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Fear not, Liverpool’s vastly improved first choice defence will be recalled for the visit of Roma


Fear not, Liverpool’s vastly improved first choice defence will be recalled for the visit of Roma

After the West Brom debacle, Alberto Moreno and Ragnar Klavan will surely sit this one out as Klopp looks to build a lead.

MAYBE it’s good to get a reminder of how far you’ve come just before the biggest game of your season, or of your last four years, or perhaps even of your last decade.

That’s the positive spin on Liverpool’s 2-2 draw at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday anyway, and there’s not much reason to dwell on the negative right now. Not with a Champions League semi-final on the horizon.

Jurgen Klopp’s decision to change three of his back four at The Hawthorns with Roma in mind meant that the recent defensive improvement that has been obvious to anyone who’s even paid the slightest bit of attention to Liverpool in 2018 was always under threat, and so it proved.

Alberto Moreno and Ragnar Klavan – both of whom might be in their last month as Liverpool players – both served as reminders of the jittery, uncertain times that went before, while Joe Gomez was rusty after a month on the sidelines. Virgil van Dijk was left looking around wondering what had happened to what he had become accustomed to. Without him, this could have been worse.

But it wasn’t that bad really. A top four finish should still be achieved in the coming weeks, but no-one will be thinking about that today. The bigger fish arrive in Merseyside on Monday, the attempt to fry them comes Tuesday, and then what could potentially be the finest of meals could be enjoyed in Rome next week. Exciting times, no?

Not that West Brom should be ignored obviously, because it featured a Liverpool goal for Danny Ings for the first time under Klopp, with his previous Reds strike being the last goal the club scored under Brendan Rodgers two-and-a-half years ago.

Liverpool lay 10th on that October evening following a 1-1 draw with Everton, having finished seventh the season before. They’d just drawn at Bordeaux and at home to Switzerland’s FC Sion in the Europa League, and struggled past Carlisle United on penalties in the League Cup at Anfield – with debutant Adam Bogdan saving three.

Rodgers’ bold, brave attempt to win the 2013/14 title had earned him credit in the bank, but that suspicion that this was a Reds side built on sand had quickly become apparent. He didn’t have the foundation to kick on and really sustain success, and it now showed nakedly and blindingly. Change was needed, and then patience was required to wait for it to come to fruition. Liverpool would still finish the season in eighth, after all.

And it seems important to remember all of that as the club enter a Champions League semi-final tie that most expect them to win, with Ings – a kind of ghostly presence through all that time – putting it all into sharp focus with his goal at the weekend. He won’t start against Roma of course, but those who will are playing for a side that it isn’t impossible to imagine winning this competition this season, and a manager who has a convincing plan to do just that.

Will they? First comes Roma on Tuesday, and you suspect Liverpool will have to build a decent first leg lead at Anfield given what the Italian side did to Barcelona in their quarter-final. The defence will at least be reconstituted and Mohamed Salah will be wound up and ready to take on his former side, so at least the signs look good.

The Serie A side will be able to point to their own progression and the sense of destiny behind them as they plot their own route to Kiev, and no-one should discount their ability and quality as an opposition.

But Liverpool know how to harness all that surrounds the club on nights such as these though, with their status as Roma’s bogey team down the years another thing they will undoubtedly play on.

The Italian capital features in plenty of Liverpool supporters’ songs given its association with some of the club’s most glorious victories in the past.

As Klopp hopes to set up another one for next week, no-one should be in any doubt about the progress he’s overseen in two-and-a-half years on Merseyside.   

And the progress still to come.

 

 

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