Yeah I’ll take that all day. When I saw our line up before kick off I’d have snatched your hand off for any kind of win. The performance didn’t matter too much, we just needed the points. As it turned out we got both.
It’s funny because prior to the game I was getting wound right up by Souness and especially Keane. It felt like Keane was setting it up to go off on one if we lost. He was talking like there is absolutely no way we should be losing the game and there was no context applied to anything he was saying. Lack of confidence due to four defeats on the spin, half a team out injured, ill or in bereavement.
We had a makeshift centre back pairing, we had our third choice keeper in goal and even our midfield was missing two of the three first choice players.
Yet Keane is giving it the “stop making excuses about injuries, you’re Liverpool Football Club. Sheffield United have lost twenty games this season. Just go out and dominate them”. It pissed me right off, especially as he seemed to have forgotten that the Blades recently beat Manchester United at Old Trafford.
As it turns out though it panned out exactly the way Keane said it should do and by the end of the game I was thinking “yeah losing to them really shouldn’t have been a concern at all”.
We dominated. We created far more chances than they did and in the end the win was comfortable. It was a good performance blighted only by some erratic finishing. You’re not going to convert every chance you create but we should be converting more than we did here, and more than we do in general. It turned out fine though because we converted one and we got a rare stroke of good fortune on the other.
This was largely a stress free game for me because I’ve written the season off. If it had gone badly I’d have found it much easier to shrug off than usual. If we’d been shafted by the officials again I’d have taken that in my stride too because I expect it now.
In actual fact though Jon Moss had a quiet game. He didn’t have any big decisions to make but that doesn’t usually stop him from taking centre stage. He was generally ok though (aside from giving them some soft free-kicks, but that’s a minor quibble) and his assistants were on their game as well. If only it was always like this.
The only problem we had was that we couldn’t put the ball in the fucking net. I thought the first half was superb. We did everything right except for the finish. The approach play was good, we created loads and we were winning it high up the pitch too.
We just kept missing chances and we ran into that usual problem of an average player having his best game of the season against us. Aaron Ramsdale went the full Nick Pope on us here. This is a keeper having a poor season but all of a sudden when he comes up against us he brings his A game.
He was helped by some poor finishing from us. Specifically Bobby. That first chance he had when he went clean through and shot straight at Ramsdale was just shit. It was the finish of a man with no confidence. It reminded me of Heskey or Benteke.
We saw that from them loads. I never trusted them to score one v one with the keeper and although I don’t usually worry about Bobby in those situations (he’s usually pretty good) I had no belief that he’d score this time.
He could have gone either side into the corners or he could have dinked it as Ramsdale had gone down early. Instead he just smashed it right at him. That’s not a Firmino finish and it shows you where his head is at right now.
He should have had a similar opportunity to make amends soon after when he would have been in again had Sadio not badly overhit what was an easy ball. We looked quite fluid though and I’m sure there was some tactical tweaks from how we usually play.
Trent was deeper, Robbo was pushed so far forward he was almost back in Hull, Sadio seemed a lot more central and Curtis was around the box a lot more than usual. I’m hoping that means we’re mixing it up a bit in order to be less predictable.
Jones was next to be denied by Ramsdale when he latched onto a great cross by Trent but was crowded out by the keeper. His touch just wasn’t quite good enough, which is unlike him.
Trent was then denied by the keeper after he cut in and shot with his left foot. Good save that. Mo raced clear after collecting a clever ball by Bobby. He did everything right and it opened up for him but his shot was blocked by the boot of Ramsdale who was now having a career day.
You could see that Sadio was pissed off in the middle that he didn’t get a cut back but Mo is always going to go for goal there and so he should. If he tried to square that and it didn’t find a team-mate everyone would be wondering why he didn’t shoot.
If Bobby had that ruthless, single minded goalscorer’s attitude he’d have scored soon after. Gini danced past a couple of challenges on the edge of the box and got his shot away. Ramsdale made a fine save but the rebound fell to Bobby. He controlled it and all he had to do was lash it into the roof of the net, but instead he tried to square it and it was cleared by a defender. There’s unselfish, and then there’s just a complete lack of killer instinct.
I wouldn’t say I was worried at half time, partly because I’m just not invested enough in it right now to be stressed, and partly because I was fairly confident the goal would eventually come. And it did, but then in typical 2020/21 fashion it looked as though it wouldn’t count.
On first view I thought Trent just about reached the ball before it went out. The linesman had a great view and thought so too. So when Curtis calmly stroked the ball into the corner I assumed it would be a goal. Then Sky showed a replay from a different angle and it looked MILES out. My heart sank.
Then they showed two more angles where you could see that maybe half - or a little over half - of the ball was over the line but there was no way the whole ball was, so in other words that’s not out. Not even VAR could rule that one out.
We did have one disallowed soon after when Mané had the ball in the net. That was clearly offside though. The linesman flagged and he was spot on. No need to manipulate those lines this time.
Thankfully we didn’t have to wait long to get the second goal and for once we got a fortunate break. Bobby’s shot may or may not have been on target but the defection took it away from Ramsdale. That’s a goal we often concede but rarely score.
The angle Sky kept showing was very deceptive as it made it look as though the shot was headed for the corner flag. Another angle has it looking much closer. It will be a shame if it isn’t awarded to Bobby because he needs it. Still, at the time he thought it was his goal and he looked really good after that. Some of his his touches and layoffs were class in the second half.
We had other chances to increase our lead but unfortunately most of them fell to Robbo who couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo. His shooting is dreadful isn’t it? If he could shoot like Trent he’d score ten a season as he gets into so many good positions. It seems to be getting worse rather than better too. He’s always leaning back and smashing shots over the bar these days.
He had a really good game otherwise and he put one on a plate for Salah with a great ball fizzed across the six yard box. Mo arrived at the back post but was unable to divert it in with his right foot and hit the side netting. Deserved a goal as it was a lovely move that.
We had one or two scares at the other end and it certainly wasn’t perfect. McBurnie missed the target with a header after Phillips had lost him and got caught under the ball. He also got in behind Kabak but a poor touch allowed the defender to get back and make a tackle.
It seems that McBurnie’s sole purpose for being a footballer is to win free-kicks. That’s the only thing he does. Charges around like a battering ram, barging into defenders and then hitting the deck. He even went down after backing into Thiago at one point.
The pacy Burke came on for McGoldrick and gave both Phillips and Kabak some problems, but his end product is always non-existent so there was no harm done. That will be a problem against better opposition though.
Looking at how limited their forwards are it really doesn’t bode well for Brewster does it? Even 52 year old Billy Sharp got on ahead of Rhian. What must he be thinking? He never played here but he was always pushed front and centre by the club as though he was a big part of things. He’s gone from being part of a Champions League and Premier League winning set up to being fifth in line at the worst team in the league.
He hasn’t scored in twenty appearances and it must be a massive culture shock for him. It’s a big test of his mentality and his career could go into a tailspin if he doesn’t knuckle down and start scoring again. Michael Edwards should be locked up for the money he brought in for Ibe, Smith, Solanke and Brewster.
We could have had a pen late on when Ampadu lunged in at Sadio, but you don’t get pens when you stay on your feet. I don’t mind Sadio staying up there though as it’s 2-0 and there was no need to go down. I just hope he’s got credit in the bank there for the next time he does go down and isn’t given a pen. Think back to the Southampton one for example.
That Ampadu is a bit of a knob. Twice he faked head injuries and had the game stopped. The first when it looked like there had been a clash of heads with Thiago. I thought that was a bit suspicious because Thiago was completely unaffected by it and when you see the replay there was no contact at all.
He was trying to buy himself a free-kick there though and it was a foul, so I didn’t think too much about that. The one in the second half was terrible though. He was beaten in the air by Mané and he went down clutching his head, lying motionless.
It looked bad and sometimes the game would be stopped for that, which was clearly his intention as he knew Salah was away if he lost the header. The replay showed there was no contact to his head at all though. Shithouse.
We’ll see more and more of this with the introduction of concussion subs as there are managers out there (not accusing Chris Wilder by the way) who will already be coming up ways to gain an advantage from that. *glares at Mourinho*.
So all in all a good win, solid performance and hopefully the rot has been stopped and we try and get some kind of form back. Chelsea next and that’s not going to be easy. We need to be sharper in both boxes if we’re going to win that one. Hopefully we’ll have two or three players back for that one.
Star man is Curtis. It was noticeable he was in the box more than usual and hopefully that continues as goals from midfield is something we don’t have and he can bring that in spades if he’s encouraged to be more expressive in the final third. Bit concerning seeing him emerge from the bench at full time looking like Tom Berenger’s character in Major League. Ice packs on BOTH knees? That’s not good.
Trent was excellent too and Gini did a great job of accepting the ball under pressure and then turning and sprinting away from it. They couldn’t get near him, he was imperious, especially in that second half. Mo looked sharp too. He deserved a goal.
Adrian deserves credit too. Did everything he needed to do. He made a couple of decent saves, he was assertive in punching away crosses and he did nothing daft with his feet. You can’t ask for more than that.
Team: Adrian; Alexander-Arnold, Phillips, Kabak, Robertson; Wijnaldum, Thiago (Milner), Jones (Keita); Salah, Firmino, Mané:
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