Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Liverpool 4 Ipswich Town 1 in the 2024-2025 Premier League season…
IT is ultimately about as comfortable as it can be.
Liverpool three up at half time and Liverpool cruising.
It’s the perfect game at this stage of the season, the perfect opponent. All the early season enthusiasm has been knocked out of this Ipswich side. They turn up off the back of a hiding, trying to avoid a hiding, but expecting a hiding.
And they set up that way too. First half especially, they carry so little threat that it is too easy for Liverpool to lock them in their final third and throw away the key. It’s the core difference between them and, say, Crystal Palace or Brentford – the lack of an outball or an outball plan. That isn’t to say either of those sides would fare better at Anfield at the moment, but they would make cruising that notch harder.
Instead it is the manifestation of what the manager has wanted for a while – a straightforward game. That doesn’t come without work and graft. It is because Liverpool work at being so good, because they are top that Ipswich Town defer to Liverpool to such an extent.
The driving force was Dominik Szoboszlai. It’s a great performance from him – all the usual graft and clever movement in and out of possession, but crowned by a goal, an assist and some lovely touches. He’s probably Liverpool’s best attacking player in January and looks to have clicked up a notch in the round.
Mo Salah has his say. It was coming a mile off. Leif Davis is an important player for Ipswich, but Salah gave him a torrid time second half at Portman Road. From the outset he picked up where he left off. Davis was removed at half time having suffered again, Salah having prospered.
Gakpo ends with a brace, but removes any remaining doubt just before the break with the third scrambled home.
Normally football games are all about the breath. Breathe in. Hold it. Missed it. Breathe out. Oh god, oh god, hold your breath with panic, hold your breath with excitement, this is it is it. Yes! Goal. Heart pounds. This was nothing of the sort.
It was a routine breathing exercise. In, out, in, out. Goal. Meditative. Relaxed. Controlled. We thought we would win and we did win. The manifesting was barely required.
As the second half develops, all we miss is Cody Gakpo’s hat-trick and the perfect clean sheet, everything else was realised. The goals were not a surprise, nor breathless brilliance. A good win. Nothing more or less, but therefore perfect.
You drive yourself mad thinking you’d like more from the subs, but the game they come on to is a non-event. Perhaps not for them but for everyone else, which means everyone is at a slightly different pace. No matter, though, in the round. Nothing more or less than expected.
Arne Slot, at the end of the match, steps out of the sidelines and takes and gives a round of applause from those of us who are left. It’s a thing he has not rushed to do. He has been calm and reserved and no doubt has been wary of seeming to want to emulate Jürgen Klopp.
But today, in the calmest way, he acknowledges the journey we are on and the moment that this is. We are still all getting to know each other, and he steps forward to greet us all in the most unshowy of manners. Fair enough. Showiness is to come. There is a reason this is Saturday at 3pm.
There is no reason next Saturday is at 3pm. It beggars belief. Next Saturday isn’t just showy, but it is the whole fucking show. And if Liverpool win it then they will take a meaningful step closer to the whole shebang. Today sets that up. Today, cruising. Next week? Bruising. But that doesn’t mean Liverpool can’t take the points.
Be excited. It wasn’t a second half to stir the soul, but it could prove the second half of the season of our dreams.
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