Gary O’Neil offers a title prediction for Liverpool.
Following his team’s loss on Saturday, Wolves manager Gary O’Neil predicted that Liverpool will contend for the Premier League championship this year.
At Molineux, the Reds were put through a scare when they found themselves trailing 1-0 at the break. If it weren’t for the hosts’ careless finishing, the deficit may have been higher.
 Former Liverpool Academy coach O’Neil said that his team’s response to the ‘chaos’ the Reds had produced in the second half was ineffective.
O’Neil stated (through the ECHO) that “we can take a positive in the fact that Liverpool are going to be a top side this year, they are going to be right up at the top of the league without a doubt.” These aren’t the games on which we are evaluated.
“When you compare the two teams, you can see how much of an effort it takes to close the quality gap between us and Liverpool, which we did for a very long period. We were able to close that distance because to the organization, structure, and caliber of the players.
“You are aware that you won’t always be the better team playing Liverpool. We probably could have taken one or two of our situations while we were in the lead.
When they gained control and sent in (Darwin) Nunez and (Luis) Diaz, we started to lose a little energy, and you knew you had to fight back. And with the score tied at one, Jose Sa didn’t have a lot of saves to make. Then we take an odd action, cause some confusion, and give up a second goal. When you cause confusion against Liverpool, they are skilled at it.
What Van Dijk did on a regular basis
At Molineux, Liverpool’s defense appeared fragile, but Jarell Quansah was by no means to blame for that.
Due to injury and a suspension, the 20-year-old received his first senior start for the Reds against Wolves.
Although his more experienced teammates Joe Gomez and Jol Matip struggled, Quansah had earlier displayed encouraging indications after playing off the bench against Newcastle and Aston Villa. He also didn’t appear out of place at Molineux.
Additionally, as Ian Doyle of the ECHO noted in his game analysis, Quansah’s performance was sufficient to garner him some extra appreciation from Virgil van Dijk.
At full-time, the suspended captain embraced each player while watching from the sidelines, but he “reserved a special embrace” for Quansah to show his support for the player’s performance.
