Report by
Dave Usher
Before I get stuck into the report, I need to begin with an apology and a retraction. Last week, in the Premier League Round Up I wrote the following:
“The Blues did their bit to aid City’s preparation for their Champions League visit to Anfield by sitting back and letting the leaders have as much of the ball as they wanted while they watched and admired. The cunts may as well have been eating popcorn.
They only had 17.9% possession this time. At home!!! I mean fucking hell, Fernandinho had 14.5% possession himself. Of all the statistics I’ve ever seen I think that might be the maddest. Think about it, one player had almost as much of the ball as the entire fucking Everton team.
They should be ashamed of themselves. They might be the worst, most feeble, inept bunch of shithouses that City have faced all season. But then that was the plan, wasn’t it? Don’t want to make City play an actual competitive game before they go to Anfield.
Watch the difference in their approach this weekend. Bet they kick fucking lumps out of us. Even if we rest some of our key men they’ll be booting fuck out of them on the bench or in the stands, the bitter bastards.”
It was wrong of me to question Everton’s commitment and professionalism against Manchester City. It has now become clear that they are in fact just incredibly shit and lacking in any kind of passion.
We went there with half a team missing, and the ones who were included clearly did not want to be there. It was a game we could have done without; a game that virtually nobody connected with LFC actually gave much of a shit about. We were ripe for the picking.
Yet despite this, we completely dominated the game until fatigue set in late on and Everton finally had a bit of a go. They’re just terrible, and whatsmore they know it. There wasn’t even any real fight in the crowd, let alone the team. It was the tamest derby I can ever remember.
If they can’t beat us when literally everything was in their favour, they must be thinking that they never will. 17 derbies without defeat for us now, but at the risk of seeming ungrateful, considering the massive gulf between the teams too many of them have been draws. They’ve stolen a couple of draws at Anfield in recent years and they got lucky with the timing of this one. Had we not been preoccupied with City we’d have fucking battered them.
While it’s funny that they haven’t beaten us in 17, we’ve drawn with them twice this season even though this is as bad an Everton side as I’ve ever seen. That’s four points that would have us comfortably ahead of Spurs and right on United’s heels.
Everton have had worse teams in the past, but they made up for that by being dirty bastards and we always knew we’d been in a game. This was a glorified training session.
The most explosive fixture in English football, the one with more red cards than any other, and Michael Oliver won’t have an easier game all season. He didn’t book anybody and apart from one flashpoint out of nothing between Ings and Coleman, there was no needle or aggression in the game at all.
That’s great for us but the Blues must be fuming about it. Funes Mori’s career didn’t die for this.
Even the spot of handbags between Coleman and Ings looked forced. Coleman got far too worked up over nothing and it looked like he was just trying a little too hard to play to the gallery. Ings called him a diving bastard a couple of times, but it was hardly enough to justify the over the top “hold me back, hold me back” reaction from the mouth breathing little goon.
The fact I’m even talking about it shows how little else there is to mention. It really was garbage. Our performance wasn’t bad all things considered, but we were just toothless in attack and never really looked like scoring.
Actually that’s not quite true, in the opening twenty minutes or so I thought we looked quite sharp, but when Solanke failed to take two good opportunities it just drifted after that. Solanke needs a goal more than any player I think I’ve ever seen. He’s declining more and more every time he gets on the pitch.
He was ace in pre-season and started the season really well. He looked a real prospect and a genuine goal threat any time he got onto the field. The goal just wouldn’t come and he endured some terrible luck, but the longer the season has gone the worse he’s started to look.
He was awful in this game. His touch was so heavy it should have been sat on the Everton bench between Allardyce and Sammy Lee. He doesn’t win many aerial duels for a lad of his size and he just looks utterly bereft of confidence. I’ve still got belief in him in the long term but at the moment he doesn’t look like he’s going to be too much use to us in the run in.
He just needed one of those chances to go in and I genuinely think he’d have been fine. The first was a header that he glanced just wide. Wasn’t a terrible miss by any means but it wasn’t that difficult a chance either. The second chance was a bit of a sitter but I thought it was extremely unlucky. The ball dropped to him and he swung a boot at it. More often than not it goes in, but Pickford guessed right and made a good save.
That chance goes in probably eight times out of ten but not when you’re in the kind of run Solanke is in. After that he never looked like scoring and he made very little impact. Ings did nothing either, but he had an excuse as he spent the whole game playing on the right wing. I thought Klopp should have mixed it up a bit and moved his front three around a bit.
Mané played on the left but surely this was a great opportunity to let him have a run on the right wing where he excelled last season? Solanke and Ings could have swapped around too, just so Ings could have had a run through the middle and given their defence something different to think about.
I’ve seen a lot of comments from people writing Ings off. I’ve seen a few calling him a Championship level player. I feel it’s a little unfair to be judging Ings based on this game, and he’s fucking miles better than Championship standard.
I’d convinced myself he was going to be great when he finally got his chance, but that was just wishful thinking on my part and clearly unrealistic. It was his first start in over two years. That’s a long time.
Still, I would have liked to have some sort of sign that he could do a job out wide though, as that would have given Klopp some scope to rest Salah and/or Mané if needed. I don’t think we can count on Ings to give us too much from that position, although I’d have no qualms with him filling in for Bobby if required.
Mané was quiet too but obviously he had far less to prove than Ings and Solanke as he’s got so much credit in the bank with us. He was on the periphery of the game but on the odd occasion he was able to get on the ball he looked mildly threatening.
The rest of the side all performed well though, particularly Wijnaldum who was used as the number six, a role that I’ve said previously might be where he ends up in the long term. He was excellent. He took a couple of risks holding onto the ball and turning into trouble, but he was good enough to get away with it. I’d rather he keep things a bit simpler against City though.
Everton only produced one moment of danger in the first half when Bolasie curled one from 25 yards. It was heading for the corner but Karius showed great agility to get there and tip it around the post.
It was a great save in it’s own right, but what makes it even better is that he had virtually nothing else to do. Playing for a team like Everton it’s easy for a keeper to look good. Pickford has made some great saves this season and has the second most saves in the league I think. I’ve seen him drop some proper clangers too though.
Playing for Liverpool is a whole different ball game. You might only have one save to make so it’s vital you’re ready when needed. Karius has been very good since he got back in the side and he’s made a few really outstanding saves.
It’s too soon to say whether he can be the long term answer but up to this point there’s very little more he could have done. Put it this way, if we’d signed him in January and all we knew about him is what we’ve seen since he got in the side, we’d be made up with him.
It’s what went before that causes the scepticism, but if he keeps this up until the end of the season then it would make little sense to go and break the bank for another keeper. It’s up to Karius now, the opportunity is there for him to nail it down, let’s hope he takes it.
For 75 minutes this game was like a training session or a pre-season game. Then we got tired and made a few mistakes that gave Everton some belief that they might actually be able to do something. Lovren was a big part of the problem I thought, because it was one lapse from him that started Everton's little flurry of effort.
Minutes earlier he'd put a ball out for a throw in rather than play it back to Karius. It wasn't a mistake by any means, but it probably pissed him off because it gave Everton the chance to waste to some time. So when faced with a similar situation soon after he hesitated when he should have headed it out of play and that allowed Tosun to outmuscle him. It came to nothing in the end, but they got their tails up and the crowd woke up.
After that they were all over us as we looked leggy as fuck. If they were any good they'd have scored, but they wasted three great opportunities. Their fans are probably thinking "why didn't we go at them like that from the start?" but it's not that simple. They're a terrible side and the only reason they were able to put us under that late pressure was because we were knackered.
The point is fine under the circumstances. Three would have been better but the main thing from this game was to come through without any further injuries and it looks like we did, so that’s a big plus. I wasn’t thrilled at how many regular starters Klopp selected but thankfully no harm was done.
It was sensible to bring off Milner and Mané early too. That and the lack of intensity in the game should mean we’re not too jaded for Tuesday, and it was good to have Klavan and Clyne back.
Clyne hadn't played for ten months but looked like he'd never been away. Having him back helps massively because the midfield is stretched so much we're now one injury away from possibly having to use Trent in there.
Klavan is going to be an important player for us if we progress in the Champions League because it will allow Klopp to rotate the centre backs and hopefully keep them all fit.
Lovren isn’t someone you want playing every week because he has a history of picking up knocks. Klavan being back in the mix helps a great deal, I just hope we don’t need him to play left back even though he did a solid job there in this game. I suppose Clyne could do it in an emergency.
Robertson had a knock and Moreno got hurt in the warm up. Moreno wasn’t starting anyway, which isn’t a good sign as it would suggest that there is some doubt over Robbo and he was being held back. If they’re both out on Tuesday then that’s a big worry.
I’m worried over a lot of things to be honest. It’s mad that even with a 3-0 lead I’m still nervous. There are legitimate reasons for that though. If we can beat City 3-0 they can certainly do the same to us, or worse.
If we score we should be fine, but I don’t see how anyone can be completely confident about us getting through considering this team hasn’t proved itself yet. We’ve had numerous collapses even this season so we can’t take anything for granted.
I'm almost as nervous ahead of tomorrow as I was for the first leg, but for vastly different reasons. It's no longer just worrying about whether we go through, it's more about the fear of failure now. Blowing a three goal advantage would take some getting over and would be fairly catastrophic in terms of our progress under Klopp.
It would be far more of a gut punch than losing the Europe League Final against Sevilla, and it took me at least a year to forgive the team for that one.
On the flip side, if we go there and see the job through in straightforward fashion, who’d want to face us in the semis?
Fingers crossed, and I’ll see you on the other side.
Team: Karius; Clyne, Lovren, Van Dijk, Klavan; Wijnaldum, Henderson, Milner (Oxlade-Chamberlain); Ings (Alexander-Arnold), Solanke, Mané (Firmino):
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