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It can’t go on like this, can it? It cannot.
For nine first-half minutes, all one could think about was that famous Mick McCarthy quote, in his thick Barnsley accent, where in two little words he encapsulated why things can always get worse.
One league win in 17 was the run his Blackpool side were on when McCarthy uttered those words that come up on your social media feed at least once a day and are an appropriate reaction for any third-world problems.
It was not quite as bad as that for Arne Slot’s Liverpool but, for the nine minutes between Eintracht Frankfurt taking the lead and the English champions equalising, it was food for thought.
A blip was about to become a full-blown crisis. The Wikipedia page for Liverpool’s 1953-54 season, the last time they lost five matches in a row and were ultimately relegated in an all-time low for the club, would have seen more traffic this week than ever before.
Just like the squad plane which was stuck on the tarmac at Liverpool John Lennon Airport for four hours on Tuesday, this team was about to remain grounded after their worst month since 2014.
Liverpool ended a run of four consecutive defeats with a victory over Eintracht Frankfurt
Hugo Ekitike levelled on the night against his former club as he broke through to score
The win for Arne Slot's men saw them bounce back from defeat by Manchester United
But nine minutes of mass panic were followed by nine minutes of magic as Slot, with an elongated sigh of relief, watched on as his team scored three times between the 35th and 44th minute to end that barren run and get back to winning ways.
Soon, they scored five to make it 15 goals between Frankfurt and Liverpool on Wednesday if you count the 5-4 thriller the Under 19s teams played out in the UEFA Youth League earlier in the day.
It helps to have a £204million strike force, of course, Ekitike playing alongside Alexander Isak. They linked up well and the most expensive man in British football history looks sharper, though he missed two chances with weak shots.
There are still worries about the defence as Frankfurt exposed gaping spaces in the Liverpool midfield to open the scoring through former Leeds man Rasmus Kristensen, thumping home in off the post on 26 minutes.
That made it eight games without a clean sheet for the Reds, who have conceded 18 goals this season. Work to do in that regard, with Giorgi Mamardashvili conceding in each of his games so far, but the attack was miles better.
Hugo Ekitike was the master of the comeback, with a goal reminiscent of some that Erling Haaland would score. You know what he is going to do but cannot stop him. The Frenchman, who joined from Frankfurt, returned to haunt his old club in style after his £79m move.
Andy Robertson, back in the side after Slot made five changes to the side which lost to Manchester United, played a beautiful long ball round the back of the German defence and, just like that, Ekitike was through on goal. Catch him if you can.
Robin Koch, once of Leeds, knew what was coming next having played with Ekitike here for two years but was helpless as the pacy striker powered away and, like he did many times, confidently finished in front of the ultras at Deutsche Bank Park, a Euro 2024 venue.
Van Dijk's header from a corner gave the Reds the lead four minutes after Ekitike's equaliser
Dominik Szoboszlai got Liverpool's fifth of the night as he struck into the bottom corner
Why on earth was Ekitike sitting on the bench for the losses to Chelsea and Manchester United? He has been the best of Liverpool’s new recruits by some distance and is far outperforming the more documented arrival of Isak so far.
He simply must be in the XI going forward whether that is with or without his mate Isak, who went off at half-time here.
Soon, Liverpool were 3-1 up after two goals in five minutes from both centre halves, Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate. The hero here? Aaron Briggs, the set-piece coach. Liverpool have been, to put it mildly, quite awful from dead-ball situations this season. Until now.
Briggs does not seek the limelight like Arsenal’s Nicolas Jover, for example, but Slot sees his role as just as important and No 1 on the team’s to-do list to get out of their bad form. They changed the corner takers for this match and it paid off.
First, Cody Gakpo swung in a fizzing corner from the left and captain Van Dijk headed home. Then Dominik Szoboszlai found Konate from the other side.
Was this a perfect performance from Liverpool? No, far from it but the result mattered more on this visit to Germany. On Saturday they will come up against a far stronger defensive team in Brentford compared to this rabble who have conceded 27 goals in 10 games this season.
But don’t let that take away from a much-improved display and Florian Wirtz was also back to his best with national-team boss Julian Nagelsmann in the house watching on.
Nagelsmann will hope poster-boy Wirtz is the man to lead Germany to World Cup glory next summer just like Frankfurt midfield man Mario Gotze, now 33, did back in 2014. This was his best game in a Liverpool shirt and he assisted Gakpo for Liverpool’s fourth on 66 minutes.
Mo Salah was dropped to the bench by Slot and came on as a late substitute with the game won
The man-of-the-match award was a toss up between Wirtz, Ekitike and Szoboszlai who made his case on 70 minutes with a fine strike low and hard past Michael Zetterer to make it 5-1. The Hungary captain has been Liverpool’s player of the season.
Whether they get all the way to his homeland of Budapest for this year’s final is too early to say but, play like this, and all the talk of crises will be parked as an October anomaly in what can still be a big season for the champions of England.
