Harvey Elliott should receive huge credit for Trent Alexander-Arnold’s sublime free-kick during Liverpool’s win over Fulham after confusing the home team’s defensive wall, according to manager Jurgen Klopp.
Alexander-Arnold scored a great goal to open the scoring for Liverpool, before Timothy Castagne equalized shortly before half-time. The Reds ended a four-match wait for a goal from open play when Ryan Gravenberch and Diogo Jota secured victory after the break.
And Klopp says Elliott put doubt in the minds of Fulham defenders when he tried to tuck a play under the wall minutes before Alexander-Arnold’s goal.
“Harvey has 10 or 15 percent of the goal because we analyzed Fulham and saw the wall jumps, so we told Harvey to try to go under,” said Klopp, who now only has five games left for the club. Liverpool.
“Obviously they weren’t really jumping, just a little bit so that Harvey couldn’t keep going.” The crowd laughed. But I’m pretty sure, maybe next time the wall won’t jump as high as they usually do.
Jurgen Klopp praised Harvey Elliott for misleading Fulham defenders before a crucial goal
Trent Alexander-Arnold gave the Reds an early lead with a superb free kick in the first half.
Alexander-Arnold took advantage of this and launched a sumptuous strike over the wall. The full-back added: ‘The second (free kick) was always going to be mine. We did our analysis yesterday, we saw that they jumped quite a bit. Harvey had the right idea, but not the execution.
‘The technique I use generates the power itself. I’m just trying to guide him and make it difficult for the goalkeeper. You get one chance in a game to run it for the team. Practice, practice, practice and it will pay off on days like today.
“It’s going to be a difficult week with two more away games (Everton and West Ham), but we are sure that if we can replicate what we did today then we can get results. We have to hope for five wins out of five now to even have the possibility of being able to get the silver medal in a few weeks.