Liverpool have now won two-in-a-row. Off the back of their comfortable 2-0 win against Aston Villa on Saturday, LFC edged out perennial winners Real Madrid in Tuesday night’s Champions League fixture.
It was a great performance from the team, in a game that just two weeks ago would have gone in a much worse direction for the Reds.
Liverpool limited Madrid to eight shots with just two on target, a sign of the progress this defence is making.
The Reds dominated the Spanish giants and looked a constant threat throughout the 90 minutes, only denied more goals by the Belgian shot-stopper Thibaut Courtois, who saves his best performances for his games against Liverpool.
There were many takeaways from the match and mainly positive ones at that, with the new man, Florian Wirtz, looking like he has found the role that suits him to a tee.
Wirtz’s Free Role
Florian Wirtz started his 10th game of the season, with the German putting in his best performance to date.
Physicality, energy, quality and purpose, all ways to describe the Florian Wirtz of Tuesday night’s match.
He had the freedom in the attacking phase of play; he started out on the left of the 3 supporting Hugo Ekitike and looked extremely comfortable in the new role.
His ability to find little pockets of space make him so dangerous for defenders, especially when you also take into context his one touch and linkup ability.
There were multiple instances of Wirtz and Ekitike’s phenomenal rapport, touch and move play from them both that created different angles and space for each other and teammates.
You also saw his creative drive with and without the ball, making sharp passes and movements, but then frustrated when he isn’t found with a pass that he knows he would have made.
In my opinion this is the role that he will be used in from now on and should be the player starting out on the left-hand side of attack.
His interplay and creative ability make him much more of a suit for the team than Cody Gakpo. While Gakpo is a goal threat and has flashes of quality in matches, so far this season his general play has not been good enough, often predictable and one dimensional with the ball at his feet, something Wirtz is not.
A result of Wirtz starting on the left is the space that is there on the left flank for the left-back to take advantage of, we already know this is perfect for Robertson but this tweak in the system could also unlock Milos Kerkez’s ability in the forward areas.
Based on his start this year we haven’t seen the Hungarian in the areas Arne Slot wants him in and being able to prove why Liverpool spent big money on the full-back.
Mac Allister and Gravenberch Back to Their Best
Alexis Mac Allister was man of the match and Gravenberch marshalled, Bellingham and Guler fantastically.
It is clear to see that Liverpool perform when these two are at the level required. While Mac Allister brings a control to the LFC midfield, something none of the other midfield options can do to his level, Gravenberch is the screen and engine in the pivot.
Both have unbelievable quality on the ball and bring something different to the other. It shows how much they impact the team when the pair are not together as we saw from the past 4/5 weeks.
An underrated aspect to the duo’s game is their goal threat, Gravenberch popped up with a deflected goal against Villa and Mac Allister scored the winning goal against Madrid.
As a pair they perfectly complement each other and have again shown why they are so important to this system.
Secure Defensive Structure
That is now two wins from two but also two clean sheets in consecutive games, the first time they’ve managed that since the third and fourth matches of this season.
It looks as if there are two main reasons for this uptick in defensive form, Conor Bradley’s continued run in the team and Andy Robertson's return to the starting XI.
In my opinion, the man of the match was Conor Bradley, who locked up Vinicius Jr. and looked like he was playing against lower league opposition with the way he dealt with the Brazilian’s antics.
His 1v1 defending has always been a strong asset of his game, but on Tuesday night looked as if he’d reached another level of quality in his abilities up against a winger.
Now Vinicius has been far from his best in recent times, but for Bradley to so easily pocket the attacker, was a joy to watch. This outing looks to have cemented the Northern Irishman’s place in the Starting XI, something he will have been keen to do since the start of the season.
Another tweak in the recent lineups has been the reintroduction of Andy Robertson.
The Scotland captain has looked close to his former self in the last two games, his relentless energy and underrated quality with the ball was on show for all to see.
Robbo brings a level of calmness that Kerkez just hasn’t reached yet, his hectic nature has been a burden to his start to life at Anfield.
However, as mentioned prior, the new role Wirtz looks to have embedded himself into may bring the best of Kerkez out for all to see in the future.