Liverpool 2 Sheffield Utd 1 (Oct 24 2020)

Nice little win this. It won't be one that we remember when we look back on the season but these are the kind of results that all successful teams need. Another one where we were able to dig in, battle, overcome setbacks and come away with the points. That should be three of those wins in a week as we won the derby too even if the record book says otherwise.

This was tough. We didn’t play as well as we can and we know from last season that Sheffield United are difficult opponents. It was either Klopp or Ljinders who described the home win over them as tactically our best performance of the season or something. Can’t remember exactly what they said but Klopp is always praising Wilder and his team and he was complimentary again after this.

They did make it a slog for us as they work hard for each other, they’re well organised and they’re direct. It helped that they were given a penalty for fuck all too of course.

I’ll start with that so I can get it out of the way. I don’t want to get bogged down with refs and VAR and all that shit again, so I’ll keep this brief. It wasn’t a foul and although it was arguably just close enough to the line to be classed as a penalty, it wasn’t a clear error by Mike Dean so why was that overturned?

Have they changed the whole ‘clear and obvious’ thing now and not told us? Or is this about the refs putting us in our place after we dared question what happened in the derby? Again, it really felt like that decision was made on the basis of what the ref wanted to do, because if he hadn't given a penalty would anyone have questioned that?

If Dean had pointed to the spot there isn't enough to overturn it and give a free-kick, but the same logic applies the other way, surely? The clear error was awarding a foul in the first place, not where it was adjudged to have taken place.

Fabinho got the ball but we’re told that VAR only looked at where the incident took place and not whether he got the ball or not. What the fuck? What's going on here? Can they not look at two things at the same time? It's the same bullshit as last week. 

Just tell Mike Dean to take his pointy little face and bald head over to the touchline to have a look for himself. Actually there’s probably no point as he doesn’t seem the type to go “yeah I’ve got that one wrong” does he, and he’d probably spend ten minutes just watching replays of himself blowing the whistle and pointing, the preening little bald Tranmere fuck.

All that said, Fabinho fucked up there because first he mistimed his clearance, and then he dived in trying to retrieve the situation. He did get the ball first, just, but he needs to be less impetuous in that situation and it looked like Hendo had a pop at him for diving in. Rightly so too.

Of course Alisson went the wrong way and they scored. I expected nothing else. He’s shite at saving pens (you can thank me when he saves the next one).

We’d looked great in the first five minutes but the bright start had fizzled out. The Blades looked more threatening than we did and they had quite a few dangerous looking moments. They had two more penalty appeals too. The handball one against Robbo would have been scandalous but we’ve seen similar awarded already this season (Lindelof and Joel Ward spring to mind) so I was fearing the worst.

There was another when McBurnie took a tumble after a bit of a nudge from a defender. Don’t know who it was as my stream froze at that point and I didn’t see any replay. It wasn’t a pen but it was more of a foul than they one they got. I’m just relieved David Coote wasn’t on VAR or Sander Berge would have had a first half hat-trick of pens.

We weren’t very good in the first half and it was disappointing because I was excited when I saw the team and we had all four forwards playing. The 4-2-3-1 showed moments of promise but overall I felt it was very similar to the other occasions we’ve played it last season. Disjointed.

On paper it looks boss but for whatever reason it doesn’t quite click. I think a big part of it is the lack of a natural ‘number ten’. Bobby generally seems very ineffective in this system and if we persist with it then I’d prefer someone else there. Minamino is probably next in line, although Jones could be a revelation there.

It should suit Firmino as when he plays up front he likes to drop off anyway, but any time he’s played in this formation he just seems to float around aimlessly not really knowing how to influence the game. At least he scored in this one but other than that I can barely remember him doing anything.

I don’t think this is even about his current form either. He’s looked like this every time we’ve played this set up, regardless of whether he’d been playing well before and after. Maybe it just needs time for him and everyone else to get comfortable with it but that’s only going to happen if we stick it, which seems unlikely given the number of midfield players we have and the success we’ve had with 4-3-3.

In theory I like the idea of getting all four forwards in the team and it worked well at times. The other three all made impressive contributions at various points and were able to do their thing, but Bobby just ends up coming deeper and deeper to get the ball and makes little impact on the game. 

He did score though and that was huge. I don’t care that it was only a tap in. In fact, I’m delighted about that as it showed he was still wanting to get in there. Hendo’s cross was a beauty, Sadio’s header was good and Bobby was in the right place to put in the rebound. He needed that.

I hadn’t been particularly worried even at 0-1 as I always felt we’d come back, so when it got to 1-1 I was confident we’d go on to to win it. Thats what we did and deservedly so, but only scoring one more goal left the game on a knife edge and with a bit more composure they might have equalised.

Not that they deserved it as we were comfortably the better side in the second half. We played some nice stuff and Mo looked really dangerous. He had one ruled out for offside which was a real shame as the finish was sublime. He was offside though, you could see it from the very first replay even if it was close. No problem with that decision at all.

The great thing was the lads didn’t let that knock their belief and a few minutes later they scored a legitimate goal. Very nice it was too. Class by Sadio to beat his man and pick out Jota in the middle, and the header was superb. I love him, he’s just what we needed.

This is what I’ve wanted for a couple of years. A third one to complement Salah and Mané. That’s what we’ve got now. He’s not at that level yet but he does look like he has everything he needs to get there, and get there quickly. He’s only been here five minutes and he’s still got a lot of adapting to do, but he’s just slotted in seamlessly.

You can play him either side, through the middle, he presses as well as anyone, he can counter attack, he can keep the ball, he scores goals…. he’s perfect for us as he’s already boss and he’s only going to get better. 

I’ve said for the last couple of summers that if we only signed one player I’d be fine with it as long as he was a Sadio / Mo type that gave us that extra option up there and took some of the load off the main front three. That was the most important thing to me, ahead of strengthening any other position. 

We’ve done that now and as a result we’re significantly stronger than we were last season. And when you add Thiago into the mix as well, fucking hell.

So yeah, we’ve lost Virgil and it’s tough, but the rest of the team is stronger than it was last year which does balance it out at least a bit. We’re still the strongest team in the league and will remain so unless we get any more catastrophic injury situations.

There are so many things you miss when someone like Van Dijk isn’t there but some of those things are easier to compensate for than others. Leadership is a big thing but that is something that others may be able to grow into. 

Gomez for example. He hasn’t needed to do it before because he’s been a kid playing next to more experienced players. He’s 23 now though and has played a lot of games. With Virgil not there maybe he seizes this opportunity to take charge back there? I don’t know if he has that in him or not but he might surprise people.

I saw signs of it in this game when he recognised that Fabinho was having some difficulties with the pacy sub they brought on and he began coming across to cover behind him. One instance stands out when Burke knocked it down the line and was going to run away from Fabinho but Gomez was right there to stop him.

That came shortly after Burke skinned Fab in the box and looked like he had a clear shot on goal, only for Gomez to get across and make a brilliant block. So yeah, Joe has so far stepped up to the plate in the two (pretty much three really including the derby) games he’s played in Virgil’s spot and long may it continue.

There are other things we miss too of course. The passing range Van Dijk has is not something we can really replace but it’s not massively important in the grand scheme of things either. It's a nice luxury to have but not essential to how we play. 

There was one major weakness we had before Van Dijk came though and it’s going to be the same for a while now until we can sign someone. We saw it against Sheffield United and we’ll see it again. As well as Gomez played overall his aerial duels number was far from impressive. I imagine Fabinho’s wasn’t any better either. It’s difficult to criticise them for that though as it’s not a strength of either player.

It felt like McBurnie won every single header and that’s something we struggled with in the past. It’s not that those headers necessarily lead to anything or cause major problems, but it impacts how we play and allows the opponent to get out and relieve the suffocating pressure we apply when we hem teams in. 

We press high up the pitch and teams often just play long to get out of it. I remember being told at the time that the reason Klopp signed Joel Matip was because he needed somebody who would not only win all of those balls but would head the ball back up the field to our own players so we can continue to keep teams penned in. That is vital to how Klopp wants to play.

Matip did it to some degree but he misses too many games. When Virgil came in, that transformed us in a lot of ways but that was one of the key aspects that helped us become so dominant. Teams would knock it long and he’d not only win everything, he’d be nodding it down to Hendo or Robbo to get us on the attack again immediately. Relentless, suffocating pressure.

We saw against Sheffield United that wasn’t the case and it allowed them to cause us problems and see much more of the ball in our half than they normally would. We need Matip back for games like this. In Europe Fabinho is great because most of his defending will be done with his feet against more technical players.

Domestically it’s going to be trickier at times when he and Gomez come up against Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood for Burnley, Andy Carroll at Newcastle, Benteke at Palace etc. Next week it’s my boy Mikael Antonio and he’s going to be a handful in the air and on the ground. None of those players would worry you when Virgil is back there but it’s a whole new ball game now.

Nevertheless, if the rest of the team functions the way it’s supposed to then we should be able to overcome any of those potential problems. We did it against the Blades although it was closer than it ought to have been because we couldn’t get that third goal.

Goalscoring isn’t exactly a problem as such, and I don’t know, maybe I have unrealistic expectations of how many we should score, but it often frustrates me that we don’t seem to score as many as we should based on the chances we have. That’s more important now than ever because in any close games we’re going to come under a late aerial assault and we’re now going to be more vulnerable to that than we have been.

So if we can just tighten it up a bit more in front of goal and be that bit more clinical, we should be sound. Little things really, like Mo hitting the post and not finding the corner. That was sensational play but he needs to finish it off. Or holding his run that split second longer to avoid being offside. Easier said than done I know but it’s a different game now and - right or wrongly - forwards are going to have to adapt.

Same with Sadio in the derby last week actually. To me he wasn’t offside but if he’d made more of an effort to get himself back on earlier than it’s all moot anyway. 

That sounds like a harsh criticism but it’s not really. I’m not even saying Sadio did anything wrong, it’s just that the game has changed now and close offside calls are going to go whatever way the VAR goon wants to give it. Sometimes the line will be drawn from the top of the arm, sometimes the elbow. Sometimes it will be an inch or two away from the defenders heel / toe and sometimes it will be straight through it.

Basically it’s whatever they want it to be. So if Sadio had ran back to get himself onside earlier then you don’t allow bent cunts like Coote to screw you over.

We’ve seen it so many times, not just with our games. Bottom line is that on the really tight calls they can give the decision either way and manipulate the line to justify it. Players are going to have to adjust accordingly and give themselves an extra half a yard to be safe. 

These are the little things that will give us an edge. Klopp has specialised in this sort of thing. If you get all the smaller details right you can give yourself an advantage over those who don’t. That’s why he hired a throw in coach, not to mention the best nutritionists and sports science people.

Maybe get the forwards working on being a yard onside at all times instead of playing on the shoulder of the last defender? The reason we defend so high is because we know the opposition will almost always run offside and VAR will catch them even if the linesman doesn’t. So it makes sense to apply that at the other end too, surely? 

Work on staying a yard onside all the time, that way if you are a fraction early you’ve got the wiggle room to still be on? I’m just thinking out loud there really but there’s some validity to it I reckon.

Anyway, in summary this was a great three points because despite their position in the table these are hard to play against and we seem to keep having these VAR created obstacles placed in our way. This could easily have gone wrong but it didn’t because the lads overcame the bullshit penalty decision and found a way to win the game.

That’s all we have to do. It doesn’t have to be vintage footy every week and three or four goal wins, although that would be nice as it hardly ever seems to happen anymore. No, we just need to keep winning however we can because all the sides who will be in and around the top of the table in May are all hugely flawed and will be dropping points all over the place.

If you offer me another win like this next weekend against West Ham I’ll snatch your hand off right now. The points are all that matters during this hectic spell of playing every three days. Just win and then rest for the next one.

Star man is Hendo, who was sensational. Special mention to Gomez too who is answering the bell nicely so far. Robbo was class as usual and Jota, Salah and Mané all had good moments.

We might see a few changes for the midweek game. I hope so because I want us full strength for West Ham next weekend. That’s a much tougher game than it would usually be as the Hammers are in a good run. I don’t want Moyes getting anything at Anfield other than his arse kicked.

Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Gomez, Robertson; Henderson, Wijnaldum; Jota (Minamino), Firmino (Milner), Mané; Salah: