It might have been fitting that, on the night the watching Ian Rush’s 65th birthday, the goals flowed at Anfield. Yet even as Liverpool celebrated their most prolific ever No 9, it was more about the man in the No 10 shirt.
The vast majority of Rush’s record 346 goals for Liverpool were penalty-box finishes and if much of Alexis Mac Allister’s best work comes in rather deeper positions, the midfielder displayed his predatory streak. In the process, he ensured that Andoni Iraola’s attempts to rest and rotate, which looked likely to backfire after the worst half-hour of his reign, did not cost Liverpool.
