After a draining night of European glory in Istanbul,
the bread and butter win over Saints really was a...
(^) IN ASSOCIATION WITH
All smiles: Liverpool’s
Roberto Firmino enjoys
his second-half strike
at St Mary’s REX FEATURES
PICKFORD: I LOVE CRITICISM, IT MAKES ME STRONGER
EVERTON
0
1
WATFORD
DOMINIC KING
at Goodison Park
AN hour after the final whistle
and Jordan Pickford could still
feel the sting of his war wound
as he headed home.
‘Ooof!’ said the England keeper,
half-smiling and half-grimacing
as he revisited his game-shaping
intervention that secured
Everton’s first win of the season.
‘It hit me flush! It was Troy
Deeney as well, wasn’t it?’
This was not just a little knock;
Deeney unloaded from 12 yards
but Pickford would not be
beaten and put his face in the
way of the shot. His nose, which
was still tingling, bore the brunt.
Still — no pain, no gain and a 1-0
win on a difficult afternoon,
settled by Bernard’s first half
strike, made it all worthwhile.
‘I have to help be a leader on
the pitch and off the pitch if I
can,’ said Pickford, who also
made a smart stop to deny
Etienne Capoue in the first half.
‘On the pitch especially. I have
got to demand and help the lads
in front of me.’
There were times last season
when it seemed as if there was
too much impetuosity attached
to Pickford’s performances.
Worst of all, he made headlines
for his involvement in a pub
melee on Mother’s Day.
Talent has never been an issue
for Pickford. The only question
was whether he could keep his
emotions in check and the way
he spoke on Saturday indicated
a new level of maturity.
‘I like criticism because it makes
me want to get better,’ said
Pickford, who has now kept 10
clean sheets in his last 13 Everton
appearances. ‘I work hard on
and off the pitch, in the gym. It
shows the character I have got.
‘It doesn’t faze me too much if I
make mistakes because I will
learn from them. You will get
criticised. That’s the industry we
are in. When you have England
No 1 stamped on your back, you
are always going to get
criticised, if you do good things
or bad things. But you learn
from it. It’s great.’
EVERTON (4-2-3-1): Pickford 8; Coleman 7,
Keane 7.5, Mina 7, Digne 7 (Holgate 73min, 6);
Gomes 6, Gbamin 6; BERNARD 8.5,
Sigurdsson 7, Richarlison 5 (Walcott 63, 5);
Calvert-Lewin 5 (Kean 72, 6).
Subs not used: Lossl, Iwobi, Tosun, Davies,
Scorer: Bernard 10.
Booked: Coleman, Gomes.
Manager: Marco Silva 7.
WATFORD (4-4-2) Foster 7; Femenia, Dawson 7,
Cathcart 6, Holebas 6; Pereyra 6.5, Capoue 6
(Gray 83), Doucoure 7, Hughes 6 (Welbeck 67,
6); Deulofeu 6.5 (Cleverley 79), Deeney 6.
Subs not used: Gomes, Janmaat, Quina,
Kabasele. Booked: Capoue, Hughes, Pereyra.
Manager: Javi Gracia 6.5.
Referee: Lee Mason 5.5. Attendance: 39,066.
F
ORGET Liverpool’s
trophy-winning his-
tory for a second and
consider the pedigree
of Jurgen Klopp’s
current crop.
Before their recent, quick-fire
European double, the records of
Liverpool’s players were a little
light on major honours from their
Anfield careers.
Only captain Jordan Henderson
had experienced what it was like
to win a trophy as a Liverpool
player, the 2012 League Cup.
Proven silverware winners as a
Liverpool squad, they were not.
It is why this still all feels like
relatively new territory for Klopp
and his players, a group in its
infancy as trophy winners though
one that made a start to changing
that with a sixth European Cup in
Madrid in June.
And why the Liverpool manager
is waiting and watching like the
rest of us to see how they adjust to
the challenges
that will come in
this new chap-
ter, now that the
expectation is
on them to
compete con-
sistently for the
biggest prizes.
Klopp was
certainly
encouraged by
what he saw at
St Mary’s in
Liverpool’s latest test. Could they
summon the energy to follow the
high of winning their 13th Euro-
pean trophy with another victory
rather than suffer a hangover on
the south coast?
The answer, eventually, was the
‘yes’ that Klopp hoped for.
Following Wednesday’s Super
Cup victory against Chelsea in
Istanbul, Liverpool overcame a
quick turnaround between games,
slow start and potentially morale-
sapping late howler from Adrian
to emerge with a hard-fought three
points thanks to goals in each half
from Sadio Mane and Roberto
Firmino.
Meanwhile, Manchester City
were dropping two points
at home.
‘We’re not surprised that we won
something but we are not used to
it as well so we always look a little
bit at how we react,’ Klopp said,
‘and I liked the reaction (against
Southampton) a lot; coming here
and fighting for the three points,
like they were the last three points
ever in the Premier League.
‘That’s the attitude which
brought us to the finals we played
and that’s what we have to
continue.’
Liverpool, of course, have gone
close to ending their long wait for
the big prize they desperately
want to get their hands on more
than any other — the Premier
League. Gerard Houllier, Rafa
Benitez and Brendan Rodgers
have all guided Liverpool sides to
second-placed finishes, but cru-
cially these were not built upon.
Klopp’s Liverpool, runners-up
last season, feel different, like they
can sustain their momentum and
are better set up as a club and
squad to be in it for the long haul.
That will require them adjusting
to the new challenges posed by
their opponents though.
Defender Andy Robertson said:
‘We know how teams set up differ-
ently against us at the back end
last season than they did at the
start of the season. We’ve won this
trophy (the Super Cup).
‘Maybe we will get a wee bit more
respect but we have dealt with it
well so far. There will be more
tough tests to come but the squad
we have got is well equipped.’
In this adaptation phase, as they
attempt to push on from last
season, their defensive resilience
has suffered.
Plenty has been made of the
number of shots on goal they have
faced already this season. South-
ampton had another 14 to lift
those numbers to 54 this season
compared to 31 after four games
last term. Liverpool have also kept
only one clean sheet in 11 games,
including pre-season fixtures,
which came in their opening
friendly against Tranmere.
There is no over-reaction inside
Anfield just yet about that, only an
insistence that defensive displays
will improve. Robertson said: ‘We
will get better as the season goes
on. We will get more compact. It
would be lovely to get a clean
sheet. There was no margin for
error last season and it will be the
exact same this season. We will
need to be better as well and we
will be.’
To do so, they will need to avoid
any of the self-inflicted problems
like the one Adrian presented
them with against Southampton.
In a weird quirk, Liverpool’s
fourth game of last season was
also a 2-1 away win, at Leicester, in
which Mane scored first and
Firmino second before a mistake
by their goalkeeper, when he dal-
lied on the ball, brought him back
down to earth after a confident
start to his Reds career.
For Alisson last year, who kept
three clean sheets before his gaffe
at Leicester, read Adrian this
time round.
He was the hero, with the win-
ning shootout save in Turkey in
midweek, but blundered when his
clearance cannoned off Danny
Ings into the net to set up a
nervy finale. Adrian looked uncer-
tain with his distribution all game
against Southampton so when the
error came it was little surprise
and also a wake-up call for the
Spaniard with the big gloves to fill
while Alisson is out injured.
Midfielder Gini
Wijnaldum said:
‘Those kind of
things happen
with a goalkeeper.
Last season it hap-
pened to Alisson
against Leicester
City. And in a pre-
season friendly.
How is he going to
react to the mistake
— that is more
important than the
mistake itself. He will be OK.’
SOUTHAMPTON (3-5-2): Gunn 6.5; Bednarek
5.5, Vestergaard 6, Yoshida 6.5; Valery 6.5,
Ward-Prowse 5.5, Romeu 6.5 (Ings 64min, 6.5),
Hojbjerg 5.5, Bertrand 6 (Djenepo 77);
Redmond 5.5, Adams 6 (Armstrong 68, 5.5).
Subs not used: Forster, Cedric, Obafemi,
Danso.
Scorer: Ings 83.
Booked: Romeu, Djenepo.
Manager: Ralph Hasenhuttl 5.
LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Adrian 5; Alexander-
Arnold 6, Matip 7, Van Dijk 7.5, Robertson 7.5;
Oxlade-Chamberlain 8 (Henderson 89),
Milner 7 (Fabinho 74, 6), Wijnaldum 6.5;
Salah 5.5 (Origi 79), Firmino 7.5, MANE 8.5.
Subs not used: Lonergan, Gomez, Lallana,
Shaqiri.
Scorers: Mane 44, Firmino 70.
Booked: Alexander-Arnold.
Manager: Jurgen Klopp.
Referee: Andre Marriner 5.
Attendance: 31,712.
SUPER VICTORY
ADRIAN
KAJUMBA
at St Mary’s
1
2
Mane 44
Firmino 70
LIVERPOOL
Ings 83
SOUTHAMPTON
«
IAN LADYMAN: COUTINHO BELONGS
AT LIVERPOOL – VERDICT PAGE 13
«
v1