Five Things We Learned From Burton

1) Sturridge can still find the net

After a lacklustre performance against Burnley, it was nice to see Daniel Sturridge on the scoresheet twice in Burton on Tuesday evening. In the same way that the game acted as a boost for the Reds as a team going into the Spurs game at the weekend, I feel it was also very important for Sturridge to use the game as a platform, he's a confidence striker.


Image via metro.co.uk

2) Sadio Mane is a workhorse

I can quickly see Sadio becoming a cult hero amongst the Anfield faithful. He collected the man of the match award for his role in the game after providing an assist and generally just being a strong attacking threat. What really gets me though is the desire of Mane to be on the ball. You could name on one hand the number of Liverpool players in the last decade that would be chasing down balls like a man possessed with one minute to go in a League Cup game at Burton Albion that we were winning 5-0...

3) Scoreboard Etiquette 

Bit of a dig here, sorry Brewers! I just happened to noticed during the game one of those things that you would probably see quite often in the Championship and the lower leagues but would probably never spot in the Premier League.

Burton Albion's scoreboard doesn't show the actual name of the team it just says "Brewers". Some people are probably fine with that but for me it's up there with playing samba di janeiro after your on loan striker from Colchester has scored...

4) Klopp means business in the League Cup

Many were questioning Klopp's intentions at the start of the season, wondering whether he would field weakened sides in the cups in order to focus on the league. With Liverpool out of Europe it seems natural to want to focus on the league but evidently fielding weakened sides is not entirely on Klopp's radar. 

It was an extremely strong team last night, the only real player I would have drafted in is Coutinho. If that team started against Spurs I would be very happy. The downside of course is that when failing to rotate, players may get injured. I haven't heard an update on Can or Origi at the time of writing but fingers crossed they are ok! 

5) Matip looks strong 

It's the first proper chance I've had to take a look at Matip and while it's "only Burton Albion" and "only the League Cup" I still feel as though you can take positives from a game like that. The clean sheet of course is a real bonus but his awareness and communication with his fellow teammates appears to be solid. I hope he continues to feature in the back four so I can analyse in more detail as the weeks go on.