Former Liverpool RIVAL praises Reds forcing no threat from Wolves

Liverpool may have hoped for a more comprehensive win over bottom of the table Wolves yesterday, but a 2-1 run out was enough to see the Reds to the top of the table regardless.

They faced stern opposition from a seemingly out of luck Wolves team who have faced, amongst others, Arsenal, Chelsea and Aston Villa already this season.

Read more: 'Insane' Liverpool loan star has fans calling him 'better than Mo Salah'

Yet Liverpool may be able to think of themselves as fortunate due to how Wolves approached the game whilst 2-1 down in the latter stage of the second half. Speaking on Saturday Night Football, pundit and former rival Gary Neville was beside himself: 

"They've passed it back to the goalkeeper," Neville said. "It absolutely drives me crazy. You need a goal. Do they know? Stop it. Honestly, it's so frustrating.”

Neville carried on, "I can't watch this because the reality is you can't kid football fans. They know exactly what's going on here. You've got to have another idea to try and do something different. I'm not talking about wellying it long and second balls.”

"But we're now watching teams at the lower end of the table playing six passes between the centre-back and goalkeeper needing a goal with four minutes to go and I can't accept that."

"I have no problem with them trying to play out from the back, but there's got to be some point in the game where you say, 'Look, we're struggling to have an impact on the game, we need a goal, we need to create some form of pressure, get the atmosphere in the ground going'.”

It’s an understandable tirade from Neville as Wolves didn’t really seem to threaten Liverpool towards the latter stages of the game. They only touched the ball twice in the Redmen’s box after the 56th minute, and Hwang Hee-Chan - subbed on on the 69th minute - only touched the ball once in his appearance.

With Ibrahima Konaté making an uncharacteristic error handing Wolves their equaliser earlier in the game it was perplexing that they didn’t seek to try and play on this to force an equaliser. It does, however, speak to the mental strength of this Liverpool side that they were able to force the resurgent team into a hesitant pattern of build up play. It will have given Konaté immeasurable confidence after his error and is the level of confidence needed if Liverpool are going to continue this excellent run of form.