THE stage was set, the watching Saturday night crowd ready. 1990s Alan Pardew and 1990s Crystal Palace back to the future at their 1990s ground to recreate a cup upset in the world’s oldest cup competition.
They even recreated the programme from the 4-3 inside today’s matchday offering. And on Valentine’s Day, too. Romance all over the shop. Except for Mario Balotelli. After finally getting off the mark in the Premier League this seemed the perfect opportunity to see if a partnership with Daniel Sturridge could work. Brendan Rodgers wasn’t feeling the love.
So Pardew. The reputedly well-endowed manager who has brought balls to a team on its arse. A boss who told them to shoot, to try, to grow a pair and back themselves. Palace beat us when they were crap. So what now? With Pardew telling them all to slap it on the table and show us who’s boss we stood no chance, right?
Then there was the bogey team thing. A 4-3 years ago, a 3-3 and a 3-1 is enough to be a bogey team? It looked that way. Liverpool dominated the first half. All the ball. No sign of a hoodoo. Then Joe Ledley’s simple ball, a back-pedalling Skrtel, a gambling Dwight Gayle, a decisive enough save from Mignolet but no chance on the rebound from Fraizer Campbell.
Liverpool had 17 shots to Palace’s three in the first half, despite facing a nine-man wall for much of it. Coutinho was rattling off the shots, Julián Speroni saved from Lallana after some lovely one-touch stuff, he blocks a rocket from Henderson, Allen volleys just wide and Markovic shoots over after a quick-fire one two and a run that went on forever. Ball on a string stuff.
At the other end, Mignolet carries on doing his job. It’s good to see. Whatever mental mountain he had to clamber up he remains on the summit flicking the Vs at the doubters. The save just before half time from Gayle was crucial. He’s making a habit of that.
Robert Madley didn’t do his job though. A blatant pen on Daniel Sturridge. Not one of those nights. One of those nights would be unbearable. Not least because of Pardew. 1990s Pardew.
But Liverpool kept on being Liverpool. There is confidence coursing through this side, a stark contrast to the jittery XI that slumped to defeat at the same venue in the league.
The bogey team line, the 1990s revisited script – that could start to play tunes to the mentally weak. But Liverpool kept going. There was a bit too much thread the needle stuff first half when width was available but two minutes before the break there was a glimpse of things to come. Henderson’s chipped curled ball was exquisite, but not quite into the path of Sturridge.
He tried that very same ball four minutes into the second half – and this time it was perfect. Sturridge – a man who revels in the star billing – was never going to miss. Boom. 1-1.
Back to the balls. Rodgers showed some by finally giving the wink to Mario. And after Liverpool resisted Palace’s attempt to display their cojones and the pattern returned to Palace sit, the Reds probe, it paid off.
The big man’s blam from the free kick left a goalie floored and an open net. Lallana was first fast and fierce – buried. 2-1. “We are Liverpool” boomed out like they meant it from the 3,800 that made the trip.
And that’s very much the point. We are Liverpool. That wasn’t Liverpool earlier in the season — this is.
After the two in 15, they don’t trouble us. We boss it. We stride to the quarters with balls. Balotelli smiling and popping it off. Glorious keep ball prompting the ‘oles’.
Even Lovren played a beauty of a pass at the end. Even Lovren.
Romance of the cup? Valentine’s Day? We love you Liverpool, we do. We’re doing it for Gerrard.
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda
Brilliant today. Again the squad looks stronger tonight because we can now call on Allen. We can ask Lovren to step in and we can even hope Mario brings something. The winner was all about him although respect to Lallana for reacting. Loved the reaction of the team after the winner. Superb. Mignolet has to be up there for MOM. Those 3 decisive punches were brilliant. He had a brilliant game. Mario was getting kicked (and punched) all over the place we he laughed it all off and got on with his hard work. In fact, I haven’t seen him react to anything since he’s been with us. I think he’s showing a lot of respect for our club. What a smile from him too. At 1-1 the camera went around the Palace fans. They had the faces of someone getting beat. They knew the outcome. It was 1-0 or nothing. The equaliser sealed their fate. I knew both goals would come. We’re really good.
Spot on, Mr Crimes.
Even an arl misery like me enjoyed that Balo smile ;)
Keep smoking the weed until at least May 30 – I think we’re onto something here.
Haha. Will do mate. This should cheer you up to
WDWWDWWWDDLWWDWW.
Loved the way we killed the game. Mario fantastico eh? Great subs again. It’s like he listens to the AW and says ‘I can do that.’ Or maybe not.
Mignolet’s a man transformed. Manformed? I could do with a missus like his!
Yeah Paul. Brilliant that. These people who make those brilliant videos of a certain players touches during a game should do one for palaces touches after our 2nd. It’d be about 1 minute long. Excellent
Consumate, really consumate. Even a goal down I felt we had the measure of them. Really looks like this group enjoy winning. That makes a real difference. We’re motoring again folks. We are, once again, Liverpool.
Circumstances dictated I listen to the game on the radio again, thinking I might just stick with it at this rate. Always felt we’d we win this even after going one down. Seemed like our lads felt the same way. These positive results are breeding confidence and a powerful self belief. Preston at Anfield next round please
We were bossin it, then after goal for 10/15 mins seemed to lose the plot and the old muscle memory kicked in passing back to back 3 pass pass keeper wallop, concede possession, could not keep ball. Where was Allen seemed to disappear instead of option for angled pass in to midfield.
I was getting nervy, screaming push Can into midfield and get Lovren on and Brendan must have heard me cos he did ;) but in an instant control was regained and kept the ball for ages, and the Liverpool of early season was vanquished as shut the game down. Offered a stark contrast of the 2 Liverpool’s this year.
Nice free kick from training ground. Skrtel n Studge in Palace wall, Studge swings open like a gate to allow Mario to fire thru the gap, Lallana on follow up duty incase of rebound.
Besides nice smile, one thing Mario has is street smarts knows how to win a free kick, when Stugde was nt given anything from another poor ref.
Picked a big bogey and flicked out of the cup!
Yeah, Mario and Emre have a bit of know-how about them. We’ve needed that.
I’d never heard of this ref before but you can add him to the pile with rest of the shitheads. I’ll let him off getting conned by Gayle a couple of times because they were convincing dives, but the penalty decision is so obvious. It’s a slide tackle from behind for crying out loud!
Spot on. Yet another bellend in black.
I’ve wasted a lot of time lurking on the forums of other teams and – guess what? – they don’t feel like the ref is ever doing them any favours either.
The most positive thing you ever read is ‘thought the ref had a decent game and was very strong today’. This is football fan speak for ‘he gave every decision our way and his performance was outrageously unfair on the opposition. Mind you, we deserved it because every other week the ref shafts us’.
It’s all a bit silly, really.
Oh I’m not shouting bias or conspiracy at all – just bottle and judgment. Most of them have been terrible this season for everyone it seems. We were 1-0 down at the time of the penalty decision though; if they hold on and knock us out it is all anyone’s talking about.
Last season, Webb’s incompetence for Chelsea away and the Arsenal cup game last season made me think for a split second he was trying to diddle us, then I quickly realised that was more than a bit hysterical and he was just inept. Personally, I’m blaming him for us not winning the double… I’m messing of course. (or am I?)
The keep ball to kill it off from about 80 to 90 was the most pleased I’ve been with us all season. We’re a proper team now that Sturridge is back to put it in the net like I knew we would be. Thought Coutinho was a bit quiet but with everyone else chipping in we didn’t need his magic that we’ve been so reliant on. It was nice to see Allen get a start too – he seems to play well at Palace away.
Hard to pick a MoM because it felt like such a collective effort but you’d have to say Mignolet. Feels weird to have your goalie as the memorable performance of a match you dominate but they seemed to have so many corners and he came out to deal with all of them as well as making the odd good save which is his bread and butter.
Have to say, the only thing that really drove me nuts were the two free kicks we conceded in very advantageous positions as time was winding down.
Other than that, I thought this was a solid, professional win coming at a time when some of the players are fatigued while others are still transitioning. Allen, Lallana, and Markovic must be disappointed to not have scored in the first half, and thus made the contest less nervy. It would also have been good to get that penalty – we need or to e with those when Stevie’s not in.
Once Sturridge gets his fitness in order and is more familiar with the current scheme, we should be borderline unplayable.
The much-maligned Allen was MOTM, in my humble opinion, though I can understand why others might have picked Migs.
It was tough to pick MOM today. There were quite a few contenders for varying reasons. I watched Allen like a hawk as I’ve been championing him to some mates who ‘don’t see what he does’ and I thought he had a really good game. I think he’s a really good player (also, when he was younger he used to stay at my sister in laws a lot and hang round with my nephew, so I’ve kind of followed his career from the start and so perhaps I want him to succeed). Naturally, I pick up a lot of my views from TAW but it was mentioned that he may be a rhythm player as in 30 mins here and there we may not see the best of him. So he’s had a few games recently and I thought today was huge for him with the Lucas and Gerrard injuries. If he had a poor game I think the tide may have turned on him. As it was he was fantastic. I think he offers far more than Lucas does. He gets us moving forward well. He showed it time and time again today. He drew the opposition into fouls and surprisingly he was like a little Jack Russel snapping away around their ankles. I was really pleased for him. I always think we look more dynamic when he plays. Thought it for a while.
You are entitled to your opinion; mine is that Allen offers nothing that other players in the squad do not, but Lucas does. The defence has been jittery since Lucas was injured again.
I’m with Kevin on this. Joe Allen’s a good player but Lucas calms everyone down. It’s no coincidence that we’ve started conceding goals and control in Lucas’ absence.
“We’ve started conceding control in Lucas’ absence”. Lucas played 15 mins of the derby before Allen came on. Did we concede control in that? Then we played an excellent Spurs team. It was fairly open as you’d expect with Gerrard in that role but did we concede control, say any more than in the Chelsea games? I don’t think so. We always had enough to go in front 3 times though I’d agree it was more open than we’d have liked. The next game was Palace. Did we concede control in that one too? I can’t see how you’ve reached that conclusion.
Yes, I think we did lose control once Lucas went off. Allen was quite a way of the pace and we weren’t able to really set up camp on the edge of Everton’s box as we should have considering how deep they were playing.
Spurs game was incredibly open, Lucas playing and I expect we boss it the way we did against Chelsea.
So you think Everton were in control?
I think it’s too early to say either way whether as a team we’re better with Lucas than Allen. Personally, I think a lot of Lucas’s deserved high praise recently has been down to the fact that we look so much better with him than when Gerrard plays there, as reiterated by his absence, and Gerrard’s inclusion, in the Spurs game.
I’m certainly not gonna dis Lucas to try and get my point across, he’s been brilliant since he game back in and has been a catalyst for our upturn in form. Like I say though I think our problem is just as much Gerrard playing there. If Joe Allen can perform that role of Lucas though (which I think he can) then we’ll be the winners because Allen is clearly a better footballer on the ball. He offers so much more than Lucas going forward and certainly stops the opposition’s play more than Gerrard. I think Allen can emerge as someone as important as Lucas has been and possibly more so. It’s too early to say though because we have to see more.
The only thing I find a little disturbing is our willingness not to recognise what was a great performance it was by Allen yesterday. Why isn’t the argument ‘yes he did very well yesterday but I think Lucas is better’ rather than ‘he offers nothing’?
After the match I mischievously asked a mate, who’s been an Allen doubter, what he thought of Allen’s performance. He said ‘he did nothing for me’. I was flabbergasted. It wasn’t the answer I expected. I thought Allen was instrumental in all our best chances and certainly both goals. I don’t respect many journalists views but James Pearce (Echo) I do. I was reading his match report this morning and though it doesn’t make it right he got it spot on for me. I’ll leave you with 2 quotes from it and will once again ask – how come, today, we’re not talking about what a good performance he gave and only how Lucas can do better. ????????????
“In midfield Joe Allen repaid Rodgers’ faith in him as the Welshman enjoyed one of his best days in a Liverpool shirt.
Allen, whose season has been dogged by injuries, was a hive of activity throughout with his work ethic and range of passing keeping the visitors on the front foot. This was the perfect riposte to his critics.
Man of the match: Joe Allen. Made a big impact on his return to the side. Helped give Liverpool a platform to dominate with his tireless work ethic. His passing kept the Reds on the front foot”
Lucas is a really good footballer Robin. I hope you’re right about Allen in the long-term, he’s got big contribution to make, but he isn’t a better footballer than Lucas. Not yet, at least. He’s a good player, mind, I don’t get arguments to the contrary.
You’re right about the skipper though. Any one of Lucas, Allen or Can alongside Henderson improves us. Gerrard serves the team better when used in an attacking role these days, ideally from the bench. I think most of us agree on that now.
I will always stick up for players, and have defended Allen many times to the naysayers and def played his part last season. However as alluded to on TAW Lucas and Hendo ptn’ship just works so well, Lucas wins the ball so far up the field, stopping so many opponents transition in there tracks, Redmen ball, we go again, He also seems always available as pass, for back 3 and Migs, also wins headers, which is a challenge for Joe.
I feel Allen is at his best when the play is compressed ‘nice n tight’ drawing players in and then laying it off, as you said. The better the players around Allen the better he can be, interesting to see , when the Statesman Emre moves up, maybe diffrent players are suitable for different types of opponents, finally got some options, needed.
I like Lucas, no I love Lucas, I like Allen
Bolton thugs killed Coutinho, needs holiday in Jamaica, and much more protection from bellends in black.
Allen is in his third season, I very much doubt he’ll be offered an extension or new contract.
They weren’t free kicks though. Every time Palace fell over bar one he gave them a free kick, very amateur.
Great performance in spite of quite a few things not falling our way. The depth in the squad is starting to fill out as everyone is getting on board with the style we are playing. No Raheem or Lucas, our two best players over the past couple of months in my opinion, and we barely miss a beat (although maybe slightly at Everton). Time to hop on the Liverpool express as we are starting to bring this season home like last year, come on boys!
Look at that lovely well-timed run from Lallana just as the free kick goes off. A thing of beauty. A bit of luck as well of course, but that was perfect and very clever.
the last 20 mins.. That’s how you close out a game.. You don’t let the opposition have the ball!! A joy to watch.
great article Gareth, I don’t usually post but feel compelled to. The buzz or as Neil often says the ‘madness’ we had last Season is starting to return. Even at 1-0 we were in full control and I loved the way we closed the game out. Can is immense, Henderson maturing into a leader, I’m confident of beating anyone now next round even The Van Gaal long ball brigade. let the madness continue.