It was not quite as an emphatic a victory as the scoreline suggested. In fact, it took the half to reset and find a way to breakthrough before Liverpool even looked lively enough to earn a victory. Still, the Reds did ultimately earn a win, beating Huddersfield Town 3-0 at Anfield.
Surprisingly, Jurgen Klopp made few changes from the side that came apart at the seams in London last week. With Philippe Coutinho unavailable through injury and Dejan Lovren’s last-minute substitution, Daniel Sturridge and Ragnar Klavan started. Only Georginio Wijnaldum actually replaced anyone, returning to the midfield instead of Emre Can. While the win will do them club some good, the gaffer may have missed a chance to impose new requirements on his players.
Instead of starting with a spark and showing they were ready to respond, Liverpool continued to stutter. Too slow and too sluggish, the Reds were allowed to knock the ball around their back line for most of the first half. For a team playing at home after a thrashing, there seemed precious little urgency.
Then a bit of luck fell their way with a late first-half penalty, which Mohamed Salah spurned, suggesting that maybe Liverpool were far from re-writing their wrongs. Even Jordan Henderson’s follow-up shot spun off the base of the post. The interval arrived with some vocal displeasure of the home supporters. Yet, the Reds found a way to grab all three points in a match that could easily have caused a crisis had they not.
Here are four findings from the match.
