Ian Rush: Liverpool Must Hit Peak Form To Win At Arsenal
Liverpool still aren’t firing on all cylinders at the moment but they’re still putting three points on the board week after week and that’s all we can ask for at this crucial stage of the Premier League season.
They’re getting the results to keep a bit of pressure on Manchester City and what will have pleased Jurgen Klopp the most over the past three league games is that Liverpool haven’t conceded.
The 6-0 thrashing of Leeds was an enjoyable one for the home fans but the dogged 1-0 and 2-0 wins over West Ham and Brighton respectively actually impressed me more as it shows we can edge these tough games with that little bit of extra quality.
There’s a lot of games coming up in the FA Cup and Champions League too but Liverpool really won’t want to take their eye off the ball in the league, especially now that Manchester City have allowed them back in to the title race.
For me, Luis Diaz was man of the match against Brighton. He took his goal really well and was very brave with how he went in. The goalkeeper, however, was anything but brave – how Robert Sanchez wasn’t sent off for that is beyond me.
If that was an outfield player making that tackle anywhere on the pitch there’s no doubt they’d have seen red, it was an unacceptable challenge. It was one of those decisions that makes you wonder what the point of VAR is if it can’t help referees arrive at an obvious decision.
On the plus side, Diaz was okay and he put in a match-winning performance. Every time he got the ball he looked lively. He’s starting to remind me of Luis Suarez, with the way he twists and turns. He might never be as prolific as Suarez, but you don’t have to be a goal machine to be a great forward.
I was an out-and-out goalscorer whereas Kenny Dalglish was a different type of forward, and I think Diaz fits more in to that creative role from what I’ve seen of him so far. I think he’ll contribute a decent goal return once he fully settles, but he’ll probably get more assists than goals.
Arsenal A Tough Task
Arsenal away on Wednesday looks like a very, very tricky game for Liverpool with the way the Gunners are playing at the moment. I’ve said from the start of the season that I fancied them to finish in the top four this term and right now it looks as though it’s theirs to lose.
Liverpool will have to be at their best or they could quite easily lose at the Emirates. They might not have played as well as they can against Brighton or West Ham, but they were able to do enough.
Against this Arsenal side, no less than their best will do, and that’s a credit to Mikel Arteta who has rewarded the club for their faith in him, bearing in mind there were quite a few calls for his head at the beginning of the season when they got off to a rocky start.
Arsenal have been linked with Philippe Coutinho this week on the back his form for Aston Villa and I can see why – Coutinho to Arsenal makes sense. But if Coutinho is to stay in the Premier League beyond this season I think he should stick with Aston Villa.
He seems to have a good rapport with his old Liverpool team-mate Steven Gerrard and it would be a risk for him to give that up in favour of joining one of the bigger sides. If Villa can afford to sign him and want to sign him, I’d like to see him stay and commit to Gerrard’s project there.
That said, the football Arsenal are playing at the moment would lend itself to his qualities, so I can see the logic in the transfer links – he would be suited to their style.
Ronaldo ‘Different Class’
Cristiano Ronaldo gave us all a reminder of what he’s still capable of at the weekend – he’s different class, isn’t he? He wasn’t always just about the goals but in his latter years he’s very much become a No.9 and he still gets a thrill out of scoring.
He’s obviously not the future of Manchester United but he can be very much a part of their fight for a top four finish this season. On the other hand, Marcus Rashford could yet be the future of the club and it was interesting to see him start against Spurs after all the transfer rumours doing the rounds last week.
Rashford is a quality player so I’m surprised he hasn’t started more games this season, but that was a crucial win for United and he played his part, so it could yet be a turning point in his Old Trafford career.
Antonio Conte may not be having everything his own way at Tottenham but he’s probably still on the list of potential candidates to take the permanent managerial role at Manchester United at the end of the season.
His track record speaks for itself and if United do come calling, he’d have to look at it if things haven’t improved for him at Spurs. Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino are two others in the frame to be the next Man Utd boss but it’s difficult to gauge what the club have in mind.
Pochettino’s detractors were lining up to slate him after the manner in which Paris Saint-Germain went out of the Champions League last week, but I don’t think it’ll harm his chances of getting the United job if they want him and he’s interested.
It might even improve his chances if PSG decide they’ve had enough of Poch and look elsewhere themselves. If United are serious about him, one off-night in the Champions League shouldn’t deter them from going for their man.
Chelsea Off-Field Problems
There’s a lot going on at Chelsea at the minute and all eyes were on the players on Sunday to see if they were in any way hampered by what’s happening around the club off the field.
I have to say, they didn't seem fazed by it. They worked hard and ground out a result against an in-form Newcastle team, but I wasn’t surprised by that as these sorts of issues shouldn’t have an impact on your game if you’re a professional.
Newcastle should have had a penalty and played very well – they pressed from the front and forced Chelsea to play more long balls that they would have liked, but the home side just got on with it and we can expect them to carry on that way even with all the uncertainties about the future of the club.
If Chelsea can keep on winning it will give the team the strength to carry on regardless. Having said that, the situation looks pretty precarious and if the team are soon asked to play without being paid then they may run in to some problems.
If they’re asked to see out the season without being paid, I’d like to see them respond to that in a positive way and carry on for the supporters if nothing else. I hope it doesn’t come to that because it’s not nice for the fans to have everything unravel before their eyes and football should always be about the fans.
Kane or Haaland To City?
Manchester City have been heavily linked with Erling Haaland over the past few days and it’s a bit frightening to imagine how hard they’ll be to stop if he goes there. They’re already hard to stop even without a goal machine, but that’s exactly what Haaland is.
We shouldn’t be too surprised that City are interested in signing a big-name striker after they were in for Harry Kane last summer and if you were to pinpoint any sort of weakness in Pep Guardiola’s squad it would be that they don’t have an out-and-out goalscorer. Signing Haaland would certainly address that issue and make them even stronger next season.
I wonder what Kane makes of the Haaland rumours after he came close to being Guardiola’s big-name centre-forward last year. Would City be better off with proven Premier League goalscorer Kane or the next superstar forward in Haaland?
Haaland is clearly destined to be a major player in European football for many years to come, but the Premier league is a lot different to the Bundesliga so he might need time to adapt. With Kane, you know what you’re going to get and that’s a prolific goal return, so I would be going with the experience if I was Pep.
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