Mirror
Jordan Pickford and Alisson put in man-of-the-match performances from the opposite sides of the Goodison Park pitch in Saturday’s Merseyside derby.
Jurgen Klopp made a big call in dropping the in-form Roberto Firmino for the must-win fixture and replacing him at the front of his side’s attack with summer signing Darwin Nunez.
But the decision backfired somewhat with the Reds struggling to find their rhythm in a physical clash with their historic rivals.
Everton came closest to winning the contest with Conor Coady putting the ball in the back of the net, but a VAR check showed the former Wolves star was fractionally offside.
Here are the winners and losers from this Saturday’s derby.
WINNERS
Jordan Pickford
The England international has had his critics over the years but he was at his best in Everton’s most important fixture of the season.
The shot-stopped was at full stretch to turn a Darwin Nunez shot onto the bar in the first half of the derby before Klopp introduced Roberto Firmino to the mix, who had a couple of clear-cut chances to put the Reds ahead.
But despite the in-form Brazilian’s best efforts, Pickford showed strong wrists to parry a number of dangerous chances wide.
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Pickford made a total of eight saves against Liverpool, leaving Klopp and co. incredibly frustrated.
Allison
On the opposite side of the pitch, Liverpool’s shot-stopper also had a game to remember between the sticks.
New Everton signing Neal Maupay will be wondering for some time how he was unable to beat Alisson in a one-on-one after the Brazilian stayed big in his goal and parried a gilt-edged chance wide.
Dwight McNeil also came close to scoring for the Toffees with just seven minutes left on the clock when he fired a chance into the top left corner of Alisson’s goal, but the Brazilian was once again equal to it and tipped the ball wide.
The striker’s best chance to score came in the first half when his shot was tapped onto the crossbar by Jordan Pickford. But he rather fluffed his other…
