Dead rubber explodes into an eight goal thriller!
Southampton 4 Liverpool 4, 28th May 2023.
Southampton 4 Liverpool 4, 28th May 2023.
SOUTHAMPTON 4 (Ward-Prowse 19, Sulemana 28, 47 and Armstrong 64)
LIVERPOOL 4 (Jota 10 and 73, Firmino 14, Gakpo 72)
Having passed a lucky seven years in charge of the Reds of Liverpool, it’s hard to recall more than a handful of games during Jürgen Klopp’s trophy laden tenure that could ever be classified with the doom laden moniker of a “dead rubber”, but today was one, a bittersweet one it was too, and for many and varied reasons. Today was the last competitive sighting we would have of Naby Keïta, James Milner and Roberto Firmino in a Liverpool shirt, the Reds were firmly fixed in 5th position in the Premier League and regardless of the result could neither go up nor down a place, and then there was the opposition in the already relegated Southampton, a city just 19 miles from the place of my birth so, well, it’s good to see the “Saints” go marching in, and now down, and firmly into The Championship.
The bitter and the sweet!
The lack of dead rubbers or games that have no meaningful consequence whatsoever are a mark of Jürgen Klopp’s managerial reign that have resulted in four European finals, the domestic FA Cup final, a World Club Cup final, a Premier League title and two agonising end of season tilts for the “Bread and Butter” of English football. The beautifully bearded German with the widest smile and haughtiest laugh in all football has a HUGE job on his hands this Summer, and he may well have one of those hands tied behind his back.
Time will tell.
It always does.
So to today, and if ever a game, much like Tottenham at home just a few short weeks ago, typifies the moniker “Sword of Damocles Season” I gave this season in a long ago August of 2022, then this was yet another example. 2–0 up and cruising in the south coast sunshine due to a defensive gift from the relegated hosts and a gem of a parting goal from Roberto Firmino to add to his recent goals against Arsenal and Aston Villa, became 2–2 at half-time (Firmino at fault for the equaliser) and then trailing 3–2 early into the second half following a beautiful run and arrowing shot into the far corner of the Reds net from Kamaldeen Sulemana for his second goal of the game. Worse was to follow as captain Jordan Henderson gifted the ball to Saints substitute Adam Armstrong and his first touches of the football resulted in a goal and a 4–2 lead for a team who’d only scored 32 times this season before today, less than a goal a game.
Two goals in two minutes righted the ship to a frankly ridiculous 4–4 but the goals themselves were a couple of real gems. Gakpo may have tapped-in from a yard to make the score 4–3 but the one touch football from Joël Matip, Diogo Jota, Harvey Elliott and Trent Alexander-Arnold were a joy in the goal’s creation. The joy in Jota’s equalising goal two minutes later was in its simplicity. Fed by a simple through ball from Mo Salah, Jota simply smashed a piledriver both in his running stride and into the top corner of the Saints goal.
2–0 up, 4–2 down. 2 goals in 2 minutes. Emotional farewells.
Portents for the future.
It’s the signing of a superstar and a whole host of players or another season in the doldrums according to those wise sages inside The Matrix, but I rather believe it to be the signing of a World Cup winner in the blue and whites stripes of both Argentina and Brighton, and the rest will fall into place under the watchful eye of The Boss, Jürgen Klopp.
The creation of Klopp’s next wonder team starts now.
Thanks for reading.
Coming soon! My book: “PlayStation Football and a Sword of Damocles — Two seasons with Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool”. Coming soon!
There is also a wealth of past and present articles on Liverpool FC within my library here or alternatively, here are my three most recently published articles from this season:
Si Señor! Obrigado Pelas Memórias Bobby!
Liverpool 1 Aston Villa 1, 20th May 2023.medium.com
Reds chase for Europe in a victory made in Liverpool
Leicester City 0 Liverpool 3, 15th May 2023.medium.com
Long live The King! The Egyptian King
Liverpool 1 Brentford 0, 6th May 2023.medium.com