If this truly was the turning point for Liverpool’s spluttering forwards then they will owe a big debt of gratitude to Yehor Yarmolyuk. Brentford were 1-0 up when their midfielder saw red for a butt on Jérémy Jacquet just before half-time. While Andoni Iraola will hope surviving one of the toughest tests the Premier League has to offer is a sign his methods are starting to take hold, the Spaniard will know it was very different contest once his side had a numerical advantage to exploit.
Brentford, whose unbeaten start to the season is over, raged at the officiating. They finished with nine men after losing Vitaly Janelt late on. John Brooks walked off to boos at full-time, although Brentford had only themselves to blame.
They pressed the self-destruct button when they had Liverpool on the ropes. Yarmolyuk was foolish and Liverpool punished him. An attack worth close to £400m rose to the occasion in the second half.
Florian Wirtz, who has struggled since his £116m move from Bayer Leverkusen last year, collected his second assist of the season when he made Victor Muñoz’s equaliser. Muñoz finished well and his strike was followed by a first assist in Liverpool colours for Bradley Barcola, whose header teed up Alexander Isak to complete the turnaround in the 70th minute and lift ILiverpool into fifth place. There was not much between the sides before Yarmolyuk’s rush of blood to the head.
Liverpool had Isak back after injury ruled him out of last week’s defeat to Manchester City and they shaded the early openings. Isak nodded over from a good position and when Janelt made an error Barcola missed a chance to build on his midweek hat-trick against LASK. Brentford responded with a series of fast breaks.
Liverpool had to be strong. They looked readier for the threat posed by Brentford than when they folded in this fixture under Arne Slot 12 months ago. Jacquet, quietly impressive in central defence, made a crucial tackle to deny Igor Thiago.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
