Liverpool’s front three show future may have arrived in Anfield rout

Cody Gakpo, Darwin Núñez and Mohamed Salah all scored twice in Liverpool’s 7-0 humbling of rivals Manchester United

There are few things harder in football management than the dismantling of one side and the construction of another. As Jürgen Klopp’s first Liverpool team has aged, it has been reasonable to ask whether he was equipped to build another. One game, even a record victory over Manchester United, is nowhere near enough to assert that a new Liverpool is being born, but it felt a lot closer at the final whistle than it had at kick-off.

Cody Gakpo, Darwin Núñez and Mohamed Salah all scored twice but the goals were only part of it. The front three had a coherence and a zip that has been rare this season. There is clearly still work to be done. The midfield is not what it was, an awkward combination of the ageing and the developing with not much in between, but, perhaps for the first time, there is the sense that a front three of Salah, Núñez and Gakpo could represent a viable future.