Elliott wonder strike keeps the holders in the FA Cup
Wolves 0 Liverpool 1, 17th January 2023.
Wolves 0 Liverpool 1, 17th January 2023.
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 0
LIVERPOOL 1 (Elliott 13)
In the ugly vernacular of today’s throwaway society, last night’s 3rd Round FA Cup replay at a bitingly cold looking Molineux and not 20 miles from where I am penning these very words, was a “nothingburger”. Neither goalkeeper was unduly troubled with one making somewhat of a goalkeeping “rick” for the only goal and the other only forced into his first meaningful save of the evening in the very last minute of the game. The home team Wanderers of Wolverhampton should have capitalised on last week’s brilliant display at Anfield but were instead timid, lethargic and insipid, save their Portuguese playmaker Ruben Neves and the speedy wing play of Spain’s Adama Traore. The two combined all evening, with Neves continually pinging cross field passes for his Spanish colleague, but it was a two man show that often petered out into nothing. Wolves have their priority of staying in the Premier League but I feared and expected more from the home team.
Following recent results and a much changed team last evening, I also feared the worst for the Mighty Reds of my footballing heart. Eight changes from Saturday’s humiliation on the South Coast and the 3–0 reverse at the hands of Brighton, it’s arguable that only Thiago Alcantara (fantastic first half display), Ibrahima Konate (a rock in defence) and Cody Gakpo (ploughing a lone furrow in attack despite the supposed 4–3–3 formation) are members of Jurgen Klopp’s first choice starting XI and Konate is arguably still on the outside looking in and Gakpo only recently arrived and parachuted into that starting XI. Surrounding these starters and footballing arguments stood tall the displays of veteran stand in captain James Milner and through the spine of a much younger team to 20 year old Fabio Carvalho, 19 year old match winner Harvey Elliott and particularly the youngest of the bunch, 18 year old Stefan Bajcetic. Carvalho is still a season away from contending for a regular place in the starting XI but Harvey Elliott’s wonder goal (should have been saved but still a fantastic goal!) is very definitely one in the eye for his internet detractors and up and until the 75th minute when cramp finally curtailed Bajcetic’s evening, he was the best player on the park.
The 18 year old from Vigo, Spain “ratted around” constantly for loose balls, had the strength to ward off opposition players pressing him and in the time honoured fashioned of Liverpool FC and of “La Furia Roja” and the place of his birth, he passed and moved. Get the ball. Pass the ball. Always moving. Always ready for receipt of a pass. Always with a head up and a vision for a pass forward. Get the ball. Pass the ball.
The kid from Spain has major promise. Good on yer kid.
So it’s back to the South Coast and a revenge mission on Brighton that evokes memories of Liverpool born and ex legendary midfielder for the Reds Jimmy Case scoring for the blue and white stripes of Brighton in the mid 1980’s, being on a train journey as a kid and listening to the radio as Jimmy scored against Liverpool and for Brighton at Anfield in a FA Cup tie and back to last night’s opponents, and that “Valentines Day” evening I spent stood rigid to the spot at Molineux during a bitingly cold 0–0 draw after the turn of the century. It was officially the coldest I’ve ever been at a football match and after the final whistle I had to remind my legs to function in a customary fashion again!
But first it’s the visit of the money men and the expensive new Harlem Globetrotter style signings of our friends from Chelsea in a dare I say it, “midtable game” this Saturday. A Reds victory could see them climb as high as 6th in the Premier League table. A victory for the Blues of West London would see them leapfrog their hosts to a similar higher position.
Both teams will be much changed.
Both teams desperate for 3 precious Premier League points.
Afterword from The Boss, Jurgen Klopp (taken from www.liverpoolfc.com)
“I think everybody who is with us got that reaction; it was the reaction we needed to show. We were compact, we were together, we had really good challenges, won challenges when we lost the ball and we played really good football in moments. We scored an exceptional goal where Harvey saw something that I think not a lot of people in the stadium would have saw”.
“I said to the boys after the game that’s how it feels when you play well and win. We can’t remember it really anymore when that was the case, but tonight it was the case and we are quite happy”.
“There is a massive game coming up at the weekend and I think if we would have played another game like the last one, I am not sure what the people would have thought before they arrived at the stadium. Now they have something they can look forward to and we will fight together again”.
Thanks for reading. Following the recent World Cup shindig in Qatar, here are my thoughts on the Reds three previous games since the resumption of the Premier League season. A vast trove of various articles on the Reds can also be found within the “Liverpool FC” archive list too:
Brighton March to Solly’s tune
Brighton 3 Liverpool 0, 14th January 2023.medium.com
Holders still in the FA Cup but an unwanted replay looms at Molineux
Liverpool 2 Wolves 2, 7th January 2023medium.com
“Shambolic” Reds stung by the Bees
Brentford 3 Liverpool 1, 2nd January 2023.medium.com