Gary Neville was speaking after Liverpool's dramatic win over Burnley on Sunday afternoon
Gary Neville
Gary Neville(Image: The Gary Neville podcast/Youtube)
Gary Neville has claimed he 'knew' Liverpool would get a late winner against Burnley. It looked as though the Reds were going to drop their first points of the season at Turf Moor on Sunday afternoon.
But the Reds staged another dramatic late show as [Mohamed Salah's](https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/all-about/mohamed -salah) stoppage-time penalty secured them all three points. The penalty was given after Hannibal Mejbri handled the ball inside the box.
At the time of the goal, Neville was making his way up to the gantry at the Etihad Stadium ahead of the Manchester derby, but he was not surprised when he heard the Reds had scored late on.
“I knew that was going to happen, because they’ve got that thing at the moment, “ he said on the Gary Neville podcast. “Maybe that thing we (Man United) used to have, City have had it, teams that win leagues have it, they’ve got that mentality.
“They can play really well and win and that’s fantastic and most of the time they do that, but they can also, when they’re going through periods of time of settling in players like (Florian) Wirtz and (Hugo) Ekitike, they’re settling in a new wave of players into the club and they’re not at their absolute purring best, but they’ve got something and they won and that’s a really important thing to have.
“Obviously, you can’t keep on winning by playing below your best and performing like they did today, but they keep on getting over the line; they’ve demonstrated that in the first few weeks of the season, and they’ve carried it on after the international break.”
Content Image
Content Image
Neville also picked out two players in particular who are integral to helping the side get over the line, even though they are yet to show their best.
“Liverpool just weren’t at their best; it was a scruffy game in some ways,” he said. “Burnley were defending well, and Liverpool just couldn’t break them down.
"Liverpool were obviously the better team, so you can’t deny Liverpool at the end of the game, but you always know they’re going to be the better team against Burnley.”
“That’s where Liverpool are at in their period of development, they can get through games. At the end of the game, I saw (Mohamed) Salah and (Virgil) Van Dijk doing the interview, coming out and talking about not being at their best but getting over the line; they’ve got two world-class players and operators there who know how to win leagues; they’ve done it twice at Anfield already.
"So there’s some comfort in that the likes of Wirtz and Ekitike and those who are settling in can just be carried a little bit by the experienced players.
“(Andy) Robertson came on for (Milos) Kirkez after half an hour, again, that’s really important to have someone to come off the bench to have the ability to know what’s going on and not panic. So, yeah, Liverpool are in a good place.”