It's not quite the Champions League but it was still a nice feeling seeing Hendo and the lads repeating their trophy lift routine. It was also nice not to lose a penalty shoot out.
The game itself provided more cause for concern than reasons to be cocky, but we won so that makes it easier to put those concerns to one side. I’m sure Klopp and his staff will have seen things they want to iron out as quickly as possible though, as I didn’t think we played well at all.
We didn’t deserve to win the game but we didn’t deserve to lose either. We should have beaten City the other week and losing on pens was a bit of a kick in the teeth. Had we lost this one, I don’t think we’d have had too much cause to feel hard done by, other than by VAR which I’ll get to in due course.
The Super Cup isn’t the biggest trophy in the world, but I’ve got a spring in my step today. There isn’t that euphoric buzz of winning a Champions League, but it still feels good doesn’t it?
UEFA will be delighted too. A packed crowd, great atmosphere, exciting game and the winning side celebrating like it genuinely means something. They couldn’t have asked for more.
It was also the first game to be officiated by an all female refereeing team and they did well. That too has to be seen as a success, despite the cack handed attempt to help them out by the VAR crew. Again, I’ll get to that in a bit.
As Big Virg said afterwards, it was a good game for the neutrals. Chelsea probably feel a lot like we did after losing the Charity Shield. The loss stings but they’ll have taken a lot of positives out of the way they played.
For us it’s a case of just grabbing the trophy and getting the hell home to rest up. Forget about the performance, but take some lessons from how easily Chelsea were able to open us up at times.
Chelsea were good to be fair. I was a bit surprised at how well they played, but I wonder how much of that was down to us not being at the level we expect. Norwich looked good too, let’s not forget. There’s something not quite right with us at the minute.
Everyone is talking about this high line we’re playing and it’s clearly not working exactly as it’s supposed to. Teams are getting behind us too easily, but Chelsea were also running at us as well as in behind us. We looked all over the place at times.
Kante was just running by people all night. He was brilliant. What a player he is. It’s like having an extra man on the pitch having him out there as he’s fucking everywhere. Tremendous player, the best midfield player of his type in the world for me.
It wasn’t just him though, Chelsea caused us plenty of problems in the first half, and then again later on after Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham came on.
Our back four all produced some outstanding moments of individual defending, but collectively it just wasn’t right. Chelsea just seemed to find space in between people and then they were able to play runners in behind. It happened far too often.
We’d actually started quite well but it fizzled out and the balance just wasn’t right in attack. Not that I was surprised by that. As soon as I saw Ox in the front three I feared the worst. Said it before and I’ll say it again, I love him as a midfielder but in a front three he’s about as much use as Adam Lallana is. They’re midfield players, so play them in midfield or don’t play them.
Bobby and Divock were rested, but we’ve got Shaqiri and Brewster on the bench so why are we being subjected to Ox out there? He’s never done a thing for us when he’s played on the wing. In fact he’s been completely ineffective every time he’s played there.
He needs minutes, I get that. So play him this weekend at Southampton in midfield. I don’t want to see him on the wing as this is how it always ends; him being subbed after doing nothing. It’s not a knock against Ox as it’s not his fault. It’s not a role that suits him, simple as that.
So the bright start fizzled out and Chelsea came right into it, mainly off the back of Kante and his driving runs. When they took the lead I felt like it had been coming.
We were living dangerously with offsides all night and it was only a matter of time until we got caught. Adrian had already needed to make a really good save at the feet of Kovacic, and Pedro had earlier hit the bar.
It was a good goal to be fair. Pulisic did well to draw defenders to him and roll it into the path of Giroud who rolled the ball past Adrian.
Pulisic then thought he’d made it 2-0 but VAR intervened. Really close decision but the right one. How they arrived at it is another matter though, but yeah, I’ll get to that in a bit.
The difference when Ox was replaced by Bobby at half was night and day. Two minutes was all it took for Firmino to create the equaliser for Mané with a beautiful touch.
He then sent Sadio clear again soon after. He pulled it back to Hendo and his deflected shot was saved by keeper, who showed good footwork to not be fooled by the deflection.
We were well on top and Kepa then denied Salah with a fine low stop but the loose ball fell to Van Dijk and a goal seemed certain. The keeper somehow managed to get back across and push it onto the bar though. I still can’t believe we didn’t score there.
Incidents like that are often where games are won and lost (this could have been Chelsea’s “Dudek” moment), and for the rest of the game I kept thinking we’d be looking back on that as the moment we knew it wasn’t our night.
Even when we went in front in extra time I still didn’t feel confident that we’d see it out as there was a vulnerability about us that we’re not used to seeing. The heat may have played a part in that though. To play a high line you have to have pressure on the ball, but it’s hard to maintain pressure on the ball when you’re playing in a fucking sauna.
It was a lovely goal that put us ahead though. Sadio sent Bobby away down the left and he cut the ball perfectly back perfectly into his path and Sadio did the rest. Great football that.
Chelsea weren’t done though. They rallied well but the equaliser should never have been allowed. I don’t blame the ref for awarding the pen, not least because I think one of her assistants also flagged to signal a foul. She kind of had to give it really, especially when you know you have the safety net of VAR in case you’ve got it wrong.
In real time it’s impossible to tell if there’s contact or not, so you go with what you think you saw and they thought it was a pen. I’m fine with that, after all, this is why we have VAR now, right?
Wrong, apparently. This debacle was justified by nonsense about it only being used when it’s a “clear and obvious error”. What, like a goalkeeper making absolutely no contact with a striker, you mean?
The whole thing was suspicious as fuck. I’m sorry, but it was. Usually these things take a couple of minutes while various replays from different angles are looked at. Then they’ll tell the ref to go pitch side and have a look.
This time, there was a delay of about 20 seconds. Basically enough time to look at maybe two different replays. And then the ref is told “yeah, nothing to see hear, penalty.” What the fuck? Seriously, I don’t know how that is even possible.
That’s just not how this is supposed to go. Why was she not told to go and take another look at a few different angles? Or if they’ve scrapped that now (I know they did it that way in the World Cup but maybe now the video ref gets to make the call?), then why was the decision not simply overturned, because with the benefit of replay that is not a penalty in a billion years?
Given the speed of the ‘review’ and the unsatisfactory outcome, I honestly reckon this was a ‘political’ decision. It’s the first man’s game officiated by a female ref so the last thing they wanted to do was undermine her. But by doing this shit, that’s exactly what they did, the ham-fisted pricks.
She actually had a really good game, as did her two assistants. They didn’t need patronising with this kind of bullshit. So what if she got that call wrong, it was an almost impossible one to get right without the benefit of slow motion replays. Help her out and tell her it’s not a pen.
The whole situation was just farcical. I hate VAR, I seem to be saying this on a weekly basis and I don’t see that changing any time soon. It’s there to prevent decisions like this yet here we are still complaining about a clear, incorrect penalty decision.
Just fuck it off. It causes far more problems than it solves and it’s ruining the game. I’m sure I can’t have been the only one who didn’t celebrate our equaliser because I expected a VAR review for offside. That’s what it’s coming to.
I sat there, waiting for the replay, expecting that Bobby was going to be half a yard off and the goal wouldn’t stand. By the time I realised the goal was fine, the moment had gone. As I say, it’s killing football.
Even the two goals that Chelsea had disallowed were just weird. Their fans will have celebrated because the flag didn’t go up until after. The players both ran through and scored (Pulisic and Mount both took the goals superbly) and then the flag went up. Again, not the officials fault as in Europe they’re told now not to flag until the play is dead, and that VAR will take care of it.
So what you have is a player running through on goal and fans looking to the lino and seeing no flag go up. Great, no offside then. The player scores, you celebrate and then the flag goes up and you have to see what VAR says. Even if it goes your way, the moment is ruined. Chelsea fans had that twice. It’s a farce.
And another thing, in the first half Mané had an overhead kick blocked by the hands of Christensen. Yes, it was from point blank range, but even allowing for that the defender had two hands up in a completely unnatural position and the ball hit both of them! How is that not a pen? It was ten times more of a pen than the one we got in the CL Final (which was the right call).
VAR won’t solve any problems because you’ve still got clueless wankers looking at the replays and making decisions. If it isn’t helping to get decisions right, then why are we having to put up with all of the shit it brings, like delays and killing of the moment?
Anyway, I could go on all day about this shit but I’ll spare you, as no doubt I’ll be kicking off again soon enough. This isn’t going away any time soon, unfortunately.
So Abraham got his penalty, Adrian was left seething and Jorginho comfortably converted the spot-kick. That was the end of the scoring even though both teams had chances to win it. When it went to pens I didn’t give us much hope. The only one of our takers who I felt confident about was Fabinho, even though five minutes earlier he couldn’t even walk.
Conventional wisdom suggests he shouldn’t have taken one as he had been struck down with cramp, but to me it was a no brainer. With Milner unavailable he was the only specialist penalty taker we had.
Bobby’s pen was very good. So was Fabinho’s. Origi and Trent just about did enough although the keeper got a hand on both of their kicks (and should have saved Origi’s).
Mo then sent him the wrong way, which I’m surprised about because the shape of his run up was a dead give away that it was either going up the middle or to the keeper’s right. Can’t believe he dived the other way, but thankfully he did.
So all of our pens went in and so did Chelsea’s first four. Adrian had no chance with the first three (Mount’s was brilliant), but Emerson’s one went right down the middle and had Adrian held his dive a fraction later he might have gotten a foot to it.
He didn’t make that same mistake on the next one. It’s easy to say now, but honestly I knew Abraham would miss. I could tell just by looking at his face that he didn’t fancy it. There’s also the karma factor. He dived to win a pen from Adrian but now he was faced with having to score past him from the spot to keep Chelsea alive.
It was all set up for Adrian to be the hero and so it proved. Abraham went right up the middle, Adrian stuck out a foot and in the blink of an eye Klopp was sprinting across the pitch to hug his keeper like it was a 96th minute derby winner.
Then in his post match interview he’s yelling “ADRIAAAAN” into the camera. I bet that’s been in his head from the second he signed him. Kloppo loves Rocky and he’d have been praying for a situation like this so he could bust that one out. Tremendous stuff. What a guy.
I think the best thing about winning stuff is just watching how Klopp reacts to it you know. Yeah everything else is sound too, but the highlights of these things is definitely the antics of the manager. You never know what mad shit he’s going to say or do.
One of the main things I remember from Madrid was him being tossed up in the air by his players. He was dropping F-bombs on live TV after we beat Barca, he stole the show at the parade and now we’ve got “ADRIAAAAAN”.
Nobody has had a bigger impact on the overall psyche of the club and the fans since Shankly arrived in the 60s. Everything we are doing now is tied to Klopp and his brilliance and his personality. What a man. He’ll be spoken about by future generations with the same kind of reverence Shankly is now.
Footy is mad though isn’t it? I mean, 10 days ago Adrian didn’t have a club and was training with his mates in a park. Now look at all that’s happened to him since. Like I say, mad.
Not just that though. Go back to that night in Madrid, when Hendo lifted the trophy and all the lads are on the podium celebrating. I think about that and then I wonder what Adrian and Andy Lonergan were doing that night. Probably watching it while on holiday or something.
Harvey Elliot too, although we know what he was doing! He was watching with his mates and doing an uncannily accurate, albeit distasteful, impression of Harry Kane.
When they watched those scenes in Madrid, little could any of them have imagined that two months later they’d be stood on a podium celebrating with those same players, having won a European trophy. Lonergan especially must be wondering just how the fuck he got here.
Of course it’s not the Champions League, but try telling those three that this isn’t a big deal. It’s just mad when you think about how situations can change so quickly. Great for Hendo to get his hands on another trophy, and the way he shared that little moment with the kid with no legs beforehand just showed the measure of the man. Class that.
The little fella got a hug from Klopp too, and for one scary moment it looked like Jurgen was just going to pick him up and carry him off. Would anyone have been surprised if he had?
The lads looked absolutely thrilled to get another trophy and it’s a good habit for them to get into. In his interview for the summer issue of TLW, Carra spoke about how important it is as a player to win these games. Doesn’t matter what the trophy is, just win it. Keep picking them up each year, like Chelsea have done.
People can dismiss this trophy as unimportant and in truth they’re not entirely wrong. The thing is though, it’s easy to say it’s not important when you aren’t in it, or indeed have never been it (like 99% of the teams in this country). If you’re in it, you want to win.
Winning it mightn’t be a big deal, but losing is still shitty, especially for those who travelled all that way to support the lads. Talk down the importance of the Super Cup all you like, but if that shoot out hadn’t gone our way how would you have felt? I’d have been gutted, especially coming so soon after the Charity Shield loss.
It’s easy to say these games mean fuck all and I don’t completely disagree with that, but if you’re in it then it means something. It’s an officially recognised trophy so why would you not go all out to win? I don’t agree with counting it alongside the other, more significant trophies, and if we were to win a couple more this year I wouldn’t be throwing the Super Cup in and claiming a “treble”, but it still felt good to win it and we shouldn’t feel embarrassed about that.
The way both teams approached the game showed that it meant something to them. Players enjoy lifting trophies and fans enjoy seeing their players lifting them. This means more than the Charity Shield, not least because we were in this game on merit, whereas we were in the Charity Shield by default. It’s also much more prestigious because it’s a European trophy.
Personally I can’t wait for the World Club thingy to come around as I really want to win that too. We’ve never won that, so to me it is kind of a big deal. It’s not the league or European Cup, but don’t try and tell me that being able to officially call yourself the World Champions isn’t cool, because it is.
We’ve had chances to win it before but came up short. It was more difficult to win it back then though due to the strength of the South American teams. This year it shouldn’t be a problem and the only worry would be the travelling or complacency. There’s a lot of football to be played before that though, starting with this Saturday’s trip to St Mary’s.
That’s always tough anyway because they’ve got beef with us, but it could be especially tricky this time because the lads will be knackered and a few of them were hobbling at the end.
The midfield especially is going to need freshening up, as it’s hard to imagine Hendo and Fabinho starting after playing for two hours in this heat. With Keita having picked up yet another injury, I’d expect to see Gini, Milner and either Ox or (more likely) Lallana get the nod on Saturday.
It’s not ideal and we’re going to have to grind some wins out like we did this time last year. Playing well is preferable, but not always possible. Just get the points and we can worry about performances later.
Star man is Bobby, just ahead of Sadio. The rest were a mixed bag. Mo played well I thought, but the midfield struggled and Kante had all three of them on toast a few times.
At the back I thought Gomez struggled at full back and it’s only a matter of time before we see Hoever playing there when Trent is rested. Matip was brilliant defensively but kept passing the ball straight to Chelsea players. That’s unlike him and it might be enough to confine him back to the bench at the weekend.
Southampton aren’t very good and it’s a game we should win, but they do play with a high energy and will get after us so it’s going to be a lot tougher than usual just because of the tiredness factor.
These lads are great at digging in and getting the job done when things are tough though, so let’s hope they can recover quickly from this and get the win.
Team: Adrian; Gomez, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Henderson, Milner (Wijnaldum); Salah, Mané (Origi), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Firmino):
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