Anfield roars Reds to the top of the Premier League
Liverpool 2 Brighton 1, 2nd November 2024
LIVERPOOL 2 (Gakpo 69, Salah 72)
BRIGHTON 1 (Kadıoğlu 14)
I rarely celebrate a goal these days, due in part to the Orwellian intrusion of VAR but in the main because I’m a miserable old misanthrope, but fuck me sideways even I screamed like a wild banshee when Mo Salah cut back inside retreating Brighton defender Pervis Estupiñán before burying today’s winning goal into the top corner of the Kop End net. A reputed 12 seconds was all it took, from defence into a spectacular winning goal and a goal almost demanded by a baying Anfield crowd who’d willed on their heroes to a slightly fortunate, if deserved equaliser, before joining me and screaming with delight at an astonishing winning goal. Picture substitutes Curtis Jones and Luis Díaz running at pace through the centre of the pitch, Jones to Díaz and an instant wall pass return from the man from Barrancas to the younger man from the city of his red-shirted birth Liverpool. In stride, Jones releases Mo Salah who, again at pace, takes three distinctly different touches with his golden left foot, a partial control, a steadying touch before a definitive touch inside Estupiñán and then, a rocket past a flailing Bart Verbruggen in the visitors goal.
“Stop it!” exclaimed Lucy Ward on Sky TV co-commentary “That is too good. And The Kop absolutely loved it”. Yes they did. We all did.
Even this curmudgeonly old soul.
For 45 minutes today Brighton were magnificent, Liverpool abject with a capital A, and the visiting “Seagulls” from the south coast could and should have left the Anfield pitch at half-time with a two or three goal cushion. Ferdi Kadıoğlu’s 14th minute goal was a stunner in and of itself with the Turkish international first winning a loose ball in the centre of midfield before continuing his run and albeit fortunate to see another loose ball run perfectly into his path, smashed an unstoppable drive past Caoimhin Kelleher in the Reds goal the Irishman could only get a faint fingertip to before the ball crashed off the inside of his far post and into the opposite corner of his net. The team in the pleasingly traditional blue and white stripes were quicker and sharper to every loose ball, comfortable when in possession of it, incisive through a lacklustre Liverpool midfield too soft, too timid and too easy to “play through”, and had Georginio Rutter not been denied by a smart, smothering save from Kelleher on 26 minutes or Danny Welbeck’s curling free-kick on 40 minutes curled an extra 6 or so inches inside of the Reds far post, the visitors would have enjoyed a thoroughly deserved 2–0 or even 3–0 half-time lead.
The only real chance of note created by Liverpool in a first half to forget, and forget quickly, was a brilliant turn on the halfway-line before a run and shot from Darwin Núñez that forced Bart Verbruggen into a flying one-handed save, a trick he’d repeat in 3 second half minutes to deny Alexis Mac Allister a diving headed goal before frustrating Mo Salah close-in when an equaliser seemed certain. Roared on by an Anfield faithful who knew instinctively they were required to scream and shout today, to sing and loudly encourage their team rather than sitting passively and merely spectating, the Reds were an altogether different proposition after the break. 270 professional games without a goal doesn’t stop Joe Gomez from trying and just 2 minutes inside the second half he forced the first of a string of saves from the ultimately defeated Verbruggen. Mac Allister and Salah were each denied, Joe Gomez again too with 5 minutes remaining, but The Kop and three corners of Anfield had completed their task, the Reds before them had yet again swept an opposition aside from a losing and abject position to a triumphant one, and whatever Arne Slot said at half-time came to a glorious fruition! His team were outplayed for 45 minutes, gloriously brilliant and “at it” for 30 minutes, game managers for the rest.
Considering Manchester City’s surprise defeat at Bournemouth and Arsenal’s less surprising loss away at Newcastle United, it’s been a rather perfect weekend for the Mighty Reds. A quarter of the Premier League season is done and dusted and with only 5 points dropped all season they hold a 2 point advantage over the defending champions from Manchester and are 7 points clear of everyone’s pretenders to City’s crown, Arsenal.
A perfect weekend indeed.
Arne’s Afterword
“First of all, credit to Brighton the way they showed up over here. They showed a lot of composure, they were not afraid to play. They play out from the back really well. A lot of energy without the ball. And we didn’t show up at all, in every part of the game, maybe except for the set-pieces part. But for the rest we were not there, and if you face a very good team like Brighton it’s not enough to run once, twice or three times, you have to keep on running. So, we changed a bit of tactics but that had nothing to do with ball possession, that had nothing to do with us coming out stronger in the second half, it all had to do that the players showed a different attitude and different intensity”.
“I don’t think in the second half anybody deserved to be taken out; in the first half they almost all deserved to be taken out, but in the second half they didn’t. But if you then have the likes of Lucho Diaz and Curtis Jones, you bring them in. For me, it’s not that much of a risk if you are 1–0 down to bring players in that can score a goal, as long as you know that these players can play with the same intensity as the ones that started. And that’s what Lucho and Curtis brought: intensity without the ball and quality with the ball”.
“The crowd was incredible the second half, our fans were incredible the second half. Our players too but our fans as well. It was the loudest crowd since I’ve been here. Sometimes you have a difficult period and then you need to fight back, and that’s what we did. I didn’t ask — I would love them to do so and they did in the end — but I didn’t ask them to score two goals, I only asked them to play a different second half than we played against Nottingham Forest, with a different mentality — so if things go against you, you have to show up. Winners always do, and fortunately we have a lot of winners in our team that showed up in the second half”.
Thanks for reading. I often lament that despite my hundreds of articles here I rarely if ever make contact with genuine Liverpool fans so, if that is you, please say a hearty hello and, whilst you’re here, can I interest you in these spectacularly good self-published books on the Mighty Reds?
"A final word from The Boss" - link to Amazon
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.