Georginio Wijnaldum: Liverpool’s man for the big occasion

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If you are looking for an important factor behind Liverpool’s success against their main rivals this season then look no further than the Dutch midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum.

The 26-year-old was signed in the summer from Newcastle for a fee of £25 million. While the fee looked excessive, a look to his previous season with the Magpies showed that he was the standout player in a campaign of gloom for the North East club, where he was top scorer with 11 goals, all of which came in the Premier League.

Before coming to England, Wijnaldum played for two of the powerhouses in Dutch football. He spent five seasons at Feyenoord and another four seasons at PSV, where he won his first league title in 2014/15 as club captain, along with the honour of being named Dutch Footballer of the year and taking part in the 2014 World Cup for his country.

A main area of concern for Liverpool over the past couple of seasons has been the lack of their central midfielders to make searching runs into the penalty area and scoring goals, hence why the signing of Wijnaldum looked a smart bit of business by Jurgen Klopp.

As with any player who joins a new club, it takes a little bit of time to find their feet. After a steady but unspectacular first month, Wijnaldum began to make more of an impact.

He brought teammates into the game by setting up goals. However, one thing was missing from Wijnaldum’s game, and that was putting the ball into the back of the net himself.

It was not for a lack of trying but despite his obvious frustration, the Dutchman never let it get him down with his beaming smile and positive attitude seen regularly during games and on the training pitch.

The moment he had been waiting for finally came when he scored the last goal in a 6-1 thumping against Watford in early November when the Reds were at their exhilarating best.

His next goal for the club was a whole lot more meaningful. It came against Manchester City on New Year’s Eve where his thumping header won a tight and intense clash between two teams who at the time were aiming to put the leaders Chelsea under some pressure.

It is now folklore what followed next, with Liverpool suffering a month from hell in January and the consequence of that was their title challenge going up in smoke.

When Wijnaldum scored his next goal (another header) against Chelsea at the end of the month, it was becoming clear that the club had a big game player in their ranks.

This point was illustrated further on the weekend against Arsenal, when a Wijnaldum run from midfield was seen by Divock Origi, who delivered a pin-point cross. The Dutchman was able to take this in his stride and slide the ball past Petr Cech.

At the time of that goal the visitors were pressing for an equaliser, so the goal came at the perfect time as Liverpool sealed a very important win in their quest to seal a top four berth.

A quirky stat about the Dutchman is that all of his 15 goals he has scored in English Football have come on home soil. To become a truly consistent player you have to do it whoever the opponent is or wherever the game is played.

In many ways, Wijnaldum has done the hard part by performing when the heat is on against quality opponents. Now, just like the team, in general, he needs to show the same level of quality and consistency when away from home and against lower placed sides.

The Dutchman was one of the poorer performers in Liverpool’s abject showing against Leicester, but in football a chance to atone is just around the corner.

Wijnaldum and his teammates have a number of opportunities from now until the end of the season to overcome their demons once and for all, starting with Burnley on Sunday.

What is clear is that Liverpool are building a team that can challenge any opposition with their attacking threats. With Sadio Mane, Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino the Reds have a feared front line.

If Wijnaldum can continue to develop in the attacking midfield role, it means that Liverpool will have another piece of the puzzle solved in their quest to end their long title drought.

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