Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Liverpool 2 Fulham 2 in the 2024-2025 Premier League season…
TWO points dropped. One point gained.
Maybe. I mean, let’s try and work it out.
Could be Schrodinger’s Point.
Look – you offer me parity with Arsenal at the close of play, at the moment the injured and red-carded Andy Robertson trudges off, then I am delighted.
You say before a ball is kicked that we’re drawing at home with Fulham in this season of seasons then I am livid. Two dropped.
And the shape of the game ends up being the true oddity. There is loads of this. Nothing quite makes sense. Nothing rational ever seems to happen when it should; the order of events is a mess.
For instance, when Diogo Jota scores I think we’re not just going to win but we have to win.
Marvellously, Virgil van Dijk agrees with me, as he goes centre forward and stays there at all costs for five minutes when the board goes up. He acts as a focal point and demands everything and his teammates seem confused, but want to gratify him. You’d follow van Dijk to the very jaws of hell. I’d follow him further, to the ends of the earth and then the very jaws of hell.
He should lift Liverpool’s 20th title, should lift it this season, but God only knows that would be easier if we won today.
For instance, Fulham are brilliant at 0-0, 0-1 prior to the sending off and then are poor, confused, intimidated leading into half time. They should put the hammer down, but instead put the hammer in a cupboard, with a lock on, a long way away. They let Liverpool in. Fulham deserve the half-time lead – arguably by two goals on 20, deserve no lead at all by half time.
For instance, Liverpool start the second half brilliantly and smother Fulham everywhere. Fulham have no way out and Liverpool get their reward. And then Fulham step it back up. Fulham’s goal has been coming by the time it comes and they deserve their reward.
It’s Schrodinger’s Point because every goal has been coming and then comes, except Liverpool’s late winner which would send us off into Christmas ablaze, send the city ablaze. And God knows they deserve it.
They don’t deserve it.
They deserve it.
They don’t deserve it.
They deserve it.
Ultimately, they need to start not just better, but one thousand times better. Football matches kick off at the appointed time and, by Christ, Liverpool need to learn this.
Everything is poor first 20, including the referee who should send Diop off. That’s not Liverpool’s main concern, though. Their collective inability to pass it five yards should be their concern. How few battles they win should be their concern. How they are second to everything, how little they are troubling Fulham’s tyro centre backs, how easily they are played through should be their concern.
Liverpool are – until Robertson’s red card – shite. Just shite. Painfully, appallingly shite. And/or Fulham are marvellous.
The red card isn’t the best thing that could have happened, but when it does what happens is Liverpool’s players all start playing with responsibility. Dominik Szoboszlai is sensational which makes what precedes the red card even more inexplicable.
Ryan Gravenberch, though, is whatever is beyond sensational. He puts in the most remarkable performance. His maturity abounds and his excellence is unmatched on the day.
Mo Salah looks like he can hurt Antonee Robinson whenever he likes, but Robinson has constant interest going the other way. Harry Wilson’s influence wanes, but when it waxed, it hurt. Sander Berge shows yet again he is a serious player, possibly the most underrated in the league.
Our manager picks the wrong team, but makes all the right changes, including making no changes until 60. He reshapes his side again and again brilliantly, and finally Diogo Jota sashays in and is an absolute rock star.
Jota when in this mood has a footballing charisma that is unanswerable, inevitable. He is almost as underrated as Berge but has injury as explanation. He should score the winner somehow, him or van Dijk and be carried aloft.
What am I doing here? Look, this is a question you can ask in the round really. This week on BlueSky the excellent historian Charlotte Lydia Riley posted of writing:
https://bsky.app/profile/lottelydia.bsky.social/post/3lcy7fwzmrc2h
“How will I answer the questions I have of my writing if I don’t do my writing myself. You don’t write to make an argument, you write to find an argument. If I’m not finding the argument why would I even bother”
The argument, I think, is this:
– You can have one or two of these.
– But you can’t have a ton of these.
– You need to be better when games start.
– You deserve the world, though. Each and every one of you.
For you, read we, read us. Liverpool weren’t good enough and then were so good, so courageous, so determined they deserved the world. As we can tell ourselves we do too.
Listen – you go to town proud of them. Maybe that’s the answer. Not a good point, not a bad point, but tonight on any dancefloor you find yourself on, be proud of them. They’ll do for me. Just.
Is this coherent? Has the writing made sense of the world? Well, it may have started badly and finished strongly and be as good as anything else out there.
Be coherent, Liverpool. Be consistent. Be strong. Everything else will come.
All my love.
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