Liverpool 2-1 Fulham: Player Ratings

Written by @bobbehfirmino (Twitter)

Liverpool put one foot in the League Cup Final with a victory in the first leg at home to Fulham.

Caoimhin Kelleher - 5. It's been the story of his season so far, underwhelming. And that was the case again today. He should have saved Fulham’s goal by Willian, with it being a mix of poor positioning and anticipation. It is yet to be seen whether Kelleher will ever recapture his form between 2020 and 2022, and it begs the question, what has caused his downfall?

Conor Bradley - 9. What a performance by Conor Bradley. On his tenth appearance for the club, and still yet to play in the league, he put in an arguably Man of the Match performance. He didn’t earn my Man of the Match award, but it was very tight between him and my winner. Not to overhype Bradley after two great games in a row, but it is looking like we may finally have a capable Trent Alexander-Arnold replacement. He will have to fill in against Bournemouth in the league, Fulham away in the second leg, Norwich or Bristol Rovers in the FA Cup and maybe Chelsea and Arsenal in the league. The next month or so will definitely test his resolve, and will answer a lot of questions we as fans are beginning to ask after his recent form.

Ibrahima Konate & Virgil van Dijk - 7.This is the first time I have put two players in one rating, but there is not much to say about either centre half who had very similar performances. They were both solid, with Van Dijk completing seven long balls and Konate making a block and three clearances. You could say Konate deserves to be a rating higher, with Van Dijk making an (unregistered) mistake in Willian’s goal and could have been sent off on another day, but he improved as the game went on and the ratings levelled themselves out by the end of the game.

Joe Gomez - 8. I’m running out of superlatives to describe Joe Gomez this season. I am so proud of how much he’s improved his game since last season. He continues to impress at both ends of the field, whether he’s on the right or left, and has been the perfect squad player this season. I’m sure the goal is coming, I’m sure he’s sure the goal is coming, with a lot of people believing that half volley at the end of the first half was his moment, but it was not to be. He won five duels and two tackles.

Alexis Mac Allister - 7. Mac Allister was everywhere today, taking all the set pieces, (attempting to) create in the first half especially and also proving crucial to prevent Fulham counter attacks. He also proved why he is a better defensive midfielder than Palhinha, with that tackle on the Portuguese midfielder in the first half preventing a counter and resulted in him eating grass.

Ryan Gravenberch - 3. I don’t like slating Gravenberch, obviously, but I’ve been left with no choice recently. He has not been up to scratch since around October, so we have to wait to see whether his first months at the club were good form, or his last few months have been bad form, and this isn’t the player he is. One of the most frustrating things about Gravenberch’s game is his body language, whenever he loses a duel or misplaces a pass he doesn’t look like he cares, usually laughing it off rather than looking disappointed in himself. However, that may be a cruel judgement as Mane and Salah were/are the same. One positive about Gravenberch is that he definitely improved in the second half before he was substituted.

Curtis Jones - 8. Jones was his usual self today, popping up in the box with shots and key passes, and being in the right place in the midfield to win the ball back and start an attack of our own. I am going to start writing his pass completion every game he plays to prove a point, today it was 98%. Jones took three shots on target and won five duels, emphasising his importance on both ends of the field, and his hard work payed off in the 68th minute where his shot took a decent-sized deflection off Tosin Adarabioyo and looped in to Leno’s net.

Harvey Elliott - 7. I wasn’t expecting Elliott to play on the wings today, I predicted Nunez to start instead of Gravenberch and the midfield three to be Elliott, Mac Allister and Jones. However, the right wing was where he was placed, and he played decently against his former club, whose fans peculiarly chose to boo him. Although creativity was a struggle in the first half, he still played well before being substituted with Gravenberch in the 56th minute. I’m not sure whether the long term vision while Salah is away at AFCON will be Elliott on the wing or someone else, but pretty much anyone Klopp is likely to pick will be a good option.

Diogo Jota & Luis Diaz - 7. Another grouped rating, I’m probably not planning on making this a long term thing, but it’s very rare that two pairs of players play very similar performances in the same game. As I have already said, creativity was a problem in the first half, and the pair were underwhelming, struggling to create big chances for themselves or their teammates. However, just as a lot of others clicked in the second half, as did Jota and Diaz, the former probably should have found the net at least once.

Cody Gakpo - 8. One of just two used substitutes on the night, and one of two substitutes who made a difference, Gakpo found the winner just three minutes after Jones’ equaliser, with a tidy left footed finish past a very resilient Bernd Leno. A quote from Gakpo after the game that I wanted to add, “The mentality in the club is like the city, just keep going no matter what. When you have this mentality a lot of beautiful things can happen.”

Darwin Nunez -9. (MOTM).And we finally come to my Man of the Match, Nunez who played just 34 minutes, got the assist for both goals and troubled the Fulham defence better than any other Liverpool player did. As soon as he came on he instantly asked questions of their defence, dropping a Fulham defender on the far left hand corner in front of the Kop, and swinging a cross into the box. His assist for Gakpo was definitely his highlight of the game, receiving the ball from Jota on the left hand side of the box, taking a touch with his right foot and sending an inch perfect cross into Gakpo’s left foot, who just needed to swing his boot at the ball to put it into the net. The word ‘unlucky’ is used a lot for Darwin Nunez, usually misused, but today he was definitely unlucky not to score at least once. Leno’s fine with conceding to any Liverpool player BUT Darwin Nunez, it seems.

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