It feels churlish to keep harking back to last season considering we’re doing so much better this year (we've already got more points and have seven games left!), but watching this I couldn’t help but think that we’d have scored six in a game like this last year without even breaking sweat. I know, I know, I’m even annoying myself with this 17/18 season nostalgia, but I can’t help it. Fulham were dreadful and they were there for the taking. Frankly, it’s ridiculous that we needed a late penalty to get over the line.
This should have been a routine win with a big dent put into the seven goal advantage City have over us. Instead it was a torturous last 15 minutes that has probably knocked six months off the end of my life. We won’t play a worse team all season (Huddersfield are shite but at least they can get behind the ball and make it difficult) but it’s typical Liverpool that they can make it look easy against Bayern Munich and then almost royally fuck things up against Fulham.
Sometimes games are just really difficult because the opposition dig in and are well organised, or because the players just can’t really get going. Neither was the case here. We played well in most aspects of the game and it never looked flat or disjointed. Fulham may have had men back behind the ball but there were still gaps all over the place and we had no problems playing through them.
Up until the final pass, cross or shot I thought we looked good. We passed it around, switched the play quickly, found space between the lines, won it back quickly when we lost it and basically did everything you’d want to do up until the decisive moment, which was usually shite. That's why I think we'd have killed them last season.
I’m singling out Mo as the worst offender but it wasn’t just him. Both full backs got into some great positions but their delivery just wasn’t up to the usual standard, while Bobby started the game brightly but faded, seemingly bothered by whatever injury it was he picked up late in the first half.
It was mostly Salah though. He’s definitely let the recent lack of goals get in his head now. He’s missing easy chances, he’s going it alone when he should be passing, dribbling when he should be shooting, and too many of his shots are going straight down the keeper’s throat, whereas last year they were finding the top corner.
The worst moment of the game for him was when he completely ruined a glorious counter attacking opportunity because of a terrible, inexplicable decision. He had two players to his left and only needed to come inside to open everything up, but instead he went the other way and lost the ball. That just doesn’t happen if he’d been scoring regularly.
I said a few weeks ago that the Salah we’re seeing now is the Salah we thought we were getting when he signed him. A very good player but not the superstar he morphed into within a few weeks of his arrival. Sadly, “Superstar Mo” left the building in Kiev and barring a handful of cameo’s hasn’t been seen since. I keep saying it, but we need him back sharpish if we’re going to get over the line in either of these competitions we’re chasing.
We’d be well clear at the top with last year’s Mo and that’s just so incredibly frustrating. It’s not his fault and he’s trying his best, but whereas last year everything just happened naturally and he didn’t have to think about anything, this year has been the opposite. He’s not playing on instinct and some of his decision making has been dreadful. Sometimes it feels like he's really close to exploding in a flurry of goals again, other times it looks like he couldn't hit Harry Maguire's arse with a banjo.
It shows just how good this team is now that they can be where they are even with Mo giving us about 50% of the goal output he gave us last year. And last year's Mo didn't get the opportunity to play against the God awful Tim Ream. That would have been carnage.
I actually find it hard to believe this game played out the way it did when we were so dominant from start to finish. Fulham have the worst defence I’ve ever seen in the top flight and this was an opportunity to eat into City’s goal difference advantage. The most important thing was the three points and I’m grateful we managed to salvage that when it looked like we’d blown it, but making up only one goal on them was a huge opportunity missed, particularly as they play Fulham next.
City could destroy them but it’s possible they won’t (they needed yet more questionable officiating to beat a mid-table Championship side in the cup). I expect them to beat Fulham easily enough, but they don’t need to score five or six. If they’re up by a couple they might just keep the ball for the rest of the game and not let Fulham have a kick. We didn’t have that luxury and the chance was there for us to score five or six if we’d been more clinical.
In the end it’s just a massive relief that we didn’t fuck it up. Over the last thirty years we’ve specialised in dropping points to relegated shite and in that respect it would have been almost fitting for our title chase to hit the rocks against these losers. Thankfully this team has more about it than most of those that went before and they just about spared themselves from the embarrassment and ridicule that would have followed.
How the hell did they find themselves in that situation though? It’s crazy. Every attack looked like it would end with a good chance for us as we were just slicing through them and having our own way right from the start. They were so narrow and for once we actually did the right thing and used the width. So many times we bang our heads against the brick wall in the centre, but this time we used Trent and Robbo and got into countless good situations.
The other thing we did well was press Fulham into mistakes. We weren’t always winning the ball high up the pitch, but the press was forcing them to knock the ball forward aimlessly and that meant it was coming straight back at them. I barely remember Fulham getting out of their own half in the opening 45 minutes and it seemed as though we got round the back of them at least a dozen times.
Somehow we only scored one though. Lovely goal it was too. Sadio’s hot streak continued as a nice one two with Bobby saw him side foot home. The exact type of goal we should be scoring more often. You know the drill by now, say it with me: “There’s only one way to beat them….
*cups ear*
That’s right, “get round the back”.
We got into a lot of those situations but didn’t pick out the right cross. Robbo’s end product was way below his usual standards and he didn’t have the best of starts to the game. He kept going though - he’s fucking relentless - and he was bombing up and down that left flank all day, doing the job of two players.
It was such a strange game really. Once we’d made the breakthrough I thought we’d go on to smash them everywhere. If we’d gotten the second I suspect we would have, but the second goal just wouldn’t come and the longer it went the more we started to snatch at openings.
Sadio hit the bar with a header from a corner. Once again he got himself free with that great movement and terrific leaping ability he has. He’s so good at that, maybe he should be staying behind after training and showing Van Dijk and Matip how to find space in the box? He could also show ol’ 50p head Joel how to head a fucking ball too. Another free header off target from him, it’s becoming a weekly thing now.
We were getting plenty of chances but then we had a little spell of a few minutes where we gave the ball away cheaply a couple of times and Fulham were able to get up the pitch and give their crowd something to get encouraged about.
It didn’t help that Fabinho was on a yellow card and couldn’t risk making any tackles, and there was one attack that was a direct result of him having to pull out of a 50-50. He played very well but I’d have subbed him for Milner at half time and put Gini as the six. Fabinho was definitely hampered by that harsh yellow card, but it wasn’t a major issue because Fulham offered virtually nothing other than the occasional counter led by Babel, who by far their most dangerous player.
Still, the goal he scored had very little to do with anything he did and everything to do with three of our lads fucking up to put it on a plate for him. The first mistake was Milner, who’d only just come on for Lallana (who worked his nuts off). It always seems to take Milner a little while to get up to speed with the game when he comes off the bench, so it wasn’t entirely a surprise when he sliced a clearance miles up in the air and gave Van Dijk an awkward situation to deal with.
Still, Virgil deals with awkward situations in his sleep. Initially he was asking Alisson to come out and deal with it, which was never really an option as the ball wasn’t going to reach the keeper. He had other options. He could have let the ball drop and just booted it into the stands, or he could head it back to Alisson. He chose the latter, which was fine in theory.
In practice though he didn’t get as much on it as he’d have liked. It wasn’t a great header but to me it was still good enough as it reached Alisson and all he had to do was pick it up. For some reason he tried to go with his feet and the end result was Babel walking through to roll the ball into an empty net.
Three of our players have their fingerprints on that goal but the bulk of my disappointment is reserved for Alisson as I thought that was genuinely fucking terrible goalkeeping. Ultimately there was no harm done though and looking back on it now my biggest take away from it is Babel’s reaction to it all. His whole body language and facial expression screamed out “ah for fucks sake” and when his team-mates came to congratulate him he wanted no part of it.
Don’t get me wrong, he was professional and gave his best all afternoon, and he might have scored earlier with a rasping effort that was blocked. That’s different though, he’s playing on instinct there and doesn’t have time to think about anything. He was trying to score, but when he was suddenly presented with an open goal and nobody around him (and time to think) the implications of what that could mean were definitely in his head and he looked proper fucking gutted. Look at his face!
He’s a good lad is Ryan and hopefully he can do us a favour in a couple of weeks against City. I’m not holding out much hope for Fulham getting anything from that game but if the rest of the players are as up for it as he will be then you never know.
Babel’s goal was a real body blow but thankfully there was still a fair bit of time left for the lads to dig themselves out of the hole they’d fell in. The response was good as they laid siege to the Fulham goal, but the winning penalty had more than a hint of fortune about it. Not the decision itself, as that was a stonewall penalty. The way it came about though was freakish.
Salah's shot was straight at the keeper, but Spider Rico (he’s a bum) in the Fulham goal dropped it and Sadio was on him like a young Rocky Balboa. The keeper then compounded his error by grabbing hold of Mané who hit the deck like he’d taken a right hook from Clubber Lang.
Let’s be honest here, the contact from the keeper was not enough to put Sadio on the floor and there’s no question he made a meal of it. From the ref’s angle though it will have looked like he was dragged down by his shirt. It’s only from the opposite angle you see that the keeper didn’t grab his shirt and pull him back, he just put his arm around him to impede him. Still a pen though.
Had Sadio stayed on his feet he’d have been awarded nothing. You don’t get any reward for that, just ask Mo who’s missed out on several penalties by staying on his feet after being fouled. The point here is that the keeper grabbed Sadio to prevent him latching onto the loose ball. If Mané shrugs him off and still gets the ball, that split second of being held makes all the difference in terms of how much time he has to do something with it.
It’s the same as the Salah incident in Munich. The defender caught him and the brief delay as he readjusted his feet to shoot allowed another defender to get back and clear. The ref doesn’t give it because Mo stayed on his feet, but that foul stopped him getting a shot away.
This was different as Sadio was running away from goal, but the basic principle is the same. If Sadio stayed up he’d have got nothing. In short, the keeper is a dickhead for grabbing him, Sadio was smart in making sure the referee had to give it, and Fulham can have no complaints about that at all.
I don't mind admitting that I ran and hid in the kitchen while Milner took care of business. Bad shithouse I know, but I couldn’t watch it, my arse had gone completely. I heard my Dad cheering so I then raced back in to watch the replay of it. Big Games James. What a guy.
After that Fulham never really got near us and if there was another goal it was only ever going to be scored by us. Origi had replaced Firmino and was looking direct and positive on the left, and the longer the game went on the more adventurous Wijnaldum was getting with his forward runs.
I think the catalyst for that may have been Milner coming on for Lallana, which freed up Gini to get forward more. He headed over from close range and also curled a shot inches wide from the edge of the box. We had so many chances it’s utterly ridiculous that this game was as close as it was.
Salah had the chance to wrap it up late and finally end this drought he’s been on, but his finish reeked of a man who’s confidence in front of goal has disappeared. It was brilliant play from Sadio to set him up though. Top class that, he drove at the defence but then delayed long enough for Salah to overlap him and receive the pass. Deserved a goal really, and let’s face it, we really need Mo to get one soon before this 'mini crisis' escalates further.
Great credit to the players for finding a way to get the job done and not letting the soft goal they conceded prove fatal. Because it would have been fatal. Failure to beat Fulham would have been virtually impossible to recover from I think. There’s still a long way to go but we really can’t afford more than maybe one slip up, and that slip up couldn’t be in this game because of the more difficult tests we have still to come.
I’m still angry that they came so close to fucking it up, but at the same time I’m proud of them for still finding a way to win. It’s not the defensive lapse that I’m pissed off about, as that’s always a possibility no matter how good you are. Mistakes can happen and it only takes one freak moment for even the worst teams to score. The goal we conceded should have been irrelevant because this was such an easy game there’s no excuse for not being well out of sight by that point anyway.
I don’t mean it was easy because they’re second from bottom. Often those games are difficult because of how those sides set up. Swansea away last season springs to mind as a good example, and I could see Cardiff making things very hard for us when we go there. This was easy though because Fulham didn’t make it difficult for us at all.
They let us play, largely uncontested. Maybe that was the problem? It was too easy. After about half an hour or so and it was almost like a pre-season friendly at times. A glorified training session even. Off the ball our work rate was still exemplary so I’m not accusing the lads of slacking off, but they definitely need to be more clinical as when you let shit teams hang around bad things can happen.
Still, we’ve had three big games this week and won them all, so perhaps I shouldn’t be nit-picking. It’s another win that edges us closer to where we want to be. Seven more of those and who knows? It’s not in our hands but winning all seven has to be the goal and then whatever happens happens.
The international break hasn’t come at a great time (they rarely do) but at least we’ve got two weeks at the top of the table before we play Spurs. Despite their recent collapse that’s the toughest game we have left as they’re always close games between us and Spurs are very dangerous. We’ve been great at Anfield though so hopefully that continues.
Star man is Sadio. He scored one, won the penalty, hit the bar and put one on a plate for Mo. We’d be lost without him at the moment. Hopefully he can keep this going a while longer until Mo remembers where the goal is again.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dikj, Robertson; Fabinho, Lallana (Milner), Wijnaldum; Salah (Sturridge), Firmino (Origi), Mané:
Recommended Comments