Player Analysis: Burnley 1–2 Liverpool

Player Analysis Liverpool

Burnley

Nick Pope 6

Considering Liverpool’s possession and domination he surprisingly had little to do – made a few fantastic reactive saves but was ultimately beaten twice with no fault.

Phil Bardsley – 6

Was strong on the right and held his position well but did very little in terms of attacking.

James Tarkowski – 6

Was strong and determined against Liverpool’s leading line but his passing out from the back was poor.

Ben Mee – 7

Produced a solid performance at the heart of the Burnley defence – was strong in the air and limited the influence of Solanke.

Charlie Taylor – 6

Made some good attacking runs and produced the great cross for Burnley’s equaliser – quiet but efficient.

Jack Cork – 6

Worked hard in the middle of the pitch but struggled to match the quality of Can and Lallana.

Steven Defour – 6

Showed his quality on the ball at times but wasn’t on the ball enough of the time.

Johann Berg Gudmundsson – 8

His balls and link-up play is key to Burnley’s attacks – produced good set-pieces and scored Burnley’s equaliser.

Jeff Hendrick – 5

Tried to restrict Liverpool from playing out of the back but didn’t really have much of an impact.

Scott Arfield – 7

Burnley’s most potent attacking force – made plenty of well-timed runs but all too often wasn’t supplied with the best of balls.

Ashley Barnes – 6

Plenty of aggression and caused the Liverpool defence some problems but quality was lacking in the penalty area.

Liverpool

Simon Mignolet – 6

Back in goal and made some very good saves to deny Arfield and Defour showing his agility but spent most of the time collecting tame crosses and poor shots.

Joe Gomez – 6

Played at left-back for the first time and, although he didn’t attack too much, he was solid in his new position – slight loss of concentration to allow Gudmundsson space for Burnley’s equaliser.

Ragnar Klavan – 7

A very good display from the Estonian – kept the physical Barnes at bay and was confident and assured with his passes – capped it all off by scoring the winner with a late touch.

Dejan Lovren – 7

Gave away a couple of fouls as he struggled slightly more than his defensive partner to deal with Barnes – produced a number of key tackles and combined well with Klavan to get the late goal and claim the three points.

Trent Alexander-Arnold – 7

A rather muted first-half was compensated by an improved second-half – was guilty of a couple of defensive mishaps but produced the ball for Liverpool’s opener and tested Pope with a fierce shot from range.

Emre Can – 7

Linked-up well with his centre-backs to form a solid and effective triangle – was heavily involved in starting Liverpool’s attacks and won the free-kick from which the winner was scored.

Georginio Wijnaldum – 6

Not as noticeable as Can and had less than half as many touches as the German – work-rate was there but impact was lacking.

Adam Lallana – 8

The ball of energy within the Liverpool attack put in a good audition for the possibly-soon-vacant-Coutinho role – from an attack on Burnley’s left to a vital slide-tackle deep within his own half all in the space of 20 seconds showed his commitment.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – 7

Was impressive on the left and saw a lot of the ball and instigated numerous attacks – had chances in and around the Burnley area to test Pope and the Burnley defence.

Sadio Mane – 8

It appeared like it was going to be another muted Mane performance and then he delivered the standout moment of quality, a fine turn and superb shot to give Liverpool the lead.

Dominic Solanke – 7

Held the ball up well at times but wasn’t clinical enough when presented with space and time – lacked the quality that Liverpool needed at the heart of the attack.

Oliver Miller

FoL's Matchday Correspondent @oliver_miller

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