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Liverpool vs Red Star Belgrade – Post Match Thoughts

Ben Green

Liverpool remain top of Champions League group C with the dismantling of Red Star Belgrade at Anfield. A double from Mo Salah, and a goal a piece from Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mané in front of a Stadium full of Reds fans roaring them to an unsurprising 4-0 victory.

Overview

Jürgen Klopp gave starts to Fabinho and Xherdan Shaqiri as expected and restored Roberto Firmino to the starting lineup in place of Daniel Sturridge.

Trent Alexander-Arnold also returned to the right back spot after giving way to Joe Gomez at the weekend, when Dejan Lovren was brought back into central defence.

Stand Out Performances

I was particularly keen to see how new boy Fabinho fared, because he’s come in for a bit of stick recently. To be fair, he put in a good shift and it was nice to see that he played the full 90 minutes. I think of him as an upgrade to Lucas Leiva in that he doesn’t give the ball away as often and seems to get forward with real intent.

Apart from Fabinho, I thought Shaqiri had a fine game. His pass/touch to Salah for the first of his two was top drawer. The guy is full of running and is always looking to attack. I noticed his defensive work rate has also improved so this only bodes well for times to come. A fine example was when he stole the ball back from the opposition, and sent a slide rule pass through to Andy Robertson for his cross that Firmino put into the net for the first goal.

Salah, despite his two goals still seems to be missing a certain spark in my view. What was nice though, was to see him score with his right foot, which is very rare from the little Egyptian. So if this is how he plays when he’s not at his best, then we’re in for a treat when he starts to smile again.

Andy Robertson continues to defy the laws of biology by putting in such strong performances without being rested. I can’t say I’ve seen any sign of the young Scot flagging or losing form so far this season. Klopp perhaps, had this in mind when Alberto (who) Moreno came on in his place after 92 minutes. The No. 26 did put in a wayward cross, but other than that was his usual consistent self.

Shaqiri got the Man of The Match award by the BBC, but I think that could equally have gone to Gini Wijnaldum. Another super solid play from the Dutchman. His industry and work rate is just out of this world. He remains, a very underrated but integral part of this team.

Overall

In all, the whole team played their part. Gomez and Virgil van Dijk are becoming a formidable pairing in the centre of defence. Fabinho looks very promising and I can’t wait until he settles in properly.

The win was expected though, with all due respect to Red Star Belgrade or Crvena Zvezda to use their correct name. I’ll stick with Red Star I think. The score line could have been more had Salah converted an earlier chance. And of course, had Mané not missed his penalty. Still, it was probably Karma for his Oscar-winning performance to win the first penalty.

Summary

Liverpool are on top at the half way point in this group stage. With two of the remaining three group games being away at Red Star and Paris Saint-Germain, qualification is far from certain and the team will need to maintain their form if they wish to finish in their current position.

Next up on 6th November is the return leg against yesterday’s opponents in the Rajko Mitić stadium. This I doubt will be as agreeable a task, or crowd, as last nights .

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Ben Green

Avid LFC supporter for 50 of his 53 years. Seen it all, ups and the downs. Now praying for a return to winning ways. Whichever way it comes!

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