Liverpool 4-2 Burnley: Five things learned as Lallana delivers timely reminder of his talent

In a sunny afternoon at Anfield, Liverpool beat Burnley 4-2.

The Reds began the day four points behind Manchester City but managed to cut the gap back to one in a victory they had to fight hard for despite dominating the vast majority of the game. What did we learn?

1. Bobby-on-the-spot

One of the big issues Liverpool have faced this year (as in literally in 2019) is that with the pressure now raised by their involvement in a serious title race, they’ve not had a striker able to take easy chances. Sure, they’ve got three stupendous forwards in Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mané – but none of them are pure strikers.

The advantage of a pure striker is that they’re usually in position to take easy chances, the simple chances that good attacking sides create simply by virtue of their dominance. Liverpool’s inability to take these chances is why they’ve drawn so many games in 2019.

Well, this afternoon on Merseyside, Roberto Firmino stepped up. He scored twice and honestly, neither goal was anything special. Just showing up in the right place at the right time to finish an easy chance. But that in itself is huge, because it was him taking those chances that allowed Liverpool to win a game they dominated instead of settling for a draw as they have so often this year.

2. Burnley Olympic

Alisson (and Liverpool) have been such a great defensive force that before this afternoon no one had scored against them from outside the box. Liverpool have just been so effective at preventing open looks around their box that no one has hurt them with a long-range effort.

Well, this afternoon Burnley broke the mould and did so in amazing fashion. Noting Liverpool’s weakness from corners, Ashley Westwood whipped a hard one right under the crossbar towards Alisson who was surrounded by a cordon of three Burnley players to put him off. Sure, James Tarkowski probably fouled the Brazilian by putting his hands on the goalkeeper’s shoulders, but the way Burnley identified and executed their gameplan was superb. A Golden Olympic goal for the Clarets!

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3. Lallana the missing piece?

There have been so many games this season where Liverpool have been crying out for a creative midfielder to play at the head of their midfield. The kind of player Nabil Fekir was clearly going to be when Jurgen Klopp’s men went after him. Well, they didn’t get Fekir, and have longed for someone like that ever since.

Today, injury-cursed Adam Lallana showed just why he could be the man to fill that void. Obviously injuries have held him back, so many have forgotten just how intelligent his movement is and how sharp his technique can be. Against Burnley, Lallana was the man driving Liverpool forward and linking their midfield and attack. So much of their bright play ran through the Englishman, and he will only get better with more minutes – which is fantastic news for Liverpool and their Double ambitions.

4. Virgil Van Dijk is a wall

It’s hard to truly fathom just how good Virgil van Dijk is. When you watch Liverpool and see the ease with which they often repel attacks you think they have a good defence but when you watch close you realise it’s actually Virgil van Dijk doing all the repelling. It’s like he telekinetically draws the ball towards him, making it easy to clear the ball. His reading of the game, the way he surveys what is going on ahead of him and then reacts, makes him a moving wall at the back.

In fact it was Van Dijk’s tendency to survey the chaos in front of him before deciding to act that allowed Burnley to sneak their second goal i at the death. With his team-mates doing less than no defending ahead of him as the ball bounced around, Van Dijk didn’t have time to react when it broke for Johan Berg Gudmundsson and the Icelandic international pulled it back to 3-2.

5. Liverpool in their comfort zone

It has been clear since the start of the year that Liverpool are not comfortable being leaders. They don’t like playing from the front and have struggled to put games away and extend their advantage over Manchester City, throwing their lead away to the point where they entered this game four points back in second place.

However this is exactly where Liverpool like to play. They are best when chasing. Their style and mentality suits it so perfectly. With a target in sight, the Reds can hunt it down and churn through results as a rabid and relentless force. This is exactly what they did back in December, and it’s what this game indicates they could be about to do now.

Buckle up, sports fans, this title race is gonna run and run and run!

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