Digging Deeper Into Liverpool’s Draw with FC Midtjylland

With an odd draw against Midtjylland in the books, we dig a
little deeper into what it means for Liverpool.

Liverpool headed to Denmark to face FC Midtjylland in a match
that didn’t matter beyond pride: the Reds would be through first in
the group and Midtjylland would be out of Europe no matter what
happened. The result was a heavily rotated Liverpool side playing
out a match that mostly swung between disjointed and dull with the
occasional moment of confusion—often times of the VAR-induced
variety—to try to liven things up.

Winners and Losers

Captain Trent

Arguably the most exciting moment for Liverpool fans came before
kickoff when it was announced that Trent Alexander-Arnold was set
to take the captain’s armband, potentially setting out the young
Scouser as fourth-choice in the pecking order behind Jordan
Henderson, Vrigil van Dijk, and Gini Wijnaldum.

Alexander-Arnold has already won the Premier League and the
Champions League and made nearly 150 first team
Liverpool appearances at just 22 years of age. Now, he can add
captaining the Reds in Europe to his resume.

On the flip side for young Trent, once the game actually kicked
off the rust to his game was evident following his recent layoff
due to injury—though that probably made this a good game for him to
hopefully work through some of it ahead of a busy December in the
league where his fully polished talents will be needed marauding
out on the right.

Salah’s Record

Mohamed Salah scored what might have been his least
aesthetically pleasing goal for Liverpool, a bumbling, stumbling
effort that saw the speedy winger caught by the chasing defender as
he broke on goal and looked up to pick his spot only for said
defender to then clatter the ball off Salah’s right foot, whence it
wobbled past a rather dumbfounded goalkeeper and then trickled at
half speed into the net.

It was the quickest goal ever scored in the Champions League by
Liverpool, coming as it did at just 55 seconds. It was also Salah’s
22nd goal, taking him past Steven Gerrard as Liverpool’s all-time
Champions League scorer, doubly ensuring this ugly goal in a game
that didn’t matter would have a place in the club’s record
books.

And speaking of that record book, it’s one definitely weighted
towards recent payers for obvious reasons—with Sadio Mané third and
Roberto Firmino fourth and both within reach of passing Gerrard if
they stick around for another season or two.

Fabinho the Centre Half

Remember when everyone was worried about Fabinho being
Liverpool’s fourth choice centre half?

No longer. And if anyone had any lingering doubts about the
versatile Brazilian’s importance with Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez
out for the season, one only has to look at the generally solid
first half for a side that saw a defensive core of Leighton
Clarkson, Rhys Williams, and Caoimhin Kelleher joined by Fabinho
and then the generally terrifying second half when he was replaced
by pre-season darling and very large human being Billy
Koumetio.

None of which is meant as a slight against Liverpool’s promising
youngsters—not Clarkson or Williams or Kelleher or Koumetio,
either—but rather to highlight Fabinho as the commanding, veteran
glue able to make three promising youngsters look a reasonable
selection for the reigning England and world champions. And the
player without whom they all turned back into the promising but
slightly out of their depth youngsters that, realistically, they
still are.

Dissecting the Narrative

The at times shaky performance of a defensive core comprised
entirely of youth players won’t—or at least shouldn’t—damage the
perception of them as high promising youngsters. And come season’s
end, nobody will much remember that Liverpool dropped points in a
game that didn’t matter. However, a number of Liverpool fringe
players who have found the narrative trending against them
certainly didn’t do themselves any favours.

From Kostas Tsimikas at left back to Naby Keïta and Takumi
Minamino in midfield and Divock Origi up front, all four failed to
impress given their chance against Midtjylland—and all four
probably end the match with the general consensus a solid notch
down from when they went into it. Though credit should at least go
to Origi for looking like he was trying to put in a shift as
stand-in for Roberto Firmino at false nine.

What Happens Next

It’s all about the league for the next while, with the Round of
16 not up until the week of February 16th.

Before then, though, we do at least have the draw to look
forward to on Monday. As group winners and with no English clubs
qualifying from second place, it means the Reds could be paired
with anyone bar the side they shared Group D with, Atalanta.

For Jürgen Klopp and his players that means Monday could bring
with it a date against Atletico Madrid, Borussia Monchengladbach,
FC Porto, Sevilla, Lazio, Barcelona, or RB Leipzig. As group
winners, the Round of 16 second leg will be played at Anfield.