‘Superb’ early moment from much-maligned Liverpool ace drew a ‘massive’ response from Anfield crowd

Liverpool defender Milos Kerkez was praised for a ‘superb’ piece of defending which could’ve prevented them from going behind to Manchester City inside the opening two minutes at Anfield this afternoon.

The heavyweight contest began at a frenetic pace and the first sight of goal came after just 90 seconds when Bernardo Silva had space to slip a dangerous through ball into Erling Haaland.

The Norwegian appeared to be through on goal, but Alisson Becker raced out to deny the striker, with the Reds’ Hungarian left-back also managing to get a boot in to thwart the visitors’ number 9.

Kerkez praised for ‘superb’ challenge on Haaland

Aadam Patel has been providing live updates for BBC Sport from Anfield, and he highlighted Kerkez’s vital contribution in ensuring that Haaland didn’t open the scoring in the very early stages.

The reporter observed: ‘The defending is superb from Milos Kerkez. He uses every bit of his strength against Erling Haaland and then Antoine Semenyo – and the Kop absolutely loves it. Anfield is pumped up.’

The Liverpool Echo‘s Paul Gorst also drew attention to the response from the home fans to the Hungarian’s early moments, noting a ‘massive roar’ from the crowd after the 22-year-old followed up his goal-saving heroics by winning a throw-in for the Reds near the corner flag.

Kerkez has been excellent for Liverpool in recent weeks

Kerkez has shipped some stinging criticism during his first season at Anfield, with Gary Neville brutally stating in October that the former Bournemouth man ‘plays like a 10-year-old‘.

However, his performances in recent weeks illustrate that he’s grown into his role within the Liverpool team, with Lewis Steele praising him for some ‘brilliant’ performances in January, in particular the 0-0 draw away to Arsenal.

If the 22-year-old mistimed his challenge on Haaland, he’d have given away a penalty and might also have been shown a very early red card for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity, so that moment will have helped him to settle into such a high-stakes contest.

Kerkez and his teammates in red have been kept occupied in the opening half-hour at Anfield today, with Man City enjoying the lion’s share of territory and chances in the first quarter, but the Hungarian has (at the time of writing) been excellent thus far.

If Liverpool go on to secure a narrow victory, that intervention from our number 6 in the opening two minutes will feel even more crucial.

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