Five things we learned from Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Leeds United

With a late goal from Leeds’ Diego Llorente, Leeds United smashed Liverpool’s hopes of breaking into the top four tonight. With the first half looking very promising for Liverpool after Sadio Mane’s cleverly crafted goal, the second half was far from ideal for the Reds with Leeds dominating everything.

1) Diogo Jota is going to be key for Liverpool getting Top Four

Diogo Jota today showed once again how important he is to this Liverpool team. His ball for Trent Alexander-Arnolds assist was a thing of beauty. At the moment Jota seems like he is the only one who is able to skip past players with ease and actually create something, so all eyes will be on the Portuguese man in the run up to the end of the season.

(Photo by Press Association/Sipa USA)

Even though we aren’t currently sure if top four is going to end up being relevant this season. Klopp and the players will not want to take the chance of not getting into that top four spot and Jota is going to be a huge part of it if we do end up there.

2) Georginio Wijnaldum needs to be dropped

Georginio Wijnaldum has been a massive part of this club’s success under Jurgen Klopp and the fans will never forget the contributions he has made but he is currently holding the club at ransom and is refusing to sign a contract. We could understand Klopp’s thought process of starting him if he offered anything but for the last 2 seasons it seems like all Wijnaldum has offered us is being fit.

Midfield is not an area we are weak in and we have more attacking options like Chamberlain, Curtis Jones or even Xherdan Shaqiri. Playing Wijnaldum is not helping us attacking wise, which is our main struggle at the moment. If Wijnaldum doesn’t want to be here next year then he should not be played, it’s as simple as that and giving him the armband is even more insulting towards all the legends who have wore it in the past.

3) We missed Nathaniel Phillips

I’m sure no Liverpool fan thought they would be saying this at the beginning of the season but today we missed our big man Nat Phillips. We know we can always rely on Nathaniel to win everything that’s coming into the box and that’s where the Leeds equaliser eventually came from.

With Phillips being out injured it also forced our best midfielder, Fabinho to be played at CB. Yes, Fabinho is more than capable at centre back, but every time he isn’t in the midfield we seem to lose the midfield battle and that is what happened in the 2nd half unfortunately. Hopefully it was only a slight niggle for Nathaniel and he will be fit for the Newcastle game.

4) Trent Alexander-Arnold is back to his best

Today we got another assist from our assist king himself Trent Alexander-Arnold. For the past four or five game Trent has really started showing glimpses of his former self and today was no different.

(Photo by Press Association/Sipa USA)

The young Englishmen made an amazing run to get on the end of Jota’s incredible pass and cushioned it perfectly for Sadio Mane to put it in the back of the net. We saw earlier in the season those not coming off for Trent but he looks full of confidence and has been trying to dictate the game like he used to. 

5) Leeds fully deserved a draw

This Leeds United side Marcelo Bielsa has put together is hardworking, very well organised and they never give up. In the second half Leeds was just to much for Liverpool and if we’re being totally honest, on the balance of the second half if Leeds managed to win the game it would’ve been deserved.

Liverpool seemed to switch off completely after the break and if it wasn’t for some decent save by Alisson and the crossbar saving us we could’ve easily lost the game by two or three goals. Hopefully the lads will buck up their ideas for next week’s game against Newcastle as if we want to get top four, it is a must win.