Continuing with our Gameweek 20 analysis, we look back on Liverpool 2-2 Manchester United and Fulham 2-2 Ipswich Town. This includes the latest on Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.2m) and Ibrahima Konate (£5.1m).
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SLOT DEFENDS ALEXANDER-ARNOLD
Cody Gakpo (£7.3m) and Mohamed Salah (£13.6m) continued their fine form on Sunday.
The Dutchman scored his fifth goal in seven appearances with a brilliantly taken equaliser, before Salah put Liverpool ahead from the penalty spot.
Overall, however, it was an underwhelming display from the Merseyside outfit.
Considered heavy favourites to win, they looked off the pace for large periods, with Trent Alexander-Arnold in particular struggling.
United as a result constantly attacked down that side of the pitch, with the impressive Diogo Dalot (£5.0m) regularly exposing the space in behind.
Alexander-Arnold, who has recently been linked with a move to Real Madrid, also offered very little from an attacking perspective, with some sloppy passing and just one key pass registered.
Booked and hooked for the returning Conor Bradley (£4.7m) late on, he ended Gameweek 20 on zero points.
“I think 9/10 people will say it affected him [links to Real Madrid] but I’m one of the 10 that tells you it didn’t affect him. What affected him is he had to play against Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot – two starters for Portugal who are great, great players. We have a fantastic player here in Diogo Jota as he’s mostly not playing for Portugal so that tells you how much quality United have and if these players set themselves to a game, that is what United do once in a while, it is very difficult to play against them.
“It is more difficult for Trent to play against Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot than it is the rumours in the week. That is my opinion and probably everyone is going to tell you it had to do with the rumours but my opinion is different. It was clear that Trent had some difficult moments, as we as a team had, but that is also for Trent not the first time. I think for the majority of the games he played for this club, they were very, very, very good, but I can’t believe if people tell me that he’s never played a bad game for this club. That has probably happened before, and I think mostly against quality players like United have, especially in the positions he had to face.” – Arne Slot on Trent Alexander-Arnold
KONATE’S FITNESS
Another concern is the fact Liverpool are conceding quite a few goals, with 11 shipped in their last six matches.
They could at least welcome Ibrahima Konate back into the fold on Sunday, however.
On why he brought the Frenchman back into the starting XI so soon, Arne Slot said:
“Because he was fit. If he wouldn’t [have been] then we wouldn’t have started him, then he doesn’t train with us. The moment he starts to train with the team he is fit again. It is not to say that he can immediately play two games a week, but he can definitely play 90 minutes, like he showed today. Like you saw, except for the first game when I chose [Jarell] Quansah, all the other games when Ibou was fit he started, so that’s the answer I think to your question. The moment he is fit, he can start. But if you have been out for such a long time it’s difficult to immediately play then two games a week, so it must not come as a surprise if he doesn’t play on Wednesday. But he played today for 90 minutes and I think he showed in that 90 minutes that he was ready to play.” – Arne Slot on Ibrahima Konate
Further forward, Slot did at least try to switch it up after Gakpo’s equaliser.
Diogo Jota (£7.2m) and Darwin Nunez (£7.0m), who will miss Gameweek 21 after picking up his fifth booking of the season, were sent on, with Curtis Jones (£5.3m) and Luis Diaz (£7.6m) removed on the hour mark.
It worked to an extent, with Jota having a late shot saved.
Also, a quick word on Alexis Mac Allister (£6.2m). He was excellent in the middle of the park and has now racked up five attacking returns (one goal and four assists) in his past four games.
UNITED IMPROVEMENT
Make no mistake, this was Manchester United’s best performance under Ruben Amorim.
After a poor festive period which saw them lose six matches in a month, United showed real signs of improvement at Anfield.
Compact and tidy in possession, they even took a surprise lead through Lisandro Martinez (£4.4m), courtesy of a Bruno Fernandes (£8.3m) assist.
The Portuguese was excellent throughout, with two shots and four key passes, ensuring there will be quite a few takers ahead of next week’s home clash against Southampton.
Amad Diallo (£5.3m) also got in on the act, snatching a point when he turned home Alejandro Garnacho’s (£6.0m) cutback.
Harry Maguire (£4.9m) could even have won it late on, blazing over Joshua Zirkzee’s (£6.5m) admittedly poor pass from 12 yards.
RAUL SCORES TWO PENS
There were four goals at Craven Cottage on Sunday, three from the penalty spot.
Fulham forward Raul Jimenez (£5.6m) scored both of his efforts from 12 yards, continuing his perfect spot-kick record.
The Mexican has now taken 10 Premier League penalties in his career, scoring with every single one of them.
Marco Silva was full of praise for Jimenez, who now has eight goals this season, after the match.
“He’s been doing that all his career. He’s our best penalty taker. He showed he is very good. The way he fought and made it hard for the defenders. He is in a really good moment.” – Marco Silva on Raul Jimenez’s late penalty
Aside from those two penalties, four separate shots arrived for Jimenez.
Always lurking on the shoulder of Ipswich’s centre-halves, two headers went particularly close.
Jimenez also completed the full 90 minutes for the first time since October, shifting to a new role next to Rodrigo Muniz (£5.5m) in the second half.
Even though game state was a crucial factor, it offers encouragement, with appealing trips to West Ham United and Leicester City up next.
“It’s not just the goals today. The way he won fouls; the way he was always there to help the team. We changed his position in the second-half and he did really well. Let’s hope he can get even more confidence in the future.” – Marco Silva on Raul Jimenez
The Cottagers may have dominated possession on Sunday (73%), but they lacked quality from open play:
- Total xG: 2.24
- xG open play: 0.29
- xG set play (corners and free-kicks): 0.38
Harry Wilson (£5.2m) won the first penalty, his sixth attacking return in 11 games, and created a match-high four chances, but Fulham’s other creative outlets failed to turn up.
For example, Emile Smith Rowe’s (5.3m) half-time introduction, which forced a change of shape – 3-4-2-1 to 4-2-3-1 – failed to ignite the home side, while Alex Iwobi (£5.9m) was particularly poor and hooked just after the hour mark.
Fulham’s first (left) and second-half (right) passing networks v Ipswich Town, via StatsBomb
As for the result, it’s another match in which Fulham have dropped points when they’d have expected to win.
In their unbeaten run, which now stretches to eight games, they have taken points off Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Bournemouth, Brighton and Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur, but failed to beat Southampton and Ipswich, two newly-promoted sides you’d normally expect them to triumph over.
IPSWICH’S FIGHTING SPIRIT
Ipswich came within minutes of climbing out of the bottom three on Sunday, with Sam Szmodics (£5.8m) and a Liam Delap (£5.6m) penalty putting them ahead until injury time.
Delap, who won and scored the spot-kick, made his presence felt and now has eight goals from 18 league starts.
Two of Ipswich’s next three league games are against Manchester City and Liverpool, but they are at least showing some fighting spirit, having turned over both Chelsea and Wolverhampton Wanderers in recent weeks.
Organised in the way they play, the defensive side of Sunday’s performance was particularly strong.
Further reinforcements are on the way, too, with Ben Godfrey signing on loan from Atalanta. He’ll compete with Ipswich’s other right-sided defenders for a first-team spot.
“We’re positive about it and we’re happy to have him. It’s an area of the team that we wanted to strengthen. Axel Tuanzebe has been a really important player for us at the start of the season but has missed quite a lot of time. He hopefully isn’t months away but we’ve missed that profile a little bit in terms of a centre-back who can play right-back and is strong one-v-one and has good physicality. Ben comes in and gives us another one of that profile in the squad. He has Premier League experience, is hungry to come here, is a strong character and I’m really happy to have him for the second half of the season.” – Kieran McKenna on Ben Godfrey
Omari Hutchinson (£5.2m) will be out for a number of weeks, however, with the groin injury which sidelined him in Gameweek 20.
