Toulouse hit for 5 as Reds European train rolls merrily along
Liverpool 5 Toulouse 1, 26th October 2023.
LIVERPOOL 5 (Jota 9, Endo 30, Núñez 34, Gravenberch 65, Salah 90+3)
TOULOUSE 1 (Dallinga 16)
Toulouse didn’t deserve the somewhat headline grabbing heavy defeat inflicted upon them by a much changed Liverpool on Thursday evening. Admittedly, they created little other than their breakaway equalising goal on 16 minutes and a minor period of pressure at the start of the second half, but their noisy band of fans in the corner of the Anfield Road End didn’t deserve to see their heroes dressed in all white thoroughly defeated 5–1. It’s to their eternal credit that, in the same manner of the Union SG fans mere weeks ago, they contributed to, and created by far the vast majority of the atmosphere at an otherwise quiet Anfield. Bigger and more important tests will surely follow for the Reds in the Europa League and with it, a far more raucous response from the home Anfield crowd. Until then, the Reds of Liverpool have 3 wins from 3, 9 points out of 9, and come the end of this Group stage of matches, boss Jürgen Klopp will be targeting and I dare say demanding that 3 wins become 6 and a maximum possible points total of 18, even with a much changed team.
As expected, Klopp made wholesale changes to his starting XI, giving Caoimhim Kelleher another chance to impress “between the sticks” and behind a defensive back four with captain Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right flank whilst 19 year old Luke Chambers made an impressive debut at left-back. Both Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott started together. A rarity as it seems to be one or the other as they vie with each other for a solid starting place in the manager’s strongest possible starting XI. Elliott, the younger of the two at 20 years of age starred for me, alongside goal scoring performances from Wataru Endō (a beautiful header on 30 minutes) and Ryan Gravenberch who cashed in with a simple rebound when Darwin Núñez simply couldn’t miss, and did! Gravenberch, at 21 years of age less we forget, was mighty impressive again and perhaps it’s the football fan in me but I get the distinct impression that the young man from Amsterdam is DESPERATE to force his way both into Klopp’s evolving team and his first choice midfield.
My self-published book from 2023 on Liverpool FC
All three strikers scored, with Diogo Jota’s goal a gem of a burst of speed through a gaggle of retreating white shirts before a cool finish, Núñez chaotically typically of him scored the most difficult of his chances, and Salah was raised from the substitutes bench to score in injury time, and in front of his adoring legion of worshippers on The Kop. There was also another pleasing hat-trick in the shape of Calum Scanlon, James McConnell and Jarell Quansah, 18, 19 and 20 years of age respectively, all tasting European football under the Anfield floodlights.
5–1 was harsh on Toulouse but the Reds of Liverpool are far too strong for this tournament, words I hope do not come back to haunt me come the Dublin Final in May 2024!
A final word from The Boss
“Result good, performance good and especially a lot of really good individual performances, which is nice because it is important for development. Besides the goal we conceded and the chance we gave them when Trent had his spectacular save, around that everything was what we expected. Toulouse are a good team, they are playing football, but we put a proper shift in and that’s what I wanted. Then the goals we scored were wonderful. I would say the right players scored the goals, all of them were really, really good. So, nothing to complain about really”.
“I think I’ve said before, I think it’s really easy to fall in love with this team because it has so much excitement in it. We have to make massive steps, we have to grow, we have to get more stable, we have to do a lot of things but a lot of signs are really promising. That’s true as well. How the team interacts with each other is really nice because when you talk about the rebuild of a team then it is all about the things you see on the pitch, obviously, but to see that there must be a rebuild off the pitch as well — and that’s going really well”.
Thanks for reading! (though nobody does). So I can boldly proclaim the book I’ve linked in the middle of the article to be the best book on Liverpool Football Club you’re never going to read! Nor are you going to read the well over a hundred articles posted here on the Mighty Reds of Liverpool.
Because nobody does.
My situation is similar trying to sell my books. Thank God things are starting to pick up here...
Just call me "nobody", then.