The international match week is a difficult period of time for various players to adjust to the conditions while fighting for their countries. Liverpool was no exception, with many players fighting for their countries and some players playing two full matches.
On top of that, the match against Wolverhampton Wanderers kicked off early on Saturday. Being away from home, they pressed hard from the start and did not let the ball roll freely. The absence of key members of the team, such as Trent Alexander-Arnold, also had an impact.
The most noticeable problem was the poor condition of the players. Among them, Argentine midfielder Alexis Mac Allister, who flew to South America and started two games, including one in the high altitude Bolivia, was noticeably fatigued and did not look his best, making many passing errors.
Liverpool scored three goals in the second half to turn the game around, but the player was replaced by Luis Diaz at halftime. Jurgen Klopp admitted that he was struggling and revealed that he was not discouraged by the fact that he only played 45 minutes.
“The good thing about the first half was that it was that bad that I didn’t think we could play the second half like that,”
“Obviously we wanted to start completely differently, but for whatever reason it was not possible for the boys, you can see it.”
“Low energy level, Macca [Mac Allister], some others as well, you could just see they struggled. We couldn’t change five times at half-time, so we thought we’d change the system and one player, and give us a bit more speed up front, natural speed.”
“He had some good moments in the first half but he was not disappointed to come off, more relief.”
On the other hand, in contrast to the disastrous first half, Liverpool dominated the second half, not allowing their opponents to create any chances. Liverpool pushed from start to finish, and although Mohamed Salah did not score, he assisted on three goals.
Dominik Szoboszlai and others also contributed to the team’s victory with long and short passes.
Diaz, Darwin Nunez, and Harvey Elliott, who came on midway through the game, also played well. German manager praised his players for their good reactions against the Wolves, despite the lack of stability, as many of them are new and their tactics and coordination have not yet been fully absorbed.
“It’s really early days in the season but we need to take all the information we get. Turning game around is helpful in a season but we cannot rely on it, we cannot,”
“We have to play better in the first half of games generally. We are not stable yet, that is not possible. Too many things are new. I am ready to work on that and the boys are too.”
“They did not want to wave the white flag and that is good. When you win the lesser good games you can have a good season. The boys reacted really well.”