Sam Wallace - The Telegraph
"This was an astonishing evening for many reasons, chief among them that for periods Leeds dominated the ball, against a team who are among the greatest of the modern era for doing so.
"Leeds came back to equalise three times, but they competed in ways that one might expect just a handful of sides in world football to be able to do so against Liverpool.
"In short, Leeds turned up in the Premier League playing football the way all but a few at the top of the table dare to do, and scored three goals at Anfield.
"This was Premier League football as it should be – great players doing great things, including Salah, but also great players making mistakes, lesser reputations helping them to do so and a kind of wildness about the outcome.
"At times Liverpool and their fabled defence barely recognised themselves. Their attack had many more shots but somehow Leeds had more of the possession.
"On their way to the Premier League title last season, Liverpool conceded two first half goals at Anfield just once, in the 5-2 win over Everton in early December although that occasion was nothing like the tornado that the newcomers unleashed."
Barney Ronay - The Guardian
"Jürgen Klopp will be grateful for the enduring vim of Mohamed Salah, who had nine shots at goal, scored a hat-trick in a 4-3 win and would no doubt be happy to play in this kind of freewheeling game of sprints every week.
"Klopp will also hope Virgil van Dijk was simply caught cold by the Leeds swarm. The Premier League’s outstanding defender looked as frazzled as he has at any time in a Liverpool shirt."
Listen to our Post-Game podcast reacting to the win over Leeds by clicking HERE
He went on to conclude: "For Liverpool there will be some concerns: the fragility at the heart of the defence (they have three clean sheets in 17 games) and the wonkiness of Roberto Firmino’s finishing. But Klopp is unlikely to dwell too long on either.
"This was in many ways a one-off, a match to win, somehow, while taking the bruises. Best of all, after a painful summer, it gave us that opening half-hour and a shot of pure sporting pleasure."
Melissa Reddy - The Independent
"For all the differences in Saturday’s late afternoon kick-off, the new season started like the old one: bio-secure, empty stands, socially distanced from the colour, a cacophony of voices and the euphoria that would usually frame a fresh beginning.
"It felt a disservice to the scale of the fixture when the teams walked out to no reaction. A sadness filtered through that of all grounds, of all games, of all days - it had to be like this, now, here.
"Jurgen Klopp would scold that it is pointless focusing on things that cannot be changed, but it is human nature to ponder what might have been. Then the game kicked off - press, pass, dart, Bielsa screaming while hunched on the touchline - and everything else faded fast.
"It was all about the football, and my god, was the football enjoyable. Intense, open, aggressive, decorated by stanzas of superb offensive play and some bonkers brain farts."
Phil McNulty - BBC Sport
"If this magnificently chaotic, dramatic return to the top order at Liverpool is anything to go by, Marcelo Bielsa's team will be making up for that lost time very quickly.
"This was a different Premier League opener at a largely deserted Anfield and, once again, the great regret was that 54,000 supporters could not have packed out the stadium to revel in this piece of theatre.
"It was not perfect, far from it.
"The defending from both sides was dreadful, but this was such rich entertainment it actually enhanced the spectacle rather than diminished it.
"Liverpool did what they do. They won.
"Leeds United left empty-handed, when their reward is measured in points, but they will take much pleasure and satisfaction back across the Pennines to Yorkshire when the pain subsides."
