Everything is emotional. Everything hurts. Everything feels fabulous. Every song I write’s about you.
After 30 minutes I was glad you weren’t there. Glad you weren’t putting up with it. Glad you weren’t watching Liverpool’s first, second and third worst 10 minuteses of the season. We all didn’t deserve that. In a strange way the lads on the pitch didn’t wholly deserve it but it was happening to them. I was glad you weren’t there.
When Mo Salah stares at the whole end with his top off and loves it, when Mo Salah milks every last bit of his own brilliance, when he comes back up after praying, after putting his top back on, when Mo Salah turns back one more time and urges the roar from the travelling Kop I wish we all could have been there to respond. I wish you could have looked right at him, our slightly frayed superhero, I wish you could have acclaimed him.
Everything is emotional.
Liverpool’s captain Jordan Henderson slots the winner and explodes when he has come on and changed the game for his side and I just wish you could have been there. We all should have been there.
It had been horrendous. It was watch through your fingers stuff, the worst things could possibly be.
Southampton got to the half hour only one up and Liverpool were flattered by that. There was no ball they weren’t second to, no danger they failed to anticipate, no easy pass spurned. It was, frankly, a shitshow. Southampton deserved credit. They played entirely in the half spaces, turned Liverpool’s powers against them, asked questions few sides outside of the top six have managed to ask. They pinned Liverpool against the wall and Liverpool looked helpless, weak as a kitten and twice as naive.
Everything hurts.
Liverpool drove us all to distraction, no decision right, unable to build pressure. And then they stretched Southampton back and forth across their own box and Naby Keita did brilliantly and time stopped and it was, after what felt like an age from 100 yards away, a Liverpool goal. A Liverpool equaliser. To say it was scarcely deserved is a monumental understatement. Liverpool have never been genuinely lucky this season; they have rode their luck, they have fought to the end, they have shown fitness and sharpness and desire, but they have rarely not deserved to some extent what they have had during games.
The only thing Liverpool deserved at 1-0 was to go 2-0 down.
The midfield was atrocious, Trent was having a nightmare, Matip was uncertain at best and calamitous at worst and Mo Salah just couldn’t get near the ball. We end the game legitimately concerned about Gini Wijnaldum. There have been too many games now with not enough influence; a midfielder who gave everything, who was our best until February may well now have been our poorest through March and April. We saw footballers flop physically today; they mostly wore the red and white stripes of Southampton, we can see how things can go wrong when legs go. But for Gini now it was been too much of a battle for too long.
Naby Keita scored and wanted the ball. Fabinho has credit in the bank. But the truth of the matter is that these three points are driven back to Liverpool in the boots of Jurgen Klopp, James Milner and Jordan Henderson. Liverpool’s grown ups got on the pitch and played like two men who have a league to win. They were immense performances. Game changing. Suddenly the pitch belonged to Liverpool. Milner made it huge, Henderson covered every blade of grass; pent up having watched things slip away before his eyes.
Everything feels fabulous.
God the scorers of the second and third deserved that. Henderson’s goal belongs to his manager and to Milner but also to his own bravura leadership; Salah’s to his own belief and perseverance. He has needed this for so long. We needed him there and then. He delivered.
They were and are our heroes. There was a patch when they were villains, when they were inexplicably throwing so much of their own good work away. And then the opposite happened. They deserve all of our acclaim. I want this not to stop. I’ll remember this end, I’ll remember how much it wanted, craved Liverpool winning the game. We needed more than wanted; Henderson wants for all time.
Every song I write’s about you.
Longing on a large scale is what makes history. The history Liverpool can make is not the history happening elsewhere in the country but it is the history of a city, the history of a state of mind, the history of thousands of people in one place, the history of millions around the world, the history of our lives and our moments and our rhythms, our needs and wants. Perhaps we shouldn’t long for this as much as we do, but we do and these are the facts of the matter. The scale and scope overwhelms but liberates, there is something about them on the grass doing what they do that frees us from mundane concerns. They give us life. Heart thudding, hormonal life. This is what it is to be alive, in the blood and the bone. Longing on a large scale is what makes history.
The Reds have the hand of history on their shoulders. It still may not happen. But they give us this. Like they have given us similar so many times this season.
33 down. 5 to go.
Everything is emotional. Everything hurts. Everything feels fabulous. Every song I write’s about you.
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“Longing on a large scale is what makes history.” Brilliant Neil!
Tonight I bleed red and paint the town red as it feels like we’ve won the lot!
So happy for Naby, loved Mane’s piggy back for him, like two kids who know what this first goal means to them.
Mo Salah finishing with the same tenacity and guile he was so desperate to work, and ducking just as Robertson jumped to hug him in celebration and missed was funny.
And Henderson. So many times I have asked and wondered what he could have been developing his attacking game since 2015. Here is what Southgate may have seen. So happy for Henderson scoring and such an important goal in such an important game, like what I expect from our Captain. Consistency and more of it please Hendo!
Lastly credit to Klopp for fixing his previous error of his sub timing. This is all we supporters have been craving, tweaks at the time when it’s so badly needed, and you unleash hell!!!
Milner brilliant and so were the rest of the Reds despite the initial scoreline.
Going go bust another bottle of red with the missus!
Up the Marching Reds!!!
Fuck sake, have my top off again now. Up the top of the league Reds.
Well in.
All of this. Thanks as always, Neil.
Probably the best one of the season. Somehow banged out on a train to London with his head in bits. Well done Neil.
I know we should be enjoying all of this but its killing me . Totally fucking killing me.
I spent thr whole of the firstbhalf swearing at every player in a purple shirt because during that first half it looked like we didnt have it in us to even hold on to a 1-0 deficit. Second halfni was ranting swearing at the ref and their time wasting players then jumping around the room like a lunatic after each goal and at full time. I am physically and mentally fucked beyond belief. 1-3 sounds comfortable but that game was horrendusbto watch. The ffrst half was like watching the season slide out of view and there was nothing we could do about it. The second half..much better and the hoals oh the goals wow GET in Mo you greedy beautiful bastard and GET THE FUCK IN HENDO YOU FUCKING MASSIVE BIG BAG OF BEAUTIFUL SHITE what abtime for the two of them to come step up when it really really mattered. Went to bed with heart pounding. Couldnt sleep because of adrenaline. Woke with heart pounding please please please dont be so cruel to take it away from us now not with 5 games to go dont you fucking dare.
The hand of history weighs heavy for some, but not for the Reds this day.
Great writing Neil. Great how you capture the emotion. Indeed we weren’t our best for 30mins. This Saints team under their new manager are a tough outfit. They gave their all and we did indeed ride our luck till that point (que TS to lose the plot over the mention of this). However like all great teams we turned the screw and grew into the game. We also have a World Class Manager who knows what he is doing,… loved the bit were he bit some kid’s head off as he came out for the 2nd half, after the kid called him something. Also loved how he got into verbals with the Saints players on the touch line in the 2nd half… Klopp being Klopp smiled and laughed.
Once again the officials stank. Another game in which we could and should have got a pen, 2 in this case and yet nothing seen when both are nailed on.
Was coming back from a piss as much to relieve the tension when came back up the steps to pefect view next to stewards to see Salah bursting through, Reds blasting forwards, the pace is like a fucking 100m Olympic final, can he do it, can he do it, so much still to do and then ….. boom. The emotion!
You were sitting on the goal going for the piss released it well done you
Cometh The Hour – Cometh the Man
In our most desperate time (to date) the true winner stands up regardless of how good or bad he has been
Salah – as world class as you can get
Sensational Neil. Best I have read from you. I need it more than want it and I want it for all time.
Not so sure about the Blairish ‘hand of history on the shoulder’ metaphor – seemed more like the boot of history up the arse.
Is there a better Football writer capturing our emotions better than you Mr Atkinson? I doubt it. More More More.
Best match review ever x
It’s life-limiting watching these Reds but I just wouldn’t have it any other way. We say we want the sterile dominance of City. The ability to sit back and relax as we bore our opponents into submission with 94% possessioj, but I couldn’t be arsed with that on a regular basis.
Give me those last two goals every time. That Salah goal was fucking electric. I was begging him to pass it but only one thing was happening from the moment Mo got it from that beautiful header. It was absolute mayhem when that went in.
Henderson’s goal was just a perfect moment in time as well. If Mo had proven a point with his goal, Henderson had more than done so with his own. He was qll of us during his celebrations. Firmino was as cold as ice in his assist as well. The goal was scored from the moment the ball left Bobby’s foot.
… I am watching those goals again and again and again. Euphoria!! Salah proving himself to be a king once again and Firmino-Henderson, just so solid. Thanks Neil for capturing the emotions at the ground for us once again.
.. Just wanting to post on here, after watching the game on the telly, its really apparent what a great away supprt LFC have and how they played their part on the day at St. Mary’s.
I watched the game on MOTD last night and the highlights, or rather the usual media points they want to make do my head in. They make a big song and dance that Salah was 1mm offside in the build up to our goal. Salah was less offside than the margin for us not getting a goal at the Eithad.
Then the commentator makes out it wasn’t a pen on Keïta. The same bellend who commentated on the Spurs game at Anfield last season and was all for Spurs… what a tool. Their player didn’t get the ball as clatters Keïta. It’s assault never mind a foul.
Nothing was shown of the push in Mane’s back as he’s about to head it. Another pen.
As said we have the media and the officials all swooning over City. Giving them everything. Someone please explain to me how Kyle Walker has not got a red for that head butt yesterday. Do we even think the FA will follow it up??? Of course not.
So we continue to play against media bias and shocking officiating and yet we are still there, against a City Team who are financially doped and don’t abide to the rules. In fact all season long we have had all the runs of difficult games, while most of City’s are spaced out and in the cups they get drawn against the likes of St Trinians U8’s, the Shop Dummies 3rd XI or a cheese sandwich. Time this was pointed out big time to all and sundry.