Leeds United 1 Liverpool 6
Liverpool have been searching for a cure for travel sickness all season and at long last they seem to have found one.
Medicines can rarely have proved as dramatically effective as the balm provided by a generous Leeds defence as the outstanding Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota scored two goals apiece to leave Jürgen Klopp’s side glimpsing European horizons once more.
Admittedly they remain eighth in the Premier League, nine points behind fourth-placed Newcastle but at least Liverpool harbour the sort of hope fast draining from a Leeds team currently conceding goals at a frightening rate.
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Javi Gracia’s players may be two points and two places above third bottom Nottingham Forest but they have leaked 11 goals in two games now and the Championship is beckoning.
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When Leeds won at Anfield in late October hopes were high that Jesse Marsch’s then-side had turned a corner but, ultimately, it proved illusory and by February Gracia had replaced the American in the home dugout.
Things had been going well under Gracia until Crystal Palace came calling just over a week ago, but the resultant 5-1 thrashing left Leeds in no fit state to face Salah and friends.
Although Klopp’s side had failed to win any of their five games in the 44 days since they demolished Manchester United 7-0, they started far too brightly for the liking of home fans.
With Trent Alexander-Arnold deployed in an extremely fluid hybrid role which involved him drifting towards central midfield almost as much as operating in a more conventional right back position, Leeds looked alarmingly confused at times.
Gracia’s game plan was clearly to contain and counterattack but as Liverpool’s high press increasingly rattled the home defence and Leeds’ only attacking outlet seemed to be long hopeful high balls all too easily second guessed by Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté, Klopp must have harboured a heightening sense of optimism.
Incredibly Liverpool had failed to score a league goal against a side in the bottom half of the top tier all season but that unwanted record was about to come to an end in albeit slightly contentious fashion.
When Junior Firpo, Gracia’s left back, found himself caught daydreaming with the ball by Alexander-Arnold, the full back was allowed to exchange passes with Salah before squaring for Cody Gakpo to tap the opener beyond Illan Meslier.
Although Alexander-Arnold appeared to gain possession from Firpo courtesy of some elbow control, that handball was decreed to have occurred too early in the move for the goal to be disallowed.
If Leeds fans were unimpressed by the refereeing thought-process involved in that decision, they must also have been thoroughly alarmed by the manner in which Alexander-Arnold and Salah delighted in ganging up on Firpo.
Within five minutes Salah scored the second. This time Weston McKennie’s loss of central midfield control permitted Jota to seize possession before his pass prefaced the Egyptian expertly lifting a delicately chipped shot just beyond Meslier’s outstretched fingertips from 15 yards.
Before kick-off Gracia had claimed that Leeds were “full of confidence” but as the half-time whistle blew they looked positively traumatised. Damningly, bar watching a couple of half-chances from Rodrigo fly off target, Alisson had barely been exerted.
Small wonder Klopp’s goalkeeper seemed somewhat startled to be beaten two minutes into the second period. When Luis Sinisterra pickpocketed the dozing Konaté before advancing and dinking a shot over Alisson, Elland Road felt a surge of renewed hope.
Unfortunately for Gracia it proved strictly transitory. With Pascal Struijk failing to make a fairly routine clearance and the home defence consequently dragged out of position, Curtis Jones was able to slide an excellent pass through for Jota to curve a first-time shot past the advancing, and badly wrong-footed, Meslier.
Although Andy Robertson’s subsequent concentration lapse enabled Brenden Aaronson to curl a shot of his own fractionally off target, Salah soon had the ball in the back of the net again. On that occasion the “goal” was ruled out for a tight offside against Van Dijk, confirmed by a VAR review, but undeterred Salah swiftly scored his second goal, and Liverpool’s fourth of the night.
This time Jota, Robertson and Gakpo combined to cue Salah up to bend a beautifully calibrated shot well out of Meslier’s grasp. The look of despair on the face of Robin Koch, horribly deceived by Robertson, served as a microcosm of a Leeds side which had just conceded their 14th goal in four games.
Very soon it was 15 goals in four games, a mass exodus from the stands began and Gracia’s expression can best be described as pensive. Having earlier scored his first goal in a year Jota, registered a second, sending a half-volley crashing home from around 20 yards after connecting with Jordan Henderson’s cross.
All that remained was for Darwin Núñez to complete Leeds’ misery with Liverpool’s 90th-minute sixth. – Guardian
