Last week I wrote about how stressful these 2-1 wins have been and that it would be nice to finally have a routine 4-0 for a change. I had hoped this might be it, but no, it was another 2-1 in which we had to watch the closing stages with clenched arse cheeks.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. What’s to complain about? I read that we’ve taken 67 points from the last 69 available, which is an astonishing achievement. So yeah, this is great. I’d just like to have a relatively stress free game once in a while. For a team this good it really shouldn’t be too much to ask.
In theory we should be thumping Brighton at Anfield. Over recent seasons we’ve generally spanked the ‘lesser’ sides and haven’t had much trouble with any of them. For a while this looked to be going the same way as we raced into a two goal lead, but it ended up being a real slog even before the late drama with the sending off and the scandalous situation around the free-kick.
So what went wrong? A combination of things I’d say. Brighton are better than I realised. They lack quality but you can see they are extremely well coached. With better players they’d be quite dangerous. They reminded me of Swansea under Brendan.
Everyone knew where he should be when they had the ball, and the way they played out from the back through our press time and again was very impressive. That coach knows what he’s doing, but theres only so much you can do to bridge a massive gap in quality and we could easily have scored more than the two we did.
We didn’t get the third goal which would have made it comfortable and from about half an hour onwards I thought we looked leggy. Maybe the midweek game against Napoli caught up with us. Still, up until Alisson’s moment of madness we didn’t look in any danger.
That, combined with them scoring from the free-kick, was the turning point and after that it was all hands to the pump. We were hanging on a bit, but the defence held out without any real drama.
It all started so well as we peppered Matt Ryan’s goal. He denied Bobby twice and Ox once, but was powerless to stop Big Virg twice heading in pinpoint deliveries from Trent. There’s virtually nothing you can do to stop those goals. Maybe on the first they could have held a high line and played offside, but the second goal is impossible to prevent. Perfect ball in that is met by the tallest man on the field. Whaddayannado?
The longer the game went on though the more laboured we began to look. Brighton had loads of the ball and looked impressive without really being dangerous.
We had a couple of clear chances in the second half but Lewis Dunk was on hand to make terrific blocks. I watched him closely in the second half because I was sat in the Kop for this one and had a good view of his performance. He was outstanding. He’s the player that people think Harry Maguire is.
He even got himself on the scoresheet, although he could - maybe should - have matched Virgil and bagged a couple. The one he got was well taken but from our point of view was a complete shambles.
Leaving aside the disgraceful intervention of Martin Atkinson for a second, the incident that led to the free-kick was amateur hour stuff. I don’t know how that happened. Virgil was miles out of position and Lovren somehow had two runners to deal with. He may have got back to cover the danger but we’ll never know.
I don’t know what Alisson was thinking. It wasn’t that he came charging out needlessly, it was that he was already out there. His starting position was so high that he was caught in no mans land. If he came out he wasn’t going to get it, but if he ran back it would be easy for the striker to lob him.
So in the end he did neither. He half came out and ended up blocking the shot with his hand. Clear red card and there can be no argument about that. What happened after that though, fucking hell. Honestly, it was an absolute disgrace and for the life of me I don’t know why more hasn’t been made of it.
Apparently that goal shouldn’t have stood because Brighton had players in / around the wall and the law has changed now so that isn’t allowed. I didn’t even know that until I saw Keith Hackett tweeting about it so that’s not why I was spitting feathers about it.
Even now I’m not really too arsed about that oversight because I’m fucking steaming about Atkinson basically conspiring with Dunk to screw us over. Yes, that’s right, I said it, he conspired with Dunk.
The Brighton defender saw Adrian on the post lining up the wall and he asked Atkinson if he could take the free-kick. Not only did he give him permission, he then blew the whistle unexpectedly to let him go.
We had no wall and Adrian was stood on the post trying to line them up. Dunk didn’t even hit the free-kick with any power, he just cleverly passed it into the far corner. Heads up play by him but it’s a fucking disgrace that was allowed to happen. It’s either incompetence or cheating, take your pick.
When do you ever see a referee allow something like that to happen? Virtually never. They either allow a quick one or they wait until everyone is ready. There is no in-between. As I said, I can’t believe more hasn’t been made of it because this is a fucking scandal, especially given the recent history with us and this referee.
It genuinely blows my mind that this was allowed to happen and that no-one other than Hendo (and Adrian) really seemed as outraged by it as I am. It was sinister as fuck. I’ll say again, that shit just doesn’t ever happen, so why now? Because Martin Atkinson is continually trying to shaft us for some reason, that’s why.
I was pissed off at the time but having since watched the replay of the game again and saw how the whole thing unfolded, I’m way beyond that now. Pissed off doesn’t even come close. This shit needs investigating.
I’ve watched it again in full a few times to get the full picture of how it unfolded, and it gets worse every time.
Adrian had to come on to the field unexpectedly, so he isn’t warmed up and he’s been thrown into a difficult situation. He should be given a bit of leeway for that, but it’s not like he’s taking the piss with how long he took.
He runs onto the field and as he reaches the box he tells Hendo that he wants five in the wall. Then he goes to the goal to put his towel in the net and then immediately prepares to line up the wall.
At this point Atkinson though is still getting them back ten yards so Adrian can’t really do anything until that’s done. Atkinson then walks back towards the ball, so Adrian is then lining up the wall and telling players to move across to cover the side of the goal he’s on. The opposite side is his responsibility so it’s completely unguarded.
Then while this is happening - and we’re talking a matter of seconds here - Dunk asks if he can take it. What the fuck is Atkinson thinking by telling him “yeah go on then”. Not just that, but look at Atkinson’s position. He’s right next tot he ball when he’s supposed to be away from it so he can see everything happening in the box. Like I say, it’s fucking scandalous and the club should be reporting him.
In the last few weeks we’ve had him not giving the foul on Origi that cost us a goal at United, we’ve had him in the VAR booth disallowing a perfectly valid goal by Firmino and now this. He’s also the same twat who last season didn’t send off Maguire (who later scored) and who failed to give a penalty for the most blatant of fouls on Keita, both decisions that contributed hugely to costing us two points.
He’s a cunt. He’s screwed us out of the title last season and he’s trying to screw us over again this time at every opportunity. It couldn’t be clearer as far as I’m concerned and I just wish the club would call him out on it and demand he’s kept away from our games.
That goal changed everything. We had tired legs, we were a man down and Brighton had their tails up. It was a proper grind after that. We couldn’t get out of our own half and the ball kept coming back at us, not least because of Origi’s inability to even compete for aerial challenges let alone win any.
The lads defended stoutly though and did a great job shuttling across and filling gaps. Lallana played a key role in that I thought, even though the fella behind me was repeatedly calling him “a fucking shithouse” and complaining that “he hasn’t made a tackle since he came on”.
He wasn’t there to try and make tackles you soft cunt. His job wasn’t to over commit himself and let Brighton play around him. It was to fill space, close down angles and protect his full back. He did that, and he was sprinting from the second he came on until the second it was over. The midfielders did a great job in that last ten, as did the back four.
Adrian was there when he was needed too and barring one fumble that for a heart stopping moment looked like it would squirm into the net, he was great. That was such a difficult situation he was thrown into but he did what we needed him to.
It’s a huge three points but then they all are. I seem to be saying this every week, but it’s more due to how we are winning than anything. If we’d won 5-0 would we be saying what a huge three points it was? Probably not, but because so many of these games have been in the balance until the final whistle, the wins feel so much more important.
I love the fight and character this team show in all manner of different situations though. They’re going to need it in spades over the coming weeks because legs look a little heavy already and the fixture list hasn’t even really kicked in yet.
Maybe we need to rotate a little as most of these lads have played every game. Mo hasn’t been at his best for a while. Maybe the injury is bothering him or maybe he’s just not in the best of form. Bobby is hot and cold as well. Gino and Hendo seem to play every single game and get very little rest.
Leaving any of them out is a big risk but we can’t just keep sending out the same group of players every three or four days. Something has to give, but when we made changes against Napoli (even though it was only two of them) the team didn’t play well and for some people (not me) it was the changes that were responsible for that.
It’s a difficult needle to thread and it will be interesting to see what Klopp does for the derby. Origi has tormented Everton at Anfield and he’d be full of confidence if he started. I’d be tempted to roll him out there as he’s like the fucking bogeyman as far as Everton are concerned.
I don’t know what to expect on Wednesday. My gut instinct is it’s going to be another tense, tight, stressful one but maybe they’ll surprise us and deliver the kind of beating we haven’t seen since… I dunno, Norwich on opening night was probably the last one.
We really could do with a couple of those performances where we have an early blitz and the game is over by half time, as it must be mentally (as well as physically) exhausting having to be at maximum concentration right down to the last second every week.
So can we just spank Everton this week please lads? Pretty please?
Star man is Virgil, obviously.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Adrian), Wijnaldum; Salah (Lallana), Firmino (Origi), Mané:
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