Liverpool – Wolverhampton Wanderers: Dominant first-half performance keeps Liverpool’s winning streak going (1-0)

Liverpool started the match with tons of possession against a passive Wolverhampton side that rarely touched the ball in the opposition’s half. However, chances were quite rare and eventually the Wolves overcame their defensive problems to negate Liverpool’s direct attacks. Falling behind just before half-time, Wolverhampton looked to keep the ball longer in the second half and showed some promising attacks, but ultimately were not able to overcome Liverpool’s defense.

Tactical analysis and match report by Jonas G.

Traditionally the Premier League schedule is stuffed with a lot of games in this time of the year which leads to some unfair schedules for some sides. This year, Wolverhampton were one of the victims as they faced the by far strongest teams in the league – Liverpool and Manchester City – within roughly 45 hours. An adequate rest is not possible in this time and therefore Nuno Espírito Santo was forced to make some changes to his starting eleven. Raúl Jiménez and Adama Traoré among others started on the bench and the manager set his team up in a 3-5-2 formation instead of the 3-4-3 he used the last couple of matches. 

Liverpool had the usual span of three days between their win at Leicester on Boxing Day and their last home match of the year. Due to the . . .