THEY flit. Sadio Mane comes across and Mo Salah sees him. Goes the other side and fills the space.
No one sees this because right in front of all of us, the Stoke players, the Liverpool end, everyone is fixated on Mane. How can you not be? The pace and the power of him. He’s the centre of the known universe and is bursting through to the byline. Look at him.
But Mane isn’t fixated on Mane. He is fixated on the world around him. On the bigger picture. He dangles it. Hangs it up. It’s sumptuous you know, and it is so close I think I can touch it but I can’t, Stoke’s defenders can’t, Lee Grant can’t. Only Salah can.
It’s on his left foot and he strikes it and I heard this and then it is there and Liverpool are there and then that is the thing and the whole of the thing.
It is what you go to school for. Why you spend the day excited about watching a football team. The moment there forever moist and glistening. The thud and the net and the bodies everywhere. The Reds.
Can’t do without you.
Can’t do without the quality and the timing and the wonder. It’s what turns watching a football team into something much more. Walking out Ben Johnson heard a young Stoke supporter say to someone who was presumably his dad:
“Why haven’t we got any players like that?”
Why haven’t we got any players like that. Christ. It breaks your heart. I’ve watched Liverpool sides lacking it, that irresistible, barely describable thing I waste so many words on in articles like this. That glory and brio and succulence. You know it when it isn’t there. You feel its absence. You yearn for it.
It’s a reminder of how lucky we are. I could well have walked out the most frustrated on Saturday. Disappointed not to have won. But we get to watch these and we get to expect to win, expect to see that quality. We get this and we get it regularly. Thirteen sides in the country don’t.
You know it when it is there. You know it. It helps you sleep of a night and wake up of a morning. You know it is there when you have the top scorer in the country.
What a season Mo Salah is having. He’s far surpassing the expectations there were for him.
We should have been 0-3 ahead at half time. We should have gone to 10 men. We got there in the end.
I went the game tonight. You probably saw more than me. You probably did — on row six right behind the goal I saw a lot of the crossbar and a lot of the netting. I didn’t see a lot of midfield. I saw Liverpool scrapping and I saw them emerge with the ball and I saw them advance. The shape of it I didn’t see, not like you.
But I saw the brilliance up close. Saw it and felt it. It was there and Liverpool were there.
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Saw you on the telly, Neil. Behind the goal. Love your writing. Always what I am feeling.
Great one again Neil, love to share the euphoria of the ballet unfolding before us- too bad about the crossbar, the Reds were imperious (apart from the short time-out). “That glory and brio and succulence” nails it, love it.!!
“Thirteen sides in the country don’t”…I want to know who the 7th team is who also does get the boss quality, surely not Everton :)
It’s Spurs – the team in 7th. Do the math ;-)
“You know it when it isn’t there. You feel its absence. You yearn for it.”
Is right.
How we have yearned for players like these in the past. An excoet missile on either flank. A pair of footballers emboldened by the knowledge that nobody can stop them doing whatever they want to opponents.
Spurs had one of the best defences in the league last season and Mane ripped them to bits at Anfield with embarrassing ease.
Azpilicueta is (he really is) one of the best defenders in Europe, but could he stop Salah scoring? Could he bollocks.
These two players, the greatest men alive, are a vision of what Klopp is going to make us when the job is complete. Soon we’ll have Naby Keita, who by all accounts seems to be the midfield version of the aforementioned players. Something terrifying is taking shape.
*exocet
Oh goodness, do you remember the first half of 14/15 (for a very recent example), post the Sturridge injury, when we had Rickie (bless him) toiling away to very little effect?
Sadly I do. Nobody could have a bad way to say against Lambert but they were dark days. I also remember Borini and Balotelli up front together in a diamond away at West Ham.
I’ve been left cold thinking about it.
3 goals – check
Clean sheet – check
Subs just afrer the hour – check
Coutinho rested totally – check
Mane hitting something resembling his best form – check
Solanke and Ox getting starts – check
Cold – check
Tuesday – nearly
Stoke – check
Salah being the best player ever – check
Result could hardly have been better but between us scoring and Salah coming on we were abject for large parts. How Allen doesnt score I don’t know. Mignolet should probably have gone too. Due a bit of luck after Willians effort at the weekend though.
Between you & Johno I almost feel like I was at the game last night. Thank you.
Can anyone pick Saturday’s team now? Does Chris Hughton know what team, what formation, what players his team will be facing?
Rotation. Rotation. Rotation. It’s a good thing. It’s a Klopp thing.
agree with the comments, Klopp is building something here and with Keita arriving next season that really is something to look forward to…he is as good Kante and will offer the back four some much needed protection. Onwards and upwards the mighty reds!
He’s a ‘six’ and an ‘eight’. Tackles, surging runs, and goals, so arguably has more to his game than Kante. If he can settle as quickly as he did, he’ll change the entire dynamic of our midfield, which without Lallana has been evidently inert this year.
A 0-3 will keep the moaners at bay, at least for now. A bit like The Walking Dead.
Not directly linked to the match but get down to the Brighton Kop this weekend. They are the business,
https://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2017/nov/30/270-miles-from-anfield-but-no-less-liverpool-video
Oh god yeah. I watched Stevie’s last home game in there. Is proper mental!
You were on the telly Neil, 89th min! Green parka. The ‘glasses’. nobody to your left!!!
Only appreciate this now: we did that last night without Coutinho.
Is Phil becoming our least most important player?
Salah’s goal tally is mad. Some of us would have expected 16 over a full season. But it’s only November. Which means…if he’s on 16 and we’re still underachieving, who are the lads not doing their bit?
Excellent piece Neil, love the ‘punk rock’ nature of these ‘in the moment’ (well, just after the moment) reports. Reds, still doing well and, Mo’ apart, nicely keeping just under the radar. Been so impressed with Joe Gomez this season, I think he suits his off-the-ball role in a temporary back three, better than Clyne (possibly). So great to see players begin to emerge and ‘become’ right before your eyes.
Great reporting, as usual. And yeah, Mane and Salah were superb but they were not alone. Best overall chemistry and fluidity from this team all season. Gini and Can absolutely owned the center and regulated the pressure. Small, important work from all quarters. And Moreno’s middle of the park crushing of Shaqiri’s attack (and yeah, it resulted from his own error) showed great heart and raised all the boys’ spirit. What a glorious match to savor. I’m still replaying it in my head, over and over.