And we give a sigh of relief. It wasn’t always the most thrilling thing to watch, but Liverpool put in a calm and controlled performance against a Wolves side who entirely lacked threat (I’m not taking seriously a stoppage time consolation goal that’s happened with a substitution-rotated side — that’s a stick for the analysts to beat the players with).
Last season Liverpool as title winners played with a similar level of control in possession, but seemed more assured at scoring goals. It often wasn’t
the most exciting to watch, but it did lead to good results while conserving player energy in ways you can’t do with more exhilarating, heavy metal football. This season it has often seemed that the Reds want the same level of control, but lack the cutting edge while simultaneously being rife with defensive errors. During 90 minutes today Liverpool showed what it looks like to execute the game plan — and probably could have had four goals if Dominik Szoboszlai was a bit more selfish at 3-0.
Dissecting the Narrative
The perpetually frustrating Liverpool have done it again, following up a deflating performance with a mature and steady one. In truly hilarious form, the underlying numbers in terms of attacking play were not a lot different from Tuesday’s outing at Molineux — even if the two games were very different experiences to witness.
The Reds had similar levels of control (in terms of possession), but managed to find more intent here — certainly in the second half. Indeed, many of the major events were directly addressing Liverpool’s recent struggles, as the Reds used the ball well and looked to get attackers in truly dangerous positions.
Mo Salah scoring (and being involved in the build-up for the first goal) is a balm after a troublesome period for the Egyptian. Salah was involved today in ways he had not been in recent matches, perhaps aided by the tricky Rio Ngumoha requiring a lot of Wolves defenders’ attention on the other wing. Ngumoha’s performance will surely give the Liverpool boss something to think about, even if I at least am on the side of exercising caution when it comes to the workload of the very youngest players.
Of course, no narrative shifts (for Salah or the team as a whole) can happen based on one game; as with much of the season a win here felt more like stemming the tide of concern after a previous bad result rather than a promise of good things to come.
There were loads of positives beyond the result and its manner, however. The return of Florian Wirtz was lovely to see, particularly with the German coming on not just because the Reds needed someone to break a deadlock. Giving Wirtz minutes without the desperation suggests he’s returned to full availability and we can expect him making a needed difference in games again soon.
Joe Gomez and Jeremie Frimpong both featuring, too, was a good sign. With Gomez the concern is obviously not his fitness levels, but him being able to accrue appearances over a set of games is always a relief given how often he has struggled with injury. If a player like Joe Gomez was always available Liverpool’s defensive record would be a lot stronger.
Frimpong’s continued return to fitness is also a good sign for Liverpool, who have had to go without a natural right back for large stretches this season. Not having to ask a midfielder to be an auxiliary right back can only be a good thing when it comes to tactical cohesiveness.
How The Andy Robertson Reacted
Andy Robertson, who managed a goal and an assist, thought the improvements in Liverpool were visible from the start.
“I thought from minute one we were more on top, had a better tempo, better play,” he told reporters after the match. “Tuesday was a bit too slow, things like that.
“It’s very rare in football that you have to play the same team so quickly after it, so we knew we had three days to go and put it right — obviously in a different competition, but in this one you’re either in or you’re out; if you win, you go through, if you lose you don’t.
We knew we had to up our performance today and I think we’ve done that. I thought it was a really controlled performance: got our noses in front and then we didn’t really look back from there.“
Naturally he was also asked about his goal and assist, becoming possibly the first ever Liverpool defender to manage one of each within two minutes for Liverpool (numbers are being crunched at present).
“The goal was probably rare, you know — I’ve not had many of them in my Liverpool career,” he told ESPN reporters through some laughter. “You know, the ball came to me and I just thought, ‘perfect time to go and do it’ and thankfully it was a good strike.”
The Scottish defender felt his goal gave the Reds a bit more space in their opponent’s final third, as Wolves pressed forward to try to score themselves.
“Obviously so quickly after [scoring] you get the kind of counter-attack where you can go and attack. Rio [Ngumoha] fed me in and obviously Mo [Salah] was in the back post, which he always is. To get two goals so quickly is so pleasing, and then I thought we controlled the game really well.
“We did obviously go and get the third, disappointing to lose the clean sheet at the end, but in cup football it’s all about the result and getting through.”
Though he reported no nerves at halftime with the score at 0-0, as he felt Liverpool controlled the 90’ quite well, Robertson stopped short of a view of full optimism when looking ahead to the end of the season.
“It’s hard to answer because we’ve been so up-down this season,” he said. “We’re trying to put our finger on it, we’re trying to search for that consistency, you know we need to find that if we want to win anything this season. Obviously we’re still in two trophies, but if we do that then we need to be consistent.
“We can’t put in, say, the performance we did on Tuesday. If play like we did today from now until the end of the season I do believe that no team will want to play us. But if we play like we did Tuesday, then everyone would want to play us. We just need to find that consistency, we’ve been trying to do find that all season. We’ve got a relatively young squad, a new squad, and we’re still trying to find that and we’re trying to guide the lads to do that. Hopefully we can find that to end the season.“
What Happens Next
A lot of good happened there, both in terms of result and in major players (and their minutes), but like so often in Liverpool’s 2025/26 season a single result isn’t meaningful unless the team can manage to string a few good results together — as Andy Robertson himself said post-match. The Reds travel to Galatasaray on Tuesday to face the Turkish side in the first leg of Champions League knock-out play, and coming home with a draw or better is necessary to retain marginal optimism at the tail end of the season. Liverpool then hosts Tottenham, who have allowed themselves to fall into the relegation dogfight. It’s crucial that the Reds don’t again let a side from the bottom of the table stall their battle at the top.
All this is not to diminish the progression in the FA Cup. The Reds have gone through to the quarter finals in one of the two competitions that have a chance of silverware at the end. Should they find some consistency Liverpool might just give themselves a platform to build on for next season with a bit of silverware attached.
