I’m not a woman, but I will enjoy these weekends a lot more now, following a scrappy 2-1 Liverpool win over Bournemouth.
It feels good to catch a game on Saturday, and get two more days off work, because lately watching our lads has been a little bit stressful. But it’s ok, we’re in the nervous part of the season. If you’re not nervous in March, then your team does something wrong.
Anyway, this wasn’t a great week news-wise.
On Friday Alisson got injured, and is now forced to miss a couple of games. People are spamming mad Hendo GIFs, but I think people are sleeping on Adrian here. He did well when called upon earlier this season, and maybe in some twisted way playing Adrian against Atletico is a blessing in disguise?
While he’s not better than Alisson, he’s an experienced spanish keeper, and a spectacular shot stopper. Perhaps he would have that little extra advantage knowing the language of the opposition, which could help him at defending set pieces? Then again, he made most of his mistakes defending those set pieces, and we have been bad in dead ball situations lately. I’m probably looking too much into it.
Also Robbo’s situation… He felt a little something, and was rested before the second leg. We need him for Atletico in his best conditions, no doubt about it, and Milner needed some game time to sharpen up before the end of the season. He’s on the yellow card in CL, and I’m almost confident he will be carded in the next game. Not that I would want that, of course. Another notable absentee is Naby Keita, who people either love or hate it seems, there’s no middle ground. Earlier this week his brother got in a car accident, so maybe that played some part in the squad selection? Once again, probably a precaution from Kloppo.
Among other things, Mo Salah was about to make his 100th PL appearance for LFC. He scored 69 goals and assisted 27 times in that timespan. As we later found out, his track record against “Cherries” is still superb.
The Actual Match Review
Well, we conceded again, now inside the first 10 minutes.
Callum Wilson blatantly pushed Joe Gomez off and kept the attack going, putting one in the bottom corner after a low cross from Lerma. Those two fought and clawed a lot today, and props to them, but this should have triggered a VAR check. Klopp was mad, but called for the fans to get louder and overcome this situation together.
Then Ake won an aerial battle in the box, and Adrian had to show off his reflexes. When someone is threatening your goal while being marked by Virgil, you know something is wrong. That save kept us in the game though, and we played ourselves back in it.
We answered with a Firmino shot that didn’t equalize the score, but took captain Steve Cook off. That was a crucial moment in my eyes, as the young Simpson fella was robbed off the ball minutes later by Mane. At first I thought the moment was ruined after that pass, but Mo put the ball away with uncanny precision.
Not the strongest hit, but the accuracy makes it 1-1, and I’m actually reacting to this goal!
See, with Liverpool winning so much, my goal celebrations became more composed and calm, but this time I jumped off my chair. Thanks Mo, and congrats on your 70th goal!
Trent continued to dominate the right flank and getting in super advanced positions, and that was kinda logical, as Millie had to switch it to his right peg every play. Trent could have had another assist, but the young lad who gifted us a ball redeemed himself. Not for long though…
One sloppy pass is all it takes.
Soon it became 2-1! Key interception from Van Dijk, and a beautifully simple pass forward to Sadio, who’s free to run like a gazelle. He has the goal at his mercy, and he finishes it perfectly calm. Sometimes his shot selection can be wild, but this was a very composed final touch. And yes, at this point we actually looked like ourselves.
Milner shoved Fraser to the ground as a revenge for Gomez treatment, a little detail that made quite a difference in this match. If you haven’t seen James talking to the lads during the warm up, you’re missing out.
A leader, a man of steel and great character. His best moment was waiting for us in the second half though! He also found himself unmarked, but his first touch shot went straight at Ramsdale.
First half ended, Sadio with a goal and an assist to his name. With Mo scoring an opener, I really wanted Bobby to put this to bed and give us some new memey celebration, but for some reason Bob can’t find the net at Anfield. Scenes when he pulls something outrageous against Atletico and shuts all his critics down.
The second half burned down more nerves for me, but there were some interesting moments that made me think about non-football stuff.
For example, Harry Wilson sitting in the LFC coat, and looking pretty smug about it.
I know he belongs to us, but I also can see how he deliberately did this to get some attention from the fans. Hopefully this doesn’t get him in hot water, he needs as much game time as possible. I would like to see him get a chance in our team, but who knows how it all ends.
Then something heroic and beautiful happened. The man, the myth, the legend James Milner sprinted to his goal to deny “Cherries”. This clearance reminded me of Jamie Carragher against Chelsea in a Champions League game more than 10 years ago.
Was this enough to warrant him a MOTM award?
Maybe, but between all of our guys I would name Sadio the best today, a goal and an assist is nothing to scoff at. There would be no arguments about it if his curling shot found the top bins near the end of the match.
That would be so satisfying, but the bar cockblocked the collective Kop orgasm.
I say, “save it for Atletico, Sadio.”
Solanke got some minutes, remember him?
He scored once for us, and it doesn’t look like he’s in high regard in Bournemouth either. Perhaps the Premier League is just too much for him, and he needs to try himself in some Championship side? I really don’t know how we got so much money for him. More questions than answers with this lad, but good luck to him.
2-1 is a slippery score, and we were almost punished for our sins near the end. Few seconds later Bobby had a clear cut chance to complete “The Holy Trinity” on the scoresheet, but the ball went over the bar. Who cursed you, my man?
Post Match Reactions, Don’t Gang Up On Fab
3 points is 3 points, we win again at Anfield, and hopefully get a little morale boost before the all-important fixture with Atletico.
We punished Bournemouth for two mistakes, we created more chances than usual, but we were not ideal. Expecting some outstanding display would be naive though, it’s all grind from here on.
Now there’s the ugly part of the discussion, people wanting Fabinho’s head on the stick for his latest performance. While he is far from form right now, we really don’t have a player with similar capabilities in our squad. When people called for his sub, I scratched my head, because we don’t have any other defensive midfielders.
Subbing him off for Lallana would be a risk, as Adam’s defensive efforts are best when they are far from our half of the pitch. Then again, people raged when he came in too, so you can’t please everyone. Some people want to see Naby, some criticize Ox for taking a shot, some just want to see Minamino on the pitch.
All I wanted is a third sub, but that never came. Jurgen is not a fan of all this substitution business, you know? But then again, he knows so much more than the out-of-the-mill fan, that I won’t even criticize it for him. Just wanted to hear a reason for it. Probably didn’t want to deal with the 4th referee?
Just joking, let’s celebrate. Atletico played 2-2 with Sevilla, ugh, guess I’ll watch highlights now.
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