Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Wolves 1 Liverpool 2 in the 2024-2025 Premier League season at Molineux…
THE moment that felt like the turning point was when Anthony Taylor bowed to the pressure of the home crowd and booked Diogo Jota.
He hadn’t, at any stage, looked like booking Diogo Jota. But moments before Andre Trindade (tidy player, by the way) had gone in, out of control, on Alexis Mac Allister. Trindade was fortunate to escape a red card, but the Wolverhampton Wanderers faithful started to chant: “Premier League, Corrupt As Fuck.”
Taylor booked Diogo Jota and one of the bald men on our bench (look, I was in Row A and they all look and dress alike anyway) and then Jota decided that he was mad as hell and wasn’t going to take it anymore.
Few Liverpool players had been what could be honestly described as excellent and even after this that wasn’t the case for Jota either, but what he suddenly was – from then, till half time – was a whirling dervish.
He was everywhere and it was his ball from the breakdown that saw Ibou Konate head home. Nothing was going to stop him from having his say and it was the sort of game where one or two players showing genuine force of will meant they could impact for a spell.
It’s a funny game, football. Liverpool, who had been all control and poise in their wins so far this season, suddenly found themselves in a game where that sort of thing simply wasn’t possible. Or if it was, it was a fool’s errand – that in pursuing control they’d blunt themselves to such a degree, it wasn’t worth the risk.
The point is that had Liverpool got the second after Konate’s first everything would have been the plainest of sailing. But instead, often due to Liverpool themselves, the waters of Molineux remained choppy at best and tidal at worst.
Again, not to overegg it, Wolves don’t ever play genuinely well other than a 10-minute, first-half barrage. And Liverpool are never dreadful. But the game is never at peace. At the precise moment it may well be falling into Liverpool’s control, Liverpool have a spot of awful luck which they then compound with dreadful defending.
We’ve written here that you control a game by controlling the ball, the territory or the scoreboard and ideally you control two of those three at a minimum. Ibou Konate’s second key contribution saw Liverpool slip from potentially being able to control all three to all being beyond them for the rest of the evening.
Instead, we have to live a nervy close at Molineux, despite Mo Salah’s penalty, as 1-2 is the minimum requirement for The Reds on a day like today. There is no breathing space post-Forest. The clock ticks down and the scoreboard lacks a buffer, the team could do with more ball and more territory.
But the clock ticks down – the fourth way to control a game is to have the clock on your side and Liverpool very much had that. The first goal just before half time is the perfect time to score. The next great time to score is just after your opponent does. It kills all momentum and dents hope.
They managed that. And they then got to count the seconds. Finally, the relief came.
Because they weren’t good. They were brave and they grafted. They craved victory. But they weren’t imperious. Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch both did very well, as players around them either underperformed in the round or were very bad in five-minute bursts.
Mo Salah yet again looked like a man who was playing all the right notes, but not in the right order – though his penalty was as marvellous as his reaction to finding himself and others through was infuriating. Luis Diaz had the beating of his man, but was too often too deep.
Dominik Szoboszlai’s decision making was again vexing in a game against a poorer side and he really should open the scoring. But he is only there to miss it because he busts a gut to get there.
Andy Robertson was good in their half, but found the substitute Forbs tough to get near in ours. In that, there were echoes of Wolves in 2020 when Adama Traore made life incredibly difficult for him.
But those echoes were everywhere. Liverpool haven’t once found Molineux straightforward, but have managed to win there in seasons where they are deadly serious. It’s a reason why I’ve grown to love the game. It’s a bellwether.
Arne Slot himself may not know that and that would be perfectly reasonable. But imagine the hammerblow any late equaliser would have felt, the opportunity squandered.
To bastardise the old joke, every league season Liverpool get the chance to play at Molineux once. And it will tell us if they are on the way up or on the way down.
Liverpool have played at Molineux and it was fraught, and ragged, and emotional, and draining.
But Hi, Ho Wolverhampton – they would appear to be on the way up.
