Burnley 0 Liverpool 1: Match Review

GOOD LORD.

It’s 4 from 4. 4 from the jaws. 4 you don’t expect. Question mark. 4 you don’t expect?

Because you do expect. There’s a moment around 93 and the ball goes left and your brain does this:

Can’t wait to see how we score from here.

Their brains are doing the same thing, albeit with markedly fewer pints under their belts. This is here. This is now. And we find a way. We will find a way. This is who we are and what we do. This is the Champions and, whatever you do, don’t you forget it.

We have attacked every angle. We have searched for weaknesses. The thing about our opponents is that last season they conceded 8 goals in 23 games. This season in their one home game they didn’t concede. They won.

They know what it is to suffer. They don’t deserve a point but deserve a clean sheet and something has to give. They win their battles but carry such little threat. They show and graft and pass on and they believe. They believe, you know.

They aren’t the only ones to believe. In the end the game becomes a clash of beliefs. In the end the game bends our way.

The lad Hannibal is daft and he knows it. He is also the Mancunian yard dog who came on in 2022 after Thiago had ran the show and walloped Liverpool players and was praised by GNev for it.  The whole thing feels like eventual consequences for silly actions and silly statements.

The penalty is unerring. The relief, all encompassing. The belief, irresistible. If all of this was under the previous manager, if all of this was in or after 23/24 then you would be forgiven for believing it was unsustainable. 

But last season this manager won a league in a way which wasn’t about miracles but about gravity. Football matches entered into orbit and they bent to Liverpool’s will.

At some point Arne Slot’s Liverpool shifts back into being the Liverpool of Arne Slot rather than using the Arne Slot Liverpool need. At some point Liverpool stop tap-dancing on the tightrope above the abyss and just take the bus. We all have to think about this. 

Today we saw some of the way. Second-half Florian Wirtz was bright as a button and nearly unlocked the door. Dominik Szoboszlai was again excellent and perpetual. Every fullback showed and bombed on.

Ryan Gravenberch was just tremendous for an hour. Responsible and thrilling in turns. But Liverpool still seemed slightly unglued despite it all. That tiny bit away from having genuine understanding; everything happened in a vacuum to an extent. This is the manager’s challenge. But it is also that of the players.

That said, Van Dijk and Konate know each other and know these games. Andy Robertson adds stability and sense after Milos Kerkez created his own maelstrom. And maybe the manager should have picked either of the right-backs to start.

Because it is a work in progress. They need to find their partnerships and movements. They will. We know they will. But until then the aim has to be getting points on the board.

Today Liverpool achieved that again. Today Liverpool both got what they deserved and got away with murder again. This is the oddity of the tightrope they keep asking of themselves. They do enough but not above and beyond and then they give us the moment.

Good lord, Liverpool. I want to say you cannot keep doing this, but maybe you can. And your version of events is better than the alternative.

We’re on the march.

Another crazy win.