A selection of Liverpool Football Club-related stories and titbits you may have missed over the past seven days…
Mohamed Salah, who was one of the few players to emerge from Sunday’s woeful 4-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur with any credit, has been heavily praised by Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp. Speaking ahead of the club’s trip to Wembley, Klopp told his pre-match press conference: “It was a fantastic job of the scouting department; it’s not that I didn’t know Mo Salah, of course – everybody knew him. I’ve known him since he was at Basel, but to see his development in different things and we then all together had to make the judgement, how can we compare the Italian league with the English Premier League and stuff like this. All the rest is Mo Salah. He is a fantastic boy and always it helps if you settle as a person very quickly, perhaps you then settle as a player. I don’t think he needed even half an hour to settle in the team – that was fantastic from the first day.”
The Egyptian was this week rewarded for his performance in Liverpool’s 7-0 win over Maribor last Tuesday with the Champions League Player of the Week accolade. It’s the second time in four matches Salah has claimed the prize, having also done so for his performance against Sevilla on Matchday One.
On the subject of the weekend defeat to Spurs, defender Joël Matip was one of a number of players to come out with some scathing criticism for the performance. “It cannot go like this. It cannot be that we concede that many goals away. I’m a defender and I should take care of this,” the No.32 told broadcaster Sky Sports after the final whistle. “We gave them the opportunity. It was not that they played the perfect ball with our mistakes. We have to take care of them and have to stop them. They were the better team. We only came back for a short time [in the game] and that is not enough to win against Tottenham. We’ll try to strike back next week.”
Four first team fixtures in December have been rescheduled for live TV broadcasts by Sky Sports. The first Merseyside derby of the season will now take place at 2.15pm GMT on Sunday December 10 at Anfield, while the Reds’ trip to Bournemouth on Sunday December 17 will kick off at 4.30pm. Liverpool’s meeting with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium has also been moved to Friday December 22, kicking off at 7.45pm, and the Boxing Day clash with Swansea City will now take place at 5.30pm.
Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino have been called up to the Brazil squad for international friendlies against Japan and England on November 10 and 14 respectively.
In a lighthearted break from football, Daniel Sturridge, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Joe Gomez and Nathaniel Clyne have taken part in Carpool Karaoke. See the video below.
Liverpool-bound midfielder Naby Keita has received a ringing endorsement from the sporting director of his current side RB Leipzig. “He’s one of the best I’ve worked with in 20 years of professional football,” remarked Ralf Rangnick, who has previously been associated with the likes of Sadio Mané, Gylfi Sigurdsson and David Alaba, to German magazine Kicker. “I’d also prefer, 10 times, that we’d kept him for another five years – but we are just not able to pay salaries in excess of ?10m.”
Liverpool U23s claimed their seventh Premier League 2 win of the season on by beating Manchester United 3-1. The deserved victory on Monday night, courtesy of goals from Ovie Ejaria, Marko Grujić and Harry Wilson, moves Neil Critchley’s side five points clear at the top of the standings. LFC U23s: Grabara, Alexander-Arnold, Flanagan, Masterson, Whelan, Grujic, Woodburn, Virtue (Brannagan, 73′), Ings, Ejaria, Wilson (Adekanye, 86′). Unused substitutes: Kelleher, Jones, Juanma.
Goalkeeper Kamil Grabara made some great saves during the contest and speaking to LFCTV afterwards he revealed his first team ambitions. “To be training at Melwood is a good sign,” commented the Polish youth international. “It’s always nice. I am looking to play for the first team but I know that’s currently far away. We will see what the future brings.”
The U18s have also been in fine form over the past few days, putting five past West Bromwich Albion on Saturday morning. The 5-2 victory, which maintains the team’s unbeaten start in the league, came despite falling behind and going into the interval only level at 2-2. Curtis Jones, Adam Lewis, Paul Glatzel and Liam Millar (2) were the players on target. LFC U18s: Jaros, Hunter, Lewis, R. Williams, Glennon, Dixon-Bonner, Longstaff, Glatzel (Sharif, 69′), McAuley (Millar, 62′), Jones (Clayton, 73′), Camacho. Unused subs: B.Williams, Raitanen.
Over in India, Rhian Brewster netted a superb hat-trick and also provided an assist as England U17s clinched a place in the semi-finals of the World Cup with a 4-1 win over the United States. The striker showed great reactions and composure to score twice inside the opening 15 minutes. Later, after assisting Morgan Gibbs-White to put the junior Three Lions 3-0 ahead, the striker snuffed out any faint hopes of a late USA comeback with an injury-time penalty.
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