The sun shone in Dublin, Jurgen sounded happy, the 51,000 crowd sounded happy and the two second half goals that clinched the win made everybody watching on telly happy. Woodburn and Solanke could cause a few defences problems in a season or two…god knows how much they’ll be worth then? A Firmino pen gave us the lead but the old issues at the back still look cause for concern and you’ll need a lot of paper to cover those cracks!!!!
I didn’t take the penalty shoot out loss against Atlético as a defeat I saw it as a run out for those on the fringe. Playing two games in the space of a day wasn’t a good idea and it was pedestrian stuff most of the time. Jürgen keeps saying we should defend better and about a million or more Reds agree. You’re talking to the converted, don’t tell us, tell them.
It’s hard to believe we went to the Allianz Arena and strolled to a three-nil win over the might of Bayern Munich. Hard to believe but that’s what we did. It’s still pick and mix time for teams in these pre-season games but when I looked at our starting eleven, especially the attacking players ours didn’t look bad. Naturally when I viewed the back line and goalkeeper there was some trepidation but after it was over I couldn’t help but think why has it taken Alberto Moreno so long to actually look like a footballer? Trent Alexander-Arnold [TAA] has a few defensive limitations but he was basically a kid coping with international footballers and not looking too fazed by it all. If only he had a Carra there helping him with his education? Maybe it was because we had Henderson and Can as a bit of a shield but Matip and Lovren didn’t do a bad job against players that have struck fear into many over the past few seasons. We picked holes in Bayern’s defence and the margin of victory was justified. Sad that Sturridge picked up a niggle type injury and he won’t be around tonight for the game against Atlético – it must have hurt he didn’t do his dance after scoring. I still believe we need a good full back and central defender but that’s down to the club but last night in Munich it was our football that lit up the skies after the thunderstorm.
Friendly matches can sometimes be deceiving but there were signs again against Hertha Berlin that Liverpool have an abundance of attacking options the like of which we haven’t seen for many a year. The Germans had a decent season last time around but it’s hard to gauge what level they are currently at but nevertheless in the first half, in fact for an hour Liverpool looked a class above them and the three goal margin after that time could well have been doubled. Solanke scored again and if nothing else he seems to know where he should be when in and around the penalty area. Wijnaldum got on the score sheet even though we weren’t playing around the fields of Anfield Road but the icing on the top of a delicious cake was the third goal scored by Mohamed Salah. It must have had just about everybody of the red persuasion purring. The Coutinho pass and then the finish – look it was a friendly but class is class. Salah does look value for money but defenders in the Premier Division can be a bit brutal so we shall have to wait and see. However, the Brazilian Magician and our new recruit almost seem telepathic. All that remains is to see is if the club can hold their nerve as the drumbeats from Barça get ever louder. Robertson did a decent job on his first appearance and although it’s not a hard task, he does look a better bet than Moreno. When I looked at the defensive line-up I admit to having a cringe or two but we got away with it and Gomez didn’t do a bad job. However I thought Matip looked ill at ease at times and this is an area that should have been sorted by now. We can’t go into the new campaign with Lovren, Matip and Klavan as our choice of central defenders. No doubt Bayern will be a different quality; it’s their ground, their competition and we should learn a lot more from the games in Munich than we have done anywhere so far.
