In the first part of his weekly ECHO column, John Aldridge reflects on Liverpool’s dramatic 2-1 against Everton at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
13:42, 20 Apr 2026Updated 00:13, 21 Apr 2026
Mohamed Salah of Liverpool celebrates scoring his team’s first goal against Everton(Image: Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images)
Liverpool’s performance against Everton in the Merseyside Derby is very similar to what we have been seeing recently. There’s a little bit more physicality, which they had to deliver. It wasn’t a complete performance by any means.
The result painted over the cracks a bit for me. Any other time we might get a draw [in that situation]. I think up to about 97 minutes you’re thinking ‘take a draw’ because the way the game went, it was probably the right result.
Then in the last minute, we get a corner and you think ‘we can’t can we’? It makes it very sweet. First time in the new stadium. It sounded like a great atmosphere. I wasn’t that confident but it was a really good corner. Getting a late winner makes your night. In fact, it makes your week really, because we haven’t got a midweek game, and on the back of that, the next days will be a lot better.
If you’re an Evertonian, you’ll be absolutely gutted, but it’s happened to us on a number of occasions this season, most notably against Fulham. So it’s nice to do it. Do I feel sorry for Everton? No chance! That’s football. Sometimes you get the breaks and other times you don’t.
Salah produces perfect send-off
Liverpool’s old guard of Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk were both on target against Everton. You couldn’t write it, with Salah getting the first Merseyside derby goal in Hill Dickinson Stadium. That’s what he does. That’s what he’s done in all the years he’s been at Liverpool.
He’s not been good this season, we all know that. But still, cometh the hour, cometh the man. He was clearly motivated and was more direct than he has been of late. They were sticking tight to him with two men on him. People forget, he’s not old in football terms. He’s 33. He’s moving on to new things at the end of the season but it was sweet for him to score that goal in one of his final games.
Isak needs practice match
Alexander Isak started for Liverpool, but if I’m honest, he is miles off the pace. Liverpool should arrange a behind-closed-doors friendly in the week.
When I was manager of Tranmere Rovers, Liverpool wanted to have a look at Rigobert Song and I got a phone call from Gerard Houllier. Tranmere played on the Tuesday night and I got the team to go down to Melwood on the Wednesdsay, so they could have a look at Song.
Ironically, he didn’t do that well against Tranmere and they still signed him!
This was just a run-out 90 minutes to see him. He could play for the U21s, play against Tranmere, Accrington, anyone. Just give him a 90 minute match because he is miles off match fitness. There’s fitness and there’s match fitness. They’re two different things. You can run all day and be strong but if you’re not match fit you are so rusty.
Isak has been out nearly all season on two different occasions. He’s extremely rusty. He has two half-chances yesterday that he probably would have scored [if fit]. If Arne Slot is going to play him again from the start next weekend, which he might have to, he’s got to get 90 minutes in him somewhere.
It’s vitally important because we need him now. We’ve got no centre-forwards. He does make runs. He made some good runs in behind and we tend not to put balls in behind. The best ball in behind was Cody Gapko’s for Salah’s goal. That was brilliant.
That’s the type of runs that Isak wants to make and they don’t see him. He’s hardly kicked the ball. He won’t score unless he gets the service. You can’t make things out of nothing.
But in terms of his fitness, I think at the moment he is better coming on in games rather than starting them in the Premier League while he is not match-fit. The manager should get on the phone today and organise 90 minutes for him to try and get to the required level.
I’ve played for Liverpool reserves, Tranmere reserves, and Sociadad reserves. I did it all the way through my career when coming back from injuries because I wanted match fitness.
I wasn’t a fancy Dan on the pitch. I’d move players around the pitch, lay it off and get on the move. Erling Haaland is the same in that respect. He doesn’t want to get involved, he just wants to score goals and Isak is very similar. But we’ve got to play a little more direct to him.
One thing none of our current strikers do is hold the ball up. It keeps coming back. We need a big presence up there to help us.