. .
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“It’s very important,” Klopp said of his vice-captain’s return. “But, for example, one of the shooting stars this season is Conor Bradley, who’s been at the position and played some games where we were all like, ‘Oh, wow. ‘ What was that?!’No one is like Trent. La way we play with him can be different, so yes, he’s super useful and I’m pleased with him.
Klopp was satisfied with a lot of things. But essentially, it all boiled down to three: take the game, take risks when you’re in an upward position, and stay there afterward.
If Liverpool had done this in recent weeks, they would be out of the way of Arsenal and Manchester City. In terms of overall gameplay, it would be difficult to say that this is a greater functionality than that of Old Trafford a fortnight earlier. Difference calms.
That composure disappeared for a while before the break, when Fulham were given a chance to get back into the game, an invitation that Timothy Castagne accepted in first-half stoppage time.
It wasn’t the right time to concede a goal, but the break allowed Liverpool to regroup and concentrate causing more damage.
Regardless of what Klopp said at half-time, his players were more confident. Wataru Endo, Harvey Elliott, Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota had more of a voice in the second period.
Gravenberch has been inconsistent since arriving on Merseyside last September, showing the qualities that earned him a move to Bayern Munich at the age of 20 and the weaknesses that led him to sell them a year later. But from the moment he regained Liverpool’s lead with a very good curling shot from the edge of the box, seen through Elliott, it gained him confidence and influence.
Klopp, under pressure, wants to build on Liverpool’s strength, with his seventh game out of nine in 28 days since the last foreign break. The fear in recent years is that too many players seem to be out of rhythm after an era of inactivity or are exhausted by so much football. Gravenberch and Gakpo haven’t taken their chances in their deyets this season, but this time they did.
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The other real beneficiary, Jota.
Unlike Alexander-Arnold, the striker’s inventory piled up in his absence due to the erroneous completions of others, most notably Darwin Nunez. But in his first start in two months, Jota exemplified the mix of intelligence, ingenuity, exact movement and self-control. A guaranteed complement that makes him Liverpool’s most trusted centre-forward.
Jota had been active for an hour but was about to leave the field, as part of a triple substitution, when Gakpo sent him off the offside trap in the 72nd minute. It was the kind of opportunity that Liverpool’s other strikers have missed lately. however, Jota with a bit of luck got it, his last act before giving way to Núñez.
In recent weeks there has been a vulnerability at Liverpool: the sense that, even beforehand, the warring parties can still sense a way back into the game. But this time, Virgil van Dijk and Jarell Quansah kept Fulham at arm’s length. By the time Gravenberch made it 2-1, the result was never in doubt.
There are five games left to play: Everton away, West Ham United away, Tottenham Hotspur at home, Aston Villa away, Wolverhampton Wanderers at home. How many more times will we see Klopp grinning from ear to ear and raising his fists in the final?whistle? Goodison Park on Wednesday?London Stadium on Saturday?
Win both and the sadness that has built up at Anfield over the past fortnight will give way to a surge of renewed confidence.
(Top photo: Zac Goodwin/PA Images Getty Images)