Report by
Dave Usher at Anfield
Well that was easy. Again. I don’t think we even played that well but it was still very comfortable as Everton once again shat themselves in the cauldron of Anfield. Forget what Koeman said afterwards, he’s gone the full Moyesy there and not even the most deluded of their fans are swallowing that nonsense.
They weren’t unlucky, they didn’t deserve more than they got, they didn’t play well and if the ref hadn’t been so lenient they’d have finished the game with nine men and probably lost by six or seven. Listening to the local radio phone in afterwards, their fans knew that and most of them were laying into Koeman for his team selection and tactics. His comments afterwards therefore, smacked of deflecting blame from himself.
I’ve always liked old ‘Red Ron’, but he’s gone the same way as Moyes and Martinez, who were both alright when they started there too. It doesn’t take long for Everton to infect them though does it? It’s like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. One minute you’re thinking “he’s alright him, seems like a nice fair minded fella” then the derby rolls around and suddenly they’ve turned into Joe Royle.
Maybe Koeman sees this as some sort of moral victory because they didn’t get slaughtered and there were times in the second half when they actually had the ball in our half for more than a few seconds. That’s big progress compared to their recent trips to Anfield, but you also need to put it in context, because at 3-1 we stopped pushing for more goals and concentrated on making sure we didn’t give anything away. Tiredness after the international break also contributed. We had the game won, we didn't need to go flat out anymore.
That’s the only reason Everton felt like they were still in the game, when the reality was, they weren’t in it. This was over when Coutinho scored, and if there was any doubt about that it was erased with Origi’s goal, because there was no way in hell Everton were coming back from that. If it were anyone else, there’s always a chance as we’ve blown leads before, but Everton just have some sort of mental block at Anfield and you can see there’s just no belief there at all.
They offered virtually nothing in the first half but scored with their only effort, a scruffy arse goal from a corner that cancelled out Mané’s fine early opener. We didn’t even have time to be mad about their equaliser as Coutinho restored our lead very quickly in spectacular fashion. That also meant the Blues didn’t have much time to celebrate their equaliser, the poor bastards were right in the middle of their “we’ll hang the Kopites one by one” chant when Phil shimmied his way through and buried one in the top corner, stifling their song in their bitter little bile filled throats.
In terms of perfect timing, it was the best goal we’ve scored since Suarez at Carrow Road. Remember that one? Their fans were taunting him after a missed chance and seconds later he picked the pocket of one of their defenders and bent one in the corner with an outrageous outside of the boot shot from 18 yards. This reminded me a little of that, only it was far more satisfying.
Coutinho has been shite for months, but for once an international break worked in our favour as he rediscovered some form and confidence with Brazil and it was obvious from the first couple of minutes of this game he was back to something like his best.
If he can keep that up for the rest of the season we’ll be fine in terms of the top four, but time will tell on that I suppose. It was just good to see him playing with a spark again. Koeman helped of course, putting two kids over on that side of the pitch to deal with Coutinho was begging to be punished. In fact, Koeman’s entire approach played right into our hands.
Yeah they had some injuries to key players, but was that reason enough for him to send four kids out there in an Anfield derby? He had Barry, Valencia and Mirallas on the bench, so it’s not as though he had no other options.
Going into this game I was expecting a draw, but seeing their starting line up gave me more confidence than I had previously…. until I saw Klopp’s team, but I'll get to that in a sec.
Koeman’s selection looked like he knew they were going to lose anyway so gave himself an excuse by picking that team. The “I’m so proud of the lads” speech was probably prepared before the game and he’d have trotted that out regardless of the result. Proper Moyes behaviour that.
We had players missing too of course. Not as many as Everton, but still, losing Henderson and Lallana was problematic because it decimated our midfield. Can has been playing well of late but that was in the deeper position and there are still questions about him playing in the box to box role. Lallana’s absence gave Klopp a lot to think about, and in the end he opted to go with Lucas and move Can further forward.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t like it and feared the worst. It’s nothing against Lucas specifically (or Can for that matter), it’s more about the lack of pace and attacking thrust in the midfield when both play together. One or the other, not both. As it turned out, I couldn’t have been more wrong as I thought they were the best players on the pitch (along with Lovren).
This was a game where players needed to stand up and be men. We needed them to play football but also to compete and stand tall and to a man they all did it. Nobody played badly and a few of them were outstanding in the face of some serious provocation and attempted bully boy tactics.
There have been times when this group of players have been bullied out of their stride and they’ve been rightly criticised for it. Not this time. It was disgraceful what Everton were allowed to get away with and Koeman can fuck off with his cryarsing about one of our coaching staff who he claimed “wanted eight red cards”.
Everton spent the whole week kicking off about what happened to Coleman, yet some of the tackles their players put in were far worse than the one that broke Coleman’s leg. Hypocritical bastards.
Barkley looked like he was on a mission to get himself sent off. He was the same in the Goodison derby too, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one player get away with as much shit as this little prick has in the last couple of derbies. He’s dangerous and he’s going to seriously injure somebody the way he’s going and whatsmore, referees are complicit because they’re allowing it.
Having seen the standing ovation Funes Mori got last season (and the love for him since that foul on Origi), perhaps Barkley just wants to be loved by the Evertonians? The best way to ensure that is to score against us, but that’s clearly not happening and given that crippling a redshite is a close second, you can’t really blame him.
He was lucky not to be booked for his first foul in the opening few minutes but I can understand Anthony Taylor wanting to go easy in the opening stages of a derby game. His second foul came soon after though, and it was a horrible one on Can. Not a straight red, but as obvious a yellow as you’ll ever see.
Considering he’d already gotten away with one Taylor simply has to book him for that, and it was complete negligence that he didn’t. Letting things go is all well and good and I’m actually well on board with refs taking a more lenient approach in derbies, but you can’t just give players free reign to do what they like.
By not booking Barkley for that lunge on Can, Taylor could have contributed to a serious injury to Lovren later on. By that I mean, would Barkley have still made that challenge if he was already on a yellow? Maybe, maybe not, but usually you play a bit more cautiously when you’re on a yellow. Barkley is such a twat in derby games that normal laws may not apply of course, but it doesn’t excuse Taylor.
Lovren was extremely fortunate not to have suffered a broken leg but if he had been hurt the referee would have been partly responsible for it. Even then, he only booked Barkley, which was staggering really as you see players sent off for far less every week.
Throw in the fact that Barkley also escaped a caution for a clear dive and you have to wonder if he’s got the photos from Taylor’s stag do a few weeks back. He must have shared them with Ashley Williams too, because that snide bastard got away with almost as much.
Tyrone Mings got a five game ban for stamping on Ibrahimovic, even though there is no way anybody could know for sure if it was deliberate or not. Williams didn’t stamp on Can, he just raked his blades down his back, which makes intent far easier to determine.
So yeah, that was deliberate and it was a bad shithouse move. But then that’s Williams, he’s always been a nasty bastard. This is a fella who was arguing with the ref last week about Taylor’s challenge while his clubmate lay on the floor with his leg flapping around like a fucking wind sock. His second half tackle on Can was a disgrace too, and how he escaped a red card for it is anybody’s guess.
Taylor refereed this game like it was the 1980s, which would be fine if today’s players were used to that, but they aren’t. Under the circumstances our players showed commendable restraint, especially Can who was on the receiving end of all sorts but continued to just steam around the pitch being a big dominant bastard. He was brilliant I thought, a great display of controlled aggression in the face of plenty of uncontrolled aggression.
After the Williams challenge, Koeman was getting into it with Klopp and the rest of our bench. When Can was getting ready to go back on after treatment, Koeman said something to him and Emre was about to go for him until Klopp held him back. Klopp then spent 30 seconds holding onto him and talking into his ear, no doubt telling him to be calm and not to react, to stay on his feet and not dive into challenges.
Within about a minute Can flew in with his foot up and was booked (harshly because he won the ball and didn’t even connect with an Everton player), and Klopp went batshit mental at him. It was quite funny and Can himself had a little smile when he was carded which suggested that he still had his composure.
By that point we were 3-1 up after Origi had came off the bench and scored within minutes. He’d replaced Mané who had worryingly hobbled off after an accidental tangle of legs with Baines. Initially it looked like he’d be ok after treatment, but when he tried to jog he just crumpled in a heap and Origi was told to get ready.
Origi has been doing my head in lately but he looked good from the moment he stepped on the field in this one. Maybe what happened to him in this fixture last season was still fresh in his memory because he was well up for this.
Initially I thought his goal was an absolute screamer as from my seat in the Main Stand it looked like he smashed it right in the top corner. It’s only when you see the replay from behind him you realise that all he did was just hit it hard and on target, and the hapless Robles did the rest by pulling the old Brad Jones ‘Dodgeball’ routine.
He’s shite that Robles. Absolutely fucking woeful. On all three goals he just looked like someone reluctantly taking his turn in goal playing five a side, just waiting to concede so he could get back out and play. Imagine if Mignolet had conceded goals in that manner?
It’s not so much that he should have saved them all, as Coutinho’s goal was unstoppable and Mané’s was well placed in the corner, even if it was a bit of a dribbler. It’s the comical non attempt at saving them that is so bad. As I said, he didn’t even look like a goalkeeper. He's a clown.
That’s not our problem though, we can just enjoy the goals and the win and revel in the piss taking of the Blues for another season. Chants about how long it is since they won a trophy, or won at Anfield, echoed around Anfield, as did “Lukaku’s right, you’re fucking shite”.
Lukaku did absolutely nothing. He was shut down by our two centre backs who had plenty of help from the diligent Lucas. It was mostly Lovren dealing with Lukaku as the striker spent more time over on that side than where Matip was, and Lovren seemed to relish the battle. One sliding challenge to stop Lukaku in his tracks after a rare error from Lucas earned him a massive cheer from the crowd.
Klopp gave Trent Alexander-Arnold a run out in place of Coutinho for the closing stages and the youngster looked really good in a more advanced role than we’re used to seeing him in. It was good to get Coutinho a bit of a rest too as we’ll need him more than ever if Mané is out for any length of time.
TAA has come into a great run of form lately and I can see him featuring more and more in the next couple of months, especially given how thin the squad is currently.
Final word is on Klopp, who threw a hissy fit in stoppage time when the fans chanted his name. He really needs to fuck off with that nonsense. Coach the team and let us worry about supporting them. Singing a managers name does not mean we think the game is over, but even if it does, so fucking what?
Stop being a drama queen, politely wave and say thanks when the fans sing your name and if you then want to yell at the players to make sure THEY don't think it's over, then have at it. The tongue in cheek response of "Who the fucking hell are you" from some of the Kop summed it up. Turn it in Kloppo as you've got this one all wrong.
Star man is Lucas, who did himself proud in what is almost certainly his last derby game.
Team: Mignolet; Clyne, Matip, Lovren, Milner; Lucas, Can, Wijnaldum; Mané (Origi), Firmino (Klavan), Coutinho (Alexander-Arnold):
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