Liverpool vs. Everton: *Bumper* Post-Match Analysis

Paul Tomkins, Andrew Beasley, Daniel Rhodes and other TTT regulars will give their thoughts on the match for 24 hours after the game, so the article received via email is unlikely to be the final version. There's statistics from the match and videos too.

Post-Match Thoughts

Paul Tomkins

(Note: my section appeared to vanish, so I’ve added it again.)

And so, without losing all the old players, a new Liverpool is born. Stefan Bajcetic, just 18, bossed the midfield, and Darwin Núñez, 23, and Cody Gakpo, 23, played huge roles in the goals in a comfortable derby victory.

Mo Salah, 31, in a team with renewed energy, also looked back to his best.

And while it was comprehensive, there was a fraction of luck when Everton's only meaningful attempt, at 0-0, bounced off the post, ricocheted around the area, and then Núñez and Salah played two one-twos: one on the edge of their own area, with the second return pass in Everton's area.

Given that Núñez has hit the woodwork five times already, he deserved what happened when the ball bounced his way.

He tore upfield to set it up for Salah, and from my own doubts about Núñez on the wing and Gakpo central, we saw the benefits of blistering pace out wide (which obviously always makes sense in its own way), and a clever false nine. The two can interchange, too.

Núñez's cross was perfect. And as Jordan Pickford went to the sweetshop for a lollipop, Salah nipped in.

It helps, even if they don't boss games aerially, to have a 6'2" winger and a 6'4" false nine, and it also helped that despite Bajcetic still being (as you'd expect) a scrawny kid, having three six-footers in midfield also gave Liverpool less of an air of being able to be bullied.

Bajcetic is a warrior, and a baller. When he fills out, he'll be unstoppable; right now, he already nearly is.

Thiago has been superb for Liverpool, Naby Keïta presses so well, and Harvey Elliott is such a clever teenage talent, but just to match Everton's Land of Giants with a physically imposing team (and with Virgil van Dijk back on the bench) and then let the better quality tell made sense to me.

I noted before the game on the match discussion thread that:

"I'd be surprised if Everton play swift, clever midfield passes, going from back through midfield with clever turns and flicks."

To which Tash replied: "Not as surprised as their players and fans would be."

And so it proved.

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