Liverpool were thankful to their substitutes bench for getting them out of trouble against Sheffield United last night.
The Reds looked like they might be about to mess up the chance to go back to the top of the Premier League table on Thursday. With 15 minutes of the game left, the Blades had them at 1-1.
Having already seen Mohamed Salah go off in a huff, some fans could have been forgiven for wondering where the goals were coming from.
But up stepped Alexis Mac Allister with an absolute net-buster, before Cody Gakpo finished the job late on.
Gakpo was one of four substitutions made by Jurgen Klopp, who’s use of his bench was heartily praised by Jamie Carragher after the game. Following Carragher’s lead, Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder also admitted that it had changed the game.
Chris Wilder praises Liverpool quartet
Some Liverpool fans may recall Wilder as being a grumpy opposition manager who had a public spat with Klopp over the five substitutes rule back in 2019/20.
So, perhaps it was ironic that in his final season in charge, the Reds boss showed his opposite number exactly how to use those substitutes.
In fairness to Wilder, he has been a lot more complimentary of Jurgen in the years since. But that didn’t stop the Liverpool manager putting his team to the sword last night.
And speaking to BBC Sport after the game, Wilder admitted that it was the four Reds changes that Sheffield United simply couldn’t deal with.
“The Premier League just tests you out in all different way,” the 56-year-old claimed. “Mentally, tactically, technically. But I think the biggest thing, everybody in the Premier League and maybe the teams that go up and find that they struggle is, it’s the physical aspect. The power, the energy, the pace of Andy Robertson coming on, Harvey Elliott, Gakpo coming on, Curtis Jones yet again coming on, we talked about it Saturday.
“The goals tonight, the third one, it’s players trying to get back into positions but they physically can’t do it because of the amount of work that they have done so it’s a massive challenge for everybody.”
Who came off for Liverpool
Of course, it’s always good to look at who came on and got the job done for Liverpool. The players that Wilder mentions all made a difference.
Equally though, a game can be impacted by who’s crossing the white line from the other side of it. Last night, along with Salah, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai and Joe Gomez were taken off.
Szoboszlai aside, the three certainly didn’t have their best games in a Liverpool shirt. Gravenberch in particular was sluggish in his first start since the Carabao Cup final, while we think it’s finally time to end the Gomez left-back experiment. The 26-year-old was the main culprit for allowing Sheffield United’s ball into the box for the equaliser.
All will have better days, but their exits helped change the game last night.