One of the most impressive things about our midfield on Sunday was the way no one had a specific role, I spoke before the season began about how I thought we could see a rotating midfield this season, with no one allocated a specific role but instead the three swapping roles regularly and fluidly within a game.Admittedly, I didn’t expect to see it in the first game of the season, neither did I expect to see it work so well, but watching it first-hand was extremely pleasing as it looked like one would hold while the other two would bomb forward and this was done regularly in the course of the game. Things became a little bit more structured when Jordan Henderson came on but for the first 65 minutes our midfield looked fluid like a well oiled machine.Each individual player brought their own unique qualities to the centre of the pitch on Sunday but the standout performer for me had to be James Milner, the man was simply immense. This is Milner’s fourth year at the club and every season he just seems to get better and better, taking it up a level every time he puts the Red shirt on. Sunday was no different as he absolutely ran our midfield with a type of energy that I didn’t think he had.
I haven’t seen his heat map but from what I saw sitting in the Kop on Sunday, it looked like he covered every blade of grass, I was so impressed with how he played that personally he got my Man of The Match.Naby Keita on the other hand was an absolute beast who looked like he had the ball glued to his feet. We have seen a lot of Keita in pre-season and seen glimpses of what he can do but on Sunday he took it up another level. I hadn’t seen a lot of him last season in Germany so I must admit I didn’t really know what we were getting but what I saw on Sunday is a player who’s going to be very hard to knock off the ball, a couple of times in the game West Ham tried this and their players were just bouncing off him, at one point in the first half it three of their players just to drag him down as he looked so solid.
As well as this his dribbling reminded me of a young Steven Gerrard, the way he was just taking players on and beating them with ease was just mouth-watering to watch and he was actually unlucky not to score in the first half, where he probably took on one too many defenders but I really don’t mind this because of the confidence he was showing on Sunday, he looked like he’s been playing in the Premier League for years.Then there was Wijnaldum and what can you say about him that hasn’t already been said? He just oozed quality on Sunday and while some people were questioning how involved he would be this season, I certainly wasn’t. Wijnaldum is able to do the simple things but is able to them so effectively he makes them look effortless, a little five yard pass here, or a little run into space there, it all just comes naturally to him and while doing this he is able to keep the ball moving fluidly. He is going to be such a crucial part to the season and it was nice to see him get a really good performance under his belt this early.Even if you look at the midfielders we had on the bench, Henderson, Fabinho and Lallana could have all slotted into that midfield and we wouldn’t have lost an ounce of quality. For me that’s the exciting thing about this season, it’s that we have so many top quality options and combinations just within our midfield, that I can really see is dominating a lot of games from there.
So all in all it was a great start to the new season, four goals, none conceded and top of the league, bring on Palace next Monday.Article by Imraan Adam @imadam786Please login to view this content. <button class="lrm-hide-if-logged-in lrm-login hide-mobile">Login</button>
