Liverpool are two points clear at the top of the Premier League table and Jurgen Klopp must be delighted with how his midfield revamp has worked out.
The Reds fell behind to Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday afternoon with Danny Welbeck firing a superb strike into the net.
Liverpool had to rally and go again with Luis Diaz finding an equaliser before Mohamed Salah won it after the break.
That win was so important, especially as Arsenal then drew 0-0 at Manchester City later on Sunday.
The result leaves Liverpool a couple of points clear at the top of the Premier League table and their fate is in their hands.
It may sound easy but Liverpool have previously gone on long winning runs to end the season and doing it again would hand them the title in Jurgen Klopp’s final season in charge.
Praise has been coming in for Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister after his display against his former club, but Klopp has drawn attention to another ex-Brighton midfielder…
Jurgen Klopp on Moises Caicedo
Brighton sold both Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo last summer and they actually came so close to being teammates again at Anfield.
Caicedo appeared so close to signing for Liverpool before a shock U-turn saw him complete a staggering £115million move to Chelsea instead.
That prompted Liverpool to pivot to other targets, signing Wataru Endo and then Ryan Gravenberch to bolster Klopp’s engine room.
Brighton had to recover from selling their two star midfielders and Klopp has used that to praise Seagulls boss Roberto De Zerbi.
Speaking to LFC TV, as quoted by This Is Anfield, Klopp highlighted that Caicedo was the ‘engine’ of De Zerbi’s Brighton team alongside Mac Allister.
Klopp clearly still rates Caicedo highly and believes his exit just highlights what an ‘insane’ job De Zerbi is doing at the Amex Stadium.
“Ripping Mac Allister out of this team, with all respect – not only him, Chelsea took Caicedo – that was the engine room of this team,” said Klopp. “They now have other players there and they do really well. The third one, Billy Gilmour, is badly injured. Knowing all that, what a heck of a job he’s doing. It’s really insane,” he added.
Wataru Endo has eased Caicedo miss
Liverpool so very nearly spent a staggering fee on Caicedo but have seen Endo become an absolute star.
The Japan international was a largely unheralded signing from Stuttgart and came in for a fraction of Caicedo’s enormous fee.
Endo has been sensational this season with his work rate and defensive ability in the Liverpool midfield providing the perfect base behind Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Yes, Endo may not be a long-term solution – not in the way Caicedo would have been – but he has been an absolute bargain.
Caicedo’s season with Chelsea has been up-and-down and he may have to sit and watch Liverpool go and win the Premier League title in a cruel twist of face for the Ecuadorian.