Jurgen Klopp could barely believe what he was seeing.
Sat alone on a water cooler positioned by the Liverpool dugout, the Reds boss cut a forlorn figure as he watched his team flounder their way through their Premier League opener.
If Klopp wasn’t expecting an occasionally shocking performance, then his players certainly weren’t ready for the whirlwind whipped up by Marco Silva’s Fulham at a bouncing Craven Cottage.
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Ragged, ramshackle and at times downright rubbish, the display perhaps cut to the heart of an inferred concern throughout the summer for Liverpool, hints of which weren’t difficult to spot. The shortened pre-season, particularly given the Reds’ hectic end to the previous campaign, hasn’t given Klopp his usual preparation time. And it showed.
Liverpool, of course, aren’t alone there, and there has always been a suspicion some teams will prove more undercooked than others, leading to some shock scorelines during the opening weeks. The Reds, then, did well to avoid one here, knocked out of their stride by a Fulham side revelling in their return to the top flight and, with a number of key absences, hardly in their finest shape themselves.
Aleksandar Mitrovic, who notched a record 43 times in the Championship last season, was a constant thorn, twice firing Fulham ahead and giving Virgil van Dijk a tough time all afternoon. The Dutchman knew he had been in a game.
That Liverpool escaped – and it was an escape – with at least some reward owed much to their resolve in notching two equalisers, and the changes made from the bench.
Klopp would have been forgiven for making all five substitutions at the interval, so poor were his team. Instead, he waited until injury to Thiago Alcantara and the ineffectiveness of Roberto Firmino forced his hand minutes into the second half.
Enter Darwin Nunez for his Premier League debut – and the game was changed. Liverpool suddenly had a focal point, Fulham a major problem. Having had one clever flick saved, the Uruguayan soon converted Mohamed Salah’s cross before, perhaps inadvertently, returning the favour.
A goal and an assist – of sorts – in both, Nunez couldn’t have done more from the bench in his opening two games. Firmino’s starting position is already looking precarious.
Liverpool weren’t prepared for this afternoon. But, as Klopp said before the game, Nunez is ready for the Premier League. The Reds can’t keep him on the bench for much longer.
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