Burnley 0-2 Liverpool: Player Ratings

Written by @bobbehfirmino (Twitter)

In their final game of 2023, Jurgen Klopp's men travelled to Burnley and secured a fairly comfortable 2-0 win to go top of the Premier League for at least two days.

Alisson Becker - 6. Similarly to the Arsenal game on the 23rd, Alisson had nothing of note to face from our opposition, even less so against Burnley. Most of their shots in dangerous areas were outright misses or blocks from those ahead of Alisson. So, if the rating feels harsh, it’s a testament to how good our defence was in a night where they needed to be. As always, though, Alisson was great in the build up, completing five long balls.

Trent Alexander-Arnold - 8. Trent levels his rating from last week with another class performance. He’s always good in this stage of the season but this current version of Trent Alexander-Arnold may even be the best. He created four chances from a more conservative inverted role, which finds him in between the two centre backs more often. He also had a shot in the second half which could’ve flown in on another day. And potentially the biggest compliment of them all, given his past in this area, he was near-perfect defensively, winning three tackles, four ground duels and an aerial duel.

Jarell Quansah - 9 (MOTM). A Virgil-esque performance for his partner-in-crime, Quansah didn’t put a foot wrong for the Reds, which has been the story for almost all of his senior Liverpool career so far. He was imperative to making sure Burnley didn’t find an equaliser in the second half before Jota sealed it at the end. The Warrington-born defender won nine duels and completed ninety-five passes. You are reading that right.

Virgil van Dijk - 8. In an unusual set of circumstances, van Dijk has scored a lower score than his compatriot two weeks in a row, with the defender next to him (being Ibou Konate last week) winning my Man of the Match both times. Could we be seeing the birth of Virgil van Dijk’s two successors being born in front of our eyes? Obviously Ibrahima Konate is further in his career than Quansah, and we don’t want to think about life without van Dijk, who also completed ninety-five passes, completed a dribble, completed six accurate long balls, and won eight out of his eight duels.

Joe Gomez - 7. I was very high of praise for Joe Gomez last week after filling in for Kostas Tsimikas at left back, with the task of keeping Bukayo Saka quiet, and he has put on a solid game on the left once again. Still yet to find the net, but that is bound to come with more good performances and nearly-shots. However, my praise for him this week comes from his solid defensive work, winning ten duels and completing three-of-three tackles. You’d like to think he’ll be starting against Newcastle at Anfield on New Years’ Day.

Wataru Endo - 7. I may sound like a broken record so far, but I’ll say again has Wataru Endo put on a solid game and is proving to be a smart pickup from VfB Stuttgart. Some had doubts about his physicality in the league, especially in away games like these, but his six duels won answer that question. He also completed three long balls and very nearly found the net in the first half. He will definitely be a big miss when he goes to the Asia Cup with Japan, and you’d expect them to go far in their current form.

Harvey Elliott - 7. Taking Dominik Szobszlai’s starting spot against Burnley, Elliott also continues his fine form, and should’ve added to his goal tally, too, if we were given a different referee. The most important thing is the fact that a poor refereeing decision did not cost us our three points, or Harvey Elliott a good performance. He definitely played better in the first half, which isn’t to say he was poor in the second, just less penetrative. He was taken off for Szoboszlai in the 67th minute.

Ryan Gravenberch - 4. Unfortunately, the positivity briefly stops there, as Ryan Gravenberch started in the place of Curtis Jones (which could suggest he will start against Newcastle, and rightly so) and failed to impress yet again. We should still not get carried away with him as a player, and we can still count his poor games on one hand, but Jurgen Klopp substituting him off in minute 67 put him out of his misery, and the honeymoon period is certainly over.

Mohamed Salah - 8. Just the second Premier League game since December 2022 which we have won without Salah contributing to a goal, and yet he still gets an eight. The other would be Sheffield United away this season, in which he didn’t perform as well, but he showed exactly why we will miss him when he goes to AFCON, even if two of our other attackers were on the scoresheet this time out. Mo still challenged the goalkeeper, forcing James Trafford to make a great finger tip save in the first half. He also hit the bar in what would have been one of the better of his 150 Premier League goals for Liverpool.

Darwin Nunez - 8. In what felt like an eternity, finally we have something positive to rave about with Darwin Nunez, who opened the scoring with an amazing finish from outside of the box, ending a thirteen game goal drought for the club, in which he registered two assists. To put that into perspective, his last goal before Burnley was also in our green away kit, in the Carabao Cup against Bournemouth, where he scored an amazing Suarez/Torres esque finish. Other than his goal, Nunez was a question asker for the opposition, creating chaos in the final third, which has been the story of his season.

Cody Gakpo - 8. The starting front three all receive the same rating, with Gakpo, starting on the left this time and Nunez up front, assisted the opener with a good touch back outside the box, set up perfectly for Nunez to strike it first time. Other than his assist in his 50th game for the club, he completed 93% of his passes, troubled the goalkeeper twice with a 0.7xG, and completed five dribbles against the Burnley defence.

Curtis Jones - 5. Getting into the substitutes, a 5 rating may seem harsh for Jones, giving the fact that I gave Gravenberch a 4 who played poorly, but he came off the bench and played two thirds of the game less than the Dutchman, so keep it in consideration that minutes played does impact overall rating, apart from Tsimikas last week because he was so impressive against Saka. Curtis Jones was sound in the midfield with the ball, completing twenty passes, but we slightly lost control of the game after Elliott came off. I’m sure he will start next Monday and remind us why he has been getting these games during Alexis Mac Allister’s absence.

Dominik Szoboszlai - 5. Szoboszlai receives the same rating as Jones as he had a similar impact on the game, which is not a big one. However, he had his regular shot from outside the box, which was off target. There is not much more to say about his performance, not great but not awful enough to be worried about.

Luis Diaz - 7. Waiting for Diaz and Nunez to have good games was like waiting twelve hours without seeing a single London bus, and then 25 pull in at the same time. However, almost perfectly in time for AFCON, we have our miracle. Diaz had two noteworthy moments after coming on. The first, forced James Trafford into a stop as he very nearly found the net with what would have been a tidy finish. And the second, I’ll talk about more with the next player. But he has his first goal involvement in eight games for Liverpool in all competitions, which will take a slight weight off his shoulder.

Diogo Jota - 7. Finally we come to Diogo Jota, who came on in the 81st minute after a decent amount of time out with injury, and he sealed the game with a late goal, as he does so well. There isn’t much to say about his all-round game, because he wasn’t on the pitch long enough to do anything of note in that regard, but he made more than enough impact on the game. In the 90th minute, just approaching injury time, as Burnley were pushing for an equaliser, Jota found Diaz making a run into the box, and he attempted to bring it inside of Vitinho, before the angle becomes too tight and backheels hit to the onrushing Jota. He brings it away from Jordan Beyer and, just before the ball trickles out for a goal kick, Jota sends the ball through Trafford’s legs and into his bottom left corner with a great finish from a tight angle. It was his 50th goal for the club.

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