Report by
Dave Usher
That’s easily the best we’ve played since we hammered Arsenal 5-1 and when you look at the circumstances surrounding it, it’s pretty amazing what we just did here. Our best defender was missing, our best midfielder (and club captain) was missing, and we started the game without our three best strikers. Yet we absolutely battered City and the 4-1 scoreline flattered them big time. Are we back? We might just be you know, although we'll need to hammer some mediocre sides at home before we can truly say we've arrived.
A combination of below par finishing from Roberto Firmino and Christian Benteke and some great goalkeeping by Joe Hart kept the scoreline from being majorly embarrassing for City. This should have been seven or even eight and they should be thankful it wasn’t. They began the day at the top of the table but from watching this you’d think that it was us who were the leaders and title favourites. Give us a couple of months and maybe we will be. I’m not even kidding, if we can play like this then why not?
We’ve still got weaknesses and things we need to work on, but any team that can win 3-1 at Chelsea and then 4-1 at City within the space of a few weeks has to be taken seriously, surely? Of course we lost at home to Palace and drew with Southampton in that same period, and that is the thing holding us back now. Sort out the home form and why can’t we be up there? It’s not like anyone else is pulling up trees. I mean Leicester are top of the table for fucks sake!
I was confident before the game that we wouldn’t lose, the main reason being that we’ve shown already under Klopp that we can play well in the difficult away games. I’m not worried about these games, I’m worried about our inability to beat shite at home. That said, I didn’t think for a second we’d be able to do THIS. It was just brilliant. Not perfect, as Klopp rightly pointed out afterwards, but still pretty fucking good like.
The decision to not start with Benteke was a gamble and no doubt there’ll have been some mutterings from fans about the wisdom of playing without a striker. It worked at Chelsea, but that doesn’t mean it would work in this one, and let’s not forget that two of our three goals at Chelsea came AFTER Benteke was brought on. Yet it did work. It worked like a fucking charm.
Why? Because Firmino ran riot up front. As it turns out, we didn’t play without a striker, because Firmino didn't play as a false nine, he was a forward. In fact, dare I say it, his performance reminded me of a certain Uruguayan number seven. That’s right, I went there. There were definite shades of Suarez in some of the things Firmino was doing. The movement, the link up with his fellow forwards, the work rate… of course the finishing wasn’t there but then that was the biggest criticism of Suarez in his first 18 months at the club too let’s not forget.
Look, I’m not crowning Firmino as the “new Suarez”, I’m just saying that he did a passable impression of the great man and this was a lot of fun to watch. It’s mad when you think about it, we’ve just gone to Man City and pasted them everywhere with Benteke and Sturridge sat watching most of it from the bench. What Klopp has done in such a short space of time is fucking remarkable, and that’s what’s making me think; if he can have us playing like this within six weeks, what will we be like after Christmas?
The first goal may have been a little fortuitous in terms of how the ball found it’s way into the net, but the way it was worked before that was great. Coutinho is always lights out against City but this might have been his best yet. He mugged Sagna and then drove at the defence before playing it to Firmino who had ran in behind the centre backs (he would continue to do that all day). His cut back didn’t find Coutinho or Lallana but the hapless Mangala couldn’t adjust his feet and bundled it into his own net.
After that, City were just a complete gibbering mess. The way our front players harassed them when in possession had their defenders in full on panic mode any time they had the ball. The fans were edgy, their players had no idea how to deal with us and we were just ripping through them. It was glorious. Coutinho made it 2-0 when the bustling Firmino got away from Mangala and then Kolorov before squaring it to his compatriot for an easy finish. That was pure Suarez that, the way he harried Demichaelis into the mistake, the way he chased it down, the way he drove into the box and the way he put it on a plate for Coutinho.
The two Brazilians combined again to make it 3-0 when Firmino tapped in from Coutinho’s unselfish pass. The build up to that goal was like watching Barcelona, it was just ridiculously good stuff, capped by Can’s defence splitting back heel. We were in dreamland now and City were completely shellshocked.
Firmino then had two glorious chances to make it 4-0 but one shot rolled inches wide after more outrageous play from Coutinho, and the other was brilliantly saved by Hart who came out to make the block when Firmino ran clean through onto yet another pass from little Phil. This spell of play was as good as anything we’ve produced in years. Did anyone think this starting eleven had it in them to play like that? Eight of this team played in the limp 3-0 humiliation at Old Trafford a couple of months back.
It was mad to see just how much City’s players were shitting themselves. Not so much the forwards, who looked quite lively on the rare occasions they were able to get on the ball, but their defenders were in a complete state of panic and their midfield was non-existent. The first time I even noticed Yaya Toure was in stoppage time at the end of the first half. Honestly, I completely forgot he was even on the field as he did absolutely fuck all. You know what else, I only found out that Navas had started the game when it flashed up that he’d been subbed at half time. Seriously, if you’d asked me at half time to name City’s starting eleven I’d have only come up with ten names as I had absolutely no idea that Navas had played. Did he even touch the ball?
The one blemish on the half was the goal we gave away just before half time. It was needless but having said that, it still required Aguero to bang one into the corner from 25 yards so it’s difficult to be too critical about it. Skrtel’s pass down the line was risky and was intercepted, but the biggest problem we had was that Lucas was on a yellow card so he couldn’t really do anything to try and slow Aguero down. If he wasn’t already on a yellow you know he’d have either made a tackle or just taken Aguero out.
He’d done just that a few minutes before when the striker had laid the ball off and was about to spin into acres of space behind Skrtel. Lucas was like “I don’t think so lad” and just pulled him back and took one for the team. The funniest part of it was the disgusted look on his face as he yelled at the ref “it was my first foul!”. It wasn’t, it was his third or fourth, but even if it was his first it was still a blatant booking.
That goal briefly changed the balance of the game. City went from being flat out on the canvas to back on their feet throwing punches. We went from doing the Ali shuffle and chatting up the bird holding the round number cards to having to put our guard back up to parry some blows. Perhaps we eased off at 3-0, or maybe this was just a good team finally managing to put some passes together. Either way, half time probably came at a good time for us as it allowed Kloppo to have a word with them and get them back to doing what had been working so well.
City been the second half quite brightly and the changes Pellegrini made seemed to work. They had more of the ball and the game was finely balanced at this stage because if they’d got back to 3-2 things could have gotten hairy for us. Generally though we defended well and the only time they looked like they might score was when Milner inexplicably played a backpass straight into the path of Sterling. He should have scored but he was on his left side, and we know as well as anyone how that usually turns out, the one footed little fuck. He passed the buck and looked for Aguero, whose shot was well saved by Mignolet.
They had a few other half decent openings but nothing as lear cut as the ones we continued to create. After one great break Lallana cleverly dummied Can’s pass leaving Firmino clean through but he was again denied by Hart.
Coutinho limped off with a tight hamstring but if City meant that would give them some respite they were well and truly mistaken, as Jordon Ibe continued to carry the fight to them. Benteke eventually replaced the tiring Firmino and he should have scored with what would have been an absolutely picture perfect counter attacking goal. Just watch it again, it’s a thing of beauty how that chance came about.
Lallana did absolutely brilliantly to chase back and win it before feeding Ibe, who carried it forward before playing in Benteke. He didn’t back himself to outrun the defence but instead cleverly slowed up to hold off Mangola and take him out of the play, but sadly he then took it a little too wide and allowed Hart to make another fine save. Should have scored but Hart has to be given credit for some of those one v one saves he pulled off.
He didn’t have any time to feel good about that save from Benteke though as within seconds he was picking it out of the net once again. From the corner Benteke attacked it and caused confusion, and when the ball dropped it was Skrtel who reacted first to leather one past Hart, almost bursting the net in the process. I loved that goal, you can hear the “thump” when he makes contact with the ball and then the sweet sound of the net rippling.
The celebration was great too, there’s a 2014 feel about some of these celebrations now. It was great seeing all the lads in front of the away end screaming their heads off and fist pumping, Lovren was right there giving it the beans and good for him. He played well and Sakho’s absence wasn’t a factor. Klopp running over to hug a grinning Firmino by the bench was great too.
That togetherness is there in the team again and if this continues then the fans will be right on board again like we were in that glorious spell in early 2014. We’ve got to start winning some home games convincingly though, starting with out of form Swansea next week.
Everyone played their part in this victory and no-one was less than an eight out of ten I’d say. The full backs defended well (Clyne had Sterling in his pocket first half and then Moreno shut him down second half), Skrtel was great, Lovren was solid, Lucas did his job well and Can was fucking brilliant. Milner’s best work generally came without the ball but that’s fine, you need players to do the dirty jobs and he did them brilliantly. One challenge to deny Fernandinho was outstanding and he also made a fantastic headed clearance at the back post. Those things don’t get the headlines like goals, but if someone doesn’t do them then you won’t win games.
The front three were the real stars of the show though. The two Brazilians will get most of the attention and rightly so, but Lallana was great too. That lad has been running his fucking bollocks off for Klopp every week, you can see that the manager thinks a lot of him as there’s usually a little extra on the hugs Lallana gets. His footwork is just a joy to watch when he’s playing like this too, and the difference in him under Klopp compared to Rodgers is huge. Mind you, it’s the same with most of them isn’t it?
Final word has to be on Sterling. Some Reds will be using this win to score points against him and suggesting that he may be regretting jumping ship when he did. He won’t be regretting a thing, not unless we win the title and even then he can console himself with the extra £100k a week he’s getting at City. I barely even give him a second thought, which says more about him than me as there’s not a day goes by that I’m not pining for Suarez for example. I still have the occasional wistful moment for Xabi and even Mascherano too.
I genuinely couldn’t give a shit about Sterling though, not because he’s not a good player but because he’s replaceable. We saw that in this game. Look at the players who were in the positions he could have filled. Coutinho and Firmino were ridiculously good, while Lallana and Ibe are both playing well too. It’s true that Sterling would be a great fit for how Klopp plays but Klopp wasn’t here when he decided he wanted out, so using that against Sterling is a bit daft. He was fully justified to want out, he just handled the whole thing wretchedly. I understand why the travelling Reds booed him but he’s not worth the energy.
The “Sterling what’s the score?” chant was entirely justified and must have felt very satisfying for the travelling Kop, but when he comes back to Anfield I hope he just gets ignored, unless it’s chants about his fat slug of an agent of course.
Picking a star man for this was really difficult as there were so many lads playing out of their skin. Coutinho was probably the pick of the bunch but he went off early (fingers crossed he’s ok). Firmino was boss too, but let’s face it, the star man was Klopp wasn’t it? What he’s done with this group of players is amazing. He wanted us to go from doubters to believers, well he’s converted me, I believe we’ll finish in the top four and if we can take 16 points from the next 18 (no reason why we shouldn’t) then I’ll…. actually I’ll cross that bridge if and when we come to it.
Team: Mignolet; Clyne, Skrtel, Lovren, Moreno; Lucas, Can, Milner; Lallana (Toure), Firmino (Benteke), Coutinho (Ibe):
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