Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Ipswich Town 0 Liverpool 2 in the 2024-2025 Premier League season…
KEEP your powder dry.
Don’t let them tease you into letting your powder get wet.
Tease is the word today. Everything about Liverpool’s second half was teasing. Tantalising. Inviting. There was a cross Diogo Jota hung up second half that was in the air for about an hour, just there, tantalising. Liverpool in the space between full back and centre back – teasing. Everything Trent Alexander-Arnold did – inviting.
The opening goal was gorgeous in every phase, but the ball from Alexander-Arnold to Mo Salah was just delightful. Do what you want with that. Do whatever you fancy. Then there was the ball into Jota’s stride and it was inevitable.
It had been inevitable for about 10 minutes by then. That was the big second half shift. Liverpool went from a knife edge to certain. A tightrope to a country walk.
That makes it sound easy and it wasn’t. It was about standing up, standing firm and winning your battles. It remains the best thing about football, whatever changes, whoever changes, whatever cleverness there may be, footballers need to win their individual battles more often than not.
You won’t always win your battle – I loved Roger Federer on how he rarely won more than 55% of his points. That’s sport. But you have to make sure you are doing everything you can to win them and to then back your teammate up. First half, no. Second half, emphatically yes.
For me, this is what I like about the whole 90. Liverpool win more battles in the second half, but are close enough to back each other up for the whole of the game and that is part of why they never feel genuinely vulnerable while not being very good.
Through the game, Ryan Gravenberch looks good. He gives a daft freekick away first half which was a bit of not understanding the position, but apart from that he did understand the position and then second half he understood the assignment and did it ever so well. He looked like he enjoyed himself and got everything right.
Jota helps. God, does Jota help. He helps everyone, brings so many into play, makes it difficult to play for his opponent. He should score and then scores. In a weird way, that is exactly what you want from your number nine. It is all about being in areas and then sorting it out.
All game, Mo Salah is a livewire. He is horrible for Leif Davis to play against, constantly spinning around trying to work out his movement. The goal which settles the affair when it comes is pure Salah – excellence and application. The movement is great, but then it was all game. A key thing to take is how often Liverpool were in between the sticks less than 12 yards out. It is hard to do that and yet Liverpool managed it four or five times.
Win your battles. Get in position to show clinical finishing. That’s it. Keep your powder dry, but feel teased, feel tantalised. We’re capable of so much this campaign and nobody wants any hiding place.
That’s been the best thing since the new man turned up. No hiding places. Keep it under your hat for now, but know that it is there, under your hat, and walk tall.
We may be on the march.
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“He’s set a couple of stalls out early on, and one of them is ‘I just want to win games of football.’”
️ Post Match Show pic.twitter.com/n1tj58H2lL
— The Anfield Wrap (@TheAnfieldWrap) August 17, 2024
