“Darwin doesn’t suck!” – Three good things (and three bad too) as Liverpool unleash hell on RB Leipzig
In a one-sided evening, Liverpool obliterated RB Leipzig 5-0 in a pre-season friendly.
What were the good things and the bad from the game?
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GOOD: Mohamed Salah still rocks
It perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Mohamed Salah is still amazing, but just in case you had forgotten: Mohamed Salah is still amazing. The Egyptian was the game’s dominant presence in the first-half, and he opened the scoring with a supremely composed finish.
After some bizarre defending allowed the ball to bounce his way, Salah took the ball and showed zero hesistation in slapping it into the back of the net. Salah is one of the few world-class players that isn’t heading to the World Cup in November, so Liverpool will be praying they can keep him fit because in this kind of lethal form, and with the serenity brought on by his new contract, and with everyone else getting exhausted by the mid-season World Cup, Salah could well guide Liverpool to a second Premier League title.
BAD: Sorloth’s injury
The reason Erling Haaland doesn’t wear the no. 9 shirt for Norway is because Alex Sorloth does. The tall target-man is a real menace and Jurgen Klopp would have been looking forward to him giving the Reds’ backline a stiff test today.
Sadly that test last just half an hour, as Sorloth had to hobble off with an injury. This was bad for Leipzig and the player obviously, but even for Liverpool too as they didn’t get to sharpen their defenders on Sorloth’s jagged edges and had an all-too comfortable evening.
GOOD: Darwin finally scored!
After some, shall we say, middling performances so far for Liverpool, pressure has already begun building on Liverpool’s €100m man Darwin Nunez. One on the one hand: given the size of the fee and his reputation, you do understand a bit of expectation. But on the other hand it’s the first games of pre-season and he’s in a new club, country and culture!
Anyway, as much as it was obviously ridiculous that anyone was seriously criticising Darwin, such criticism can build and build if a striker goes too long without scoring. Just look at what happened to Darwin’s fellow Uruguayan Diego Forlan when he struggled at Manchester United, jokes turned into genuine criticism because he didn’t score.
Well, Liverpool need not worry because Darwin has scored… twice! Liverpool won a penalty early in the second-half and Mohamed Salah stepped aside and allowed his new team-mate to get himself off the mark. And he did… just!
Darwin squeezed the ball beyond sub goalie Janis Blaswich to get himself off the mark, and just two minutes later he doubled his tally with a neat run in behind and a smart finish low into the far corner of the net. He kept on plugging away and with just over 20 minutes to go in the game, Darwin bagged his hat-trick with a smart low finish off a Harvey Elliot cross and incredibly added a fourth late in the day, showing that confidence is infectious and that, oh, hey, Liverpool didn’t sign a useless donkey after all!
Darwin Nunez has now scored as many pre season goals (3) as Mo Salah, Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mané combined. 😜 https://t.co/LKAONOa4C3
— Squawka (@Squawka) July 21, 2022
Darwin doesn’t suck! Who knew?
Well, Paddy Pimblett for one. The MMA star with a competitive record of 18 wins and three defeats in his 21 bouts backed Darwin to succeed, and in a big bad way as well: “I’ve been laughed at today on Twitter already because I said in an interview I think [Nunez will] score more goals than Haaland this year. But I really do.”
“Haaland’s very injury prone and I think he’ll miss a good portion of the season through injuries. And I think Nunez is the type of player who doesn’t miss many games. He wants to play every game. He’s like Suarez.”
Outscoring Erling Haaland would be a tall order but in just 45 minutes against RB Leipzig he scored four and should have scored five, so maybe it’s not too tall of an order to be out of reach for Darwin Nunez?
BAD: Janis Blaswich’s miserable half
Janis Blaswich joined Leipzig this summer with the intention of being Peter Gulasci’s back-up and so when he came on at half-time against Liverpool he would have hoped to put in a solid display and keep a clean sheet.
Well, within five minutes he had given away a penalty with a sloppy, panicked bit of play. He then conceded the penalty even though he managed to guess right and get a hand to Darwin’s spot-kick. Then a couple minutes later he conceded again to another saveable Darwin shot, meaning he’d conceded twice before even playing 10 minutes.
Not the best start. And things didn’t get much better as he conceded two more goals from Darwin, including a dribbler of a fifth goal that he got two hands to and really should have saved. Oh dear.
GOOD: The press!
Liverpool’s goals were all different kinds of strikes but the common thread was pressing. Whether the press came early in the move or directly before the killer ball, the Reds were snapping into challenges looking like they want to start the season winning the first 10 games.
After their humiliating defeat to Manchester United, Jurgen Klopp knew he needed a statement to stop the nonsense rumours and with just 10 days left until the Community Shield against Manchester City, his players delivered the most potent of statements in Germany.
BAD: Liverpool have got too many goalkeepers
Okay maybe this one is a bit of a “good bad” thing, but with Alisson and Caoimhin Kelleher out injured Adrian started the game and looked pretty solid. Then on the hour mark he made way for 18 year-old Harvey Davies, who also did well.
Klopp just about managed to rotate two goalkeepers last season, if he now has to handle three or four then he’s going to slow Kelleher’s development by giving cup games that should go to the Irishman to Adrian and Davies.
Someone’s got to go, Jurgen!
