Fulham 2 Liverpool 2
A point gained beside the River Thames for an out of sorts Reds
A point gained beside the River Thames for an out of sorts Reds
After the promise, excitement and resounding success of capturing the Community Shield last Saturday came today’s crashing realisation that a long season lay ahead for a Liverpool team still in the throes of ostensibly a pre-season that will then see a hectic merry-go-round of two games every week (or every other week) before the ludicrous scheduling of the Qatar World Cup in November and resumption of footballing normality the day after Christmas Day. Today was a point gained from a dreadful performance and an exciting match easily forgotten in the fug of being grateful for a single league point barely earned as it could and should have been far less.
Fulham started the brighter, hungrier, more aggressive and far more attackingly progressive and dominated a first half of football the Reds barely started, save the only real attacking threat of note that saw a fine team move involving Jordan Henderson, Mo Salah and Thiago Alcantara resulting in Luis Diaz crashing a cross shot against the far post of Fulham’s goal and with goalkeeper Marek Rodak well beaten. The Slovakian goalkeeper had little else to do in a first half that his Fulham teammates thoroughly dominated and were well worthy of their 1–0 half-time lead. They had chased and harried the visiting Reds from Liverpool completely out of their stride with their midfield “diamond” of Harrison Reed, Andreas Pereira and particularly new signing Joao Palhinha swarming all around Reds playmaker Thiago Alcantara. The opening quarter of the game saw Thiago, Fabinho and Jordan Henderson all muscled out of challenges and constantly pressured by a high Fulham defensive line as well as tigerish midfield tackles and their Serbian International striker Aleksandar Mitrovic their first line of defence as well as a threatening attacking spearhead. His first goal of a “Man of the Match” performance on 32 minutes summed up the game thus far:
With Thiago and captain Jordan Henderson now having wrestled away somewhat of a more calmed control of the game, with more space now readily available and Liverpool having their best passage of controlled possession, Fulham swept the length of the field that resulted in Kenny Tete’s deep out swinging cross being powerfully headed home at the far post by Aleksandar Mitrovic. Tete’s cross eliminated goalkeeper Allison Becker from the equation with it’s vicious curl away from his goal but Mitrovic showed the spirit, desire, physicality and aggressiveness that had typified his team’s performance so far with his dominant far post header. Reds defender Trent Alexander-Arnold was caught, in footballing parlance, “under the ball”, and Mitrovic stole a march and a running jump on him to power in the game’s first goal and a deserved 1–0 half-time lead for his team.
In truth, the Reds only played in earnest for the game’s final 40 minutes and only after the introduction of Harvey Elliott as a substitute for an injury plagued Thiago Alcantara and big money new signing Darwin Nunez for Roberto Firmino. Nunez caused chaos wherever he roamed akin to the game’s other traditional “Number 9”, Aleksandar Mitrovic, but Fulham should have been two goals to the good before the Reds new signing from Benfica could have any impact on the game whatsoever. Neeskens Kebano’s fierce drive from the edge of the penalty area on 56 minutes left Reds goalkeeper Alisson Becker flailing and then thankful for his far post, as it crashed against the inner third of it before cannoning away to safety. It was another scintillating move from Fulham, back to front, from American defender Tim Ream to the French born midfielder with a famous Dutch first name from the 1970’s. Neeskens right footed drive was superb and on another day would have cannoned across goal and into the opposite far corner of the net. It didn’t, and eight Darwin Nunez inspired minutes later, Liverpool were level.
Just after the hour mark Liverpool finally clicked into gear with a brilliant 1–2 move or “Give and Go” between Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mo Salah that saw Salah’s cross deliberately and elaborately flicked/back heeled toward goal by Darwin Nunez that forced a fine instant close in save from Fulham’s Marek Rodak. Two minutes later, via Deja vu and with the Reds now pressing for an equaliser, it duly came. In place of Alexander-Arnold came the impressive Harvey Elliott who alongside his captain Jordan Henderson opened up Fulham for another Salah cross that flicked Nunez, hit Fulham defender Tosin Adarabioyo before flicking the boot again of Nunez and high into the Fulham net. Minutes later Tim Ream cleared from his goal line after Nunez had squeezed a shot under his goalkeeper and with the Reds now in the ascendency, Salah, absent for so much of the game so far, was now involved again, this time setting up James Milner for a deliberate and deft lob to the far post that saw Nunez head down for Luis Diaz who’s goal bound shot deflected narrowly wide for a corner.
With twenty minutes left a goal was coming but rather than a strike for the Reds, it would be Aleksandar Mitrovic for the whites and blacks of Fulham. His collision with Virgil van Dijk was a soft one, the penalty award even softer if sportingly correct, and it was Mitrovic himself who dusted himself down before driving the resultant penalty past the despairing dive of Alisson Becker. Fulham had a deserved lead again from a deserving goal scorer and all around pest today, but the lead would last just eight minutes and with one minute remaining of injury time, the Reds could’ve stolen all three points. The equaliser on 80 minutes from Mo Salah resulted from a somewhat hopeful ball into the Fulham penalty area from Trent Alexander-Arnold that Tim Ream awkwardly headed against Darwin Nunez who, when trying to control the loose ball, inadvertently laid a tap in goal on a plate for Mo Salah who joyfully netted the equaliser that should’ve set up a grandstand finish but which in truth didn’t, save the brilliant curling right footed shot from Jordan Henderson which flew past Fulham goalkeeper Marek Rodak but smashed against his crossbar and away to safety.
It’s always a “big if” but if Henderson’s shot had found the net and delivered all three points to Liverpool it would have been a huge injustice on a Fulham team who arguably deserved all three points themselves. Aleksandar Mitrovic was the pest described above, leading and defending from the front and giving Virgil van Dijk and central defensive partner Joel Matip a tough welcome back to the Premier League. Joao Palhinha stood out too in a brilliant and exciting game for the neutral that could have seen a positive result for both sides and instead resulted in neither.
This one is in the “point gained” category of Premier League draws. I only saw the progressive and controlling Liverpool of previous seasons for two or three spells in a game they were largely absent from.
A point gained from a game to forget.
Thanks for reading. Please refer to my bulging archives for all things Liverpool FC or the three most recently published articles linked below on the Mighty Reds:
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The Retro Series Vol.16 “Zico The Destroyer!”medium.com