Foxes flummoxed in Anfield fog
Liverpool 3 Leicester City 1, 26th December 2024
LIVERPOOL 3 (Gakpo 45+1, Jones 49, Salah 82)
LEICESTER CITY 1 (Ayew 6)
I’ve no idea what the boffins at the UK Weather Department (they’re always called “boffins” aren’t they?) are calling the current blanket of fog enveloping Shakespeare’s Sceptred Isle with a haunting mist ripped from the pages of the Hound of the Baskervilles, but it made for frustrating viewing last evening whether you were lucky enough to be in the cauldron of the Reds Coliseum or if you had Peter Drury for TV commentary company, pizza fresh from the oven and you were beating your beautiful son at a card game and feeling lucky to be in his company too. Off the field and 60 miles or so from Anfield the fog came and went until it stayed in a gloaming mist that persists through to today. On the field yesterday evening the fog appeared to be rolling around those famed fields of Anfield Road, blanketing The Kop End in particular before partially clearing, returning, seeming ever more dense and gloomy before by the end of the game thankfully lifting enough to fully appraise Mo Salah’s inch perfect beauty of a game settling and winning goal, and with Manchester City drawing with Everton and nearest rivals Chelsea conceding two late goals in their Boxing Day Derby defeat at home to Fulham, the Mighty Reds of Liverpool approach the end of 2024 with a 7 point cushion over the chasing Premier League pack and with a game in hand too.
Last evening’s game is a somewhat difficult one to appraise and not only because of the Stephen King like mist wrapping itself around this magnificent citadel to world football. The Reds trailed for almost the entirety of the first half following Jordan Ayew’s early goal and a first and indeed almost certainly last attack from a Leicester team who then tried to time waste and spoil their way to victory. Despite these negative tactics and the gloomy, inclement weather, I saw a Reds team playing well with Andy Robertson (energetic and deserving more than the continual sniping from the internet wags) hitting the post with a flicked header on 24 minutes before Mo Salah rattled the crossbar on the cusp of half-time. Leicester needed this halfway break in play and instead, in first half injury time, the Reds brilliantly moved the ball immediately from back to front, Alisson Becker through defence into midfield and for Ryan Gravenberch to feed Alexis Mac Allister and a relay pass to Cody Gakpo who cut in on the edge of the Leicester penalty area before curling a beauty of an equalising goal. Before Gakpo’s sublime finish, the ball never left the lush turf of Anfield, from goalkeeper to the opposition’s goal net in a matter of seconds and via a beautiful set of quick forward passes and desire to score a goal the Reds desperately needed to enter half-time level.
“Pressure” was the watch word in the lead up to Curtis Jones’ goal 4 minutes inside a second half whereby Leicester simply couldn’t escape their own half of the field and with the Reds camped on the edge of their penalty area and laying siege to their goal, they eventually wilted. Quick, sharp passes dragged their defensive line hither and thither before Jones’ tap-in, but do not discount the determination of Jones himself to yet again fight and win the ball on the edge of the penalty area before continuing his run into the 6 yard box in the eventual lead up to the goal. We’ll skip over the 3 minutes it took VAR to approve the goal as they tried everything in their power to find a reason to disallow it (VAR needs to be encased in a mile wide of concrete, treated as hazardous waste, and dumped into the deepest ocean in the world) and instead marvel at Mo Salah’s game clinching goal on 82 minutes. From Gakpo’s supreme control and “Cruyff turn” in the centre circle to a perfect pass to Salah on the right wing, the Egyptian King had no right whatsoever to score from where he did but he did, threading the needle through a gaggle of retreating Leicester defenders and perfectly into the corner of the visitors net.
“That’s pretty close to perfect” exclaimed Peter Drury on TV commentary, and I couldn’t help but agree with him.
Arne’s Afterword
“First of all, it’s important to win a game and I think we should win at home against Leicester, but I had the same feeling against Fulham and Nottingham Forest; so, you always have to do a lot, especially in the Premier League, to win a game. And that was also today, because we went 1–0 down. The league table is something of course we are aware of, but we also understand how many games there are still to play”.
“I was happy with the first-half performance, I was happy with the start. There was only one minute I wasn’t happy with and that was the minute we conceded a goal, that was I think the only thing we didn’t do well during the first half. We created from the start our chances, we threatened them a lot, brought a lot of balls into the box where we arrived with many players — I saw Robbo many times in front of goal. So, I could not have asked for that much more. But I think it was crucial to score the 1–1 just before half-time because that lifted us up and you could see that immediately in the second half”.
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 self-published books during December 2024. 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.
"My Ironbridge Summer" - link to Amazon
"still life, with gooseberry" - 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.