By Alisson’s Beard
Liverpool 3 – 1 Southampton
Mad game.
It was one of those that could have easily ended in a hockey kind of scoreline, like 7-5. I don’t know what the dry stats will tell in terms of expected goals, but I sure expected many more than were actually scored. For one thing, Che Adams nabbed one but could have had a hat trick, as could Nunez. Speaking of which, he’s a mad boy, isn’t he? We can all see it, it’s only a matter of time until Nunez fits properly into the Liverpool shape, but it’s coming closer with every game. Today it resulted in two, but on another day he could have had more, not to mention an assist or three.
The beauty of it is that Liverpool isn’t changing its entire system to suit him, unlike other teams that bring on a star forward. That means that his presence isn’t utterly crucial, but it also means it takes a bit longer for things to work smoothly. In the meantime, it was just fun to see the raging bull charging as he does from one end to another as if he were a cartoon character. Oh, and those were very well-taken goals.
That Brings Us to the Assists
It’s sort of weird that Trent doesn’t have one yet this season, because he surely is trying; he puts them in the right spots, but for whatever reason, our front end only wants to finish off Robbo. Did you know that Liverpool has the highest overall expected goals thus far in the season in the entire league? Some of it is because Trent is doing Trent things, we’re just not finishing them, and reversion to the mean will tell you that Liverpool may well get red hot down the road.
Another worthy call out is Elliott, who is a monster for his age. What a player we have on our hands in him. Remember the kind of breakout Trent had a couple of years ago? We’re about to experience the same thing with Harvey. Yes, it’s not happening quite yet. Might take another year for the real crazy, but it is coming. I’ll still give Robbo my man-of-the-match, though.
It’s also – finally! – a mad league again. How many saw the Bees winning today? How about that Leeds game? I guess Everton’s loss isn’t that much of a shocker, but still. This madness is what makes the premier league so competitive and fun to watch, so let’s hope it continues. Maybe the world cup is at least having one positive impact in scrambling everything else.
Now… can someone explain to me who that baby face in goal was?
I thought we had some bearded Brazilian fella.
