Digging Deeper Into Liverpool’s 5-0 Win over Atalanta

We take a closer look at the Reds’ best performance of the
season.

Given how workmanlike their wins have been in recent weeks, most
fans expected more of the same when Liverpool’s traveled to Italy for what was expected to
be their trickiest match of the group stage. Instead, the Reds ran
absolute riot, and below, we take a closer look at how it happened
and who the main characters were on this delightful European
night.

Winners

The Man of the Hour: We’ve talked him a lot
this past week, but Diogo Jota is making it extremely difficult to
talk about anybody else, if we’re being quite honest. After scoring
in three consecutive games and notching two matchwinners in a week
leading up to tonight’s fixture, the 23-year old went ahead and put
on a clinic in Bergamo.

Playing as a central striker between Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah, Jota was electric from the
start, missing a big chance in the game’s opening minute, then
scoring in the 15th minutes through an effortless chip with his
left foot after seeing off Palomino’s shirt tugging challenge.

The second was no less impressive, as the Portuguese attacker
brought down a long ball from Gomez with his left before smacking a
half volley into the bottom corner with his opposite leg, while the
third saw him race through on goal, dragging the ball past the
goalkeeper and rolling it into the open net.

The media will no doubt be focusing on Jota battling Roberto Firmino for the starting spot, but the
fact that will matter to Jürgen Klopp is that the Reds have
procured another superstar, and that keeping the attack fresh and
unpredictable throughout the season is now a genuine option.

Sharing the Load: The frontline in general and
Diogo Jota in particular will certainly get the headlines because
of their goals tonight, but it is worth noting that all five goals
were assisted by different players, with Joe Gomez and Curtis Jones joining Salah, Mané
and Trent Alexander-Arnold as creators. While Trent’s through ball
for the opener was fairly typical for the fullback, Gomez’s long
diagonal to pick out Jota was more reminiscent of the absent Virgil
van Dijk.

Curtis Jones sprung Salah for the third directly from a
defensive corner, before the Egyptian found Mané with a delicious
pass into the left-hand channel. The Senegalese attacker then paid
it forward by setting up Jota in the same space for his
hat-trick.

For a side who have struggled to find creativity outside of its
frontline and fullbacks, this sort of spreading the assists around
is an extremely promising sign that they can produce shot assists
from elsewhere in the team as well.

The Debutant: Despite seemingly still having
his baby teeth and not quite filling out his kit yet, Rhys Williams
had a tremendous Champions
League debut for the Reds. The Academy product certainly isn’t
van Dijk, but for a 19-year old whose only senior experience has
been at the sixth tier of English football, this was a remarkable
effort.

A win in the air against the formidable Duván Zapata, a pair of
tackles and three clearances, — one from his own six-yard box — to
go with 34/37 passes at a 92% success rate should build the
youngster’s confidence for future appearances. The power ranking
behind Joe Gomez and Joël Matip are uncertain at this point — Nat
Phillips did not at all look out of place against West Ham at the
weekend — but given the health issues of Liverpool’s current
starters, it is almost certain that the backups will be needed on
several occasions this season, and it is heartening to know that
this won’t necessarily be synonymous with disaster.

Losers

Everybody Else: For all the noises about their
struggling start to the season, the Reds are currently top of every
table they’re part of, having won five in a row since the
Merseyside derby draw, and seem — international disasters not
permitting — on the verge of getting healthy. That should worry
their rivals, none of whom have shown themselves capable of any
sort of consistency just yet.

Tactical Tidbits

With Roberto Firmino starting on the bench for once, and the
opposition playing a three-man defensive line, Liverpool showed a
few different looks tonight. Jota alternated between dropping in
and playing off the shoulder of the last man, while Mané and Salah
adjusted accordingly, springing in behind when the Portuguese
dropped in, and pulling wide when he pushed up, dragging the
Atalanta defenders around mercilessly.

The former look often saw Andrew Robertson come inside Mané, operating as
an underlapping fullback in a manner we rarely see, and while the
Scot was not much of a factor on offense, putting in only two
crosses and producing zero key passes, the adjustment did seem to
help stall Atalanta’s transitions on the few occasions they did
occur.

All in all, it was a tactical slam dunk from Klopp, while
Atalanta did not appear to play their usual game, seemingly pulling
back from their regular full-court press. The end result was a host
side that attempted something they are neither built for nor
comfortable with, and the opposition taking full advantage, with
the guests putting up a massive seven clear cut
chances from their 15 shots.

What Happens Next

The international break is less than a week away, but first, the
Reds travel an hour east on Sunday to take on tenth-placed Manchester City in what has become a modern Premier
League classic.