You don’t need Luis Suárez to compete for the top-four (although it would be far easier, and a lot more fun, with him); Suárez and, when he’s fit, Daniel Sturridge are in a different universe talent-wise to Divock Origi and Danny Ings, but hey, ditto Jamie Vardy. What you need is the right blend of qualities to complement each other and build something greater than the sums of its parts. That’s what Leicester have done this season and, for 90 minutes on Sunday, it’s what Liverpool did. And while it would clearly be wrong to read too much into this annihilation of what looked a mid-table Championship side, the age-old concept of cause and effect was present and correct: pace and movement in the shape of Sturridge and Origi restored and, with them, the return of purpose and danger, and suddenly a team that has looked rudderless and devoid of ideas in too many games is scoring a half-dozen without breaking a sweat.
Goals number two, three, five and six were gifts, but the first doesn’t happen if not for Sturridge’s presence in the right place at the right time and the fourth if not for Origi’s movement and speed. It’s equally pleasing to have Coutinho back but his vision and execution, as sumptuous as the pinpoint cross onto Sturridge’s head and the outside-of-the-boot pass into space for Origi to run onto were, would have counted for absolutely nothing had Benteke been leading the line at Villa Park, and that’s not intended as a knock on Liverpool’s number 9 who will once again make a fine striker for some other team in the future, one not as dependent on a level of movement and speed that he doesn’t possess.
We’ve all witnessed Coutinho being as ineffectual as anyone else this season at times, days when his only contributions were launching frustrated punts at goal from 35 yards. The problem, and we know this from bitter experience, is that for the first goal on Sunday Benteke would have been waiting on the edge of the penalty area, and no way he’s making that run for the fourth (and even if he did, it’s unlikely that he would have had the pace to leave the defenders for dead like Origi did, which isn’t even mentioning that one-on-ones appear to be his kryptonite).
Cause and effect. The twin return of Sturridge and Origi represents the return of pace, movement and power to Liverpool’s attack. West Ham found them a handful in the Cup for an hour or so, poor Villa couldn’t handle them at all. Weak opposition still has to be pushed over. Coutinho and Firmino are a joy to watch but they need something to be happening in front of them. This squad of players at its best under Rodgers was a front-foot team (as was Klopp’s Dortmund), its deterioration coinciding with the loss of types (even leaving aside their quality) like Suárez, Sterling and Sturridge and the arrival of incongruities like Lambert, Balotelli and Benteke, pace, movement and directness replaced with inertia, not one of them blessed with either pace nor the desire to run into space. Origi has almost wreaked more havoc in two brief cameos than those three did in a collective two and a half years in red.
Great to see some momentum building ahead of the Cup final.
