'He is the real Messi', 'best dribbler in the league' - Fans hail Liverpool star for performance against Brentford
Liverpool completed a routine 3-0 win at home against Brentford last night to leapfrog Chelsea into second place in the Premier League. Despite the absence of their key attackers, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, Liverpool comfortably slotted three goals past the visiting Brentford side.
Fabinho scored the home side's first goal of the night at the stroke of half-time, before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Takumi Minamino scored the team's second and third goals respectively in the second half.
Following last night's result, the Reds find themselves 11 points behind league leaders Manchester City with a game in hand. Manager Jurgen Klopp refused to entertain thoughts of a potential title win, but optimistically promised that his side will do everything they can to compete as much as possible. According to This Is Anfield, Klopp was asked about the title race in a post-match interview, to which he responded:
“We don’t have to convince anyone outside (the club) to believe. If they want to believe they can believe,” said Klopp of Liverpool's title chances.
“If you are with us, you will enjoy the ride and we will go for everything. We are ready to go as much as we can.
“This is not the situation to talk about a title fight, it’s 11 points now with one game in hand. In a normal world nothing happens anymore, but what is normal nowadays? We try to do our part, there is nothing else to do,” Klopp added.
Notably, Jurgen Klopp's side kept their first clean sheet in six Premier League games and the club's fans heaped praise on centre-back Joel Matip for his performance, with some even calling him the best defender in the Premier League.
Matip is the best defender in the league or on par with the best
Idk what I’m gonna do with myself the day Matip scores from one of his adventure runs
One day Matip is gonna score from that run and it’ll be our goal of the season
Joel Matip: the most underrated player in Europe. https://t.co/7nmNQHnw3v
Joel Matip is one our best players and i’m not even joking. https://t.co/Kdu1uoxQAI
Joel Matip is the best dribbler in the league
Joel Matip is the real messi #LIVBRE
Matip has Messi’s dribbling ability but Adama Traore’s finishing 😭😭
Liverpool will hope Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's injury isn't serious
Liverpool's only concern from the match against Brentford will be a potential injury to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who despite being excellent, had to be taken off halfway through the second half. Jurgen Klopp was quick to praise the 28-year-old but admitted he didn't know how serious the injury was.
“He was really good. That is the shadow on the game. We don’t know yet but he rolled his ankle and now we hope it is nothing serious.
“Unfortunately, that is the life of a footballer. No one did anything wrong, it just happened, it is nothing to do with Alex, it could have happened to anyone.
“We will get the further or final information earliest tomorrow. That is the case in these situations. Absolutely too early, I have no idea [on the seriousness],” Klopp said.