Dead Rubber defeat for Liverpool in Eindhoven
PSV 3 Liverpool 2, 29th January 2025
PSV EINDHOVEN 3 (Bakayoko 35, Saibari 45, Pepi 45+6)
LIVERPOOL 2 (Gakpo 28, Elliott 40)
Do you want some reasons to be cheerful even in defeat this evening for the Mighty Reds of Liverpool?
(1) Liverpool travelled to Holland with only a third of their 21 man playing party in any way recognisable as first team regulars as come what may (and Barcelona’s eventual 2–2 draw with Atalanta) they had already qualified for the knock-out stages and regardless of this competitive 3–2 defeat, they still finished the Champions League Group stage top of the shop.
(2) After 35 total games across all 4 competitions this season, tonight’s defeat is only the third suffered by Arne Slot’s Reds with tonight being totally inconsequential, the second and most recent away to Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of a two legged League Cup Semi-Final and the only Premier League defeat in a long ago September against Nottingham Forest. Entering February, the Reds are 6 points clear in the Premier League, the top placed team in the Champions League, in the 4th Round of the FA Cup and a 0–1 deficit to overturn in the second leg of the League Cup against Tottenham. A reason to be ecstatic let alone cheerful in and of itself considering the boss has only been in charge for 7 months!
(3) Hearing the Away End this evening belt out “A Liverbird Upon My Chest” repeatedly throughout both halves is always a reason to be cheerful for this particular old skool (sic) fan!
(4) 20 year old James McConnell was bloody outstanding this evening. Barely lost a tackle. Constantly receiving the ball with his back to the opposition in midfield and yet either passing and moving the ball to a teammate or, more often than not, turning and striding clear of any PSV challenger. A mighty, mighty performance kid. Well played.
(5) Although 19 year old Jayden Danns had the experience of Cody Gakpo and Federico Chiesa nominally either side of him, the key word to emphasize here is “nominally” as he often plowed a central furrow in attack but he kept going, kept running and continued to try and help the team even when on his own and even when he had lumps kicked out of him!
Well played kid.
(6) At 22 years of age and with growing experience in the team it’s becoming more difficult to include Jarell Quansah in the Jürgen Klopp titled “boys” and kids” from his final couple of seasons in charge, but the kid from Warrington was defensively brilliant this evening.
(7) As with Jarell Quansah it’s far too lazy and easy to overlook the fact that Conor Bradley is just 21 years old and he staked his claim once again this evening to be the ready made replacement to grow into the huge boots left by Trent Alexander-Arnold should he leave in the summer. The key word here is “grow”, but the Reds have a hell of a player on their hands here.
(8) Andy Robertson skippered the side for the first 60 minutes and the latest unrequited love of my Liverpool life Wataru Endō took the armband for the last 30 minutes. That’ll do for me!
(9) Cody Gakpo scored on his return to Eindhoven before getting a standing ovation when substituted. The 25 year old is in the form of his life and long may this pleasing trend continue.
(10) Federico Chiesa was involved in both of the Reds goals and played a full 90 minutes for the first time, and Kostas Tsimikas never lets the team down when called upon.
(11) And finishing with a pleasing and footballing correct number 11, despite conceding 3 goals, I can’t remember Caoimhin Kelleher being called upon to make a single save until the 90th minute.
More reasons to be cheerful than you can shake a stick it! Let’s see if the boss is as cheerful in defeat as I am.
Arne’s Afterword
“Eventful game with many goals. I think everybody expected that before the game, for two reasons maybe. One of the reasons I think two managers who always want to press high, want to bring the ball out from the back. So sometimes you see then certain mistakes — but it’s always eventful. And for the other reason because both teams, maybe mainly ours, were not playing in the set-up that we usually do, so then you see in some moments that we defend in a way that probably is not expected if we play with all of our starters. But still in the end we were able to definitely make a game out of it, especially with all these youngsters on the pitch. So, ‘eventful’ would be my word to use”.
“I don’t know if it’s a big achievement, but it is a good achievement to end up top of this league. I have said many times it is so hard to judge a league table after eight games, let alone if all the teams play different opponents. It doesn’t tell me much, to be honest, because some teams have faced easier opponents than others. It’s always nice if there’s a new format that you end up Number 1, but it doesn’t give us any assurances for the next round because if I now check the league table and I see the four teams we can face and one of them is one you’re hoping not to face if you end up first in a group like this”.
Thanks for reading. I pen my thoughts on every Liverpool game and in recent seasons, with the addition of numerous pieces of retro writing on Reds games of the past, I’ve curated and created the following two self-published books:
"A final word from The Boss" - link to Amazon
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - link to Amazon
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my two recently self-published books. Both are free to read if you subscribe to Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” or reasonably priced in both paperback and hardback. Go on, treat yourself or a loved one and help out an Indie Author! Buy the books if you’re financially able to.
We HAVE to keep the spirit of reading books alive and well.
Thanks.
"still life, with gooseberry" - link to Amazon
"Rasputin and Raspberry Jam" - 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.