Curt in the crossfire
CURTIS DAVIES was honest enough to admit it was hard to cope with a Liverpool side in this kind of form.
He looked up and saw Adam Lallana trying to bamboozle him, the blistering pace of Sadio Mane threatening chaos, Roberto Firmino ghosting into space and Philippe Coutinho offering brushstrokes of genius.
The Hull captain peered to Liverpool’s left where James Milner was marauding. To the right, Nathaniel Clyne was charging forward and then he spotted Georginio Wijnaldum linking everything together.
Only a few minutes had elapsed but the template for another rampant Liverpool success was set.
Jurgen Klopp’s golden rule for his players is “be an option or be protection” and when the team comes together like this, swarming relentlessly over opponents, the football is scintillating.
In the circumstances, Davies, right with Jake Livermore, could have been forgiven for beating a hasty Anfield retreat. Instead, he provided an illuminating insight into just what it is like to be at the eye of the storm when the Reds find their rhythm.
“When you play against a Liverpool team who are vibrant, exciting and enjoying themselves, it is tough,” said the centre-half. “They are a side who literally play with Jordan Henderson and the two centre-halves at the back and the rest can go wherever they want. That is not illdiscipline, it’s organised. The interchanging, good football, the passing – they are a very tough team to deal with when they are on their game.
“It is hard to lay a glove on anyone. When there is so much interchanging you cannot put your mark on one person.
“It is tough to try to get in and make a tackle which makes them think again because literally one second Mane will be in that hole, then Lallana and then Coutinho. With the fullbacks playing like wingers it becomes very difficult because you end up with backs against the wall.” People will present two caveats in trying to puncture the bubble of optimism at Anfield. The first – ‘it was only Hull’ – can be dismissed because this was exactly the sort of fixture in which the Reds have previously struggled. The second – Hull had 10 men for an hour – can also be picked apart. Lallana had scored the first when Ahmed Elmohamady handled Coutinho’s goalbound shot and was dismissed. Milner converted the first of two penalties to maintain one-way traffic.
Not convinced? Over to the eloquent Davies who came up with his own barometer with which to measure Liverpool.
“Last week against Arsenal, we had 10 but it was a different performance,” he said. “We were good. We kept hold of the ball but Liverpool, with their pressing game, they weren’t going to be satisfied with 3-0. They wanted six, seven, eight. They were ruthless.”
Mane got a third and, after David Myler’s consolation, Coutinho delivered the coup de grace from 25 yards before Milner’s second from 12 yards. Liverpool are good. How good remains to be seen but it promises to be fun finding out.