How it felt as a fan to see Arne Slot’s Liverpool run out at Anfield for the first time and what we learned from Sunday’s friendlies…
ANFIELD with a sense of newness.
There aren’t many times you travel to a match and have no idea about what’s to come. Not the final score or level of performance, but other factors.
There are so many questions. The formation, the press, the style, the Joe Gomez centre back or full back question, the Trent Alexander-Arnold question, the body language of the nearly-out-of-contract lads and, of course, the new man in the dugout.
Let’s start with him.
He didn’t give us a thing. Barely a wave. Three times we tried to get a song going (and we’ll have to do better at that one) just to say hello and he insisted on talking to his team instead.
I’m all for that. I loved it, in fact.
A tiny percentage of me doesn’t get on with the smiling, happy persona of managers – grinning like he can’t believe they’ve got the job. That may sound harsh but, as Ian Broudie said when he bumped into Liverpool players in town: “You don’t want them in bars. You want them doing press-ups.”
A nothing game and the only animation we got was him urging Kostas Tsimikas upfront and telling Dom Szobo to tuck in a bit more. He was busy and that’s a good thing. They’re all doing press-ups now.
You can’t answer those questions in one game – or even back-to-back games. Is Curtis Jones a six now? Is it Ryan Gravenberch? If the front three were so good, what of Cody Gakpo? Harvey? Does he see Trent as a right back or was yesterday just a one-off?
Still, as Paul Senior said on the Post-Match Show yesterday, we’ve got five subs now. Liverpool have options.
And options are good things. If Plan A is a dud then Plans B, C and D might work? I’ve no idea what Plan A is anymore as this isn’t Jürgen Klopp’s glorious 4-3-3 (with in-game variations) but that too is a good thing. No one knows what to expect at Portman Road.
Me? I’d start Diogo Jota as the nine and then I’d keep him there till he gets tired or injured. He’s the best finisher at the club and though that’s a remarkable statement given that his mate has knocked in 211 goals for us, I stand by it. He’s the striker I trust the most.
That’s not to slag Darwin Nunez off, but sometimes certainties trump artistic endeavour. I’ve always been more John Aldridge than Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
But anything could happen. Everything is new. There are no certainties. There is only a blank canvas and sometimes that’s just as exciting as a settled side.
It all starts at Portman Road. That’s only a 40-mile drive for me (yesterday’s was considerably longer), but one I can’t wait for. Anything could happen. The possibilities are endless. That’s both exhilarating and petrifying, but having lads who love scoring and can finish clinically when they need to makes this more the former than the latter.
Anfield in the sun. The Kop an airless greenhouse. There’s nothing better.
I can’t wait for Saturday. I can’t wait for Arne Slot to ignore us again because he’s busy. I can’t wait for Liverpool.
Pre-order Neil Atkinson’s book ‘Transformer’ and help us get a Sunday Times bestseller…
