THE derby is an inconvenience right now. We’re having a party and the neighbours have knocked round to see what’s going on. Fuck off ya nosey meffs, no one invited you.
Everton aren’t our business and we’re none of theirs.
Social mores dictate we have to let them in though. After that, anything can happen.
Liverpool have kept The Blues in check these past two decades largely because Liverpool have Everton in perspective. I say Liverpool, I mean the manager and players. The fans are different. Phil Coutinho doesn’t ever think about Everton. Mo Salah doesn’t even know where Everton is. Is it a place, a nickname or a crypto zoological creature? Mo don’t care. Mo just smells blood.
Jürgen Klopp knows about The Blues. It’s his job to have one eye on them. He also knows all about the new loon in their dugout. Big Samuel Allardyce got the hump with Kloppo last time Kloppo beat him. It wasn’t about anything important to anyone but Sam.
Sam called Klopp “the German” in a folksy xenophobic attempt to put the Liverpool manager in his place. Ouch! Klopp just thought he was funny. He’s right. Allardyce is funny.
Regrettably, he also has a trick in him. It’s something Klopp himself professes to also like putting into practise.
“Against better teams, we drag them down to our level, and then beat them,” said Jürgen once upon a time.
“I’m all about that,” Big Sam would concur. Both men mean very different things though. Klopp was talking about a tactical and disciplined approach that involves team shape, running at the right moments and of course, all of that counter (gegen) pressing. Klopp means we will overwhelm you with our desire to be better than you. You will not be good today because it’s all about us.
Sam prefers to make it about the opposition not finding a stride. He does not require his own team to find one, he just needs there to be as little actual football on display as possible. This is not to say that an Allardyce team can’t cut loose and put on a show occasionally. Sam is a relatively sophisticated tactician and cherisher of the game’s finer details.
However, he is a character that relishes the simplicity of ambition required when facing clearly better teams. These challenges are faced by presenting the superior sides with the full gamut of the sport’s dark arts. An Allardyce team will not just defend in numbers, it will kick you, and kick you, and feign injury, and kick balls away, and sledge and kick, and reduce the spectacle to a dour farce.
If you let him.
Klopp will remind his Liverpool how good they are. He may tell his men that this may be the bash of the year for the neighbours but for us it’s just another social engagement to be endured and overcome in a busy calendar. The manager knows Everton will be defensive and will therefore feel he needs all the specialist kit in his toolbox to go to work on them. This will most likely necessitate that he eschews rotation for his front four and asks them to push themselves a little closer to the pain barrier.
In centre mid, we know Henderson will return (because the manager has told us so), and I’d expect Emre Can to partner him. Can demonstrated that while brain tends to prevail over brawn in a derby, there’s no harm in having at least one gnarly enforcer doing door duties in the middle of the park. The defence is harder to guess at. Joe Gomez and Ragnar Klavan look certain starters, but both Dejan Lovren and Alberto Moreno left the pitch on Wednesday night with injuries. James Milner, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson will all sense that they may see derby day action.
Every encounter with The Blues seems to have its own special flavour. In recent times the core ingredient has always been provided by The Blues. They were savouring attacking Liverpool with Bobby Martinez’s side in 2014. Last season they felt Ronald Koeman’s continental smarts might be enough to outwit The Reds. Now they’re throwing the streetwise old-stager Allardyce into our cauldron. Good luck, boys. You may find a way to beat us, but you’re definitely going to need to be lucky in doing so.
Predicted 11: Mignolet; Gomez, Klavan, Lovren, Milner; Henderson, Can, Coutinho; Salah, Mane, Firmino.
Kick off: 2.15pm on Sky Sports
Referee: Craig Pawson
Odds: Liverpool 4-13, Draw 11-2, Everton 11-1
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
C’MON LIVERPOOL
WE KNOW YER GONNA WIN
NOT LIKE EVERTON
SITTIN IN THE BIN
LIVERPOOL ARE MAGIC
EVERTON ARE TRAGIC
NA-NA-NAAA-NA
NA-NA-NAAA-NA!
Nice one! We used to sing this in junior school .
Oh cool! I was hoping someone might remember our top two 70s playground Blues-bait classics.
We were Tocky kids but surely “sittin in the bin” one was city wide? Obvs. courtesy of Crazy Horse “Lpool are magic” certainly was.
Respect Rob! Was just ctrl+f-ing for the words “Tottenham” & “Spurs” and couldn’t find them. Wow, only 6 weeks after and no more mentioning. Even bigger respect, if the Kop finally gets it act together and keeps non-stop supporting.
Great article as always
“Mo Salah doesn’t even know where Everton is. Is it a place, a nickname or a crypto zoological creature? Mo don’t care. Mo just smells blood.”
Just brilliant.
Excellent article and perspective Rob as always
I was hoping to hear you tugging down the pants of the lazy ‘Big Sam’ moniker from some half decent lid , and you don’t let us down. “Samuel Allerdyce”.
Yes, Elbowing into town is ‘Sizeable fuckin’ Sam and His Celebration of Shit’ Brass Band. Pray to Diego we Hoof him back out of Anfield with his Tuba up his fundament.
We’ve just walloped someone midweek. Lovren and Gini have spoken in the press. Said press has now decided we’re the mutt’s nuts. By my calculations, this is the type of situation which this Liverpool team don’t yet handle well. I very much hope to look silly for posting this come Sunday evening.
Nice one Rob.
“Klopp will remind his Liverpool how good they are. He may tell his men that this may be the bash of the year for the neighbours but for us it’s just another social engagement to be endured and overcome in a busy calendar.”
I hope all us fans and TAW continue to remind ourselves of this too. Rotation here is critical especially since we always seem to not get away with injuries resulting from stupid/senseless tackles.
Yes, this team does have more brain than brawn, so let’s get through this unscathed as best we can for the upcoming run of fixtures.
If Jurgen continues to get the team to defend together before that one-hit-wonder defender, everyone and their mother’s been predicting in Jan, it will ease the pressure on that player (if he comes) and on the current incumbents.
We’re not out of the woods yet, as we’ve not been tested (defense) by the best of the best. I for one need to be want to see that we can handle big pressure games consistently, not once in a blue moon. So this Derby is just an important step in the big picture.
Anyways here come Everton making noise again this time with Shrek and their Tuba leading band manager (as Benedictway mentioned above). There’s no need to underestimate them, but also no need to fear them.
I’m hoping for a patient, focused and dominant display by the Reds to give the Blues a great game at Anfield!
Up the Reds!!!
Sums it up right I think. Any given day now we beat the blue. Anything can happen in a derby though we might not be so much on the warpath as them, but should do them just by the difference in manager style as you suggest, Rob. Reds 4 – 0 Blues.
Win tomorrow and we are up to third after a decidedly leggy looking chelsea failed to produce today. Their relatively small squad could struggle a bit through what looks like a very kind run of fixtures without an array of options. We dont look like burning out by Jan as we did last year and have plenty of pace to choose from unlike when Mane was out last year. Tomorrow feels massive. With Swansea beating west brom today I think we can probably afford to rotate again mid week and still get a result. If we can keep momentum going over the next month and get a top class CB in Jan things suddenly look really, really positive. Still disappointing to have dropped so many silly points early on but the squad seem to have put those moments behind them and the support needs to do likewise, particularly tomorrow if we dont score early.
“Fuck off ya nosey meffs, no one invited you.” Love it Rob. Fuck off nosey neighbours you couldn’t enjoy this party like us even if you wanted too! We’re on the march and you are none of our concern!