To my shame I wasn’t looking forward to this. Not because I thought we might drop points (I knew we’d win easily), but because City’s wins over Spurs and United had taken the wind out of my title sails. You know what though, fuck all that. I’m not going to allow Ben Johnson FC to ruin the enjoyment these lads are giving us.
Kloppo’s team have already got more points than any LFC side in history. If they come up short of a title because they’re up against financial dopers breaking every rule in the book, it doesn’t in any way take away from what they’ve done.
I should have been going to Anfield with a spring in my step, but I wasn’t. I left with one though, and I won’t allow myself to be such a big fucking baby again. It’s a pleasure watching this team and should be treated as such, title or no title. I loved this performance, it was great, even if it was one of those ‘third gear will do’ type of games.
I know Huddersfield are crap, but so are plenty of other sides that have come to Anfield over the last 30 years and gone home with a result. It doesn’t happen anymore though, does it?
I couldn’t even remember the last home game we lost and have had to google it just now. It was the season before last when Benteke got the winner for Palace. In other words, fucking ages ago. If we avoid defeat to Wolves on the final day that’s two entire league seasons without losing at home. Add that to all the other amazing things these lads are doing.
With Barcelona on the horizon Klopp might have been tempted to rest a few, but of the regular starters only Matip and Firmino missed out. Matip was rotated with Lovren as has been the case a few times of late, while Bobby was apparently nursing a slight injury. Hopefully that’s all it is.
Surprisingly, his place went to Sturridge. All I can think of there is that he must have looked better in training than Origi, because I honestly thought we’d seen the last of him starting games. I’d have liked to have seen Shaqiri given the start personally, but in truth Huddersfield are so bad we could have played Mignolet up front and still won.
15 seconds was all it took for us to take the lead. At the time I didn’t realise just how good a goal it was though. From my seat it looked like the lad just inexplicably passed it straight to Mo. It wasn’t until I got home and saw it on TV I realised what had happened. It’s just brilliant from Naby, and I think it may have been planned.
Ok, you still need luck, but it’s looks like the boys knew what Huddersfield were going to do from the kick off, and they laid a trap for them. They initially left the midfielder Stankovic in space to encourage the keeper to pass to him, but even before the pass was played Keita had already set off to press him.
By the time the ball arrived and Stankovic controlled it, Naby was on him and made the challenge. The ball broke kindly to Mo who unselfishly gave it back to Keita and just like it’s 1-0. Great stuff.
Keita has three goals in his last five starts, but more importantly he’s looking the part now. He was class in this game. Confident and efficient with the ball, and he was probably even better without it. He’s getting better with every game now.
We were shite for about ten minutes after we scored though. Huddersfield had loads of the ball in our half and had a couple of half chances. We couldn’t really get out and it was all very sloppy.
Thankfully we didn’t concede in that spell and then began to play our football again. Mané made it 2-0 with a terrific header from a glorious Robbo cross. Credit to Big Virg too for starting that whole move off. Great from him.
Goal number three came just before the half and once again it was an assist from the full back position. This time it was an inch perfect ball from Trent to pick out the run of Salah. The pass was just so good because the keeper had to come for it but he couldn’t get there. All Mo had to do was lob the bouncing ball over the keeper’s head and into the net.
Goal difference is almost certainly not going to be a factor in the title race, but at half time I was thinking that if we could bang in a few more in the second half and cancel out City’s advantage, it would potentially allow us a draw if City were to lose one of their games.
There’s probably a one in a thousand chance it comes down that, but if we’d really gone for it and taken our chances this could easily have been 8-0. That said, with Barca coming up it was probably wise not to go mad.
Nobody told Robbo though. Bloody hell, he never stopped running. Mo was the same, he was flying about the place causing havoc. It’s that Golden Boot time of year and he can smell it. He ran Huddersfield ragged and could easily have had a second half hat-trick with a bit more luck.
Same for Sadio though. He scored another great header, this time from a pinpoint Hendo cross. If Mané hadn’t got there Robbo was right behind him. That’s happened a few times this season. His chance will come eventually, surely? Imagine a Robbo goal at the Kop end against Barca.
Mo almost blew the roof off with a 30 yard half volley after lobbing the ball over a defender’s head. It looked in for a split second from where I was, but it had hit the side netting. Reminded me of Suarez that did.
The game was meandering along and the intensity had gone from both players and crowd. I blame Van Dijk for that though. He went down after winning a header and there was a collective “oh fuck” and then just a terrified hush. I expect there were some people praying too.
When he eventually rose to his feet and gave a thumbs up to the bench, the cheer was as though we’d scored. Don’t ever frighten us like that again Virg.
That scare seemed to have an effect on everybody. As great as this team looks, an injury to Virgil at this stage of the season would be devastating. He didn’t look quite right to me after that, but it could be my fear playing tricks on me.
I felt as though the performance went a bit flat after that though and so did the atmosphere. Then, Klopp sent on Ox and Shaq and everything changed. I can’t even describe how happy I was to see Ox back on the pitch. Just made up for him.
It’s been a long road back for him but he’s such a top lad and everyone at the club seems to love him. What happened to him last year was cruel as fuck, and one of the abiding memories I have of Kiev (along with Mo going off and Karius doing what he did) was Ox crying on the field at the end as he made his way around on crutches.
It sounds daft saying this when we’ve had such an incredible season without him, but we have genuinely missed him. You could see within a couple of minutes of him coming on just what he brings. That run beyond the frontmen into the box that causes defenders to panic, it’s the one thing we don’t get much of from the midfielders we’ve relied on this season.
Ox provides something a bit different to them all, and who knows what difference it might have made if he’d been available to start or to bring on in those draws we had a couple of months back. Maybe he’ll still be able to make a vital contribution somewhere along the line in our remaining games.
He got the kind of ovation you’d expect, but weirdly, it sounded to me as though Shaq’s cheer was even louder. I may be wrong on that, but that’s how it sounded at the time at it took me aback. I know he’s hardly had a sniff since the turn of the year but I wasn’t expecting that kind of noise for him coming on.
The pair of them being introduced lifted everybody. The players responded immediately and the crowd were suddenly buzzing again. Ox nearly scored straight away. What a moment that would have been. Great run into the box, lovely ball by Mo, just a shame the finish wasn’t what he would have wanted. He looked great though didn’t he? Sharp as fuck.
So did Shaq. I don’t know what he’s done to deserve the cold shoulder he’s been given, but it was good seeing him back out there as we all love Shaq, don’t we? He’s one of those players that fans naturally gravitate towards. He looked keen to impress and produced a peach of a cross with his right foot that Sadio thumped against the post with his head.
That would have been a hat-trick of headers, which I don’t think has been done before by a Liverpool player. Sadio is so good in the air these days though. He’s got a great knack of finding space between defenders, and he can jump right out of the fucking stadium. Ridiculous how high he can get.
We were just slicing through Huddersfield at will in those last twenty minutes and the only surprise is that we only added more goal. Again, it was class. Shaq waiting until the perfect moment to split the defence and pick out Robbo’s overlap, and then Robbo delivered a great ball on the run to give Mo a tap in.
Mo could have added another with a shot that fizzed just over following a dazzling run past two defenders, while both he and Sadio wasted good opportunities to play the other one in and instead went for goal themselves. I hope the Golden Boot isn’t an issue here, but it does look like neither of them want to pass to the other when there’s a chance to go for goal themselves.
Tell you one thing that deserves a mention before I forget. The Huddersfield keeper’s reaction to the Kop applauding him was great. So many keepers either just give a token clap or ignore it altogether, but this lad really appreciated it and made sure the Kop knew it. It’s not like he’s English either, so like other overseas keepers he would have had an excuse for not necessarily being aware of the tradition. Good for him though.
Also, that Bacuna is a good player. He’s caught my eye a few times on MOTD but this was the first chance I’d had to watch him live, and I thought he played well. Got a bit of needle about him too, which I like. Even at 5-0 down he was still fired up and playing hard.
In the closing stages the Kop belted out “Liverpool Liverpool top of the league” but it kind of felt a little, I dunno, not exactly half hearted, but certainly lacking in a little of the gusto of a few weeks ago.
At the final whistle the players (mostly Lovren) and Klopp were geeing up the Kop, and the crowd responded. I don’t think it was a ‘we’re gonna win the title’ type roar though, more a defiant ‘we’re proud of you regardless of what happens’ type of thing. Klopp did his now customary three first pumps, but only after teasing the Kop that he wasn’t going to do it because the cameraman was right on him. Proper showman isn’t he?
It’s hard to maintain any belief that we’re going to get what we deserve from this season when City just keep relentlessly winning and most opponents are too scared to even lay a glove on them. Spurs are the only side in months that has even had a go at them.
It’s horrible watching their games and helplessly seeing the title slowly slipping away, but there’s fuck all we can do about it. Let’s just win our last two games, not just in case City somehow slip up, but for our own sense of pride. If it’s not enough, then so be it, but let’s keep winning and show everyone that we’re not going away.
Finishing on 97 points would be incredible. So what if all the sad jealous cunts around the rest of the country take the piss and sing “you nearly won the league”. I don’t give a fuck. Let them sing what they like, the fucking losers. None of them have ever reached 97 points, so let’s win those two games and reach that target.
United fans are now cheering when they hear Man City are winning. This is what we’ve reduced them to. That’s because of us. We’ve got them so fucking terrified that they’re actually cheering Man City results. They’re pathetic and we’ve made them that way. No-one else. Us. So if you know any mancs and they try to wind you up, point that out to them.
We’re miles ahead of everyone else and if City had played by the same rules as everybody else the title would have been ours about a month ago. We’re 21 points ahead of third place. Think about that for a second. 21 points!!! It’s mad.
This team is fucking phenomenal. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. This is the best Liverpool team I’ve ever seen, which essentially amounts to them being the best we’ve ever had. Some will argue they need a league title before they deserve that honour. I disagree.
If we end on 97 points, that would have been enough to win the title in ANY season before last year. It’s just our luck that we might do it in one of only two seasons in the 131 years of English football when it isn’t enough.
We’ll see though. At least our entire season isn’t riding on what Man City do in their next two games. We’ve still got a Champions League semi against Barcelona to look forward to. I can’t wait for that. Can’t. Fucking. Wait.
Star man is Robbo, with honourable mentions to Keita, Salah and Mané. They were all good though, except Sturridge, who was - predictably and understandably - off the pace and ineffective.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Gomez), Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson; Wijnaldum (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Henderson, Keita; Salah, Sturridge (Shaqiri), Mané:
Recommended Comments