Review of Liverpool vs Norwich City Premier league.

Short Summary: 

Liverpool 3-1 Norwich City. 

Played at Anfield Stadium Liverpool England 

Goals scored for Liverpool were: Sadio mane assisted by Konstantinos Tsimikas, Mo Salah assisted by Alisson Becker and Luis Diaz assisted by Jordan Henderson. 

Goal scored for Norwich were: Miiot Rashica assisted by Joshua Sargent. 

Review of the match: 

Liverpool meet Norwich City once again in the premier league this season after beating them 3-0 at Carrow Road back in August. After a great victory over Inter Milan in midweek in Milan Italy, Jurgen Klopp decided to make seven changes to the Liverpool line-up to freshen things up as we continue on our heavily schedule of games as we continue to fight on in four different competitions this season. Norwich City’s season hasn’t been great but has their performances have improve since Daniel Farke was sacked and replace by Dean Smith who in my opinion shouldn’t have gotten sacked at Aston Villa earlier this season as he should have been given more time to balance out the Villa Squad after a heavy summer transfer window. 

Liverpool started this game slowly and it was Norwich who started the game brightly and could have been ahead at half time it if wasn’t for once again the fantastic Liverpool GK Alisson who has proven every penny of money that we spend on to bring him to Liverpool from Roma a couple of seasons ago. I thought that by playing Joe Gomez at right-back we lost a bit of attack that we usual get from our star right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold and that in the summer an equally good right-back is needed in my opinion to be a good back-up to Trent Alexander-Arnold. The best chances that Liverpool had in the first half was a shot by Diaz on his left foot which just went over the Norwich box. The other great chance in the first half for Liverpool fell to Tsimikas who shot with his left foot and the full-back slid into the box but his shot with the ball went over the bar from five yards out. 

In the second half, Norwich started again brighter than Liverpool and went ahead on the 48^th minute when a shot by Rashica from the edge of the Liverpool box took an massive deflection off Joel Matip and went pass the opposite corner of the goal and Alisson couldn’t do anything about it so 1-0 to Norwich. After this goal, the pattern of the game continues for about 10 mins with Liverpool not having an edge on their attacks and also Norwich defending very well when Liverpool did attack so Klopp decided on the 62^nd minute to make a double change and these changes would make the difference in the game.  

Origi and Thiago came on for Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain and Liverpool switch from 4-3-3 to an 4-2-3-1 otherwise a 4-2-4 in an effort to get back into the game and on the 64^th minute it had worked as Liverpool equalized when am set-piece led to Tsimikas headed the ball down to Mane who tried the overhead kick again and unlike in Milan where it didn’t work, it work on this Saturday afternoon in Liverpool and the Norwich GK couldn’t do a thing about it so 1-1 after 65 mins of the game.  

After this goal for Liverpool, the pace and pattern of the game change from Norwich being in the game to it being all Liverpool and eventually it would lead to another goal for Liverpool with Salah getting his 150^th goal for Liverpool after a great kick of the ball from Alisson and he slides past the Norwich GK and sliding the ball with his right foot into the goal to make it 2-1 to Liverpool. The icing on the cake in this game was a first goal in Liverpool colors for January marquee signing Luis Diaz who bite his time to get into the right place for the Liverpool Captain Jordan Henderson to slide a great ball to Diaz’s feet and he clipped the ball over the body of the Norwich GK to make it 3-1 to Liverpool and with that another three points on the board for Liverpool. This victory was important for Liverpool’s season and it became an even more important victory when Manchester city lost 3-2 to Tottenham and those results for both Liverpool and Man City means there is only six points between the two clubs in the title race and not if but when Liverpool beat Leeds United this coming Wednesday evening then it will be only three points between the top two in the premier league and it will also mean that the title race would be officially back on for Liverpool. 

Summary of the teams’ line-ups: 

 Liverpool: Alisson, Gomez, Matip, Van Dijk, Tsimikas, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Keita, Henderson, Mane, Salah, Diaz 

Bench: Kelleher, Fabinho, Origi, Konate, Thiago, Milner, Minamino, Robertson, Elliott.  

Subs Used: Origi for Keita, Thiago for Oxlade-Chamberlain, Minamino for Diaz. 

Norwich City: Gunn, Max Aarons, Grant Hanley, Ben Gibson, Brandon Williams, Billy Gilmour, Mathias Normann, Kenny McLean, Sargent, Rashica, Teemu Pukki. 

Bench: Michael McGovern, Sam Byram, Christoph Zimmermann, Ozan Kabak, Dimitrios Giannoulis, Pierre Lees-Melou, Przemyslaw Placheta, Kieran Dowell, Jonathan Rowe 

Subs Used: Placheta for Sargent, Lees-Melou for Normann, Rowe for Rashica. 

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Review of Inter Milan vs Liverpool FC First Leg of Champions League Knockout Stages

Short Summary: 

Inter Milan 0-2 Liverpool FC 

Played at San Siro Stadium Milan Italy 

Goals scored for Liverpool were; Roberto Firmino assisted by Andy Robertson and Mo Salah assisted by Virgil van Dijk. 

Review of Match: 

Inter Milan and Liverpool meet for the first time in the Champions League knockout stages since the 2008/2009 season and a lot had changed for both clubs since those games. The game started at a quick pace and both teams were trying to settle into the game and also figure out the systems that both teams were operating with on the night with Inter using their 3-5-2 system and Liverpool going with their normal system of an 4-3-3. I was surprised that Klopp went with Harvey Elliott for such an important game for Liverpool but once again the manager’s trust in this young player is worth it as he has another great game and is continuing to make an impact even at this stage of his young career. There was not a lot of real chances in the first half but both sides have two half-chances with Sadio Mane had the best chance for Liverpool in the first half. Inter Milan also had one half-chance and one shot that could have easily go in if wasn’t for the crossbar stopping Hakan Calhanoglu for scoring for Inter.  

A real blow for Liverpool was the injury to Diogo Jota in the first half so at half time Firmino came on for him and once again the manager decision to still have believe and trust in Firmino pay off for Liverpool in the second half as Inter were piling on the pressure for a good portion of the second half and should have probably gone ahead in the tie but due to the defending of the Liverpool defense plus the excellent saves for the Liverpool GK Alisson Becker. Eventually, Klopp made an triple substitutes when he brought Luis Diaz, Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita on for Mane, Elliott and Fabinho and these changes would provable the push that Liverpool needing to get ahead in this tight game and on the 75^th minute Liverpool went ahead in the game as an corner from Robertson came in and Firmino got ahead of the man who was marking him and glaze an great header into the far corner and there wasn’t anything that the Inter GK Samir Handanovic could do about it. It was a much-needed goal as the flow of the game went back to Liverpool easing the pressure on the defense that have done a brilliant job of keeping inter out. Liverpool found a second goal before the end of the game when an freekick was send into the inter box and Van Dijk got an great touch on the ball to bring it down to Salah and Salah then does what he best at is which is going past defenders and shooting inside the 18-yard box to make it 2-0 to Liverpool on the night. It was a great victory for the reds of Liverpool and hopefully we will finish the job when inter come to Anfield on 8^th March. My man of the match was a tie between Alisson and Ibrahima Konate 

Summary of the teams’ line-ups: 

Inter Milan: Handanovic, Milan Skriniar, Stefan De Vrij, Alessandro Bastoni, Denzel Dumfries, Arturo Vidal, Marcelo Brozovic, Calhanoglu, Perisic, Edin Dzeko, Lautaro Martinez. 

Bench: Alex Cordaz, Ionut Andrel Radu, Roberto Gagilardini, Alexis Sanchez, Andrea Ranocchia, Federico Dimarco, Danilo D’Ambrosio, Matteo Darmian, Mattia Sangalli, Franco Carboni, Felipe Calcedo. 

Subs Used: Sanchez for Martinez, Darmian for Dumfries, Gagilardini for Vidal, Ranocchia for De Vrij, Dimarco for Bastoni. 

Manager: Simone Inzaghi 

Liverpool: Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk, Konate, Robertson, Fabinho, Elliott, Thiago Alcantara, Jota, Mane, Salah. 

Bench: Caoimhin Kelleher, James Milner, Naby Keita, Firmino, Henderson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Takumi Minamino, Konstantinos Tsimikas, Diaz, Divock Origi, Joel Matip. 

Subs Used: Firmino for Jota, Diaz for Mane, Henderson for Fabinho, Keita for Elliott, Milner for Thiago 

Manager: Jurgen Klopp. 

The best signings for Liverpool FC under Jurgen Klopp:

1. Mohamed Salah signed from AS Roma for 43,900,000 million pounds 22^nd June 2017 

2. Diogo Jota signed from Wolves for 45 million pounds 19^th September 2020 

3. Alisson Becker signed from AS Roma for 65 million pounds 19^th July 2018 

4. Virgil Van Dijk signed from Southampton for 75 million pounds 1^st January 2018 

5. Fabinho Tavarez signed from AS Monaco for 43,700,000 million pounds 1^st July 2018 

6. Andy Robertson signed from Hull City for 10 million pounds 21^st July 2017 

7. Georginio Wijnaldum signed from Newcastle United for 25 million pounds 22^nd July 2016 

8. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain signed from Arsenal for 35 million pounds 31^st August 2017 

9. Joël Matip signed on a free transfer 1^st July 2016 

10. Thiago Alcantara signed from Bayern Munich for 27,400,000 million pounds 18^th September 2020 

P.S: Harvey Elliott and Luis Diaz missed out on top ten list as Elliott have bad injury and is only coming back and he has big potential to become a top player for Liverpool FC. Diaz misses out as he just been signed in the transfer window just passed but he looks like another under-rated signing by the club and can become an even better player just like Diogo Jota has. 

LIVERPOOL VS INTER MILAN; FIRST LEG OF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE KNOCKOUTS:

Liverpool next game in the current season is an tough away game to inter Milan as we resume our quest for an seventh champions league title. i believe that on current form that it will be a tight game but that Liverpool can come away from the SAN SIRO with an advantage into the second leg at ANFIELD. Both sides are playing well enough at this stage of the season but i do believe with the additional of Luis Diaz plus the return of Sadio Mane and MO Salah will aid liverpool in their quest to overcome Inter Milan. i think van Dijk will be key in the first leg as i am expecting inter to do with Dzeko as main striker with support from either Martinez or Sanchez who has become important to inter again since the new year. the Liverpool team line-up that i am expecting Klopp to go with is the following: Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk, Konate, Robertson, Henderson, Fabinho, Curtis Jones, Mane, Jota, Salah with the bench being Kelleher, Gomez, Matip, Milner, Keita, Elliott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Diaz and Firmino. the scoreline i am going to go for this first leg in the champions league is either an 0-0 draw or 2-1 win to Liverpool.

i will do an review assessment of the game hopefully this week as well as i get to used to doing this more regularly.