I thought we’d left these mad games behind us when we signed Big Virg and Alisson? Seemingly not. I suppose it’s no bad thing to see that we can still win these crazy shoot outs when we need to, but hopefully we won’t see too many more like this.
With the stakes so high the games are stressful enough as it is without the lads going all “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest” on us. By the end of the game most of the crowd must have felt like that 104 year old fella who was there as the club's guest.
It’s Palace though isn’t it? There’s something about them that often brings out the crazy in us. For most of the game they barely even ventured over the halfway line, which is probably a good thing as whenever they did they fucking scored. They had three shots and scored from every one.
We didn’t look secure at the back and it’s probably due to the two enforced changes in there, as well as the absence of Wijnaldum in midfield. Milner is taking all sorts of flak for his performance but all things considered I thought he did as well as could be expected. Wilf Zaha is as good as anybody in the league in one v one situations. He’s virtually unstoppable in fact.
You have to double up on him, sometimes even triple up on him, and even that isn’t always enough to stop him getting his cross in or winning free-kicks and penalties. Milner was left isolated against him too many times and he basically had no chance. Usually he’s the midfield player offering protection to the right back. This time he was the right back and more often than not there was no midfield player protecting him.
Occasionally he got help. Henderson actually dealt with Zaha fairly easily whenever he came into contact with him, and Mané also got back to help out on a couple of occasions to win the ball back. There were too many occasions when Milner didn’t have help though and when that happened Zaha had little trouble getting dangerous crosses in.
That’s how the opening goal came about, although what happened prior to Zaha getting the ball was the most interesting part. Firstly, Jon Moss failed to spot a handball in his own box by Andros Townsend. To compound the error he gave the handball against Mané instead. Standard Fat Jon Moss that. Awful ref.
Seconds later though we had Palace in trouble. The man in possession looked like he was about to lose the ball and our players smelled the blood in the water. Four of them went hunting but Palace did very well to work their way out of it and beat the press. By the time the ball was worked out to Zaha we were struggling as Milner had no help and no chance.
Zaha went by him in a blur and showed good awareness to cut the ball back to Townsend, who finished well in front of the Kop. It’s the ability to do that which makes Palace like Kryptonite to good teams. Most teams down at the bottom don’t have that sort of threat in them. You play Newcastle, Huddersfield or Cardiff for example and you simply don’t need to worry about that kind of thing.
Palace though, they’re a different kettle of fish because of what Zaha can do. Townsend too in fairness. He’s a much better player than he’s given credit for, but he lacks consistency. Probably why he’s playing for Palace and not still at Spurs. They beat City and for a while it looked like they'd take points off us too.
It was hard going even at 0-0 but with them now having gotten their noses in front Palace were going to be really difficult to break down. At least we’d have plenty of time to do it and we’d be attacking the Kop second half. Not that this made me feel too much better at half time. On a scale of 1-10 my worry level was around a 5. Ordinarily, given how long was left, it would be less than that, but I didn’t like what I’d seen in the first half.
You know what I’m going to say don’t you? Too much going through the middle and not enough emphasis on working situations out wide to get round the back. Milner is the only player in the squad old enough to remember World in Motion, so perhaps that’s why he’s the only one who seems to get that John Barnes was right; there is only one way to beat them. Get round the back.
It could also just be that he played for Man City for so long that this tactic is second nature. Whatever the reason, he gets it. I just wish others did. Life is so much easier against these days when you work the space they allow out wide. Several times in the first half Milner made that diagonal run in behind from out wide. We didn’t score from it but it was always the most likely source of a goal.
Robbo almost got in a couple of times on the other side too. We worked those situations well, but why not help those two wide lads out by bringing another couple of players out there too and working the overloads as well as looking for the diagonals? I say it every time we play these stubborn opponents and I’m even boring myself now, but until we start doing it then I’ll keep moaning about us not doing it.
Constantly trying to go through the middle is a waste of time. Get to the line and then flood the box for the cutback. I don’t know why it isn’t a point of emphasis and I’m sick of seeing Mané spending so much time infield where it gets too congested. It’s not his fault, he’s doing what he’s told, but it frustrates me.
As for Keita, I have no idea what he was supposed to be doing. Klopp was right to give him a chance as we really need to find a way to get him going, but it just isn’t happening for him at all and he looks lost. He’s been massively disappointing on every level. There isn’t one area in which he’s delivered what we were expecting.
Focus on the lack of goals and assists if you want, and that is a valid concern, but I think I’m more alarmed by the complete lack of physicality from him. I was expecting this fucking tornado to arrive and wreak havoc on the league. I thought he’d hit the scene in England with an explosion of goals, assists and cards, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. Instead, he’s been meek as a fucking kitten.
He hasn’t kicked anybody, he’s been getting bullied and knocked all over the place and he’s not shown an ounce of fight or aggression yet. He’s shown some flashes of ability on the ball, but where is the physicality needed to play in a Klopp midfield? It was one thing I had no concerns about when we signed him but based on what we’ve seen so far, he’s a lightweight. Someone needs to light a fire under him and get him going, because he’s too passive right now.
He should have been hooked at half time for Shaqiri. I understand why he wasn’t as Klopp needs to try and get something out of him and that wouldn’t have helped his confidence. Realistically though, he hadn’t done anything to warrant staying on the field.
Thankfully we turned it round quickly and within a few minutes of the restart a 1-0 deficit was suddenly a 2-1 lead. Both goals were fortunate, but so what. The equaliser was weird. Van Dijk’s shot lopped up off a defender and Mo found himself in space with the ball dropping nicely for him. The finish was awkward looking though and I’m not sure he meant to put it where he did. Maybe he was expecting the flag to go up, I don’t know. It just looked odd. Perhaps that’s what threw off Speroni, because his attempt at stopping it was pathetic.
Within no time Speroni was beaten again. This time Bobby wriggled free in the box and his shot brushed off a defender and squeezed into the corner. Cue massive relief all around. We’d come from a goal down to lead and with our defensive record we’d be fine now, right? Wrong.
Palace equalised from a corner but it didn’t feel like it came out of nowhere. They’d had a few little sorties into our half and surprisingly we just never looked comfortable with it. I wouldn't exactly say the goal had been coming, but it wasn't totally against the run of play either.
I’m not sure how legal their equaliser was though, as there looked to be quite a bit of blocking and holding going on to get Tomkins free. You win some of those, you lose some. I have no real complaints about it, but that's easier to say after we've won.
At this point it became clear this was not going to be an ordinary game. For one thing, it wasn’t going to finish 2-2. We all knew this. I felt fairly confident we’d score again but I wasn’t as confident that we wouldn’t concede. How mad is that? All season we’ve been keeping teams out without any problems, but now I’m sat there knowing that we probably won’t be able to prevent Palace from scoring a third goal. Football eh?
We got our third goal when Milner made that diagonal run for about the tenth time in the game, and this time it paid off as he stretched to reach Fabinho’s ball and divert it back across goal. It didn’t look like it was causing much danger, but thankfully Speroni channelled his inner-Pickford and diverted it up in the air towards his own goal, where Salah steamed in to turn it over the line. Great stuff by Milner, but really chalk that assist down to the third string Palace keeper.
What followed was a period in which we didn’t know whether to stick or twist, while Palace continued to play in exactly the same way. They didn’t chase the game at all. There were times when they sat with everybody behind the ball, letting us pass it around at the back under no pressure. At this point I’m saying “that’s fine then, just give it to Alisson and let him keep it if they don’t want to come out”.
You could see the uncertainty in our lads though. They knew they could score again but they didn’t know if they should be trying to. Still, it was comfortable enough until the otherwise brilliant Henderson completely sold Milner short with a pass that led to him diving in on Zaha and picking up a second booking. Can’t believe that, Hendo of all people. He Victor Moses’d him.
Milner didn’t wait around to argue his fate, he was off before Jon Moss could reach into his pocket and find his card. Initially I think he pulled out a pop tart he’d been snacking on, the big incompetent tub of lard. Much is being made of the fact he was Milner’s teacher in school and now he was sending him off. It’s an unusual situation for sure, but what choice did he have? Both yellows were as obvious as you’ll ever see.
Personally I wouldn’t expect any favours from any of my former teachers either. Every one of them would have taken great pleasure in punishing me in later life I reckon. Maybe that’s because I was a lazy, infuriating twat in school though? I could imagine Milner being a cheeky smartarse, but I bet he wasn’t lazy.
The sending off put us in real trouble for the closing minutes. Not specifically because we were a man short, but mainly because we had no right back and we’d also lost Fabinho to injury shortly before. It was bare bones stuff now, with four forwards on the field as well as Lallana in midfield with Hendo. There was no option but to put Bobby to right back, which was a massive problem given that the only thing Palace wanted to do was work the ball out to the left wing to Zaha.
Bobby didn’t know what he was doing. He was trying to push forward and just wouldn’t be told! I saw Matip yelling at him to stay where he was, and he ignored that. Hendo saw what was happening and also yelled at him. He ignored that too. Eventually Klopp had to tell him, and even then Bobby was trying to protest and was gesticulating into all the space ahead of him.
Maybe that was when Klopp decided he was going to put Camacho on, but at the time I felt as though he only did it because Mane had scored to make it 4-2. Brilliant goal it was too. I especially liked the deliberate handball from Robbo to take the ball away from a Palace player and enable him to send Sadio racing clear. What a man. Give him another new contract
The finish from Mane was terrific and we thought that was all she wrote. Job done, we can enjoy the last couple of minutes and then go home happy. But no. We gave away a terrible goal and there was still a minute or so left. Palace had sent on Wickham and Matip couldn’t deal with the weight advantage. Every time the ball went to Wickham it felt like trouble.
Mind you, Matip lost two aerial duels to Ayew in the first half and both times the ball ended up at Zaha’s feet. We got away with those but it’s little things like that which can make all the difference. That’s one of the big things Van Dijk has brought. He wins those duels all the time. It doesn’t seem like a big deal but it is, because when you don’t win them it can lead to problems.
I’m not going to be too harsh on Matip because it was his first game back after injury, but it will be good to get Gomez back.
Alisson could have done better on the third goal too by the way. He got a hand to it and you can tell by his reaction he thinks he should have saved it.
Can someone tell me where the five minutes of stoppage time came from though? There was a little delay when Fabinho went off, but five minutes was well excessive. Thankfully it’s not important now, but it annoyed me at the time and if Palace had scored again there’d have been murder.
With seconds remaining, the whole of Anfield held it’s breath when Zaha picked the ball up in the box and drove straight at Camacho. Everyone was probably thinking “penalty” but the kid kept his eye on the ball and made the tackle. He probably has no idea how massive a moment that was, but it was huge.
This game could so easily have gone massively wrong for us, and in many ways it did. The scoreline was fine though, as once again these lads found a way to get over the line. If we go on to win the thing there are so many key games and moments we’ll look back on as being pivotal, and this would be another.
Outsiders see things like this as a sign that our name is on the trophy, but to me it doesn’t necessarily mean that. It’s just as likely to be part of some elaborate joke the football gods are having at our expense. “Let them think everything is going their way and it’s going to be their year… then BOOM!! We pull the rug out from under them again!”.
So reading anything into it is pointless. The only thing we really know is that we’ve got a four point lead with 15 games left and at least ten of them are going to be complete torture to sit through. If City beat Chelsea and Arsenal in the next few weeks it's going to be really tough for us as we'll probably need to win virtually every game.
Who knows though, City lost to Leicester and Palace so maybe there'll be another upset or two. It's wrecking my head thinking about it. This is where we all want to be, but it's really difficult to enjoy it given how much it means. I reckon I'd be fine if we'd won the league in recent years. Because it's been so long though the pressure is just too much and it's just not fun. I'll be glad when it's over really.
Finally, fair play to Palace fans for getting through 90 minutes without being bad knobheads. Makes a change to hear an away end signing for their own team instead of about us.
Star man is Robbo. It was going to be Hendo until I remembered the shit ball to Milner. Robbo’s ‘Hand of God’ gets him the nod though.
Team: Alisson; Milner, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Fabinho (Lallana), Keita (Shaqiri); Mané, Firmino (Camacho), Salah:
Recommended Comments