TRANSCENDENT.
Here’s the scene.
Last season in this fixture late in the game, Mo Salah went around their whole side and finished beautifully.
It went off.
It meant nothing. Both there and then and in the bigger picture.
This season he just keeps it alive back across goal and it ends up there in instalments via all sorts of nonsense. It’s one of the worst goals ever scored. It is one of the best I have ever seen.
It went off.
It meant everything. It means everything. Everything now. And in terms of the bigger picture? It would be easy to say “we’ll see”. But that’s not true. It means there actually is a bigger picture to look at. It may seem an exaggeration, especially when I say to you that Liverpool can both drop points and end up champions but they couldn’t drop those points, not today, not after being ahead, not given everything.
It was transcendent. There is a lot of all football support which is a slog. Remember Huddersfield Town away? Nil-one Liverpool, dismal stuff but what 0-1 Liverpool does is set up this. Huddersfield away made this possible you know, in a way you forget.
The whole point of this enterprise is when it transcends reality, makes Monday morning seem something another person needs to deal with, injects absolute joy into your veins. Leaves you with nowhere to go but wallow in paradise.
It transcends everything. Transcends the game itself, analysis and so on. But we must try. The rules…
Liverpool go in half time the better side and their own worst enemy, a goal light and most likely to bring about an equaliser against them. They failed to put the hammer down at 1-0 and that is the greatest failing of that first half midfield.
It was a first half contest of two sides trying to make the pitch big, rare at Anfield these days. Tottenham tried to shape in a way which asked Liverpool questions but once the side started playing those questions were answered. But Liverpool failed to connect properly until the Andy Robertson cross and Roberto Firmino header led to it being 1-0 and very little thereafter.
That was the first half. The second saw Tottenham be the better side. By some distance. They changed their shape and dominated the half spaces. And the whole spaces. They owned Anfield. It was some performance until they scored, to be honest.
In the five minutes prior to their goal, Klopp and Henderson were trying to change the shape but it just didn’t take. It needed the change which came too late. The goal probably shouldn’t have stood but it was reward for the best period of play from any away side at Anfield this season. Spurs were excellent and showed why they are the third best side in the league this season. Fabinho came on, made a difference but it felt too little too late.
Moussa Sissoko’s miss is among the best things ever to happen in association football. Virgil does brilliantly, don’t get me wrong. What he does makes Sissoko make a decision he doesn’t want to make.
Two-one was everything. It felt both deserved and stolen, both in equal measure.
I mean, it hurt prior to the goal. The abyss was everywhere. More abyss than you can shake a stick at. It looked like it was without end, but then there was nothing scarier than when it went 2-1. Remembering last season there was no relief just another form of torture. When Tottenham came back at us it gnawed inside. Imagine throwing it away twice. Imagine that.
It didn’t happen. Liverpool transcended the table, the occasion and possibly our lives.
Few things have ever felt like this, you know. I sobbed through the last 10 against City in 2014 at 3-2 up, overwhelmed by everything. But this wasn’t that. Nor was it Yossi at Fulham.
There is something both rawer and roarer about this sojourn. Something which isn’t defiance or improbability but pride. Been this thing that these lads are our lads and there are 20 of them. Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri. Joel Matip and Naby Keita. Along with the stars, along with the hits.
You saw it all tonight, the crescent and the whole of the moon.
Transcendent. We ended playing with or in the sky; Wall-E with the fire extinguisher in space on the one hand, or Formby beach when the wind blows and the sky is enormous on the other and everything makes sense, when you suddenly make sense, when this whole adventure clicks in, kaleidoscopic twisting, the beauty lost in a moment. All you hear is time stand still in travel and feel such peace and absolute.
I don’t know if we can handle this again. But we might need to.
Thirty-two down. Six to go.
It was a joy to be alive this day, my friends. It was agony, too. Imagine that. Taste it. Six more heaves.
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— The Anfield Wrap (@TheAnfieldWrap) March 31, 2019
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Wonder whether Pep knows yet that City have just one day’s rest after playing Burnley away on 28 April before they (probably) play Juventus in the Champs League semi on the 30th
A 90th minute OG winner with 6 to go…Believe !
Sojourn? Not so sure…Confidence and sheer belief in our ability to bring this home.
Thank you Anfield Wrap for an amazing season’s reporting, motivating and belief.
We can fucking do this !
Nice write up Neil. Wall-E? Love that reference.
The team didn’t play as well as they have done in the past, but it’s 3 points.
Henderson, up until the foul, did his best. I wish he had stood over the ball instead of yelling.
Klopp’s timings with the substitutes are like those flood lights that take a few minutes to turn up to their full brightness.
Everyone in the stands and dugout can feel it in their bones that Spurs are onto something well before Son came on. By subbing Henderson with Fab too late felt like he undid Hendo’s hard work.
Klopp’s spared the blushes thanks to VVD’s brilliance in the 1vs2 situation, Mo Salah’s tenacity and TAA’s intended cross, since all three knew exactly what they were doing and took their chances compared to their manager.
I thought the goal wasn’t lucky — Loris made a very poor decision to palm it, and Toby was already in stride towards the gaping goal. It could have been a red shirt and it was going in like a trademark poacher’s goal.
3 points…Great result and well done Reds.
Over to you City.
It’s the perfect way to win a football match. The shittest goal I’ve ever seen probably but it’s a testament to Mo Salah. He doesn’t hide. It’s not in him. Gary Neville described him as “desperate and dangerous” and I don’t think any description could have been more apt.
Liverpool stood up and forced their way past a side that, whilst excellent, are a tier below them. We made them give way. The Kop sucking the ball into the net. Spurs crushed by the inevitability of it all. Hands on heads all over the place.
Van Dijk’s management of that 2 on 1 situation needs to go in a textbook or something. The sheer authority of it. I know you want to find your mate but I’ve decided you’re taking a shot with your weaker foot, so get on with it.
Last season’s game against these caused me to be as angry during a football match as I can ever remember being. We righted that wrong tonight.
I’ve decided you’re taking a shot with your weaker foot, so get on with it
There were some emojis on there… but anyway, great comment
I loved the way Mo celebrated that goal – the greatest goal he never scored – a goal that never would’ve been scored had Klopp done the normal thing and subbed him out for Origi. I loved the way the team celebrated that goal. I loved the way I celebrated that goal – jumping into the air in the Shakespeare Pub in San Diego, along with my son and a couple dozen other supporters – limbs everywhere as Neil puts it. Klopp – the Normal One? – maybe no longer.
Love the Virg comment as well. I think I’d give Mo the man of the match for the shear transcendence of the moment, but Virg defending that counter-attack as calm as you like should never be forgotten.
I am in agreement that there goal shouldn’t have stood. Run through it and it starts with Salah, being again fouled and again Atkinson waving play on as Spurs come away with the ball. He then give the free kick to Spurs for a lesser foul on Kane (but hey this is Kane, who is the English darling and not Mo who is not from these shores…. see refereeing bias to favouring England player especially England players from down South who are Media darlings). Kane takes a quick fk from a moving ball… great ball, great take down. Ball is then played to Eriksen. who plays (mishits it), yet Son, who is in front of our keeper and offside is still offside as Luca Moura (I probably spelt that wrong) put it in. Twice the lino could have flagged but didn’t. So that was 4 decisions that went against us for their goal.
Again today we got some very poor officiating all game. In fact all game we got man handled and dragged, fouled and abused for every dead ball into the box. According to the FA they were going to clamp down on this… more bollocks from the FA then, unless it only to Liverpool, who they invent new rules for.
To say how shit the officals were, just look at Moura trying to con a pen. We break up the other end and Firmino is dragged back. No yellows to either Spurs player involved. Now think. If Moura gets his, thorns he’s off for the blatant foul on Salah.
Oh and I love the throw in that even had Klopp inceasened. Foul on TAA down the line by their box. Outcome a throw in to Spurs. Now it’s by their box yet they take it eventually by the halfway line.
As I said, shit officiating again all game.
If ever there was a reference to make an Atkinson match review of a 90th minute match winner against Spurs with 6 to go disregard the delusion and go straight for the grandeur, it is a Waterboys (Kirin J Callinan?) reference. This sort of thing might just necessitate me going from 5 to 10 pounds a month, you know?
You’ve surpassed yourself with this one Neil and I’m off down Formby beach to ponder it.
This was indeed karma for what happened last season. It’s 3 points more. Win our next 2 and I swear it’s ours.
I watched MoTD2 this morning. Still angry at a lot of the rubbish Atkinson decisions. For a change the BBC showed a fair few of them. I also saw City’s first goal against Fulham… yet another offside goal for them, as the player directly in front of the keeper goes to try and play it as it goes past him. He’s in an offside position and then interferes with play. Again I looked at Spurs equaliser, Son is directly in front of Becker, who is our last man. I am sorry but 2 sort of forward balls, the first being Eriksen’s mishit pass and then Moura’s shot, then Son is offside and VvD appeals for it.
I then watched Cardiff’s game against Chelsea. I apologise but Cardiff got some very poor decisions given against them. Yet Neil Warnock get’s to moan about these, however in his defence, he has none, as his team employ all the same rough house, shithouse tactics. Doesn’t make any of it right, but Warnock called it right when he discusses the EPL as the best league in the World with the worst officials in the World. The FA will cane him, that’s for sure, but he called this right. VAR can’t come soon enough.
Anyways, one big worrying comment was Neil Warnock’s comments that he is to play the U23s midweek against City, so he can prepare for the Burnley game. Knowing his management style in the Premier League previously, he did this against all the teams he expected to get beaten by… as such, if he does it, then they should just then and there boot Cardiff out of the EPL…
These are the factors that go to constantly helping City in their strides, yet hinder us. This is a Oil Cash, blood money doped up City team that is flouting the rules and getting every decision of late and yet you also get certain managers who then just wave a white flag before they come to town. Let’s not forget, if the decisions had been correctly awarded when we played City at their gaff then they would have been down to 10 men before they scored. Equally the ball not crossing the line meant it was still in play and their keeper brought down Mane after he hit the shot, meaning it was a foul and therefore a pen… Those decisions would have seen a 6pts swing meaning we would be 8 points clear.
As I keep saying, in 13/14 we were robbed at both City’s ground and Chelsea’s in the space of 2 games. Both saw shite officiating that would have been given the opposite way round. This season, as with last season, we are seeing some very bad and biased officiating. be nice for our last 6 games we get the sort of decisions that City enjoy every game and they get ours. Soon see how interesting everything becomes.
I have just seen this snippet off the Tomkins Times website, on his opening for Subscribers only https://tomkinstimes.com/2019/03/sheer-force-of-will-sees-liverpool-ramp-up-their-best-title-challenge-in-decades/
“Harry Kane went down under almost no contact, and was allowed to take the free-kick when the ball was moving; something Liverpool got so many “lucky” barbs about when Alisson played a ball out from the back for a quick-break goal against Fulham earlier in the season. (As an aside, Liverpool are getting called lucky for getting Porto in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, but have already played PSG, Napoli and Bayern Munich.)
And if Moussa Sissoko had scored the winner at 2-1, how would Liverpool’s luck have been when, according to ex-senior referee Dermot Gallagher after the last round of games: “…Moussa Sissoko committed two red-card offences against Southampton, including a butt, and was not sent off.” (A view which other ex-referees echoed, on what was a weekend of three major mistakes from officials to go against Liverpool: the Burnley goal, the City opening goal and the Sissoko non-dismissal.)”
——
I’d like to go back to that Sissoko break away. rewind back to Firmino going past their defender on the edge of their box. He was unfarily blocked. It was another that should have been a Liverpool free-kick. Firmino appeals for this and yet again, as was the decision all game, Atkinson waves play on.
Sorry but Spurs by this point should have been down to 10 men and should not have scored. as I keep pointing out, every solitary key decision is going against us, yet people only wish to discuss lucky Liverpool. Award us the correct decisions and we won’t need luck. even for our goal, if you look at the ball into the box for the corner, 2 or 3 Liverpool players are being pulled, dragged, held and blocked. Yet atkinson choose to ignore this stuff all game. If we had done the same to Spurs then you can bet, especially with this being Martin “I-am-never-going-to-award-Liverpool-FC-anything” Atkinson, he’d of given these decisions. I would hate to be in a contest that goes to penalties with Atkinson in charge, as he’d wouldn’t even let us have these.
As for bias, you only have to look at how many penalties we get, or don’t per season now for about the last 5 season. Some teams in the lower reaches have as many in just one season as we have had over those 5 seasons. Something really needs to be said and in Neil Warnock fashion. Equally something needs to be said about Neil’s comments regarding playing U23’s for the City game. It shows his mindset even if he doesn’t because as he put it, he’s focusing on the Burnley game which is after the City game.
Klopp must be the biggest idiot on the planet to constantly pick that midfield (and Hendo). How is he even a football manager.
Once again, Klopp trusts these players, he trusts Mily, Hendo, Gini to do the job he wants them to do. Fabinho looked good against tired opposition. He is not the 2nd coming. He needs a lot of work and experience to deliver for us constantly.
If we make it to Camp Nou, then Hendo is one of the first names on the team sheet.
All this Hendo bashing is just fans projecting their massive inferiority complexes onto certain players.
Fabinho is a good player but not the one to deliver for us in the run-in. He is not ready to handle that type ofresponsibility.
Hi TS, was anyone on here bashing Henderson. He had a poor game and as a result Klopp decided it was time to come off.
In your defence of Henderson, you have chosen to discuss possible weaknesses in Fabinho’s game, a Fabinho who brought energy to the team once he came on.
Henderson has had better games and will again for us before the end of this season, as will Milner. What was the issue yesterday, as it has been on numerous occasions, was that midfield 3 has not performed to the sum of their parts. It has functioned but not to it’s potential. Yet when it is altered, with any one of the combo removed, we see some better balance in the centre of the park.
I don’t have all the stats to prove or disprove either theory, just visuals from seeing what i am watching.
i do agree though that yesterday in our effort to go for the winner that we got hit more on the counter. However at this point in the season, 1 point was not enough. We rode our luck and on this occasion fortune favoured the bold.
I’ll keep this simple
1. No! Hendo had a great game. Especially first half!
2. Do you even understand what Klopp wants from his player at the base of midfield? Apperently not, otherwise you wouldnt’t question what Hendo does.
3. We didnt ride our luck. That’s your inferiority complex speaking. This is a top team earning their luck by going for it in the closing stages of the game. This is not the first time this season we scored late. It’s because of our winning mentality. Every top team has that. United under Fergie were never labelled lucky when they won in Fergie time all the time. Liverpool is labelled lucky because many of yous are afraid. You cant aceept that you are watching a genuine top team and not only a few top players in a mediocre side.
I dont blame you. It’s been a long time since we had a top team at Liverpool. But getting rid of inferiority complexes is a long process. Therefore you will keep believing what the majority of people with these complexes tell you.
Never said we were inferior, you decided this. I said we rode our luck going for the winner, bringing on an extra attacker and going for it. Klopp believed we could do it and I think most of us did, I know I was crying out for him to bring Origi on and go for 2 in midfield and start taking the game to them. Doing this did expose us to the counter, especially when not being given decisions (hard when every man and dog can see the foul yet Atkinson waves play on as he will never give us a decision unless it’s 100% nailed on and even then he might not give it), so that is riding the luck part… we went for it, so nothing wrong in what I said.
If you think Hendo had a good game, when he kept giving the ball away and even his pass out to Robertson was nearly intercepted, then you must have blanked these moments. It was not an good game or even an assured performance and 2nd half he was not at the races.
And yes I do have an appreciation of what Klopp wants from his midfielders, with regards to shape and tactics etc. However he equally wants them to be able to find a red shirt and not the Kop, with what was one of the strangest passes I have seen this season when Hendo was on the edge of their box.
Now i am not bashing Jordan, but those are the facts and no doubt him and the manager will also see that, that and the fact he needs to remain alert to quick free kicks and allow us to maintain shape in such moments. Both Jordan and James switched off at that moment. One had to close down Kane on that free kick.
You discuss the 1st half. There was very little for Henderson to do, as we pressed high and Spurs initially struggled. when Spurs changed their shape and played between the lines and then created movement in the channels our midfield 3 suffered. On the ball, when pressed, we kept giving the ball away cheaply and sloppily. I will find the passing stats, but I have already read several articles which said Henderson had the worst stats regarding this.
Finally I discussed Henderson performance in reply to your comment, I did not question what he does.
The winner yesterday brought to mind something very reminiscent from the 2013/14
season. Anyone remember Man City Sunderland 2-2 (April 14 2014)? City were behind
after a Wickham brace. And in the 89th min Mannone threw a dribbler from Nasri into his own net. This rarely gets mentioned in that title race. That left use 6 pts ahead of City, albeit they had a game in hand. If Nasri’s shot is saved as it should have been, we’d have been 8pts ahead of City, who ultimately caught us and won by 2 pts. Think back how psycholgically damaging that was for us. I remember watching this match, going ‘Fuck, would they ever just fuck off?’. We would’nt have had to chase games like Chelsea and Palace. And this brings me to yesterday. We all know City and their fans were watching yesterday. With 10 to go it looks like we are dropping 2 if not 3 pts. They all think that, licking their lips to a gap and some daylight. The nation universally don’t want us to win, hating the Reds. (Which I am fine with. That’s the way it should be. Has it ever been any different? If we all had our way, if our team doesn’t win it, we want the competition cancelled. I remember how people were saying,’Please?! Not Leicester’). Aside over. So, box office slot on Sunday afternoon. And then we do that. That. A nation sickened. Fuck them. So let’s embrace the jammy-ness of it all. Hug the maelstrom of football randomness. We were lucky yesterday, without playing too badly. That’s what we’ll need over the next 6. Neville is correct: we’ll have plenty more situtation like this – so will ‘they’. Love Lloris. World Cup winning captain. That. Then that. Come on Red Men.
Lloris, who made a good save from TAA left footed floater to tip it over. The sort of irony of it. Does that and then fumbles. However all keepers do this from time to time, even Becker got lucky yesterday that Andy was on hand. See we have gifted most teams their goals this season… well us and some crap officiating, that equally doesn’t get mentioned. We have also had moments were we battered teams and did not get our just desserts.
For now we must keep turning the screw on City, especially as Warnock more or less confessed on MoTD2 he has already written that game off to focus on Burnley instead. So no point even playing that game then if that’s the case. this from a Warnock who has a habit of playing under-strength teams against Manc teams to focus on others games, but yet bemoans anyone else in any other game doing a rotation if he sees this as an injustice to him. Bit of a hypocrite is Neil.
Unbelievable moment in an extraordinary season. I don’t think I remember another season where we have come out as winners in games we hadn’t really done enough to win. These moments seem to be happening… the confidence that gives the players is worth more than the point in the game itself. That derby win was worth a hell of a lot more than 3 points, it was the catalyst for an incredible run. I think back to alissons save in the dying moments v Napoli that would have put us in the europa league, and i can’t help but think that this season ends with silverware.
Hi don’t know if the tv coverage is different in USA but don’t think the touch line ban is a disadvantage if you have a mate with a laptop sitting next to you and a cell phone. On the Coverage here they show him make a call and the assistant answered and they make the changes and he has a birds eye view of the game.
Think Poch was only telling his mate it was his turn to get the ale and pies in and do it now before they closed the kiosk.