Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Southampton 2 Liverpool 3 in the 2024-2025 Premier League season…
He takes his top off. Everything is romantic.
Look at Mo Salah’s face as he wheels away, shirt in hand, bare chest out, taking on the elements. Mo Salah’s face is that of a man who believes in himself, in us, in the journey we are on. Have we learnt nothing from this man? Believe. Just look at the league table.
That’s the thing. That’s the story. In 2014 Steven Gerrard takes his top off after scoring against Fulham the weekend after Liverpool beat Arsenal 5-1. Steven announces something is real, something is happening. Everything is romantic, right?
We know something is real, we know something is happening. But what we also get to see is that the main man, the league’s main man, is all in. He is ready for every challenge. He took his top off in 2019 but then he hadn’t scored for eight weeks. Right now he scores every week.
Mo Salah is the greatest man for this moment. Steven Gerrard was perfect in February 2014 for what we needed but right now Mo Salah is everything. He is our guy. I love him.
If you want to, just have a nice look at the league table and forget about today. As long as you aren’t Arne Slot. Don’t worry about it.
Liverpool beat Southampton three goals to two. That’s what matters.
It was both dramatic and boringly poor. Jesus Christ on a plastic sign. One of those goals was a penalty, one a rebound from a missed pen. Liverpool go a goal up thanks to Szoboszlai stealing a goal in the middle of the first half, and then go behind after giving away a penalty, save it and then concede the rebound. But the passing and control of the game was some of the worst we have seen from this Liverpool side. That’s the boring bit. We gave the ball away far too much. It grates.
Just look at the league table and forget about this game if you want. Southampton were bottom of the league before and they are now. Liverpool are now eight points ahead on the cusp of advent.
Dwell on that. A new manager. A new moment. And, forget our rivals who look flawed, who have had hard lines, who suddenly look their age – and we know that reality – and look at their miles on the clock. Dwell on this: P12 W10 D1 L1. What they do doesn’t matter in that context. The first Sunday of Advent is just there and the record is that good.
But before you eat your Christmas dinner, we have the mother of all fortnights to get through. Real Madrid and Manchester City. Newcastle United and Goodison Park.
You wonder which of our players has proved their case to be included in that challenge after the performance today. Undoubtedly the main man, whose determination buys Liverpool time and space on the attack. Cody Gakpo has bright periods but ultimately doesn’t threaten and is substituted. Perhaps purposely, the midfield seems weaker today, and the defence disjointed.
The goalkeeper Kelleher does well to respond to the real threat from Southampton, but ultimately, we need Alisson’s distribution back. The captain is reliable as per bar one moment but as his team’s passing looks flakey and incomplete in moments, you want him to impose something on this match.
Second-half he finds that; he is repeatedly first to everything in their half. What’s hard is leading from the back. But he finds his way and helps impose Liverpudlian dominance.
Southampton are just no fools despite languishing on the table floor. Adam Lallana is, as we know, a worthy opponent, and it’s a shame he gets a knock and goes off in one sense but should be sent off in another. He isn’t ever allowing sentiment to get involved and neither should we.
His team mates similarly are very much up for this game. By the time they are awarded a penalty after the first-half, they have had a tonne of possession and are making the most of it.
But then there is the main man. There is Mo Salah. Player of the Match today by a million miles. He seems permanently poised to run. Get the ball and run. Run and score the goal.
When he does so to equalise on the 65th, the goal itself is a remarkable touch. It is the run that gets him the space. The run that gets him the pace. And he just shows the ball the way into the goal. Liverpool equalise.
And whilst we know it is possible for Mo Salah to miss penalties, it doesn’t feel it today. It feels like the goalkeeper has no chance against Mo and his crafty shaped run-up and a ferocious kick that owns the goal.
At the end of the match, Liverpool dominate Southampton in a manner more representative of their relative points tally.
And that is what matters in the end. Everything else is short-term drama, irritating, momentarily getting under our skin as fans. But we get irritated because we need this. We need this.
He takes his top off because he needs this and he knows we need this. Suddenly the idea of a league win, all together, in this city hits hard. The idea of us out, spilling into the streets, relishing the moment we lost once is just there. We can’t lose that in the games we should win. We need this. In a place that can make you change.
I’m all in on him. And all in on you, on us. Everything is romantic, right?
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