Hello! Hello! Here we go! This weekend needs a Clive Tyldesley commentary as it feels like Stevie’s goal in Istanbul. Shit, it might even be Vladi’s. Whatever, it feels significant and a real momentum changer. I’m not going to say too much here about City’s result because that will be covered in the Round Up later in the week, but some results mean more than others simply because of the manner in which they go down.
City losing to Spurs was always going to be a significant development in the title race, but the crazy way it happened means it feels even more pivotal. The way they lost that game has to be a massive kick in the balls to them, because it looked like they’d got out of jail with a disallowed VAR goal and then a stoppage time penalty awarded to them by their friendly neighbourhood ref. After they equalised they’ll have been thinking they might win it, and then BOOM.
Whereas at the opposite end of the scale you have our lads on a massive high after coming from behind to beat Norwich and close the gap at the top. At the start of the weekend it was just widely assumed that City would stroll to the title. Then, in the space of just a few hours, suddenly the narrative changed.
Remember the dramatic win at Villa Park in our title winning season and how that meant more than just the points? City had come from behind to win that day and then it looked like we would lose. Had we won that game 4-0 at a canter I doubt City would have been arsed. But because of the way that game went down with the drama at the end it was about much more than just the points. The momentum swing in our favour that day was massive and we never looked back. Could the same thing happen now?
We’ll see, but momentum is definitely with us now and if we can ride that wave over the next few weeks then who knows what will happen. City were 12 points clear a week ago. In a few days that gap might be down to three. I know the 12 point gap was never a proper reflection of things because of the games in hand, but it was still 12 points and now it might be about to be cut to three. Psychologically that’s massive.
We made unnecessarily hard work of beating Norwich though. The easy conclusion to draw from that is the number of changes made by Klopp made us a bit disjointed but I don’t really subscribe to that. Not fully anyway. Obviously it didn’t help.
It’s not ideal that we needed to summon the cavalry from the bench but I thought the performance had been fine up until Norwich fluke that goal. As soon as that happened panic set in a bit, on the pitch and in the stands, and Klopp took decisive action in making the necessary changes.
It could have been so different though had we taken the chances we created early on. I thought the first half performance was alright. Not great, but not much wrong with it either and the only real problem was that we didn’t score. Goals change games and if Kostas buries the sitter he had early on then we probably go on to win it comfortably without needing Thiago to come to the rescue.
I expected that we’d see a number of changes and I don’t think there’s any reason for people to question that. We have a big squad for this exact situation. Players need resting and you also need to decide on the right moments to give playing time to those who need it. Klopp elected to bring in Gomez and Tsimikas at full back, he recalled Matip in the centre and drafted in Ox and Keita to join Hendo in midfield.
If the defence and midfield had a bit of a makeshift look to it, up front we looked really strong with Diaz coming in to join Salah and Mané in a mouth watering trio. The only issue I had with the selection was that Trent was not even on the bench. That seemed like an unnecessary risk. Sure, it’s only Norwich, but leaving out the best full back pairing in the world is always going to weaken the side, especially when you’re replacing the most creative force in the Premier League with a centre back playing out of position. I’m fine with giving Gomez a start, but I’d have had Trent on the bench in case we needed him.
That’s a minor quibble and in the end it didn’t matter because we won. Gomez did as well as could be expected all things considered and anything I may say about his performance that seems negative needs to be taken in context here. As I say, he did as well as we could expect him too, but asking him to fill Trent’s shoes is unrealistic and you might even say unfair.
The entire dynamic of the team changed, partly due to that but also because of the other changes. Diaz had hit it off with Robbo immediately, but the understanding with Kostas clearly isn’t there yet. They weren’t on the same page. Then you have Keita and Ox both in the same midfield. Has that ever worked well? Every time I remember them both starting we’ve ended up subbing one or both of them, and this was no different.
And yet, despite all of what I have just said I feel that the only real problem was that we didn’t put any of our chances away. If one or two of them had gone in then we’re talking about a different game entirely. But we didn’t put them away.
The Kostas chance was the main one. He has to score that and if he does then we’re flying, but he blazed over the bar from about four yards. He did better a little later when his snapshot forced a good save from Gunn, and we had other chances too. Virg headed one down and Gunn took it off the toes of two our players who were rushing in on it. Mo then had a header cleared off the line and Diaz fizzed a shot inches over the bar.
Virgil had a goal disallowed for offside against Hendo. Really close one that and a bit of a farcical situation. Ox had absolutely drilled his shot and it was flying in until it struck Hendo in the gut. Virg seized on the loose ball and scored but Hendo was inches offside. Really unfortunate that.
As I say, we were playing alright. It wasn’t vintage Liverpool by any means but we looked lively enough and I was fine with what we were seeing other than the lack of a finish. Of course you’d expect better and with a first choice line up we’d probably have done better, but we’ve played worse than this on multiple occasions this season.
Although we were well on top, Norwich did have some moments of their own and I thought they played quite well. They had a goal disallowed for offside when Rachica ran through and finished well but I don’t think any of us were worried about that as you could see he was a yard or two off.
When you watch the replay of that disallowed goal it’s really impressive how our entire back four all stopped in unison just before the pass was played. There’s not much Rachica can do to stay onside there short of completely stopping. Terrific from our defence, and especially impressive considering Gomez and Tsimikas aren’t regulars.
We didn’t do so well when Pukki caught us out and went through on goal only to shoot wide. That came from a free-kick (which was never a foul) that we cleared, but we got caught on the second ball back in. We were pushing out and caught a couple of them offside, but Pukki had been alert and he was comfortably onside. He should have scored.
So 0-0 at half time but I wasn’t worried as it still had the feeling of a 2-0 or 3-0 win. And then out of nowhere we fell behind. That wasn’t in the script and it was especially distressing because it was such a fluke. There was no danger at all when Rachica ran across the box and tried his luck. Alisson was dealing with that comfortably until Joel stuck out a huge foot and deflected it.
As soon as it hit him everyone groaned as the ball sailed toward the opposite side of the now wide open goal. Nothing Alisson can do and not really anything Matip can do either. You can’t expect him to not stick out a foot there as it’s just instinctive for a defender to try and block the ball.
The next few minutes were not pleasant. The players didn’t react particularly well and the crowd reacted negatively to that. It got edgy, and poor old Ox picked the worst possible time to have a very bad five minutes. I’ll be in a minority here but I quite liked what he gave us in the first half. I don’t think he was brilliant or anything, but he was bright and busy and, crucially, looked confident.
Then we fell behind and the mood changed. He lost the ball a couple of times and as he tends to do, he got a little down on himself. Then he overhit a free-kick and you could hear him yell in frustration. I felt bad for him, he wears his heart on his sleeve and you can see how badly he wants to do well.
Th final straw was when he let a ball run across him, unaware a Norwich player was steaming in to close him down. He lost the ball and Mike Dean gave a free-kick against him, and immediately I saw Klopp summon Thiago from his warm up. Ox was done.
Around this time there was a weird moment with Klopp where he turned to the Main Stand and then the Kop and gave the thumbs up. I honestly don’t know what it was about and whether he was being sarcastic or not. I don’t think the crowd were especially edgy and the likes of Ox and Gomez (who had an awkward couple of minutes too) didn’t get anything like the kind of groans and impatience we’ve seen at times in the past. So I don’t know if Klopp was reacting to that sarcastically or if he was genuinely giving the thumbs up to say “it’s all fine, stay with us”. He wasn’t asked about it afterwards so I guess we’ll never know.
When I saw Thiago and Div ready to come on, I was hoping it would be Ox and Naby rather than one of the frontmen. We didn’t need three in midfield against this opponent so I was happy to see the switch to four up front. And oh how it worked. Fucking hell, we were electric from that moment on.
Thiago was unreal. He put on an absolute masterclass and I doubt if there’s been a better half an hour of midfield play anywhere in the Premier League all season. It was sensational, an absolute joy to watch. Him coming on and doing that made Ox and Keita look even worse.
It wasn’t just him though. Hendo was great as well, while all four of the forwards were a massive threat. Three of them scored, starting with Sadio who spectacularly volleyed in a Kostas knock back. The keeper was shite on that but he’s probably flat footed because how can you predict where that is going to end up? It could have gone anywhere.
To Norwich’s credit, as soon as the game restarted they were on the front foot trying to get their lead back. A lot of teams would have shit themselves and retreated into a shell hoping to just weather the storm, but they passed their way downfield and ended up with Gilmour taking a shot from the edge of our box. Kostas did enough to put him off and the ball dribbled through to Alisson, who launched a pass downfield over the Norwich defence to spring Mo free.
As he ran onto it I had a vision in my head of how this was going to play out. Mo was going to kill it with his first touch and then lob the keeper with his second touch. It was going to be Suarez-esque. He did the first part but although his touch was great it didn’t it quite sit right for him to take the early shot. He took a touch, then ignored both Diaz and Origi who were in support, and for a moment I thought he’d fucked it up. He dragged it back onto his right foot and then scuffed a shot which initially I assumed would be cleared, but the defenders were all expecting the corner into the far corner and were totally wrong footed. The ball trickled into the net for goal 150.
His performance in this game was incredible. He only scored once so it’s not a game that will long in the memory, but the goals were the only thing missing because he was fucking spectacular and tormented that Brandon Williams kid all day. It was one of those days when the ball was glued to his foot and it looked like he could do anything he wanted. Some of the runs were like Messi in his prime, back before he became a whiny little bitch with a penchant for calling LFC legends “donkey”. Salah was absolutely unplayable in this game.
And then we got the moment we all wanted. A first goal for Diaz. Lovely goal it was too. There was about a million passes and then Diaz makes a run across the defence from the right into the centre, and Hendo picked him out with a perfect ball fizzed in there that hit him right in stride. Great first touch with his right foot and then a lovely composed dink with his left.
Just a brilliant goal and the first of what will be many. I don’t know if Diaz will reach the heights that Salah has but I have no doubt that he’s going to at least be a Mané / Jota level signing. Our current collection of forwards is fucking scary. Imagine trying to keep all of them out and then all of a sudden Origi is thrown on at the end.
The only thing missing was a goal for Div and I’ll be honest, I was genuinely shocked we didn’t get it. When he came on there was half an hour or so left and I thought to myself, no way are Norwich keeping him out for this length of time. They did, but they couldn’t stop the other three.
I’m calling it now. Origi will score against Leeds, or maybe at Wembley. Maybe both. He did go close with a snapshot from 20 yards that the keeper parried around the post, and he looked sharp and hungry. All of a sudden there’s an opening for him with Bobby and Jota out for a spell. Even Taki got on near the end, which was nice.
We could have had more goals too. Mo was inches wide with a curler after being found by a ridiculously good Thiago pass, and Sadio also flashed a shot just past the post after brilliant work by Diaz to set him up. We were flying at Norwich from all angles in that period and Diaz really came to life after the change of formation.
I want to see more of that. Thiago looks great in a two and that would work with either Hendo or Fabinho. Diaz in that free role just floating around getting involved was really exciting. We had Divock playing as the centre forward this time but imagine Jota in that role with the other three all playing around him. Mouth watering.
All in all this was a hell of a day. I was buzzing coming out of Anfield and that was even before City lost. Just what we saw from our lads had me on a high. I keep saying it but it’s worth repeating. This team is spoiling us and we’re so privileged to be watching these lads week in week out. They’re incredible and are giving us so many great moments. We’ve only lost twice in 10 or 11 months.
Even this, a routine win over bottom of the table Norwich, and I’ll remember it for years because of Thiago’s performance and the first goal for Diaz. We’re absolutely spoiled. Look at what the likes of United and Arsenal fans are being served up. They’re feeding on scraps while we’ve scored 100 goals already this season.
We’re incredibly lucky to be living through this era right now. The next few months could be truly historic if things go our way. We’re still in the hunt for four trophies and all of a sudden the league looks like a distinct possibility. Technically it’s now in our hands, although it’s also in City’s hands. Basically if either of us can win every game between now and May, that will be enough to win the title. Well, technically it’s possible for us to win every game and still lose out on goal difference, but that seems highly unlikely.
All we can do is concentrate on ourselves, and that Leeds game in midweek not only represents a great chance to take three points. If we’re being brutally honest here though it’s also a game where we should be looking at making a big dent in the goal difference situation. That might seem like putting the cart before the horse and of course the win is the most important thing, but even so.
If I remember correctly it was City’s home game with Leeds that wiped out our goal difference advantage a couple of months back, so this is our chance to do likewise. Having seen Leeds trying to defend against Everton and United there’s nothing to suggest we shouldn’t absolutely muller them if we do our job properly. They’re fucking awful.
It may depend on how strong Klopp wants to go with a Wembley final just a few days later though. There are places to play for now so whoever starts on Wednesday should be looking at making an impression and giving Klopp a decision to make on Sunday. There’s no excuse for not battering Leeds.
Star man is Mo. It was tempting to say Thiago but I don’t think enough is being said about just how sensational Mo was. That’s great to see as he’s been a little bit off since coming back from AFCON. His first cameo off the bench was brilliant but his starts haven’t been great. He looks right back up to speed now though, which is great timing with Chelsea at Wembley on the horizon.
Team: Alisson; Gomez, Matip, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Thiago), Keita (Origi); Salah, Mané, Diaz:
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