Gavin Cooney

AND SO LIVERPOOL weather this storm of their own making. 

This victory against a diminished Inter Milan was hardly an emphatic response to the insanity of the last few days, but it was the stuff of minor, arduous progress. 

An Actual Win was the main thing to celebrate given it was only their fifth in their last 16 games, replete with only their third clean sheet away from Anfield all season.

Liverpool might also feel that the conspiring fates have finally relented, too, given they were heading for only a draw until a pernickety VAR spied a slight if harsh foul on Florian Wirtz in the box. Then again, the same VAR spent a small era before finding a reason to disallow Ibrahima Konate’s first-half goal, so maybe Liverpool will tonight call it even with the baleful Gods. 

Missing a penalty during Mo Salah’s exile would have been a Narrative too far even for this extraordinary Liverpool season, and so Dominik Szoboszlai comfortably did the deed from the spot. 

It wasn’t exactly freewheeling but it was another step in Liverpool’s cautious, furrowed-brow efforts to winch themselves out of this crater in form. It is for this largely soporific effort that Salah has been sacrificed, given his disinterest in defending.

Hence Arne Slot picked three centre-backs and four central midfielders tonight, leaving Florian Wirtz and Conor Bradley on the bench, presumably because both are on their way back from muscle injuries. 

The set-up was similar to that against Leeds on Saturday, with Liverpool arranged in a kind of midfield diamond. Alexis MacAllister played at the tip behind the notional striking duo of Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak. 

Liverpool started the game quite brightly, creating little but taking a tentative control of the game, pressing Inter with vigour, denying them anything of note. Unsurprising given it is a system preoccupied with defending.

Their rockiest spell did come at the first hint of adversity – after the disallowing of Konate’s goal – and they needed Alisson to spring to his left to brilliantly claw away Lautaro Martinez’ stooping header. 

Slot did pick his £200 million striking duo, who approached the game as Kevin Hart and Heidi Klum did the presentation of last week’s Fifa World Cup draw: each doing their own work as if totally unaware there was someone else standing beside them. 

They hardly played a pass to each other all night, with Ekitike sashaying into the penalty area in the first half but keeping his head down while driving a ball across the box and right at Yann Sommer. Isak threw his hands out in half-hearted remonstration. 

Liverpool strung one terrific move together early in the second half, with Curtis Jones punching a ball through the lines for Gravenberch, who in turn fed the ball forward for his strikers. He had his pick of them, given Isak and Ekitike had made precisely the same run. 

This was another wretched outing for Isak: technically sloppy, physically overwhelmed, generally looking diffident and confused, he made way for Wirtz not long after the hour mark. If Salah cannot be re-integrated back in his old position in this new Liverpool system, he should fancy taking Isak’s place because, in Slot’s large hierarchy of problems, the performances of Isak are climbing higher.

So too is the decline of MacAllister, who again struggled to make an impact in possession while looking painfully slow and lightweight without it. Here he was taken out of the rigours of deep midfield to play further forward, but that he fell to the ground with cramp in the closing moments was testament to how much of the game he spent running about uselessly. 

The good news for Slot was the impact of his double sub: Bradley was excellent, providing the pace and thrust from right-back that Joe Gomez could not, while Wirtz sparkled on his introduction, eventually winning the decisive penalty having dovetailed neatly with Ekitike. 

This system that Slot has struck upon has a future, given it has given Liverpool a bit of added solidity while placing Wirtz at its heart. 

Salah has no place in this system as it has made his position off the right wing obsolete, but he should comfort himself tonight knowing that Isak’s spot is up for grabs.