Having reflected on Saturday’s defeats for title challengers Arsenal and Manchester City, we look back on a narrow escape for Liverpool.
KONATE INJURY UPDATE
Liverpool’s centre-back partnership has been settled, and has flourished, since the second half of Gameweek 1.
However, it was broken up at half-time of Saturday’s clash with Brighton and Hove Albion. Ibrahima Konate (£5.3m) departed the field at the interval with his arm in a makeshift sling, having been trodden on by – ironically – Virgil van Dijk (£6.2m).
Arne Slot described the defender as being in a “lot of pain” after full-time but added that it was too early for a diagnosis.
“We don’t know yet. He had a lot of pain, but he hasn’t been to the hospital yet – and maybe it is not even necessary to go to the hospital, I don’t know.
“It is always difficult to judge an injury in the first hour or first 10 minutes after it happens. Let’s hope he can be with us as soon as possible because he had a big impact on our season until now.” – Arne Slot on Ibrahima Konate
On Sunday, however, good news from the player himself.
WHY GOMEZ, AND NOT QUANSAH, GOT THE NOD
During the interval, there was some giddiness in the FPL community that a cut-price Jarell Quansah (£4.0m) may now re-enter the thinking. That bubble burst upon the restart when Joe Gomez (£4.8m) got the nod to replace Konate.
Slot explained why.
“The good thing is in that position I have two very good options as well with Jarell Quansah and Joe Gomez.
“I took Jarell off five minutes before the end in Brighton [in the EFL Cup on Wednesday] because for 20 minutes he was already stretching and I could feel and see that he was tired, which is not so strange because he hasn’t played that much.
“Then, with 45 minutes to go [today], I felt I had to bring someone in that is fitter than Jarell was during the week.” – Arne Slot
Even worse for Quansah was that Gomez did well when he came on.
“That says a lot about his mentality. That also says a lot about his quality, if you don’t play that much and you come in, in a game where your teammates were outplayed for 45 minutes, that you can come in and play like this. And it also says a lot about his mentality in recent weeks and months, where he didn’t play that much, but he is now able without playing a lot to play 90 minutes on Wednesday and to bring in a performance like this on Saturday.” – Arne Slot on Joe Gomez
Quansah wasn’t the only Liverpool defender snubbed on Saturday. Andrew Robertson (£6.0m) was benched, as had been signposted by his inclusion in a mostly second-string XI in midweek. Kostas Tsimikas (£4.6m) did well enough on his recall to suggest he might get a run of league matches at left-back (Gomez should have scored from one of the Greek’s crosses), although there’ll likely be some rotation between the two during December when seven Premier League fixtures will be contested.
Elsewhere on the rotation front, the usual hokey-cokey involving Luis Diaz (£7.8m) and Cody Gakpo (£7.1m) continued with a start for the Dutchman. The two actually played together when Diaz was brought on, with the Colombian operating as a ’10’ and Gakpo staying left.
SALAH FINDS A WAY AGAIN
Mohamed Salah (£12.7m) was arguably Liverpool’s quietest attacker in the first half. Darwin Nunez (£7.1m) produced one moment of near-genius after nine minutes, while Gakpo was sporadically lively down the left.
In truth, though, Liverpool – and Salah – were poor in the opening 45 minutes.
As he so often does, the Egyptian found a way. Thwarted in a one-on-one with Bart Verbruggen (£4.5m), he wasn’t to be denied an excellent 72nd-minute winner. That goal came very quickly after Gakpo’s cross had found its way in to restore parity.
Not quite a double-digit haul this time, but he’s now 16 points ahead of Erling Haaland (£15.3m) after a dozen returns in 10 starts.
The points-dodging from Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.0m) continued, meanwhile. The clean sheet went up in smoke early on, while van Dijk somehow failed to make contact on the right-back’s inswinging cross from six yards out. Five of the six big chances he’s created this season have been spurned by teammates.
POSITIVES FOR BRIGHTON
Brighton have faced five of the big six already this season, holding their own in most of those fixtures.
The better side for the opening 45 minutes here (as the below xG race chart suggests), Ferdi Kadioglu (£4.5m) put them ahead. Georginio Rutter (£5.6m) missed a huge chance to make it 2-0, while Kadioglu – again playing ‘out of position’ on the right flank – could have added to his tally.
Danny Welbeck (£5.9m) remarkably had three first-half direct free-kick attempts, the closest hitting the side netting.
“We have to understand how to get results. The performance was good enough to win this game, especially in the first half.
“There were a lot of moments where we should score the second and maybe even the third goal and I think the game would be completely different.
“But in the second half, there were two or three moments where we weren’t precise enough, where we lost the 50-50 duels and were maybe attracted by the atmosphere.” – Fabian Hurzeler
Frustration for Hurzeler but pushing the league leaders close (having beaten Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United already and holding Arsenal) shows how upwardly mobile Brighton are.
It’s Manchester City next. Given how the reigning champions struggled with Bournemouth’s intensity on Saturday, it’ll be interesting to see how the Gameweek 11 clash at the Amex pans out.
Thereafter, there’s a very favourable run for the Seagulls:
