This could easily have gone badly wrong but it didn’t. The players overcame an unjust early setback and got the job done, and in the process stuck it to the rest of the country, most of whom are desperate for us to come up short. If we pull this off it will be the sweetest victory we’ve ever had.
All the lads can do now is keep winning and hope for a break that at this moment in time just doesn’t look like coming. Things can change though, we have to cling to that. City have a difficult April so we just have to apply pressure and hope they crack.
Klopp said afterwards that we aren’t going away and let’s hope not. It only takes one bad week and everything can turn to shit. Look at Spurs - they’ve gone from being in a title race to looking like they might even end up sixth. There’s no margin for error at the top, but that goes for City as well as us.
This team deserves better than all this recent talk of “bottling it”. After 30 games they’ve lost once, they have equalled the club record for points won at this stage of the season and are only one point behind a team that has been labelled the greatest ever by some.
The form hasn’t been great since the turn of the year and that’s a concern, obviously, but even on their bad days they haven’t been losing, which is why it’s unfair to talk about bottling it. Spurs have shit the bed massively and had far less accusations of bottling than our lads. I guess when you’re Spurs it’s to be expected so no-one even bats an eyelid anymore.
The main problem we have is the away form, as at Anfield we’ve been damn near flawless. Barring the Leicester game (a result that was heavily influenced by poor refereeing, let’s not forget) and the rather fortuitous draw with City we’ve been perfect at home. A look at our remaining fixtures sees us with four at Anfield and four away. The away games aren’t exactly the toughest on paper (particularly looking forward to Rafa sending out the youth team against us in May), so that gives cause for optimism.
So as long as we can get back on track away then that could make all the difference. I don’t know if that will happen because it’s so hard to get a handle on this team at the moment. Just when it looks like they’re back in the groove they’ll go and draw a blank somewhere. Everton are as bad as any side we’re likely to face and we couldn’t beat them. They were supercharged and powered on bile that day though, something we won’t have to face from the likes of Fulham and Southampton.
Of all the fixtures we had left, the Burnley one was one of the more difficult ones because we never find it easy going against them. It’s always a slog, but this was pretty straightforward in the end, the late scare notwithstanding.
The front three looked like they’re supposed to and it was particularly nice to see Bobby back in the goals. Mo remains a bit of a worry, but only because he appears to be uncharacteristically uncertain in front of goal recently. He’s holding onto the ball too long, or taking an extra touch when it’s not necessary. Other than that he still generally looks the same and Burnley struggled to cope with him.
Jurgen said he was the best player on the pitch. He wasn’t, but I’m fully on board with the manager saying whatever he feels necessary to help his players. There’s not much wrong with Mo, he’s just a little bit off and has been most of the season. There’s still time for him to explode again and we really need him to.
He didn’t score but he caused havoc against Burnley and was involved in most good things. That elusive 50th goal just won’t come though. Five games without him scoring is just bizarre. It sounds mad, but I never thought that could happen given how prolific he’s been. It won’t last though and someone will eventually end up being hit for three or four by him, probably Fulham next week.
It would have been nice if he’d scored in this one, especially as both his strike partners did, but it’s not a big deal. We won, we played well and there’s nothing to be displeased about. Apart from the officiating that is.
I have two explanations for that Burnley opener being allowed to stand. One is that Andre Marriner seemed to be on a one man mission to sabotage our title bid (actually it’s more of a two man with Paul Tierney) and the other is momentum. You can’t overestimate the power of momentum. It’s massive. We’ve lost it and City have it, and in recent weeks we’ve seen the effect it has. We need to get it back and maybe this result does that.
When momentum is with you, strange things will go in your favour. City had that phantom penalty against West Ham and the scandalous offside goal against Watford.
When it’s against you, shit like this can happen - a goal direct from a corner with the goalkeeper being blatantly fouled. It almost never happens, but when momentum and an official doing his best to make things difficult combine, this is the result.
Lesser teams may have crumbled and felt sorry for themselves at that setback, and I daresay some fans felt that way. Klopp went fucking mad at the Kop and the Main Stand, both immediately before and after the Burnley goal.
There was an audible groan of displeasure when Matip conceded a corner after misjudging the flight of the ball. Klopp lost his shit at that. I can understand why, as we were only five minutes into the game and there’s no need for anybody to be panicking about anything.
At the same time, I didn’t think it was anything too out of the ordinary either. It wasn’t exactly mass panic. Any time a player makes a mistake and needlessly concedes a corner you’ll get a bit of a rumbling of disapproval. It’s not like people are yelling abuse, but if you have twenty thousand people muttering “fucks sake” then it’s going to be fairly audible.
It’s easy to say now because we won, but I don’t even attach any blame to Matip on that as the wind out there was fucking ridiculous and that’s probably what caught ol’ Big Bird out. Initially I felt that it was an error, but the longer the half went on and the more it became apparent just how wild that wind was out there, it put the incident in some perspective. The ball suddenly picked up pace and Matip didn’t have time to react properly. Shit happens.
The wind also aided Westwood with his corner kick. He could try that a 100 times with an open goal and nobody else on the pitch and he probably couldn’t do that again.
You know what annoyed me even more than Marriner allowing the goal to stand even though he could clearly see Alisson was mugged? I’ll tell you. The thing that tipped me over the edge and had me on my feet screaming all sorts of abuse at Marriner, was that he then had the audacity to book Alisson for complaining.
Actually that’s not even true, he booked him before he could even start to complain. Alison ran out of his goal to make his point to Marriner, who pulled out a card before he even reached him. How fucking arrogant is that? He makes a monumentally bad decision and then doesn’t even attempt to explain it or allow Alisson to get his point across. Fucking egotistical, superior twat.
His linesman can fuck off too. He was a disgrace as well. He was fine with the offsides, but he gave nothing else and turned a blind eye to so many incidents. Maybe he was told by Marriner not to get involved unless he is asked for his opinion. Some refs rely on assistants more than others.
This guy gave fuck all though even when it was right in front of him. Ashley Barnes nudged Robbo in the back on every throw in Burnley had and I think we got one free-kick from it all day. Virgil was fouled too when he went for a header and Marriner gave nothing. I saw Big Virg go to the linesman and ask him about it, and it genuinely looked like the lino agreed with him and said it was a foul (he gave him the thumbs up and nodded). So if you saw it, put your flag up then you impotent cock.
I probably shouldn’t focus too much on the officiating given that we played really well and won the game, but it annoyed the shit out of me. It’s all well and good saying it doesn’t matter because we won, but it does matter. We conceded two goals in this game and both have Marriner’s fingerprints all over them. The second goal was a clear foul on Salah before they went down the field and scored.
It could even be argued that our goal difference is two goals worse off because of this game, although that’s hypothetical because we might not have scored the fourth if they hadn’t just scored their second and we don’t know how the game would have played out if we hadn’t fallen behind.
What is not in dispute is that our great defensive record is now two goals worse off than it should be because of this tit. And along with Michael Oliver this fucker is probably the best of a piss poor bunch.
What concerns me is that on another day we might not have come back from that disgraceful decision on the opening goal. What if it had been 75 minutes in and we didn’t have so much time to pull it back?
I genuinely want to know how he can see that incident with Alisson and call it the way he did. It’s alarming. Not as alarming as what Tierney did at the Etihad, but it’s still hard to fathom. Goalkeepers get so much protection in the modern game that it’s actually a running joke. “You can’t breathe on goalkeepers these days” they say. Yet our keeper has a player all over him, preventing him from jumping, and that’s not given as a foul? Get to fuck.
I’m not prepared to go down the “even the refs don’t want us to win the league” but I can’t deny it’s in the back of my mind after this weekend. City’s opening goal against Watford is genuinely the worst decision I think I’ve ever seen. Then it’s compounded with the Burnley goal. You can’t blame us for being paranoid at the moment given that everyone seems to want us to fail.
When the Burnley goal went in, Klopp turned to the Main Stand and started yelling like a loon, pointing at his watch. His point was obvious, chill the fuck out, knob heads, there are 85 minutes left. The message seemed to strike home as I didn’t think there was any sense of panic or frustration after that (I didn’t think there was much before it either, in fairness).
The crowd got behind the lads, the lads kept their cool and played their football, and it wasn’t too long before they had the lead.
The equaliser had an element of fortune about it as both the keeper and defender had a chance to cut out Mo’s cross before Bobby tapped it in. You know what though, that was exactly the type of goal we should be scoring more often. Every week I bitch and complain about us not doing this enough, but it’s a fact that good things happen when you get to the byline and drill the ball across the face of goal. I loved that goal, it was brilliant from Mo.
I loved the second one even more though because it epitomised just what can happen when you work hard and try to force mistakes. Lallana said afterwards the Klopp had pointed out a moment in the Watford game when Milner closed down the keeper and blocked a clearance. He told the players that’s what he wants to see as it lifts the crowd and fires everyone up.
Lallana took that message to heart and looked like the player we saw in the opening months of Klopp’s regime when he was running himself to a standstill every week and leading the pressing game. That press hasn’t been as evident this season, not specifically because Lallana hasn’t played, but his absence hasn’t helped.
This was great to see though. He doesn’t get an assist for that second goal but morally he should. He closed down the defender and flung himself to block the attempted clearance. That in itself would have got the crowd going, but the ball broke nicely to Salah in the box and although he was tackled, the loose ball was superbly whipped into the corner by Mané.
Just what we needed. While I said the crowd were fine and didn’t panic, if we’d still been level or behind after an hour that probably wouldn’t have been the case. Thankfully we’ll never know.
It was a nice moment for Lallana, whose inclusion hadn’t exactly been met with universal approval. Some of the reaction on social media was embarrassing. I was surprised when I saw his name on the team sheet but I honestly didn’t have a problem with him starting. I don’t ever want to see him playing in a front three and I’d say that he’s a pretty terrible substitute who rarely makes us stronger, but starting in a midfield three is fine with me, particularly in games like this.
Our midfield is generally much too ‘samey’. We often have three players doing the same job, which is fine against the better teams (as long as the front three are on their game) but can often see us get bogged down against more defensive opponents.
What Lallana brings that nobody else (other than Ox) does, is that ability to run beyond the forwards and drag defenders out of position. He’s got great feet in and around the box too, but the biggest thing he does is ‘gegenpress’ the absolute fuck out of people. That’s why Klopp has always loved him. Hell, that’s one of the reasons I loved him until the injuries completely ruined him.
I’d all but written him off and while one swallow doesn’t make a summer and all that, it’s great seeing him making such a positive contribution again and I couldn’t be happier for him. I’m not getting my hopes up too much as he’s just as likely to pull a muscle in training this week as he is to play like this again, but to me there’s no doubt that a fully fit Adam Lallana is a big asset to this team.
For two years though he hasn’t been fully fit and he may never be again as all the evidence points to his body just not being able to withstand the demands of the style of football he plays. Forget the silky skills, quick feet and Cruyff turns he’s known for, this lad runs his fucking bollocks off for the team but sadly his body just can’t handle it anymore.
If we can somehow get two more months out of him without him breaking down though he could really play a big part in some of these games we have left. He’s probably moved ahead of Keita and Shaqiri in the pecking order after this. We’ll see what happens now, but he played his part in this win and it will have meant a lot to him because he’s seen his team-mates do remarkable things these last two years while he’s barely been able to contribute anything. That can’t have been easy for him.
Back to the game though, as I seem to have gone off on several different tangents there and have no idea where I was. Oh yeah, 2-1. Once we got our noses in front I was probably 95% sure we’d win. I wasn’t worried we’d throw it away and I didn’t think Burnley had another goal in them. You can’t ever be completely relaxed about it of course, because all it takes is a set-piece or a referees intervention (or as with the first goal, both), but I’d say I was as confident as it’s possible to be in that situation.
Still, the third goal is always crucial and makes life much easier, so the sooner we got it the better we could all feel. Several chances came and went and we were playing some lovely football. It took a mistake from Tom Heaton for us to finally get that two goal cushion though.
His poor clearance went straight to Salah who collected well and ran through on goal. He should have scored himself but the obsession with getting onto his left foot saw him tackled. It may have been a foul but I doubt Marriner would have given us anything so it was a blessing that Bobby was on hand to follow up and tuck the loose ball away.
After that it was just a case of how many we’d get, but the finishing wasn’t great and somehow it stayed 3-1 until stoppage time. The closest we came was when Mané hit the bar from a couple of yards out following a brilliant move that ended with Trent delivering a buffet ball to the back post.
Sadio stretched and took the ball away from Robertson who would have had a tap in. Robbo absolutely savaged him in his post match LFC TV interview afterwards and then on social media too. It was all good natured and very funny, but he’s defo annoyed about it. So am I. Imagine Robbo scoring at the Kop end? The roof would have come off the place.
Despite how comfortable the game was at that stage, Marriner was still winding me right up with some of his decisions. It was going on right throughout the game. One minute he’s giving a free-kick against Lallana for winning a header against a stationary player who didn’t jump, the next he’s ignoring the exact same thing by a Burnley player.
He gave a free-kick against Henderson after some brilliant pressing and then allowed a Burnley player to clearly foul Salah, resulting in them going up the field and making it 3-2. Absolute twat. I honestly didn’t mind him before this, but it really felt like something was amiss watching this. Maybe he just had a bad game though. Maybe.
There was only about a minute left but that goal caused unnecessary, but understandable, anxiety. This game should never have been that close but this is why getting that third goal is so vital in those situations. All it takes is one freak moment or a mistake from the ref and just like that, two points gone. So that third goal was massive.
The fourth was nice too (lovely play by Sturridge and a good finish by Sadio) but the only significance of it really was to ensure that everything stayed ‘as you were’ in the title race. City won by two goals, we won by two goals. No change, just one game less to play.
It also meant that Mané is now the joint leading scoring in the league if you disregard penalties. He’s not really getting the credit he probably deserves for that. Last year he was very much the third man in our dazzling front three (they scored ninety goals between them. NINETY!!!), but this year he’s been at least the equal of Mo and he’s been better than Bobby. That probably says more about how they’ve dropped off than it does about any improvement in Sadio, but he’s done well.
So three points more to the tally and the gap remains one (two really, we need to start eating into that goal difference soon before it becomes too late). We’re about to enter a key stage in the race because we no longer have to play catch up by playing the day after City. That’s a big help I think, as it’s tough seeing the gap go to four points, even with a game in hand. At least we won’t have to do that again for a while.
City have no league game for three weeks now, while we play twice. In other words, if we win our next two games we’ll have a five point lead. Yes, they’ll have two games in hand (and one of them is Cardiff at home), but psychologically it’s a lot tougher being behind so we just have to win those next two games and make life uncomfortable for them.
Whatever happens I don’t think it will be down to pressure. The players are dealing with that and it’s insulting to them to suggest otherwise. I’ve probably said it myself in moments of frustration, but it’s bollocks really. They might not always perform well but I don’t think it’s because they’re feeling the strain.
When you look at what the players overcame to get this win it says a lot about their character. Early kick off, playing catch up after City’s win, terrible weather, awkward bastard opponents who we always have difficulty with, and an abomination of a referee intent on shafting us at every turn. They shrugged all that off and won.
So a great job from the lads I’d say. Maybe going behind even helped, as it added a sense of urgency that might not have been there otherwise. It was a jolt to everybody and the players were stung into a reaction. I’m still livid about it though as it’s put a dent in our great defensive record.
Interestingly, we’ve now got the exact same record at this stage of the season as the 1987/88 season. You know, the team widely regarded as the greatest we’ve ever had and who have been immortalised in song - “Kenny’s Boys of 88, there’s never been a side so great”. Until now maybe. There’s every chance these lads might give us the best league season in our history and not even win the league.
That shouldn’t be held against them though, as none of our previous great sides had to compete against what Klopp’s team is facing. Kenny’s side were 14 points ahead with two games in hand. He wasn’t up against City.
The last few weeks have been so frustrating, with the draws against Leicester, West Ham, the Mancs and Blueshite. It’s cast a shadow over what has been an incredible season really. It all stems from how desperate we are to win it and that we’re so close we can taste it, but getting down in the dumps about a few draws and singling out players for criticism is pretty unfair when you actually think about it.
I’ve done it myself. I was steaming mad after the United game, I wasn’t thrilled after the derby and I’ve had a downer on Mo and Bobby for a while just because they haven’t been able to maintain the incredible form they had last season. It’s completely unfair but it is what is it. Wanting to win the title so badly makes us a little irrational. The real problem here though isn’t anything our lads have or haven’t done, it’s those cheating cunts completely ignoring the rules everyone else is playing by.
Star man could have been any one of several. Van Dijk was majestic again, not even the tornado blowing around Anfield could unsettle him. Fabinho was solid as fuck, Bobby looked like Bobby again and Mané was razor sharp and should have gone home with the match ball.
I’m giving it to Lallana though. He might not necessarily have been the best player on the pitch but he was certainly in the conversation, and given the context involved he deserves it. Hell, even my mum said he played well, and it didn’t even seem to be through gritted teeth. I’ve seen it all now.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Sturridge), Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Wijnaldum (Henderson), Lallana (Keita); Salah, Firmino, Mané:
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