What a day that was. It not only lived up to expectations, it surely exceeded them. In fact, it was so intense and at times traumatic, that it felt like a night game. Most of the great Anfield occasions seem to have come ‘under the lights’ but in terms of day games I’m struggling to think of one to compare with this. Absolutely spine tingling stuff from start to finish, and if we manage to see this one out and go on to win the title then this is a game we’ll be telling our grandkids about. It will be there alongside all of the great Anfield occasions, as make no mistake about it, we beat a seriously fucking good team here.
The players had been given an incredible welcome on Anfield Road as the coach made it’s way to the stadium. A similar thing had taken place before Sunderland of course, but this time there were at least three times as many fans lining the streets. Expect even more for the final two home games.
The place was completely buzzing in the build up, the streets were busier than I’ve seen all season and presumably the pubs will have been hit in the pocket as everyone seemed to be hanging around outside before this one.
After one of the most incredibly silent of ‘minutes silences’ prior to kick off the noise was ear splitting once again. Credit to City for the respect they showed, even unfurling a banner showing unity with us in the campaign for justice, but I don’t think that will have come as a surprise to anybody as City have always been a decent bunch. Equally it will have surprised no-one that the pond life following Chelsea failed to observe it during their game at Swansea, as they’ve always been… well.. a not so good bunch.
There’s always a danger that sombre occasions such as this can have a negative effect on the team and put added pressure on them to get a favourable result (see United’s loss to City on the 50th anniversary of Munich for example), but Rodgers had said beforehand that it would inspire his team and so it proved.
The boss had spoken of ‘unleashing the fans’ on City and I think everyone knew it was going to be one of those Anfield occasions when the crowd would undoubtedly play a huge part, and more often than not when Anfield is like this the result tends to follow. It’s remarkable really, down the years there have been so many of these massive games, but they’ve almost exclusively been in Europe and losses have been incredibly rare when crowd and team have been as one. This was the biggest domestic game we’ve had in well over 20 years though, probably since the ill fated Arsenal game that decided the title in 1989 in fact.
Whilst it wasn’t exactly going to decide the title, it was certainly going to give us a much better idea of where we stood. Lose and we were pretty much out of it. Draw and we’d be relying on Everton doing us a favour. Win, and it was still in our own hands. We won, but in typical Liverpool style it wasn’t straightforward; it never is. But it wouldn’t be the same without the odd heart stopping moment would it? For Eidur Gudjohnsen read David Silva being a stud’s length away from converting Aguero’s pass. For the ‘Ghost Goal’ see the late Skrtel handball that wasn’t given. Things could so easily have gone against us but they didn’t. I said weeks ago there is a ‘2005 feeling’ about what’s happening this year and I’m even more convinced of it now.
This was just a pulsating game from start to finish, two great attacking teams going at it hammer and tong. It won’t be like this in a fortnight, Chelsea could play like City if they were coached that way; they have bags of talent in their squad but Mourinho would rather bore his way to victory than play like us or City, the massive shithouse. I’m not sure Pellegrini is a particularly great coach, but what he is is a man who recognises the attacking talent he has at his disposal and allows them to go out and play to their strengths, and they’ve been hugely entertaining this season. If we’re the best side to watch in the country, City are a very close second and this was a hell of an advert for the English game.
I’m assuming we must have lost the toss as we attacked the Kop in the first half. I know traditionally a lot of visiting sides like to stop us from kicking that way in the second half, but given how quickly we tend to start games and considering how whipped up the crowd were, I’d say City made a big mistake there in hindsight. They were probably caught a little off guard by Rodgers’ team selection too. Not specifically the eleven players on duty, but the way in which they were deployed.
Pellegrini would surely have expected the same kind of formation and tactics that we’d used in those other big games we’ve had at Anfield lately, with Coutinho operating in a midfield three, Sterling wide and Suarez and Sturridge taking turns working the other flank. Instead we saw a midfield diamond with Coutinho on one of the sides and Sterling at the point of it.
It was an extremely attacking side Rodgers picked, but such was the phenomenal work rate of Coutinho in the opening half an hour or so that City were unable to take advantage of any possible defensive weakness in our midfield. The little magician probably made more tackles than anyone else on the pitch in that period, he was everywhere. Sterling too for that matter.
As expected, we flew at them right from the start and it took just six minutes for us to go in front. Suarez - harshly booked a minute earlier for a nothing foul on Demichelis - was the creator as he showed great strength to initially withstand the challenge of the Argentine and then even greater strength to completely barge Clichy out of the way. He then slid a pass into Sterling but what happened next was quite remarkable.
Sterling collected the ball and everyone thought he was going to shoot. Instead he stood Kompany up, moved the ball to his left and then once again looked like he was about to take the shot. The whole stadium was expecting the shot, including Kompany and Joe Hart who were then both caught flatfooted when Sterling calmly shifted back onto his right and stroked it into the empty net. Raheem had the coolest head inside Anfield; incredible composure for a kid still in his teens. What a fucking player he’s turned into over the last five or six months, in that period he’s been as important as anyone I’d say, he’s made so many telling contributions.
That goal was the last thing City needed, it was going to be tough enough for them anyway but the early goal just amped the crowd up even more and in turn inspired the players further. Brian Moore once famously observed on the Anfield Rap video that “No-one knows quite what to expect when the red machine’s in full effect”. That’s no longer true, everyone knows what to expect: absolute fucking carnage. They just can’t do anything to stop it. Everton were blown away by it early doors, Arsenal even more so, Spurs went the same way and even Manchester City, a much superior side than any of the aforementioned, could do nothing to prevent Liverpool’s early onslaught. I’d give anything to see Chelsea go the same way in a fortnight. Cunts.
Sturridge then could and indeed should have doubled our advantage when more brilliant play from Sterling put a chance on a plate for him. It looked like he tried to be a little too precise in guiding his shot into the corner as the ball went across his body, and it drifted just past the far post.
City’s cause obviously wasn’t helped by the early departure of Yaya Toure, warmly applauded off the field by the entire stadium after appearing to pull a muscle in the act of shooting. We were glad to see him go off as he obviously represented a huge threat to us, but the applause recognised that he’s a great player and seems like a good guy too. Besides, he’s Kolo’s brother and that has to count for something, right?
Generally though, we don’t mind City too much do we? Relatively speaking at least. Of course there’s some resentment at how they suddenly got a brand new stadium and massive cash injection without doing anything to earn it, but from my point of view I’d say that if any side was going to ‘win the lottery’ like that, there are few I’d have begrudged less than City. They’ve always had good support despite having very little to cheer about and being run by complete buffoons, and even now they’ve had success I don’t think they’ve become especially obnoxious, whereas most probably would have.
It’s a healthy rivalry and there’s no real depth of bad feeling on either side. The common bond of hating United has always meant things were relatively cordial between the two sets of fans, and the applause for Toure was testament to that too. Put it this way, if ANY Chelsea player suffers a similar fate in a couple of weeks, he’ll be leaving the field with deafening jeers in his ears, not warm applause. And I doubt we’ll see fucking Suggs in an exec box wearing an HJC scarf and sticker either, as Noel Gallagher was.
We were swarming at City from all angles in those early exchanges. When we had possession we were creative, when City had it we were even more dangerous because as soon as we won the ball we were tearing at them on lightning quick counters. It must be completely terrifying facing our front five at Anfield, the pace and incisiveness of the attacks are just a joy to behold. One such break was the catalyst that would eventually lead to the second goal.
Flanagan’s long clearance was met with an immaculate touch from Suarez who put the ball into the path of Sterling. He carried it forward and then found Sturridge on the right, who cut inside and then tried to thread a ball through for Suarez. Kompany just about cut it out at full stretch and City scrambled the ball away for a corner. Exhilarating stuff again though, and look at the lung busting run Hendo made to get up there as well.
Coutinho took the corner and Gerrard found himself unmarked in the middle of the goalmouth. His powerful header was brilliantly tipped over by Hart, but City’s respite was only temporary as Gerrard decided to take this one himself and Skrtel glanced in the 7th goal of an incredible season for him.
We were in dreamland now and it was looking like the Arsenal game all over again, with Sterling and Skrtel both scoring and the Reds tearing the opposition to shreds with every attack. We almost added a third with another thrilling counter attack as Coutinho brilliantly released Suarez over the top, and he was within a whisker of finding Sturridge. It was too far ahead of the striker but Sterling got onto it and he so nearly managed to cut it back to give Sturridge a tap in, but City just about got it away.
As the half wore on and the pace dropped just a fraction, City slowly managed to get a foothold in the game and went close on a few occasions. Dzeko had a decent penalty shout when Sakho lunged in wildly and missed both ball and man. Dzeko realised too late what had happened and by the time he initiated contact with the prone defender and fell over, Mark Clattenberg wasn’t buying it. Hugely risky challenge from Sakho though. It might have been the only thing he did wrong in an otherwise fine performance, but that could have proved very costly.
Sturridge then gave the ball away cheaply on the edge of the City box and they broke quickly down the right. It ended with Silva flashing a header wide from a Navas cross, but Clattenberg gave a corner much to the displeasure of the Liverpool defenders.
Mignolet came for the corner but didn’t get there and it needed Sterling to head the ball off the line to deny Kompany. The ball looped into the air and Johnson then did incredibly well to head out from under his own bar under massive pressure from Fernandinho. Mignolet then claimed it as the crowd roared their approval. I think a free-kick may have been awarded for Fernandinho’s challenge on Johnson anyway, but that incident summed up Liverpool’s approach to the first half, they simply wanted it more than City.
Shortly after that Navas crossed again and this time Fernandinho met it on the half volley forcing a great save from Mignolet. We were living dangerously and half time couldn’t come quickly enough as City had gotten over the initial blitz and looked to have regained their composure.
The second half started exactly as we wouldn’t have wanted it to, with City pinning us back and dominating possession. We found it increasingly difficult to get hold of the ball but in fairness we still tried to play out from the back and to do what we’d done in the first half, it’s just that the intensity of the game had slowed slightly and that allowed City to play their game.
This always happens in games such as this, it’s impossible to keep up the pace that we start these games off with, and when the speed of the game inevitably slackens that’s when we need to be defensively resilient and clinical with our chances to break. The pace dropped in the games against Everton, Arsenal and Spurs too, but in those games we were either completely out of sight or they didn’t really have the quality to hurt us once it became more of a ‘level playing field’. It’s almost like we begin these games with an extra man, and we have to make it count before it becomes 11 v 11 again when the tempo slackens in the 2nd half.
City are much better than anyone else we’ve faced this season though and they were able to dominate once the early storm had subsided. It would be wrong to say they weathered the storm as they were 2-0 down after all and could easily have trailed by more, but they were just about still afloat. A third goal and they may have sunk without trace, but at 2-0 they were still in the game and you have to give them credit for how well they played in that second half. And you have to give our lads even more credit for being able to overcome it.
City’s first goal was just simply brilliant football, but they’d been threatening it for a while. Silva was running the show and even when we got players around him it didn’t feel like we did; rarely do you see a player able to make it look like he has all the time in the world when he’s surrounded by opponents. He was phenomenal at times in this game, just gliding around playing little inch perfect short passes and shifting the ball on before we could get near him. Still, it took the introduction of a far less glamorous player for City to get back into it. Be honest, how many of you thought “we’re in trouble now” when James Milner came on? It’s not that he’s a bad player, far from it, but Navas would surely be regarded by most as a much bigger threat.
As it was, Pellegrini had to ask Flanagan to take Navas out of his pocket so he could make the substitution and get Milner on. Flanno completely bossed it against Navas but Milner brought a different set of problems for the young full back to deal with. Navas wanted to run at him but Milner wasn’t really interested in doing that, instead he’d pop it off to Silva or Nasri and then run in behind for a return ball. That’s much more difficult to defend against, especially when there’s no natural wide player in front to help out and double up.
City started to get in behind us a lot and both of their goals came from very similar moves. The first expertly slid in by Silva, the second unluckily diverted past Mignolet by Johnson. No blame attached to either player, it was just one of those unfortunate incidents but a real choker for us.
What made that second goal a real killer was that we’d had a great chance to go 3-1 up just before it. Sturridge had ran through and spurned the option to pass in favour of going on his own, and he was stopped by a good challenge by Zabaleta. Sturridge had been a little selfish on occasion and Suarez was completely losing his shit over it, and this one was the final straw as Suarez went nuts and was complaining to the bench about his partner’s antics. Had he not been injured I’d say there’s a good chance Sturridge would have been subbed anyway at that point, as we desperately needed to bolster the midfield and it clearly wasn’t going to be his day.
I just felt he was trying too hard all afternoon, I don’t think it was a case of deliberately being selfish or wanting the glory, not at all, it was just bad decision making, perhaps due to the pressure. Sometimes when a bit of nerves or doubt creeps in, you go yourself rather than try and play a pass, and that’s what I think happened. The occasion maybe affected him a little more than most, he’s been a bit below par for a few weeks now and maybe his confidence isn’t what it was, but hopefully the injury doesn’t rule him out for long as we’ll have a much better chance of winning the league with him than without him.
It’s easy to analyse the City goals and point to where we could have done better, but the thing for me is that it was all happening so quickly it’s difficult for players to react. Look at how quick and intricate the passing was inside the area from the likes of Milner, Nasri and especially Silva. It was like pinball in there at times, especially as they often managed to work overloads which gave them one more man than we could deal with. It’s an area where we can certainly improve - and next year we’ll need to when we come up against some of Europe’s best - but it’s not a test we’ll face again this season as no-one else we have to play can do what City’s players did in that mesmerising spell of pressure. The biggest danger against Chelsea is they may actually send us to sleep, the boring negative bus parking cunts.
Joe Allen belatedly came on for Sturridge but it seemed like a case of closing the stable door after the horse had done a runner. The fans and players were massively deflated but everyone sucked it up, dug deep and just got on with it. There’s a title to be won after all, and no-one ever said it was going to be easy.
Silva should have given City the lead when Skrtel dived in on Aguero on the touchline and didn’t get there, presenting City with a 2 v 1 break. Sakho couldn’t close down Aguero too quickly as Silva was in the middle, and he couldn’t just watch Silva either as Aguero would have a free run on goal. He did what he could to make the pass difficult, and fortunately Aguero put a little too much on and Silva’s desperate sliding touch sent the ball just past the post. Massive, massive let off that.
Aside from that one major scare, we did manage to slow City down after switching to 4-3-3 and the game became more of an even contest. Suarez wasn’t having the best of days and was fortunate not to be given a second yellow when Clattenberg waved away his claim for a free-kick after a challenge by Dimichelis. If it wasn’t a foul, then it had to be a dive, there was no in between on that. The correct decision would have actually been a free-kick as the defender did catch Suarez, but the theatrical way in which he hurled himself to the floor did him no favours and I honestly thought he was off. He was walking a tight rope all afternoon I thought, having been booked so early on he kept running his mouth at Clattenberg and other refs would have sent him off.
Have to laugh at Demichelis complaining though considering the histrionics out of him to get Suarez booked early on. Luis barely touched him but he was rolling round like he had a broken leg. Suarez did the same back to him and he’s acting all indignant and shit, the cheeky bastard.
Clattenberg may have let Suarez off the hook but he clearly decided he wasn’t giving him anything from that point on, which was kind of fair enough in a way, morally at least. In this kind of mood Suarez would test the patience of any ref and does himself no favours. He should have had a pen when Kompany grabbed at him twice as he went round the big defender in the box, and there were numerous free-kicks that should have been given but all were waved away by the ref. On each of them Suarez was hurling himself around like a rag doll and that probably counted against him as much as the ‘dive’ he escaped punishment for.
He needs to knock this shit off before we play Chelsea, as Mourinho gets his way with refs far more than Pellegrini is ever likely too. And we all remember what happened in that fixture last season when Luis lost the plot as he got so worked up. Send him to Steve Peters, Brendan!
The winning goal came out of nothing really. A long throw to no-one, a sliced clearance from Kompany and a fucking thumping finish from Coutinho. Most of the time his shooting is pitiful (there was one pathetic effort in the first half when I wanted to strangle him!), but he couldn’t have picked a better moment to strike one so cleanly.
Anfield went mental and even though there was still 12 minutes or so left I felt that having somehow managed to recover from the huge momentum shift of them equalising, there was no way we’d lose the lead again. It just felt like destiny, and even when Hendo was sent off for an over enthusiastic lunge on Nasri, I wasn’t overly concerned that we’d concede.
Of course there was the Skrtel handball incident, but I knew nothing about that until I got home. No-one appealed for it at the time and I imagine most of the crowd were as oblivious to it as I was. It could have gone against us but thankfully it didn’t. After what happened at the Etihad then this makes us even I guess, and I look forward to things evening out against Chelsea after the way we got shafted at Stamford Bridge.
Really feel bad for Hendo though, he’ll be missed, especially against Chelsea. It was his own fault but Moses also played a part as it was his poor touch that lost possession (had he been able to keep the ball and pick out Suarez we’d have been in on goal), and then Hendo followed it up with a heavy touch of his own before his adrenaline took over and he over stretched for a ball he should never have gone for. He got the ball first, but he was a little bit high and definitely out of control and caught Nasri with his follow through. I think we all knew what was coming, as did the poor lad himself who despondently trudged off the field.
Rodgers responded by withdrawing Sterling and sending on Lucas to shore up the middle, but not before telling Sterling to go and stand as far away from the touchline as possible, to waste a few precious seconds when he was brought off. Gotta love Brendan, the canny bastard. He’d done the exact same thing with Coutinho too. Lucas did his job and we held on without any further incident, as Anfield erupted at the final whistle. “And now you’re gonna believe us, we’re gonna win the league” echoed around the ground, and at this point few would argue.
I’ve just realised I haven’t even mentioned Flanno’s thunderous tackle on Milner. That got the crowd fired up again just when we all needed something to get us going. He had another great game, City threw everything they had at him and although Milner gave him some problems for a while, that was as much down to tactics as his own individual play and the arrival of Allen and a switch to 4-3-3 helped him shore things up again. After that thumping challenge on Milner, Gerrard rushed over and was telling the youngster “Breathe, breathe!!” Love that though, and credit to Milner for just getting on with it. Almost every one of his team-mates would have been writhing around looking for the ref to take action there. Milner is proper old school though, you’ll get none of that shit from him, he probably even congratulated Flanagan on the challenge. Mans man.
Oh, and that Stevie Gerrard ‘huddle speech’ at the end is one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. I’ve got chills now just thinking about it. If Stevie told me to go and run through a brick wall right now I reckon I would you know. What a fucking hero. Gerrard is so fucking awesome that even ‘Ace Rimmer’ looks at him and says “what a guy!”.
I’ll admit that I almost cried watching that clip of him at the end and if he gets to lift the Premier League trophy in a few weeks, there’ll be no ‘almost’ about it, I doubt if there’ll be a dry eye in the house in fact.
As the great man himself said, “this does not fucking slip now!!” Just four more wins, come on Redmen!!!!
Team: Mignolet; Johnson, Skrtel, Sakho, Flanagan; Gerrard, Coutinho (Moses), Henderson, Sterling (Lucas); Suarez, Sturridge (Allen):
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