Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Newcastle United 1 Liverpool 2 in the Premier League at St. James’ Park…
YOU’D have taken a point.
The smart money is to take a point before a ball is kicked. The super smart money is to take a point at 1-1 when down to 10.
Today, Liverpool were anything but smart. Today, Liverpool were so often bloody stupid. Bloody stupid in their decisions, in their passing, in their shape.
Today.
Today, Liverpool were victorious and today I have never loved a football team more.
Today, Liverpool showed that the eternal footballing value of hanging in for dear life and seeing where your luck is at remains a special one regardless of what is fashionable. Today they showed that having attacking talent coming out of your ears – Diogo Jota, Harvey Elliott, Darwin Nunez, the unused Ben Doak – means you always have a way. Today they showed that you build a season and sometimes you build it on anger.
There is a power to being angry. There is a power to being angry at bad refereeing, at ridiculous red cards and at a stadium full of magpies determined to steal the glistening win. There is a power to saying Fuck This Shit.
Darwin Nunez is that energy and he uses the anger. Today three points isn’t just three points. It’s a two-fingered salute to all that is wrong with the game we love. It may be raging against the dying of the light, but have you seen me? Raging against that is all we have.
Will Virgil van Dijk’s red card be the second red card Liverpool FC see overturned in two games? Who knows. But that this is the question shows where we are. Referees need authority. They consistently undermine their own authority. Without authority, players aren’t likely to accept their decisions, are they?
The first Trent Alexander-Arnold decision is wrong. It was a foul. It was really obviously a foul. The second Trent decision also was not controversial. Players get booked for that foul about 10 per cent of the time. It was not a definite yellow in any circumstances. It was a borderline yellow at most. Also, I’d query whether Trent threw the ball away in any meaningful way in the first place.
The referee is actively bad. Just before halftime Joelinton fouls everyone for a laugh, like a nan with a bingo card approaching shouting ee-ah. The referee does nothing. The same referee felt Tyrone Mings putting his studs into Cody Gakpo’s chest was a yellow. However, forget the same referee, up and down the country at the minute these clowns are making all their lives harder.
We are in a world where Newcastle know that this is the game where they have to show they are the big man of the league. This game is so often about status. Not least because this is how the television sets it up. The framing is telling and we’re raging against the dying of that light too.
It is all ego. And what better way to reduce your opponent’s manhood than reducing them to 10 men? It’s what they are in it for. And it’s what they get so fair play to them.
Today: But now what? Because Newcastle are built to a very specific spec. They are all artisans, no artists. Today should actually lead to Newcastle wondering – now what?
One of the problems with the Newcastle approach is that it is reductionist and brutal and unsubtle, if they aren’t careful they will bring shame to the noble reputation of Saudi Arabia.
For sure, Liverpool are not the best version of themselves for the first half, despite the referee. You’d have taken a point. Today.
St James’ Park get us down. Missed passes all over the shop. Trent is the target for them and it is his mistake that allows Gordon the chance he wanted. Fair enough. This Liverpool is still working out how to deal with big waves of turbulence within and without and it needs to learn soon.
Endo does a job. He carries the piano. Alisson is on form, thank goodness, and makes no errors. After Van Dijk’s bizarre dismissal we do not falter as much as we might. Alexis Mac Allister struggles, Harvey Elliott doesn’t. Dominik Szoboszlai is consistent.
Joe Gomez and Joel Matip do brilliantly under the circumstances. I’ve had concerns on the latter especially, but he holds his nerve throughout today. That doesn’t mean things don’t need to be different tomorrow, but it does mean gobshites like myself may need to hold their tongues.
But today two things happen. Diogo Jota happens. And then Darwin Nunez happens. My god, does Darwin Nunez happen. He is, today, the number nine of your dreams. He is the way you conceive of the position if you write for Roy Of The Rovers or Ted Lasso. He swashbuckles. He swordfights. He is a pirate. He is magnificent and unstoppable and perfect and he is every answer.
It is an astonishing Liverpool performance and an irresistible one.
It was all set up to be a loss, and Gary Neville’s commentary willed it along. But Liverpool’s forwards are angry on behalf of Liverpool’s defenders. In their anger, they find extra pace, extra sharpness, extra force. The manager picks their moment. And Jota and Nunez prove him correct. Today.
The manager has a big job to do with this Liverpool side. Whatever is going on (and its a lot) in global football, Liverpool still need to win football matches, and do the basics well. We need to care not just about the players as individuals, but also about the spaces between them.
The good news is that Jürgen Klopp knows it. The good news is that our players are angry about being treated like a punch bag by teams who believe it is their turn to win. The good news is that every footballer needs to be 10 per cent junk yard dog when it counts when they play for Liverpool.
Today it counted. Today they all counted.
The real news is that this is hard. Our anger will never be enough. Our frustration isn’t enough. So the trick against teams like Newcastle is to be able to change quickly and respond – just as Jota and Nunez saw. Recognise where cynical teams will try to frustrate and dominate Liverpool and use our speed and skill up front to get back. Hard, but not impossible.
The real news is that being Liverpool means we will not be left alone, means we will always have a target.
Trent Alexander-Arnold has a target. A constant target. The endless, exhausting mini drama of Trent Alexander-Arnold plays out in the concession of the goal. But it plays out in him giving our end the big one on 94.
Think about that, because he is. He knows how this could have been viewed, but there he is, armband and three points. There he is, excellent since the break and filled with intelligence and calm. There he is today, maybe got away with one, maybe worthy of one, maybe brilliant and ultimately ours.
There he is today, giving it the big one on 94 because he knew Newcastle had been broken again. Today.
These lads are all ours. Today and tomorrow. Love them because there is nothing else today and tomorrow, while we may well need more, we need these too.
Well done today, Reds. Anger used wisely. Effort against frustration. Keep going.
Tomorrow we need more. But today is bliss. Because we have the best attack in the world.
You’d have taken a point. But not today.
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Phwoar!!! Love it Neil. Get in!!!
Neil bang on on all points . Refs … a joke . Newcastle ‘entitled bunch of under achievers ‘ and lead by a manager who is under pressure already .. who cares. Fairs Cup winners way back when do one ! thats it ha ha . Really cant abide them .
Our lads today despite ref overcame all adversity in second half . Jota Nunez wow. second half we come together and bang ! loved it a great day . 2 comments to finish ; how good is Ali btw . Really need to sort defence out asap.
Not counting last season’s injury-ridden travails, Jota’s last meaningful season saw him bag 21 goals with 8 assists – compared to Sadio Mane’s 23 goals and 5 assists the same season.
I feel like Jota’s super power is invisibility. In the sense that defenders seem to forget to mark him before he scores, and that his contributions go almost entirely unnoticed by the media and supporters.
Compare that to Darwin Nunez. Not since Suarez have we had someone who so thoroughly DEMANDS to be watched, no matter what he is doing. There is just something utterly mesmeric about the lad. If today is some sort of indication that he may actually reach his astral potential, we have got not just an excellent player on our hands but a proper superstar.
As a final note, imagine being an Evertonian tuning in late to enjoy our misery. Up the Never-Say-Die Reds.
Once the euphoria from the ultimate smash and grab dies, people will realise we were abject today. Even allowing for the fact we had 10 men for most of the game, we were abysmal. For the second time in two seasons, we come away with 3 points instead of none against these because these are cowards against top teams.
Not for the first time this season, I disagree with a lot of what Neil says.
Where do you even start with Trent? He verged on disgrace, and it wasn’t just the first 25 minutes either. He was fouled before throwing the ball away, but that is a yellow. We’ve heard about the new directive ad nauseum, so to run that risk in the first few weeks of the season, before they inevitably forget about it, was stupid. The second is another yellow, but even if you somehow think it isn’t, the fact he does it 90 seconds after being booked is nothing short of brainless. His numerous misplaced passes were bad, and his mistake for the goal atrocious, but how about when Gordon and then Joelinton walked past him in the first 5 minutes of the second half? That angered me a lot more. His attitude stinks. He wants to play midfield and have no defensive responsibility. He’ll probably score and have an assist next week and everyone will forget about this until we next play a good team. This issue – and it is an issue – needs sorting.
Alexis has quietly been poor in these three games you know. Playing as a 6 isn’t his bag, ok. But played 8 today and was very ineffective. Was lost and a bit overpowered at times.
Not as ineffective as Endo. The lad can’t turn. Pace of the game was too much for him. I’ll give him 10 games but he looks like a League Cup player and if the plan is not to buy a top class DM and/or CB in the coming days, we are going to have laughably few clean sheets, despite having the best keeper in the world.
The shape is a mess. We are again less than the sum of our parts. Our manager continues to underperform and nobody wants to say a thing about it. It’s doing my head in. He’s doing my head in, because it looks increasingly obvious it is him, and not the owners, who refuse to sanction the transfers we need. He keeps waiting for perfect. Why? Has he lost confidence in his own coaching ability? Does he no longer think he can turn fine into good, and good into very good? How can he see Konate suffer his 16th injury since he’s been here, know Matip is as injury prone, and watch a slow Italian midfielder sprint away from Gomez… and decide not to sign a defender? What are we doing here Jurgen?
We’ve gone from the best team in the world to outside the Champions League and there doesn’t appear to be any urgency to get back to the top. And make no mistake friends, do not be fooled by 7 points from 3 games and thinking everything is rosey in the garden – it absolutely isn’t and unless Klopp sorts the system (can we stop allowing Trent’s desire to play midfield to hold us hostage and just go back to 433 please) and we get the two players we need in, 3rd/4th is the best we can hope for.
As per previous post.
3rd or 4th at best this season.
The way some are celebrating todays win is very Newcastle United in itself.
Can we have Johnnos ratings as they always tell the true story?
I agree with Stan here. Johnno’s ratings were a highlight of any post-match experience.
Also agree with a lot of what Chris said – we got away with it today. Yes the ref was poor… But when aren’t they? But let’s be honest, in the other 199 parallel universes, we got battered today – properly battered.
Endo looked poor – especially in his decision-making and as Trent’s decision-making, fuck me – he put the rest of the team under pressure with a silly, petulant, avoidable yellow.
I’m not one of the bashing-Trent lot and fair play to the lad for getting his head back on but as Vice Captain he can’t be essentially handing teams an advantage. I do hope that on monday, Klopp has a “your gumshield, my office” chat with him.
We are clearly a work in progress but I’m absolutely thrilled to see that we have a team again … and that it matters!
P.S. Did anyone count the number of cynical fouls the Newcastle players made … with only one yellow card!
Where’s Ben Johnson?
Whilst I was going as crazy as everyone else at our agent of chaos slamming that brace in, I have to ask what you’re smiling to not see that as a red, Neil.
Clear foul on a player clean through on goal. That’s as clear a red card as I’ve seen in a while, and VVD made a right tit of himself for not accepting it.
Totally agree Stan
I guarantee you will see that same offence given a yellow on a ground this season.
Apparently kicking or throwing the ball away , simulating the yellow card motion are all yellow card offences under the new get tough laws . Joelinton and Gordon were both guilty of these offences and did not go into the book. The standard of refs in the EPL is laughable.