The European Champions were back in action last night, kicking off the new Premier League campaign with a solid 4-1 victory over Norwich. Now with each game I think I am going to try to break down the recap into three sections: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. So here goes..
The Good: Well for starters we scored four goals in one half of football and looked fantastic going forward, especially with Salah and Firmino on the ball. Firmino off the ball too – the man is world class isn’t he? Undoubtedly one of the hardest-working, most consistent players in the squad. Salah got himself on the score sheet too and looks set to prove he is not a one, or even two season wonder. A very promising start to the golden boot race for our Egyptian King. Van Dijk was as solid as ever – an absolute leader on the pitch last night, as always, and bagged himself a goal for good measure. Origi had a decent showing as well, getting himself the fourth goal at Anfield, off an assist by Trent (sounds familiar that one), who was also fantastic last night and always looked a threat when we were on the attack. And the best bit, of course, is that we got an important three points to get the season started the right way.
The Bad: Now I am a pretty optimistic guy, so do not expect me to go on for days moaning about the fact we conceded a goal, or failed to score more, or whatever – overall, there is just not that much to genuinely include in the ‘bad’ section here. I did think at times we were a little sloppy defensively and, despite his attacking ability, there were occasions were Trent got caught out, and Gomez perhaps failed to provide as much cover as Matip did for him towards the back end of last season. And perhaps there were a few moments in the second half where we could have and should have added to our lead, but what matters is we got the three points.
The Ugly: Now this section is going to be a bit random depending on each game – but in this one, the ugliest moment has to be seeing Allison hobbling off the pitch injured. It is unlikely to be anything too serious, but there are murmurings that he could be out for anything between 3-8 weeks. Big opportunity for Adrian incoming! Another ‘ugly’ moment for those of us in the ground (not sure on the tv coverage), was seeing a very excited Norwich fan running onto the pitch butt-naked to cheers from his fellow supporters. Not something I really wanted to witness on my Friday evening trip to Anfield!
Nudity aside though, it was great to be back at Anfield for the start of the new season, and even better seeing us pick up a very important three points. As always, let us know your thoughts in the comment section below, or on Twitter, @EthanYNWA.
One league game down, thirty seven to go.
Up the fucking reds! x
European Royalty 