In the first-half against Arsenal on Sunday, Liverpool were fairly lacklustre – which has been largely forgotten because of what we did in the second-half.
We were lethargic, not visibly pressing and not incisive enough on the ball.
Arsenal were 1-0 up and had missed a penalty by the time Coutinho won a free-kick 30-yards out and curled it into the top corner.
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Skipper Jordan Henderson reckons this, combined with a frank team-talk from Jurgen Klopp, inspired our scintillating start to the second 45.
“We came in after the first half knowing we could play better,” the captain told Liverpoolfc.com.
“Philippe got us back in the game with a brilliant goal, to come in level. Then the manager said a lot of things we needed to improve on in the second half and I felt we did that.
“We came out firing in the second half and got some brilliant goals. They started gathering momentum after their second goal.
“There are a lot of things to improve on and work on, but a lot of good things as well. We’ve got to be delighted to come to the Emirates and get three points.
“Certainly the second-half performance at times was very good, especially when we went two or three goals in the lead.
“But after that we need to manage the game better, especially when they scored the second and gathered momentum. We just need to be a little bit more street-wise there.”
The captain has hit the nail on the head, to be fair. Going forward, Liverpool looked spellbinding – but our defensive lapses almost cost us a deserved three points.
If we’re capable of scoring four goals away at the Emirates, we need to be capable of not conceding three at the same time – as some days this season the wonder-strikes won’t go in.
Still, it’s brilliant that Klopp was able to explain to his players what was going wrong tactically – which enabled us to completely change the game.