Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Marseille 0 Liverpool 3 in the 2025-2026 Champions League at the Orange Vélodrome……
THEY ARE the better side.
I am sure I have written about this before because I am fundamentally boring, but one of my favourite moments in football, at any level, is the moment when you realise the side you support or play for are just clearly the better side.
Being the better side doesn’t mean you win. Look at Saturday. But in contests that are at least between sides that are theoretical equals that moment matters. A couple of midweeks ago we saw the moment it was clear Liverpool were the better side against Arsenal who lead both the league tables Liverpool are in.
Better side, Reds. Better side.
Being the better side isn’t necessarily having won the right to play. At the minute perhaps that remains another challenge for this Liverpool side. Being the better side is having that bit better touch, better shape, better idea and pulling all of this into practice.
Better side.
On 35 minutes that hits against Marseille. Today we’re better than these. On paper of course we are but we are in their gaff, the home of two thousand tifos, with their crowd, their vociferous that will take some silencing and a small Liverpudlian contingent who need it more than want it and want it for all time, we get that moment. On the pitch, off the pitch – suddenly better side.
Liverpool look splendidly coached. This matters. In 2022/23, a season which has the odd parallel to this, it is home and away against Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton Liverpool look appallingly coached in comparison. It looks like De Zerbi’s side are playing a game of Choose Your Own Adventure where they have read every page in advance and Liverpool clatter around. Tonight Liverpool looked like they had read that book on Marseille. Liverpool knew every answer in advance and knew how to ask questions.
Joe Gomez and Mo Salah emerged from differing degrees of cold and both played their part. Gomez verged on faultless and there are so many ways I adore the player he is – he is the pessimist who doesn’t panic. He fears the worst all the time but has ice in his veins. Today he nails that. He is probably my favourite of Virgil van Dijk’s partners.
Salah plays narrow and it really works for him and for the side. The pressing structure first-half works for him too – the job is to force the ball back to their right, our left, and over and over Salah is there to do that. So many of his touches have class and calm which makes his late miss stand out all the more. But more than anything he is just one of ours, working in a stable Liverpool side and setup.
Them being the better side isn’t a surprise. They just are and should be. The current issues people have had with Liverpool hasn’t stemmed from thinking the eleven players the manager starts in any given moment are shite. The frustration has come from thinking them good and then watching them shrink.
Tonight we get the opposite. The game plan works which helps each of these lads stand up and be counted. I adore Jeremie Frimpong from right-back. His ability to play in space vacated by others helps but his ability to make the 10 yards from the defensive line to the byline count could well be unique at this level. It’s punishing and it brings about the second goal. If the goalkeeper doesn’t touch it, Salah does. But forget that – arrowed angles from all over the park can only help.
Our opponents nearly get in but – one shot aside – Liverpool always get back. Today was the best day for seeing the reward for the recovery pace of both fullbacks. Seeing Ryan Gravenberch sprinting back like that silver medal winner of the men’s 1500m was slightly less edifying but Liverpool ride those moments.
Dominik Szoboszlai reminds us of the importance of brains and Cody Gakpo comes on as though his sleeves have never been more rolled up. But the truth is having a bit of a bench just helps everyone. Florian Wirtz is again just a joy and he epitomises the idea of ‘better side’. We have a lad who can do all this. Walk around him.
But walk around them. Walk around the captain pinging it and the goalkeeper faultless and walk around them walking into that ground bold as brass and holding their heads high throughout and walk around the fact that this is an odd Liverpool season.
They happen. That doesn’t mean they don’t hurt. But they happen and we are in the teeth of one right now.
All that though makes days like today matter more. I mean this for all of us but I very much mean this for the thousands who travelled to the south coast of France, those who got to acclaim them and those who now have to make their way back in having been kept behind. Odd seasons lead to good days. Good days, if you are lucky, lead to cup runs and cup runs lead to…
Look Liverpool are fourth. Fourth in this. Fourth in that. Liverpool aren’t getting carried away and neither am I other than to say that when the chips have been so often down – at Brentford, in Turkey, at the Etihad, at fucking Anfield for god’s sake – then having that moment, that certainty of “better side, Liverpool” matter that bit more and feels as though it can be perpetuated into an unknown future.
In the last few weeks the new signings who have been available have all been excellent and there has been more and more flashes from the lads who were just there, then, crowned Champions.
Better side, Liverpool. Keep putting your better foot forward. I’m looking forward to Bournemouth. Let’s have another game of football.
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