Liverpool 2-0 Wolves: Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah find the back of the net

It shows just how lowered Liverpool’s aspirations have been this season who cheered for Arsenal’s half-time lead over Everton when read at the interval here.

These days it matters less that the Premier League leaders are winning and more that local rivals are not. For Jurgen Klopp and his players, fourth place is the height of his ambition this season and they remain strangers even for that.

But it remains a possibility after this anxious but finally deserved victory and for that they have a right shoulder and a right thigh to thank. They may not be enough to completely turn this season around for Liverpool, but they turned this game around and for now, it looks like more than enough.

With 17 minutes to go, Liverpool did not seem to win this game. Darwin Nunez had just seen a goal disallowed by VAR and as Manchester United recovered on the road in the FA Cup at Old Trafford, Sunday’s meeting here with the old foe was starting to feel like one of those behind-the-sofa occasions for the local support. .

But when Trent Alexander-Arnold took a free kick from the left in the 73rd minute, Virgil van Dijk rose to meet it. The defender missed the ball with his head but it shot off with his shoulder towards the goal. José Sa saved but when Diogo Jota returned the ball, Van Dijk headed conventionally and his team took the lead.

With Liverpool and their fans encouraged, Klopp’s team reappeared on the left four minutes later. This time left-back Kostas Tsimikas crossed and Mo Salah intentionally deflected the ball with the meaty part of his right leg.

It doesn’t matter how they get in and it certainly didn’t happen here. With Liverpool’s season threatening to unravel after last week’s humiliation of Real Madrid and the league draw at Crystal Palace that followed matches like this, it has to be won if Liverpool are to hold any hope of reaching the places of the Champions League.

Liverpool were not particularly convincing. They were a bit leaden at times. What happened here against Real Madrid has had a psychological cost and it is understandable.

But a recovery, a renaissance, has to start somewhere and if Liverpool can find something against a United side for whom the season is relentless, who knows where it might take them?

Throughout the first half, Liverpool threatened only sporadically and also looked vulnerable at the other end.

Young midfielder Stefan Bajcetic, a ray of light in the Anfield gloom, fired around Salah’s cross in the third minute. If he had been headed for either corner, he might as well have gone inside. Instead, Sa leaned in to meet comfortably.

Then it was the turn of the Wolves. Improved under their new manager Julen Lopetegui, they are also a safer side. Twice early on they threatened as space in the Liverpool penalty area at the Kop end allowed Joao Moutinho to work Alisson into Liverpool’s goal and then from the corner a header from Raúl Jiménez landed on the head of Liverpool. Pablo Sarabia but his six-yard shot did not benefit from sound contact and then the ball went flying.

This, then, was Liverpool in a nutshell. Ambitious but vulnerable. Capable but also flawed.

For a while, not much else happened. Liverpool’s lack of confidence was palpable, while the home crowd seemed, appallingly enough to say it, too used to it all. Anfield was really very quiet for long periods.

The improvement came later in the first half and thanks to it Liverpool could and should have scored. Harvey Elliott should have done it with a header from a Darwin Nunez cross and then Sa denied it well after volleying a Nunez dismissal into the corner.

Liverpool were the better team in the second half as the Wolves threat receded. Fabinho was lucky to stay after catching Mario Lemina high with his studs (he was booked) and then Núñez was denied a goal by VAR after Jota was rightly judged to have tripped Max Kilman late in his buccaneering career towards the penalty area. .

The relay was going to arrive at Liverpool, even if it was late. In the end, Anfield felt like a different place. That’s what goals do.

Speaking after the game, Klopp said: ‘This was important. We played how we needed to play. At times we looked rushed but we calmed down and increased the pressure.

“I didn’t worry after the VAR goal, but the reaction was very good. They were very nice goals and the second one was exceptional. There were a lot of positives for us. This prepares us in the best possible way for United.

‘They are the fit team but it is a home game. We looked like a unit tonight and we need it again on Sunday. We have to build on this.