“Where do you want your statue?” – Liverpool 2-0 Everton player ratings
Liverpool kept pace with Manchester City by beating Everton in a furiously tempered Merseyside derby.
Here’s how the players rated at Anfield:
Liverpool
Alisson – 6 – Had basically nothing to do but still did it well.
Trent Alexander-Arnold – 5 – Lucky to avoid an early yellow for a blatant push on Anthony Gordon, and eventually did get booked for fouling Gordon later. Not his best afternoon.
Joel Matip – 6 – Had some trouble with Gordon’s pace and should have given away a penalty for shoving Gordon over. Played well besides that, though, and was cool and composed in possession.
Virgil van Dijk – 7 – Utterly untroubled.
Andrew Robertson – 8 – Both scored the crucial opening goal and cleared what looked a certain Everton goal out of harm’s way. He doesn’t get anything like the praise many of his teammates do but is an essential part of Liverpool’s success.
Fabinho – 5 – Could do little to stop Everton’s counter-attacks, which is all he was there to do.
Naby Keita – 5 – Combative start but did little to justify his place.
Thiago – 8 – Amid a sea of chaos he kept his head admirably and continued his flawless mastery of the ball. Took a colossal 139 touches, completed a frankly ridiculous 120/122 passes and even chipped in with 2 tackles. What an artist.
Mohamed Salah – 7 – Looked Liverpool’s likeliest avenue of success in the first half and although he struggled in the second, too, he did create the opening goal with a lovely clipped cross. Just unstoppable.
Sadio Mané – 4 – Somehow avoided a red card for seemingly slapping Allan and poking Mason Holgate in the face. Didn’t do anything else.
Diogo Jota – 4 – Shut out of the game by Everton’s defending.
Liverpool Substitutes:
Divock Origi (for Keita 60′) – 8 – The Everton Killer emerged and within a minute he had, indeed, killed Everton. His first two touches were buttery smooth bits of hold-up play in the box, controlling Salah’s pass and gently laying it back into his path for him to create the opener.
And he lived up to his role as The Everton Killer by sealing the victory late on with a lovely header, giving Liverpool a comfortable 2-0 win. He now has more goals in Merseyside derby than Kenny Dalglish and Roger Hunt, and is level with Robbie Fowler on six, making him the non-British player with the most goals in the fixture (albeit he is some way off Ian Rush and Dixie Dean).
“Where do you want your statue, Divock Origi?” bellowed Jamie Carragher in commentary after the Belgian’s goal, noting that such is his expertise against Everton that “I’m convinced if this was against someone else, Jurgen Klopp wouldn’t have brought him on.”
Luis Diaz (for Mané 61′) – 7 – Had the best touch of the game (find a clip, seriously!) created chaos for Everton with his dribbling and created the second goal with an acrobatic scissor kick.
Jordan Henderson (for Jota 82′) – 6 – Got stuck in. Provoked Everton.
Liverpool trophy odds from William Hill
- To win the Premier League outright: Man City 4/9 | Liverpool 13/8
- To win the Champions League outright: Man City 6/5 | Liverpool 6/5 | Real Madrid 11/2 | Villarreal 20/1
- To win the FA Cup outright: Liverpool 1/2 | Chelsea 6/4
18+ only. Please gamble responsibly. For more information, visit begambleaware.org. Odds correct at time of writing (18:55, 24/04/22)
Everton
Jordan Pickford – 7 – Some outrageous long passes. Mostly untroubled right up to Liverpool opening the scoring, but from then he was kind of all over the place.
Seamus Coleman – 7 – Was having a pretty flawless game, pitching in and clearing the ball. Then he failed to defend the back post and allowed Andy Robertson to steal in and score.
Mason Holgate – 6 – Got poked in the eye by Mané. Cleared a Matip header off the line to bail out Pickford. Dug in and defended well until the very end, when he was stood all on his own playing Luis Diaz onside for Origi’s dagger.
Michael Keane – 8 – Impressive start from the late starter as he joined the warm-up as a late replacement for Ben Godfrey.
Vitalii Mykolenko – 7 – Hard work from the Ukrainian as he had to cope with Mohamed Salah but, with some help, he did a good job.
Allan – 8 – Got slapped by Mané. Also covered every blade of grass in an amazing defensive display.
Abdoulaye Doucouré – 7 – Missed a very easy chance on the counter but also kicked off the entertaining end-of-first-half melee with a foul. Looked cool and composed but needed a bit more quality.
Alex Iwobi – 6 – Ran nicely with the ball and helped Everton shield defence, but his final ball was sorely lacking and Everton didn’t exactly have the luxury of wasting chances.
Demarai Gray – 5 – A bit of a non-event in attack. Also failed to truly track Robertson for his goal.
Anthony Gordon – 8 – Countless bursting runs in behind. Drew a booking from Alexander-Arnold once, should have done it twice and should have won a penalty after being shoved by Matip. But perhaps his reputation as a diver harmed him as he did go down easily at other times during the match, even getting booked for simulation when he took a tumble in the penalty area in the first half.
Still, this was an absolutely phenomenal display from the young man. He repeatedly put his team on his shoulders and literally carried them up the field, releasing pressure and humiliating Liverpool players with every touch. His end product was obviously lacking but his application and mentality absolutely was not. A performance that would make Diego Simeone stand up and applaud.
Richarlison – 7 – Led the line well, wasted time and wound up Liverpool with even more panache. A taste of Copa Libertadores for the Premier League.
Everton Substitutes:
Dele Alli (for Allan 73′) – 6 – Almost created a dramatic equaliser but Robertson denied him.
Salomon Rondon (for Gray 77′) – 6 – Looked a physical match for Liverpool’s defenders.
