Another home fixture for Liverpool and a third eight-point haul for Mohamed Salah (£13.0m), whose goal in the 3-0 victory over Southampton was yet again not enough for the Egyptian to pick up a single bonus point.
Xherdan Shaqiri (£7.1m) registered two assists in a 45-minute showing, while Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.0m) underlined his potential to deliver attacking returns from set-piece situations by supplying Joel Matip‘s (£4.9m) headed goal.
Virgil van Dijk‘s (£6.0m) owners were deprived of a clean sheet, meanwhile, when the Dutch centre-back gingerly left the field of play with a rib injury on 54 minutes.
We reflect on a comfortable afternoon for Jurgen Klopp’s side at Anfield and take a look at the stand-out Fantasy talking points, including the latest on van Dijk’s seemingly minor problem.
Liverpool 3-0 Southampton
- Goals: Wesley Hoedt (£4.5m) own-goal, Joel Matip (£4.9m), Mohamed Salah (£13.0m)
- Assists: Xherdan Shaqiri (£7.1m) x2, Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.0m)
In the end, all the worry over rotation was for nothing – at least for owners of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino (£9.4m) and Sadio Mane (£10.0m). Xherdan Shaqiri‘s (£7.1m) feared inclusion in the Liverpool starting XI instead came at the expense of James Milner (£5.7m), with the Swiss international taking up a role in “the hole” ahead of Georginio Wijnaldum (£5.5m) and Jordan Henderson (£5.3m).
While Salah, Firmino and Mane all started and completed 90 minutes, it was only last season’s Golden Boot winner who emerged from this most effortless of victories with an attacking return.
The Egyptian had earlier been denied by a last-ditch Cedric Soares (£4.4m) tackle before he followed up a Shaqiri free-kick that struck the crossbar to score Liverpool’s third just before the interval.
Salah also back-heeled an audacious effort just wide and found the net again in the second half, only to be denied by an offside flag.
While not perhaps at his scintillating best, Salah was still Liverpool’s main goal threat, recording as many penalty box touches as Firmino and Mane combined.
That could partly be attributed to Klopp’s system in the first 45 minutes, with Salah effectively operating as a centre-forward and Mane, Firmino and Shaqiri dovetailing behind him.
Any hope that this 4-2-3-1 set-up, with Salah as the spearhead, might be a system Klopp uses going forward were slightly dashed after the match, with the German boss saying that he withdrew Shaqiri at the interval in order to get back to the 4-3-3 system his players were comfortable with:
The result is really cool, the performance could have been better, that was clear, and we made some changes that cost us because I changed the system as well!
Without training that is always difficult, I don’t like it too much but we tried something and the changes we made were obviously good because Shaq was quite influential and Joel Matip as well.
That was the reason that we bought him. I said to him at half-time that I’ve never taken a player off, who is not injured, after a performance like he had in the first half but today we needed to get back our organisation. It’s all good, he made a real impact which was good to see.
Organisation-wise, we had a few problems, you could see a lot of discussions on the pitch, and how we closed gaps and stuff like that. So that is why we changed back to a system that we are used to.
They came between our lines, maybe that would not have happened if we’d seen it from the first second with our normal formation but you have to take that.
Mane was perhaps a victim of the formation trial and didn’t register a single shot inside the box all match. Firmino failed to hit the target with his two efforts on goal, meanwhile.
Any FPL manager who owned one of Liverpool’s erstwhile first-choice centre-back pairing would also have had a frustrating afternoon, with Joe Gomez (£5.1m) forced to make do with a second-half substitute’s appearance and Virgil van Dijk being withdrawn before he could bank clean sheet points.
Klopp had this to say on the Dutch centre-back’s rib injury after the match, suggesting the problem isn’t too grave:
He already had a bruise in the ribs before the PSG game, which is very uncomfortable and today he got another hit there.
It’s not cool but should not be too serious. It should be absolutely OK, hopefully. I didn’t hear anything different.
The irritation was compounded by Joel Matip scoring, registering a clean sheet and collecting maximum bonus points, while Klopp was full of praise for his defence – who registered a fourth shut-out of 2018/19 – after full-time:
Joel Matip played a fantastic game, he was pretty spot on, and Virgil [van Dijk] next to him and then when Joe came on, that looked really good.
The full-backs, their work-rate was outstanding so I like what I saw. What I didn’t like was my fault!
With Matip shining at centre-half and Dejan Lovren (£4.9m) nearing a return, there has to be concern over Gomez’s minutes over the coming weeks and months with Liverpool competing on several fronts.
Andrew Robertson (£6.2m) walked away with a bonus point – his seventh of the season – to go with his clean sheet, but the 17.2% of FPL bosses who own Trent Alexander-Arnold were the real winners as the Liverpool right-back registered an assist and two bonus to bolster his four shut-out points.
That assist for Alexander-Arnold, who has already taken three direct free-kicks this season, came from a corner kick and his increased prominence at set-piece situations is another string to the bow of the teenage full-back, who has been somewhat overshadowed by Robertson’s performances on the opposite flank this season.
Alexander-Arnold delivered more crosses than anyone on show at Anfield yesterday and has registered three times the number of crosses that Robertson has managed this season – though the more expensive Scottish left-back still leads his team-mate in key passes by ten to three.
While the Reds’ defence mopped up the bonus points, Salah’s frustrating propensity to get tackled and caught offside ultimately cost him again.
Despite having scored on three occasions and assisted a further two goals, Salah is yet to collect a bonus point this season.
The Saints offered limited opposition despite Klopp’s praise of the south coast side and that substitute Charlie Austin (£5.7m) had Southampton’s first shot on target in the 91st minute said much about their end product in attack.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (£4.4m) had an opportunity to score for the third league match in a row, meanwhile, but scuffed his effort wide.
No Saints player had more penalty touches than the budget midfield option, who has recorded more goal attempts than any FPL midfielder priced at £5.0m or under since his season debut in Gameweek 3.
Mark Hughes was without the ineligible Danny Ings (£5.7m) for this encounter and chose to replace the on-loan Liverpool striker and injured winger Mohamed Elyounoussi (£6.4m) with more defensive-minded options in Matt Targett (£4.4m) and Oriel Romeu (£4.4m).
The Saints thus switched from a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1, with Romeu joining Hojbjerg and Mario Lemina (£5.0m) in the centre of the park, and Targett lining up “out of position” on the opposite flank to Nathan Redmond (£5.4m).
The introduction of Jan Bednarek (£3.9m) and Stuart Armstrong (£5.3m) for Targett and Romeu on 55 minutes saw the Saints move to a 3-4-2-1 in a bid to claw their way back into the game, which ultimately proved to be in vain.
All three of Liverpool’s goals came either directly from or just after dead-ball situations, and the Saints have now conceded more attempts from set plays (23) than all bar three top-flight teams.
This defensive weakness from set pieces was accepted by Hughes in his post-match interview:
Obviously, we conceded two goals from set plays. At corners, with the strength we’ve got, I expect us to do better, but it’s a good header for the second goal, you have to say that.
At the moment we just need to make sure we’re getting first contact when balls are coming in and we were guilty of not doing that enough.
Liverpool XI (4-2-3-1): Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk (Gomez 55′), Robertson; Henderson, Wijnaldum (Keita 70′); Shaqiri (Milner 46′), Mane, Firmino; Salah
Southampton XI (4-5-1): McCarthy; Cedric, Vestergaard, Hoedt, Bertrand; Redmond, Romeu (Bednarek 55′), Hojbjerg, Targett (Armstrong 55′), Lemina; Long (Austin 79′)
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