Report by
Dave Usher at Anfield
Here we go again. Don’t ever feel comfortable about this team and where they might take us, because it’s always, ALWAYS, false hope. They had somewhat surprisingly won at Stoke and West Brom by grinding out results and showing that maybe they aren’t the soft touch everyone accuses them of being.
The top four was so close you could almost smell the Champions League night prawn sandwiches in the corporate section of the Main Stand. It was in our own hands, just beat five shite teams and no-one could catch us. Now? Well even if we win all four we’re still relying on others slipping up, but it’s probably immaterial as there’s no way these chokers are going to win all of their remaining games.
Were any of you surprised we lost to Palace? I was pissed off about it, but not surprised. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t predicting it beforehand and I thought we’d probably judge edge a close one, but what unfolded wasn’t in the least bit unexpected. Palace do this to us regularly, and Benteke always does well at Anfield except when he’s wearing red.
The warning signs were there, especially given the way Klopp and some of the players had been sucking their own dicks after beating Stoke and West Brom. “Adult football” eh, Jurgen? Do me a fucking favour. They might have played like grown men at West Brom but they were back to the familiar schoolboy defending against Palace.
We’re never less dangerous than when we’ve had a good result or two. This season has been absolutely incredible for that shit, starting when we beat Arsenal on opening weekend and lost at Burnley six days later. It’s been going the same way ever since. Beat City, draw at Sunderland. Outplay United at Old Trafford, lose three home games on the bounce to shite. Draw with Chelsea, lose at Hull. Beat Spurs, lose at Leicester. And now we’ve sandwiched two good away wins in between a home draw with Bournemouth and a loss to Palace.
What makes this one even worse is that we had done the hard part by taking the lead. Sometimes when we’ve lost to shite teams it’s because we’ve given them a goal start and then got caught out trying to chase the game. You can almost understand it when that happens, as it’s not easy when the opposition has something to hang onto. This time though we went in front with our one and only effort of note in the first half, when Coutinho curled in a brilliant free-kick from 25 yards.
It wasn’t against the run of play as such, but Palace had probably looked more dangerous on the odd occasion they went forward and they could easily have earlier gone in front through Benteke, who shot narrowly wide. He made no mistake with his next chance though, firing in a controlled finish with his left foot at the Kop end after Cabaye had got in behind Lovren.
It was shite from Lovren but he always seems to save his worst moments for Palace doesn’t he? His afternoon got even worse after the break when he made two big errors that led to the corner from which Benteke headed the winner.
First he gave the ball away with a poor pass, and then he compounded that mistake by rashly diving in and failing win the ball against Townsend. Milner got across to snuff out the danger but only at the expense of a corner, and… well we know how that usually ends.
It wasn’t even a good corner, but Firmino didn’t cut it out at the near post and everyone else seemed caught on their heels by that, except Benteke who couldn’t believe his luck. Emre Can called it “stupid” and pointed out how well they’ve been defending set-pieces in training. Yeah, but they’re your own fucking set-pieces, and we know how easy those are to defend.
The goal had come out of nowhere as we’d been largely on top in the second half and had gone close to taking the lead through Coutinho, who really should have been awarded a penalty after being clipped by Martin Kelly. He tried to stay on his feet and get his shot away, and although he just about did that, the disruption to his stride allowed a defender to make a block. This is exactly why it’s difficult to blame players for going to ground easily, because where is the reward for staying up?
Andre Marriner saw it clearly enough and should have given it, but the easy call was to do nothing and that’s what he did. He pissed me off all day actually. Not as much as our performance did, but he still did my head in, mainly because he allowed Hennessey to constantly waste time and did nothing about it until the last few minutes.
Mind you, he managed to waste more time than anybody with his own shenanigans in stoppage time. Puncheon instigated a spot of handbags with Alexander-Arnold, with the sole intention of breaking the play up and wasting time, and instead of just waving it away and telling them to get on with the game, Marriner wanted his little bit of time on telly and wasted about a minute fucking about and lecturing them. Just get on with the game you attention seeking cunt.
Not that it even mattered as our race was well and truly ran at that point. It was all over from the moment Palace took the lead really, but any hope there was of a comeback went up in smoke with the manager’s substitutions.
Lovren had a bang to the face and wanted to come off, but instead of just putting Grujic on and dropping Lucas into defence, Klopp put Alexander-Arnold on in what looked like a centre forward position. I say looked like, because he didn’t seem to have a clue where to go and was just roaming about aimlessly getting in the way. Not his fault at all it should be said.
The change just seemed to mess everything up and no-one seemed to know what they were doing. Moreno then replaced Milner (which made sense) and then Grujic belatedly came on for Clyne, who should have gone off as soon as he fell behind as he was just killing our attacks any time the ball reached him. He did a good enough job keeping Zaha quiet, but any time he got in the final third is was just brutal to watch.
I like Clyne but his attacking output has been non-existent of late and the obvious change was to replace him with TAA. That eventually happened but those five minutes in between Trent coming on and then eventually moving to right back were completely wasted.
After the introduction of Grujic (who also didn’t seem to know where he was supposed to be playing), Can and Lucas ended up in a back three which later became a back two when Matip went up front to join Grujic and Origi as Klopp went full on alehouse to try and salvage something. It was just a completely disjointed mess though and it’s not the first time that Klopp’s substitutions have been questionable.
Yes, the bench was shite and the chances are whatever he did wasn’t going to make much difference, but there’s no excuse for making things worse instead of better. And where the fuck is Harry Wilson? Who’s dick does he have to suck to get on the bench? 28 goals isn’t enough? I’d be fucking livid if I was that kid, seeing Woodburn and now Brewster jumping the queue.
Anfield was half empty by the end, which is never nice to see and was somewhat ironic given it was the Palace game last season when Klopp spoke about “feeling alone”. Klopp had spoken in the build up about how things had changed and the fans had more trust and belief in the team these days. It would appear he’s misjudged that situation based on the thousands walking down Walton Break Road while the game was still going on.
A lot of people had their knickers in a knot afterwards about the the Sakho / Benteke handshake thing. In terms of it being ‘disrespectful’, yeah it probably was a bit, but I’m really not arsed. On a list of things to be pissed off with from this game, it doesn’t even register and I don’t really get why so many people are upset by it. I’ve seen it claimed that Sakho has “burned his bridges” now and shouldn’t be allowed back. Newsflash, his bridges were soaked with paraffin and torched with a flamethrower by Klopp a long time ago.
He wasn’t coming back under any circumstances and he knows it. There’s far more chance of him being at Palace than Liverpool next year, and it’s got fuck all to do with that lame handshake. It’s clear where his loyalties now lie, and to be honest who can blame him? I don’t blame Klopp for the stance he took with Sakho, because I’m sure he had his reasons, but equally you can’t blame Sakho for not being happy about it.
Allardyce was pretty unbearable afterwards, boasting about how he identified our weaknesses and exploited them. It’s not nice to hear, especially coming from that bloated smug bastard, but everything he said was right. This wasn’t a flukey, smash and grab win. Palace did exactly what they wanted to do. Defended well, restricted us to virtually no clear chances, scored one goal from a set piece and another by taking advantage of the space Milner leaves when he goes forward. Game set and match to Fat Sam, and like it or not he’s completely outcoached Klopp.
Not that the players are blameless. Individually most of them were average or above, and there was only really Lovren, Origi and Clyne who I thought were shite. The problem was that collectively it was poor, the balance didn’t look right and after they went behind they completely lost the plot, as did Klopp.
Who knows what this result means and what our chances are of making the top four are now. Anything can happen with this team and there will be more twists and turns yet. Watford away looks tricky in the same way Stoke and West Brom did, but they can quite easily go there and win. Equally, who would be shocked if Deeney bullied the shit out of them and we lost by two or three? Not me.
I wouldn’t bank on us beating Southampton, or even scoring against the fuckers for that matter. The most likely scenario though is we win the next three and then get beat by already relegated Boro on the last day. That would be the most fitting end to this ridiculous season.
Team: Mignolet; Clyne (Grujic), Matip, Lovren (Alexander-Arnold), Milner (Moreno); Lucas, Can, Wijnaldum; Firmino, Origi, Coutinho:
Recommended Comments