{"id":636070,"date":"2024-02-17T11:28:20","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T16:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=636070"},"modified":"2024-02-17T11:28:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-17T16:28:20","slug":"liverpool-beat-brentford-key-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/02\/17\/liverpool-beat-brentford-key-takeaways\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool Beat Brentford 4-1: Key Takeaways for the Reds as Salah Returns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Liverpool got their first-ever win at the Gtech stadium after beating Brentford 4-1 to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League. It\u2019s the fifth time Jurgen Klopp\u2019s men have scored four goals or more in a game since the start of 2024 as they continued their pursuit of a second Premier League title.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Key Takeaways from Liverpool\u2019s 4-1 win over Brentford\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><strong>Watch<\/strong>: The Domino Effect Ruining Football<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"THE DOMINO EFFECT RUINING FOOTBALL\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fNQxiqia1Vo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Salah Returns<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Mohamed Salah made his first appearance for Liverpool since New Year\u2019s Day following AFCON and injury. His return was a hugely successful one. The Egyptian came off the bench earlier than likely planned following Diogo Jota\u2019s first-half injury, but it didn\u2019t take long for The Reds\u2019 Number 11 to get back into the swing of things.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Salah provided the assist &#8211; for Liverpool\u2019s 2nd goal in the 55th minute, scored by Alexis Mac Allister, before adding the third himself in the 68th, taking him up to 15 league goals and nine league assists, the highest in the Liverpool squad.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Liverpool Beat Brentford in the Long Ball Game<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">No one would have had Liverpool to dominate long balls in this game, but that is what played out and was a vital feature of the Reds\u2019 win. Such is the direct threat Brentford pose, as well as their aerial dominance &#8211; many had a tough afternoon in store for Klopp\u2019s men and fans were surprised when Joe Gomez was left out of the starting eleven, feeling he would be more suitable at dealing with the threat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Read More:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/02\/17\/manchester-united-erik-ten-hag-summer-transfer-plans\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Good Is Not Good Enough: Man United Give Major Transfer Update<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Brentford\u2019s counter-attacks were causing problems for the away side in the first half, but the Bees often failed to capitalise, being wasteful in the final third. It was from set pieces where the home team were abnormally poor, and every time they had a free kick in the Reds\u2019 half, Liverpool were not only able to clear but would turn it into their own counter-attacks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">That was how the first goal came about after a Virgil van Dijk clearance was wonderfully headed on by Diogo Jota around halfway to his teammate, Darwin Nunez, who provided the most exquisite lob over Mark Flekken in the Brentford goal. It was an exceptional and courageous finish from the Uruguayan, considering his misfortune in front of goal at times.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Liverpool\u2019s third also saw a long ball flicked on by Cody Gakpo to be converted by the aforementioned Salah.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Big three points on the road \u270a <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/F4VFKR9AGB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/F4VFKR9AGB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Liverpool FC (@LFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LFC\/status\/1758861887700127843?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 17, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Injuries Continue to Threaten Liverpool\u2019s Season<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Liverpool\u2019s injury woes were already mounting in the build-up to this game. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dominik Szoboszlai were ruled out earlier in the week, and they were joined late by goalkeeper Alisson Becker,\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolfc.com\/news\/alisson-becker-injury-update\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">who was injured in training the day before the Brentford game<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Klopp\u2019s luck seems to be out on this front as Curtis Jones had to be replaced by Ryan Gravenberch in the first half, whilst Darwin Nunez was taken off at halftime as a precaution. It added to Jota\u2019s departure via a stretcher.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Read More:<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/02\/16\/how-do-liverpool-cope-with-injuries-to-key-players\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Liverpool Injury Concerns Continue: How Do They Deal Without Key Stars?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The magnitude of the situation will be assessed in the coming days, but it stretches the Reds\u2019 squad as they head into the business end of the campaign. The Liverpool manager will have been pleased to see substitutes Gravenberch, Gakpo and Salah all playing significant parts in the win as he is consistently forced to juggle his squad. If the three players who were taken off today remain absent, it takes Klopp\u2019s injuries up to nine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Liverpool have a home game against Luton Town in the Premier League next on February 21 before meeting Chelsea in the Carabao Cup Final the following weekend.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liverpool got their first-ever win at the Gtech stadium after beating Brentford 4-1 to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League. It\u2019s the fifth time Jurgen Klopp\u2019s men have scored four goals or more in a game since the start of 2024 as they continued their pursuit of a second Premier League [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5027,"featured_media":632193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8684,16],"tags":[3626,126,1152],"class_list":["post-636070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-brentford","category-liverpool","tag-analysis","tag-jurgen-klopp","tag-mohamed-salah"],"modified_by":"Ricky Carroll, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5027"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}