sport news DOMINIC KING: Liverpool have a fight on their hands to finish in the top four trends now
Alisson sprung up like a quarterback and hurled one of those pinpoint throws that enabled Trent Alexander-Arnold to start scampering as a wide receiver would.
Liverpool, suddenly, had an opportunity to grab the initiative in the Merseyside derby. Four red shirts surged forward to join Alexander-Arnold, among them Darwin Nunez. The right back passed the baton to the Uruguayan, who only needed to turn the ball inside and Luis Diaz was in on goal.
Instead, Nunez fumbled and the chance, 23 minutes in, was gone. There would be no touchdown, there would be no lift-off. Unable to comprehend the breakdown, Jurgen Klopp waved his arms at his £85million signing in exasperation. Nunez, in response, gestured an unconvincing apology.
Liverpool may have a fight on their hands to finish in the Premier League's top four this season
This little snapshot rather summed up Liverpool’s season so far. They are moving as smoothly as a car with a clogged exhaust, the brief moments when it starts to purr outweighed when there is spluttering and stalling.
Yes, they might have won this wonderful spat, contested in an atmosphere that left the ears ringing — Everton manager Frank Lampard called it an ‘outstanding 0-0’ and he was absolutely right — but Liverpool could not have any quibbles about having to settle for a point.
‘Rule No 1,’ said Klopp afterwards. ‘If you cannot win the derby, do not lose the derby.’
So far, Liverpool have taken 50 per cent of the points on offer to them in the Premier League and this is very much glass half-full or half-empty territory. The positive is that they have squeezed out five more points than they may have done against Fulham, Crystal Palace, Newcastle and Everton.
Darwin Nunez missed a great chance early on to fire Liverpool ahead in the Merseyside derby
But the alternate view is that they will pay the price for not being able to go the early gallop. For all the talk about title challenges and going head-to-head with Manchester City again, Klopp has one prime objective every year and that is to secure Champions League qualification.
It is, of course, early days but Klopp won’t want to give Arsenal and Tottenham too much rope — and that is without mentioning Chelsea and Manchester United, both of whom will have
