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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
John Aldridge

Jurgen Klopp's team selection exposes Liverpool transfer need as two players struggle

The worst thing that Norwich City did against Liverpool was score a goal.

Everything was low, the performance and the atmosphere was low.

When you’re playing against these sides, and you get away fans singing the same old chants, it came back to haunt Norwich.

They certainly found out about the atmosphere when Liverpool went 1-0 down - and it wasn’t as big as a European night but it was enough to incentivise the players and spur them on to get the two quick goals.

The atmosphere, as much as anything, got Liverpool the three points. The fans were brilliant, they made up for 60-odd minutes of being very low.

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We know the big nights against the big teams, it’s a great atmosphere. But when you’re playing against, with all due respect, the likes of Leicester, Norwich, Cardiff, Shrewsbury, it’s hard to get yourselves up for it.

The expectations are that you’re going to beat them comfortably, and you can’t get yourself up.

So when it’s game on, as it was when Norwich scored, that’s when you thought that the match was going to be really tough.

It just shows sometimes you can get a little bit blasé, and subconsciously sometimes the players will too, they’re only human.

We’ve got to make things happen instead of waiting for them to happen, and that’s what the crowd did. They made things happen and then the players made things happen.

We struggled in midfield. I thought Jordan Henderson played really well, but you have to say Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita really didn’t get into the game - they struggled.

That meant the front three didn’t really get the ammunition to supply them with, and when Jurgen Klopp changed it by bringing on Thiago Alcantara and Divock Origi, the front players got a lift.

Luis Diaz got a lift, Thiago started pulling the strings and they were a lot better. It was so different in midfield, and they got a grip of it.

It was very similar to the Inter Milan game, the triple substitution changed the game.

The two substitutions against Norwich, along with the crowd, changed the game.

Luis Diaz’s goal against Norwich reminded me of a goal I scored in the 5-0 historic win against Nottingham Forest in 1988.

It was very similar, the goalkeeper comes off his line and Diaz lifts the ball over him from around 18-20 yards - it was a great finish.

It was calm, cool and collected. Sometimes players can just smash it, but it was a super finish.

He’s got so much going for him, he was quiet in the first hour but when the substitutions were made he was much more of an influence.

It was great to see all three of the strikers score, from my perspective it was good to see how they could play together.

Sadio Mane can play down the middle, he hasn’t played there for a while but he’s played down there before.

If they were to play a few games together they would get to know each other’s games more as a front three.

I think they will get better the more they get to know each other, because no one really knows Diaz, but he’s slotted in well.

It’s brilliant to have Kostas Tsimikas pushing Andy Robertson at left-back, because when I played for Liverpool you couldn’t not play well because someone else would have your place.

It’s great to have competition, so to have that and know that we’re competing with Manchester City, you know that you have to do the business otherwise you’d be dropped.

Tsimikas has shown that he’s a good replacement for Robertson - Robertson’s number one obviously, but Tsimikas has got a lot going for him.

He’s got a good left foot, he gets into tackles which fans love, he’s a good passer of the ball and he’s a good defender.

So if you’re looking at the squad going forward, depending on what happens with Neco Williams, Liverpool need a good back-up for Trent Alexander-Arnold.

A central midfielder is also needed in the summer transfer window, plus a striker, so that is looking forward.

Tsimikas has improved the squad, and it’s the best squad that Liverpool have ever had in their history.

Add to that a great manager and balancing the books, and the club have done it very wisely.

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