Last season, the Reds surrendered two leads to draw 2-2 at Goodison Park in a game that saw a late Jordan Henderson goal ruled out.
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Andy Robertson was understandably happy with Liverpool producing an emphatic 4-1 Merseyside derby victory over Everton. The win will be extra sweet for the Anfield club after they failed to beat the Blues both times in the Premier League last season. Last season, the Reds surrendered two leads to draw 2-2 at Goodison Park in a game that saw a late Jordan Henderson goal ruled out. Besides, Virgil van Dijk and Thiago Alcantara had also sustained long-term injuries. In the return meeting at Anfield, Jurgen Klopp’s men lost 2-0 as Everton achieved their first success at the stadium for more than two decades.
On Wednesday night though Liverpool were at their maximum best, easing past their rivals thanks to goals from Henderson, Diogo Jota and a double from Mohamed Salah. “Last season was a blow in more ways than one,” Robertson told Liverpoolfc.com post-match. “The game here we obviously picked up two bad injuries and we got a 92nd-minute winner chalked off by so close margins. And we got beat at Anfield, which is never nice.
“So it was important that we tried to put that right this season and we’ve got off to a good start. We only put one point on the board against them last season; we’ve already got three. It was important we kept that message and important that we went out and tried to play our football and not get involved in anything. Just try to quieten down the crowd – we knew they were going to be noisy to start. We got off to a really good start, which helped and set us on our way.”
On Wednesday night, Henderson broke the deadlock in the ninth minute with a well-taken strike from the edge of the box. Then the Egyptian forward doubled the Reds’ advantage. Demarai Gray, however, pulled one back for the home side just before half-time. Asked whether Liverpool had to ‘reset’ at half-time, Robertson replied, “Yeah, 100 per cent. A poor goal from our point of view.”
“I think in the first half we were really good and you have a lapse in concentration and you could see them in the last five minutes [of the first half], they were starting to get in our faces, starting to win second balls and the crowd was up and everything was up. It was just about getting in to half-time, hit the reset button and come out for the second half and doing what we practised and doing what we had to do. Luckily we did that and we put another couple of goals on it and luckily we ended up being able to enjoy the second half a wee bit more.”
Robertson then spoke about Salah’s second goal of the night and also opened up about how difficult it is for defenders to stop him. “It’s really hard. Coleman is breathing down his neck, Pickford is closing the angle and I don’t know what it felt like to you but it felt to me as if Mo had all the time in the world – and that’s a sign of what kind of form he’s in just now,” he added.
“I always believed he was going to score it and luckily he did that. I know how hard it is to defend against him, I have to defend against him in training most days. He’s an unbelievable player. But I think everyone was so good tonight. I thought performances all around the pitch were excellent and that’s why we get a performance and a result like that.”
