Liverpool maintained their 100% record in the Europa League with a convincing 5-1 victory over Toulouse on Thursday night.
Jurgen Klopp’s prediction that Liverpool would not “fly” through the Europa League group stage amounts to their only mis-step so far. Qualification for the knockout phase is already close at hand with the procession continuing against Toulouse.
Klopp could ring the changes before Nottingham Forest’s Premier League visit on Sunday, give a full debut to 19-year-old left-back Luke Chambers, first Liverpool outings to Calum Scanlon and James McConnell, and still enjoy a fluent, dominant display. It was polished by goals from Diogo Jota, Wataru Endo, Darwin Núñez, the highly impressive Ryan Gravenberch and Mohamed Salah.
“Salah’s strike with the final kick of the game was his 43rd European goal for Liverpool and took him above Thierry Henry as the most prolific goalscorer for an English club in European competition.”
Klopp will relish his options, given how lacking in athleticism and goal threat his central zone was last season. He still has Thiago Alcantara and Stefan Bajcetic to return from injury, and Alexis Mac Allister has shown only glimpses of his creative talent in a more withdrawn midfield role. Dominik Szoboszlai, rested here, has correctly won most attention for inspiring Liverpool’s encouraging start to the season.
“Now Gravenberch is also rapidly emerging as a crowd favourite and the manager singled out Wataru Endo, another summer signing, after an encouraging night yielded his first Liverpool goal. “The forward passes were incredible,” Klopp said. Last season Klopp had no spine in his preferred XI and no back-up in reserve.
“While the focus is inevitably on whether his first choice is up to keeping pace with the Premier League leaders, the underlying reason this campaign has begun so well is how little impact his changes are having on results and performances. They won with ease to register a seventh consecutive home win at the start of this season.
“The guaranteed picks and the call-ups are merging to such an extent even Klopp may be unsure which XI is his best. Diogo Jota and Nunez are cases in point. The Portuguese striker tends to deal exclusively in classics and he danced through a retreating Toulouse defence before delivering one of those finishes that puts one in mind of a young Robbie Fowler.”
