Report by
Dave Usher
That was breathtaking. Just a stunning display of football, the likes of which supporters of very few teams ever get to witness. Don’t try and water it down by telling me it was ‘only’ Spartak Moscow. Just like it was ‘only’ Maribor. It’s not like anyone else is doing this to these teams is it?
Spartak might not be Real Madrid but they aren’t bums either. They put five past Sevilla, yet our front four made them look like a school team. This sets the record straight for that ridiculous draw in Moscow when really the score should have been similar to this one.
We sometimes take wins like that for granted and we moan constantly about not winning the title, and maybe we lose sight of the fact that some the football this team plays is at times other worldly. It’s fucking incredible, the speed with which they move the ball around and the pace they attack with.
There are fans of loads of other teams that have never, ever, been treated to football like that from the team they support. I’m not just talking lower league teams either, there are very few sides in England who have ever hit the heights Liverpool against Spartak. It was special. Who else is capable of football like this? Madrid, Barca, PSG, City, maybe Bayern. That’s probably it. When we attack it’s just like a big fucking red blur.
As I said, this could easily have happened in the first meeting in Moscow, except this time we didn’t squander the glut of chances we created. We scored more goals in this group stage than any English team has ever managed before, but the truth is we should easily have added another ten to that total when you think about the chances we missed in Moscow and at home to Sevilla.
It’s a little irritating that we had allowed it to go down to the last game but having played like this, maybe it’s for the best? Confidence has to be soaring now and the players must feel like they can tear anybody apart. There would have been benefit to being able to rest Mané, Salah & co ahead of the derby, but that isn’t until Sunday and this wasn’t the most taxing of fixtures, so the pros outweigh the cons on this one.
It helped that Spartak gave us an early present when a defender inexplicably hauled Salah down as he went for a ball he was probably never going to get. Coutinho cooly despatched the pen as he never took his eyes off the keeper and waited for him to commit before rolling it in the other corner.
I like that, but I’m not sure I’d want him to be the regular taker because the more keepers see of that the better prepared they’ll be. I think I’d like to see us rotate our penalty takers for a bit. Let Firmino have then next one, then Mané, maybe then go back to Coutinho and so on. We get so many penalties that it’s easy for keepers to scout, and I think that’s what eventually caught up with Milner.
Soon after it was 2-0 and what a goal that was. In fairness, the defending was beyond amateurish as their back four were all over the place. One defender dropped about 20 yards behind everyone else, they looked like passers by running from a loud bang, it was complete panic stations. That’s what our forwards can do to a defence though.
Mané picked out Mo, he rolled it to Firmino and he unselfishly squared for Coutinho to casually roll the ball into the corner with his left foot. They make it look so simple but it’s just devastatingly good football.
Firmino got in on the act when a cross by Mané was handled by a defender but before the referee had to make a decision the ball was in the net after a fine finish off the outside of Firmino’s boot. There were only 15 minutes gone and this game was over.
We’ve blown three goal leads before but this one was never in danger, as we were at Anfield and we had the bit between our teeth. It was only ever a question of how many more we’d get and the only surprise was we had to wait until the second half for the next goal to arrive.
What a goal it was too. Milner had replaced Moreno just before half time after the little Spaniard twisted an ankle making a good block on the edge of the box. Moreno had been playing very well again but Milner ensured he wasn’t missed. With more or less his first touch he surged down the left and delivered a brilliant ball that was matched by the quality of the volley from Mané.
He’d missed two really good chances in the first half but then he goes and does that? Incredible strike. I have to admit I was a bit annoyed at him for one of the earlier misses as he robbed us of what would have been an all time classic goal. Firmino’s turn, Mo’s little back heel, it was exhilarating stuff but then Mané fucking ballooned it over the bar. Annoying, but he made amends with that volley.
Coutinho then completed his hat-trick. The finish was lucky as it took a wicked deflection, but the build up play was phenomenal. You have to feel sorry for that poor bastard who Phil dummied out of his socks on the touchline. Then he plays a no look pass to Firmino, collects the return and scores. Frightening.
Ideally Klopp probably would have liked to have given all of his stars an early night, but Moreno’s injury complicated things, and it was interesting that Lovren was brought off after an hour. Presumably he’s being wrapped in cotton wool while Matip is out, but it also gave us a chance to see Gomez in the middle for half an hour. I thought he looked class, albeit against a team who didn’t have much to play for and were a little shell shocked.
The final sub saw Sturridge on for Firmino. He made the fifth for Mané, although his cross wasn’t the best and I’m not entirely sure how Sadio managed to divert it in considering how far behind him it was. It was a brilliant piece of improvisation.
It was looking like Mo would miss out and, ridiculous as it sounds, that would have taken a little bit of the shine off it for me. I want him to score every game now and when he doesn’t I’m disappointed. By that I mean disappointed for him, not in him.
He was brilliant again and if he hadn’t scored it would have been a travesty. The closest he’d come was with a low curler after a ridiculous little change of direction on the edge of the box.
Time was running out for him but then Can picked out Milner’s run, he headed it back into the middle, Sturridge caused confusion in the defence and the ball fell at Mo’s feet. Everyone thought he’d hit it with his left, but instead he just wrong footed everyone by dragging it back onto his right and then lashing it into the top corner. 18 goals and he seems to be getting better every week.
I’d have liked Sturridge to get one too because it can’t be easy for him at the moment. He doesn’t play much but when he does his attitude is exemplary. This reputation he has for being selfish and sulky needs fucking right off because it’s just not the case anymore. He must have been desperate to score yet when a chance came he squared it for Mané because he was better placed. He wouldn’t have done that a few years ago.
He was later denied a penalty when he went round the keeper and was brought down. Pretty sure that was a sympathy vote from the ref, who was giving Spartak all kinds of soft free-kicks all night. He was a fussy bastard but we get this in Europe sometimes. Our players like to press and harry opponents, but in European games they usually just hit the deck waiting for a free-kick that more often than not arrives.
It didn’t matter this time because Spartak never really had a chance, but when we come up against one of the top sides we need to be allowed to play our game so hopefully we don’t get some over officious dick like this guy.
I want Real Madrid next, but I’d settle for Bayern I suppose. Fuck hoping for an easy draw, playing in this competition is all about testing yourself against the best. I’d love to see our forward line up against Madrid. Of course, the flip side of that is seeing our defence up against Bale and Ronaldo…
There isn’t a team in that competition that will be looking at the draw and saying “I hope we get Liverpool”. We aren’t the best team in Europe but we might be the most dangerous. The front four are brilliant but they’re also much greater than the sum of their parts.
BT Sport were running a poll as to which quartet was better; Coutinho, Sterling, Suarez and Surridge, or Coutinho, Mané, Firmino and Salah. It's a good question.
There’s always a danger of getting caught up in the moment with these things but I believe it’s the current group, both collectively and individually. They just haven’t played enough games together yet to prove it, but if they avoid injury and play out the rest of the season together, they’ll break every goalscoring record we have.
Suarez is obviously better than everyone else by a distance, but Coutinho is much better now than he was four years ago, Mané is much better than Sterling was (and indeed is), Firmino is no Suarez but he’s still fucking ace and a perfect foil for the rest of the attack, and as good as Sturridge was that year, Mo isn’t too far behind his goal tally for that entire season and we’ve got six months left in this one!
These four have scored 41 goals (I think) between them in four months even though Coutinho and Mané have both missed games. It’s not the individual talent that makes it work though, it’s the way they play for each other and don’t seem to mind who scores. One week it’ll be Mo getting the headlines, the next it’s Mané, then it’ll be either Firmino or Coutinho. There’s only City who spread it around like that, the others all rely on one or two players.
We’ll come unstuck sooner or later of course. There’ll be that game where we miss a shitload of chances and do something stupid at the back and it will cost us, but as long as we keep playing like this in between the occasional cock up then I’m good with it. I just hope Sunday isn’t when we fuck it up, because I’m desperate for us to give them an historic type of beatdown.
Star man is Coutinho who was simply imperious and throughly deserved his hat-trick. They were all terrific though, particularly the front four.
Team: Karius; Gomez, Lovren (Alexander-Arnold), Klavan, Moreno (Milner); Can, Wiljnaldum; Mané, Salah, Coutinho; Firmino (Sturridge):
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