Liverpool scored a last-gasp goal vs Aston Villa this weekend to pick up all three points, meaning their Premier League top-four hopes are still very much alive.
But, once again, they were at the risk of dropping points, something that has kind of turned into a habit for the Anfield outfit this season.
Liverpool put on a fine display against Arsenal last weekend but slumped against Real Madrid in midweek and had it not been for Alexander-Arnold’s superb strike, Liverpool would have been six points behind West Ham United by the end of Sunday.
The Merseyside outfit did manage to squeeze past Villa but that came after a fair share of risks on their part. And according to Jurgen Klopp, we could see a lot more of that in the coming few weeks.
The manager said in his post-match press conference: “Obviously the Arsenal game, you are right, was really, really good and today it was some of a little bit the same old story: we played well, but we make one mistake – which is not the biggest mistake in the world, but big enough to give them the opportunity to score and they do.
“Next minute we score the ‘equaliser’, which was a great goal: a great pass, great play [and] all these kind of things and then you get the information that it is offside and not by much.
“So you go in at half-time and it is a little bit like the same story again, but we decided long ago that we accepted that this is kind of a bumpy season for us but we have to strike back again and again and again – and the boys did.
“It took a while until we scored, but we created chances before that and then we scored a really nice goal – forced it, if you want, with Mo’s header. And then in our situation it’s a little bit like that, we had to increase the risk.
“We took a centre-half off, brought on Shaq and then scored this wonderful 2-1. It was the best goal for ages emotional-wise and so we are really happy about the three points.”
Klopp is obviously ready to take a lot more risks in exchange for points but we are not sure that that’s how the Liverpool players have been conditioned to play.
Players like Thiago and Fabinho are brilliant when they can control the momentum of the games sitting in midfield but asking them to come up with cutthroat passes every other minute could prove to be a big risk, especially with a key game against Real Madrid coming up.
Madrid tore apart Liverpool in the first leg but that crucial away goal has kept the Premier League side in the tie. But if Klopp tries anything too fancy in midweek then Madrid could be cruising into the next round.
