Burnley 0-1 Liverpool ANALYSIS: The attacker most likely to be dropped for Alexander Isak and why Kyle Walker now looks a different player

It was a rush of blood by Burnley’s substitute Hannibal and an exquisite penalty from Mo Salah that won Liverpool this game at the death but the real driving factor was what manager Arne Slot was able to bring from the bench as his team chased this game. 

Needing impetus and ideas and energy late on, Liverpool benefited hugely from what Jeremie Frimpong, Rio Ngumoha and Federico Chiesa brought them. 

The three players were not on the field long at all. Ngumoha and Frimpong, for example, didn’t arrive until the 86th minute. 

But both were visible and influential, posing Burnley’s tired defenders questions that they ultimately couldn’t answer. None of this is a co-incidence, of course. 

It’s called squad building. Liverpool have now scored late winners in three of their four Premier League games and without them Slot and his players would be sitting mid-table with questions to answer rather than sitting at the top of the Premier League. 

Just one question. Why on earth is Chiesa not in Liverpool’s Champions League squad? Seems very odd indeed.

FOUR INTO THREE

Liverpool were not at their best here. But with a little more calm and occasionally a little more luck, they still would have won. What is clear the more we watch them is how they will line up once Alexander Isak is fit and ready to play. 

Hugo Ekitike has done wonderfully in the centre forward position since he was signed in the summer but his best work in this game came when he drifted to the left and started to cut inside. On one occasion, he did that brilliantly in the first half and his poke across goal almost found the corner. 

It looks like this will be his position once Isak slots into the team, with Cody Gakpo the player to step down. It will be a formidable attacking line up for Liverpool but at some stage Salah will have to step up and find his own real form. 

Last year’s player of the year scored a great goal on day one against Bournemouth and crashed the penalty in beautifully here but that apart he has been off his game. Liverpool without Salah are the like the Beatles without John Lennon. He needs to slip through the gears quickly.

BRADLEY OR FRIMPONG?

Such have been his problems with injuries, it has been easy to forget a little about Conor Bradley. The flying Frimpong was the player bought to nominally replace Trent Alexander-Arnold in the summer and he got the nod on day one against Bournemouth. But – with Frimpong injured that night and only returning to the bench himself here – it was Bradley who was sent on as Arne Slot changed things at half-time. 

The young Irishman is not as direct as Frimpong and does not have Alexander-Arnold’s passing range – who does? – but he is technically fabulous, has a natural understanding of when to inject urgency into a movement and gives Liverpool balance simply by occupying the position naturally. 

Liverpool were much better once Bradley came on at Turf Moor. Sadly others around him were not quite always able to find the same wavelength.

OLIVER IN CONTROL

The home crowd spent much of the game getting on the referee’s back, seemingly convinced that Michel Oliver had it in for them. It was hard to see the evidence, though. The official got the penalty spot on at the death and was right to caution Lesley Ugochukwu when he clattered through Alexis MacAllister much earlier on. 

Yes, he got the ball but he also took far too much of the man with his studs raised. The second yellow -and sending off – that followed with six minutes left was impossible to argue with. Equally, Oliver didn’t hesitate to caution Bradley after he was similarly reckless down by the near touchline early in the second half but actually made his best call in the 22nd minute. 

Liverpool’s Ryan Gravenberch – who quietly instigates much of his team’s best football – had combined beautifully down the left to put Milos Kerkez to the byline only for the Liverpool left-back to throw himself to the ground. Oliver booked him immediately and was right to. It was an utterly stupid act from the Liverpool player.

WALKER A DIFFERENT PLAYER

The reason Manchester City were so happy to let Kyle Walker go last season was because they could see what we could see. The veteran defender had lost a yard of that devastating pace that defined him for so long. 

It clearly isn’t coming back either. Here he did look vulnerable in the occasional one-on-situation in a way he simply never used to. In the second half, for example, Gakpo stood him up and went by him as though he wasn’t there. 

Walker is a clever and experienced footballer, though, and at times his know-how and football intelligence shone through. At 35, he may never play for England again but as long as he continues to adapt his game and doesn’t allow himself to be placed in positions where his new-found limitations are exposed, he could be vital to Burnley’s chances of survival.