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Everton 0 Liverpool 1 (Dec 19 2016)


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4-0 derby wins are great and all, but there’s an awful lot to be said for a scruffy, injury time winner isn’t there? Sadio Mané’s strike was perhaps the most enjoyable derby moment since Gary Mac’s free-kick at the same end back in 2001. The ecstasy combined with Evertonian dejection is a potent cocktail that has given us the perfect Christmas gift. 
 
We might have left it late - gloriously, satisfyingly late - but it was no more than we deserved. We were nowhere near our best on the night which is fortunate for the Blues because otherwise we’d have destroyed them. The gulf in class in the second half was almost as wide as Gareth Barry’s gigantic arse. 
 
Speaking of which, did you see that horrific moment late in the second half when Mané went tumbling and his head rebounded off Barry’s giant rear end, snapping his neck back? That must be like being hit with the air bag after a car crash. Poor little Sadio might wanna get a whiplash claim in after that. Makes his late winner even more impressive though really.
 
The night didn't start well for us with the news that Matip was once again ruled out, but at least we had Sturridge back on the bench, which turned out to be huge. We began the game terribly and were just hurried out of our game by the Blues in the opening stages. Hand on heart though, I wasn’t worried about that poor start at all because it was obvious to me that we were only struggling because Everton’s players came out in a wild, angry frenzy that was going to be impossible to maintain. Even we can’t play at that speed for an entire half, let alone a full game, and our lads are miles fitter than Everton’s. 

Talking about it with some mates on WhatsApp I made the point that the pace of the game will drop after 25 minutes and that’s when we’ll take over. I'm not Mystic Meg, but I've seen enough derbies to know how that scenario usually plays out. What you have to do in that situation is don’t concede and just wait for them to punch themselves out, and that’s exactly what we did. For 25 minutes they ran around like scalded cats, but lo and behold after 35 minutes Sky posted up a stat that showed we’d had something like 73% possession in the last ten minutes. Textbook that. 

We defended superbly in that period and Mignolet didn’t have to make a save. There were a couple of off target efforts and we also needed Klavan to make a great challenge to stop Lukaku getting on the end of a cross, but once we weathered that opening period (I certainly wouldn't call it a storm) they barely got anywhere near our goal for the rest of the game and were just camped on the edge of their own box desperately hoping to cling on to a 0-0 draw. 
 
So, with the game under control after half an hour the question now was could we turn superiority into goals. In truth we never looked like scoring in the first half, the only real effort of note we had was an Origi shot that went well wide. It was a difficult chance as the cross from Clyne was behind the Belgian and he couldn’t get his foot round it. It was a brilliant move though, started by our own corner flag when Hendo blocked a cross with his thigh, with the ricochet then hitting his arm. 
 
“aaaanddbaaaaalllll” they predictably cried, and they were still booing furiously by the time Origi was getting his shot away at the other end 20 seconds later. They’re a different breed aren’t they? I mean just look at the reaction of them just before half time when Barkley scythed down Origi. The clearest foul you'll ever see, but they were fucking spitting feathers. We’re all biased and partizan and will appeal certain decisions that go against us, but Evertonians appear to be blind or stupid. They'll turn the most obvious decision against them into the world's greatest refereeing injustice. 
 
The hatred they have for Origi is utterly bizarre too. They seem to be angry with him for having his leg snapped by Funes Mori last season. Fucking weirdos. Bear in mind this is Divock Origi. Not Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher or Luis Suarez. Divock Origi.
 
You could understand that kind of hostility towards any of those three, but Origi? Really Everton? Really? The thing is, they don’t hate the player, they just hate the shirt. It doesn’t really matter who’s wearing it. I’ve sat in amongst them for a derby game when they were absolutely going fucking mental at Josemi. If anyone should have been abusing Josemi it should have been me. 

 

They just whip themselves into so much of a frenzy though that all rationale goes out of the window. I know plenty of sound Blues, but if I was in their company watching a derby I'd probably see a whole different side to them.
 
Any other set of fans would have been just relieved that Barkley had escaped the booking his foul on Origi deserved, but not the Bloooos, no sir. They were still booing and hissing as the free kick was eventually cleared for a corner. The sense of injustice they have, even when they’re clearly in the wrong, is something to behold and their manager has now been infected by it too. 
 
Koeman has struggled to win over the bitter hordes so far due to his ‘war crimes’, such as tipping us for the title and then *gasps* having red tinsel - RED FUCKING TINSEL!!! - on his crimbo tree. Howard Kendall and Joe Royle will be spinning in their graves at such un-Everton like behaviour. 
 
Big Red Ron seems to have learned his lesson now though. Sidestepping the issue of Barkley’s awful lunge on Hendo (I’ll get to that shortly) that somehow only resulted in a yellow card, he instead chose to complain that it was Everton who were the victims of refereeing injustice and that Lovren should have received a second yellow for having the temerity to take exception to a potential leg breaking tackle on his captain. 
 
Koeman also reckons they deserved a draw and played well, even though Mignolet walked off at full time with a mild case of hypothermia and a kit as clean as a nuns conscience. Even Karius would have kept a clean sheet in this game. Hell, we could have stuck Elisha Scott’s coffin between the sticks and they still wouldn’t have scored, so on what basis did they deserve a draw? Because of a 25 minute, hatred fuelled adrenaline rush at the start of the game when they were so pumped up they were able to briefly overcome the huge chasm in class between the two sides? 
 
And this “great first half” they speak of, just how many goal attempts did that result in? “Great” certainly ain’t what it used to be at Goodison. Nil satis nisi optimum... 
 
He may have been unveiled last June, but this was the day that Ronald Koeman officially became Everton manager. 
 
But enough of that, what of us and our performance? We weren’t at our best but that doesn’t mean that some of our players weren’t close to it. No-one really seems to be talking about him but I thought Henderson was fucking magnificent. Milner wasn’t far behind him and both of the centre backs were excellent too. Lovren and Klavan dealt with Lukaku in different ways. Lovren was more physical whereas Klavan more cerebral, but both were effective.
 
Klavan isn't flashy but he just does his job efficiently and without fuss. He knows what he's doing, he's always in the right position, he makes good decisions and he's good on the ball. He's one of the bargains of the season.
 
As for Lovren, I’m a big fan, for his attitude and strength of character as much as anything. I admire how he turned his Liverpool career around and it’s nice to see him getting some plaudits for how he handled Lukaku. Even the booking he got was actually great defending, because in that situation you just have to make sure he doesn’t get away from you and that’s what Lovren did. Took one for the team there. 
 
After that yellow card though the Everton players were desperate to get him sent off, and their reaction towards him following the Henderson / Barkley incident was just embarrassing. Lovren had a better view of the tackle than most and he was one of the closest players to the incident. With that in mind, he had to go over and get involved because it would have been a dereliction of duty not to. Of course you need to keep a cool head when you do get involved, as you don’t want to get sent off, and I thought he did that. 
 
He presumably told Barkley what a shithouse he is but he didn’t go steaming in pushing and shoving. Coleman shoved him and then he gave him a little nudge back, but for anyone associated with Everton to be bitching about that considering the murder Barkley got away with, well that’s desperate even by Evertonian standards. 
 
I don’t blame Mike Dean in the slightest for not giving Barkley a red card for the assault on Hendo. He couldn’t see just how bad it was from the angle he had, but his linesman had a perfect view of it and bottled it. He deserves the flak, not Dean. Klopp had a great view of it too, and his reaction spoke volumes. He wasn’t rushing down the touchline to demand a red card, he just put his hands on his head and turned away, genuinely fearful that Henderson’s leg might have been broken. 
 
The really shitty thing about this is that Barkley can’t be retrospectively punished for it because of that ludicrous FA rule that states once the referee has dealt with it, that’s the end of it. Barkley should be looking at a minimum three game ban for that. Even after that huge escape the prick was still pushing his luck and kicked the ball away when Hendo wanted to take a free-kick. The pair got into a slanging match over that and you could see Barkley contemptuously saying “What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? Nothing”. 
 
Well we found out afterwards exactly what he’s gonna do. He’s gonna go out in front of the TV cameras and tell everyone what a great lad Ross Barkley is, that they’re good mates who get on well and how the tackle was mistimed and not dirty. That’s what he’s gonna do, because he’s got class. More class than you Barkley, and certainly more class than me, because if I was in Hendo’s shoes I’d have fucking moonwalked over to the square headed goon at full time and got right in his face singing “you haven’t won a trophy, since 1995”. 
 
Although, thinking about it, maybe Hendo is more clued up than I gave him him credit for….

 

 
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It’s not right that Barkley escapes a suspension, but it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things as Everton are utterly irrelevant these days and besides, he’s shite anyway and Koeman will probably drop him again after this. I really thought at one point he was going to be a great player as he’s got everything physically and at times he looks fantastic, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that he’s as thick as pigshit, and that’s why he’s not living up to the hype. It's also why he's still at Goodison. 
 
Still, that tackle on Hendo will keep him in the good graces of the Gwladys Street for a while yet, so it was worth it. 
 
As well as some of our players performed, others just weren’t at it, specifically the attacking players. Lallana was ok, he kept the ball and had one nice run that almost led to a chance for Origi, but overall he was fairly subdued and it wasn’t a great shock when he made way for Can. Wijnaldum did his job well and his performance would have looked a lot better had the forwards been on their game. 
 
That was our problem for me. The front three were all six out of ten. Firmino lost the ball so many times due to not realising just how little time you get on the ball in these games. He was doing my head in, and yet he forced two good saves from their keepers (plural because Steckelenberg got hurt and was replaced by Robles) and had another cleared off the line by Coleman. 
 
It wasn’t happening for Origi either. So many times he got the ball out wide and had the chance to run at his man, but he rarely managed to do anything with it. Mané was better than the other two but he too was frustrating as fuck at times, and the game was crying out for Sturridge from about 50 minutes I felt. 
 
Of course he was never getting on that early as he’s hardly trained in the last month, but when he eventually did get on he made it count with the shot that led to Mané grabbing that dramatic winner. The speed that Mané eats up the first few yards is incredible, and I’m still not completely used to it. I often watch him in possession and think he’s over ran the ball or he’s about to lose it, but he ALWAYS gets there first, he's ridiculously quick over short distances. 
 
He wasn’t favourite to get that rebound when it came off the post, but his speed off the mark got him there and he’s earned himself a place in derby folklore now, as that was such a sweet moment. 
 
It could be huge come the end of the season too. Any team that wins a title has certain moments along the way that you look back on as being pivotal. Maybe this will be one for us? Chelsea were nine points clear of us before this game, and as the game ticked into stoppage time it looked like we were going to end the night eight behind, which wouldn't have been disastrous but would have been deflating going into Christmas. 
 
Now it's six points, which is still a bit of a gap but we’re now clear in second place and in a good position to get after Chelsea in the new year. Losing Mané in January makes that more difficult, but Coutinho will be back and of course there’s Sturridge if he can stay fit. 
 
Whatever happens in the New Year though, at least we’re assured of a Merry Christmas, unlike our downtrodden neighbours. One win in twenty derby games now, and given that one came in the Hodgson era I'm not sure it should even count. 
 
Up the Reds!! 
 
 
Team: Mignolet; Clyne, Lovren, Klavan, Milner; Henderson, Lallana (Can), Wijnaldum; Mané (Lucas), Origi (Sturridge), Firmino:

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Good write up, thought Lallana faded because he tried to keep up with the pace a bit much in that first half an hour, Everton's approach gave him a lot of ground to cover early and I still don't think he's 100%.

 

Big end to the year coming up and a busy, and tough, January follows.  Will be interesting to see how we shape up having gotten our next City, Utd and Chelsea games out of the way.

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 I love him in a Irish shirt and damn proud of where he came from ,watching him outperform everyone on League of Ireland pitches but damn ,I really wanted to deck Coleman ..never seen him so fired up for a game ,and he acted the right little snide cunt all game ..

That pass from Milner that led to the goal was a joy to see

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That Mane collision with Barry was horrific. I thought he was dead after it, or at the very least concussed. To come back and score the winning goal is a testament to the lad.

 

He was staggering about a bit after - did look a bit concussed at first

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The only way was down for The Liverpool Way match reports after the Gary Mac derby. Dave furiously pacing out in the garden, enraged at dodgy penalties and red cards, and then an eruption from the house that could only have been a Liverpool goal. Any danger that is saved somewhere on the site?

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That Mane collision with Barry was horrific. I thought he was dead after it, or at the very least concussed. To come back and score the winning goal is a testament to the lad.

When you've had your nose temporarily up Barry's arse crack then you've bottomed out and the only way is up.

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