Liverpool 2 Everton 0
Divock Origi to the rescue as the Reds continue to relentlessly chase Manchester City for the League Title
Divock Origi to the rescue as the Reds continue to relentlessly chase Manchester City for the League Title
Divock Origi, the Patron Saint of late goals, important goals, substitute goals, cheeky goals, Merseyside Derby goals and even a European Cup Final winning goal, was back to his old tricks yesterday. The Belgian striker is also the Patron Saint of the widest of smiles that light up the darkest of rooms, the laid back attitude of a Californian surfer dude riding the sporting waves and the very epitome of the definition of a “team player”.
And boy did we need his divine intervention yesterday.
Until his introduction, as substitute once again, and in tandem with the newest of all Kop End idols Luis Diaz on the hour mark, Everton had dominated a dreadful opening 60 minutes of this Merseyside Derby. For dominated, read spoiled, niggled, dived and wasted their way through an hour of stop/start, sour and dour football. Anthony Gordon entered Derby Day folklore with dives that Tom Daley (Greg Louganis for older American readers) would have been ashamed of, Richarlison, Everton’s unlikeable Brazilian striker, was up and down more often than the proverbial underwear of a lady of the night and whilst these tactics could best be described as one of a team “fighting for their lives” or the rough and tumble of an old school Merseyside Derby, yesterday was a horrible spectacle.
Prior to the introduction of Divock Origi, Everton had also carved out the better of the very minimal chances on goal and local youngster Anthony Gordon was at the centre of their best, and more footballing authentic, passages of play. His pace down Everton’s left hand side posed Trent Alexander-Arnold constant problems in a game the passionately Red born youngster wasn’t anywhere near his spectacular best. His defensive mate Joel Matip certainly was, yet he too fell into the spell of Anthony Gordon, both collapsing in a heap in the Liverpool penalty area after a lengthy chase, and Gordon’s second penalty appeal of the afternoon went correctly unanswered from the Referee.
Post match, Liverpool Manager Jurgen Klopp dismissed suggestions that his players were “nervous” in the first half, but in truth they were and, more crucially, they were playing to the Blue half of Merseyside’s tune. The facts are bare: The Reds wanted a high tempo game in a condensed field of 70 yards. It’s their modus operandi. The Blues wanted a stop/start nothing of a game in a pitch as big as possible to eke out a crucial point against relegation and perhaps a sneaky goal that might secure all three. Anthony Gordon had chances to score that elusive goal and before the introduction of a match winner from the Red half of Merseyside. But he didn’t take them.
The Patron Saint of Merseyside Derby goals did.
Less than two minutes after coming on as substitute, Divock Origi’s first two touches were a deft control and instant return pass to Mo Salah. Salah’s original pass to the Belgian striker was the first time Liverpool had really penetrated or got behind the Blue wall of Everton’s defence, and Origi’s deft two touches allowed Salah to chip an equally deft and delicate cross into the Blues six yard box. The cross was probably originally aimed at Diogo Jota but as the ball drifted above the Portuguese striker’s head, in came Scotland Captain Andy Robertson to head gleefully home into the Kop End goal. The reaction to this opening goal was Red shirted Liverpool players leaping into the air with joy all across the pitch. Thiago Alcantara, in perhaps his worst and most ineffective display of the season, leapt and bounded his way toward the scorer Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold too (both in terms of celebration and comment at perhaps one of his lesser displays of greatness yesterday) and lest we forget Virgil van Dijk, running toward a Kop End imploring them for more noise, more celebration and more praise for their Scottish King.
I would hazard a guess that Divock Origi had barely a dozen touches of the ball after coming on as substitute. Perhaps fifteen or so maximum, but every touch was an instant control, warding off a defender at his back, and finding a Liverpool Red shirt with his pass. His goal was typically predatory, in and around the penalty area and six yard box, looking for a pass, a cross, a bounce of the ball, a priceless chance to hit the target. His chance came after a persistent spell of pressure that Everton simply couldn’t escape from and corner after corner was registered on the game’s ever present statistics sheet. Yet another corner was partially cleared to the feet of Jordan Henderson and his deft chip into the penalty area was scuffed toward goal by Luis Diaz trying an outrageous overhead bicycle kick volley that fortuitously found the marauding run of Origi, and the Patron Saint of winning Merseyside Derbies had done it again.
It took the Kop End an Anfield today 85 seconds before they serenaded their Blue counterparts in the “Away End” with a rendition of “Going Down, Going Down, Going Down” and it took Divock Origi roughly the same amount of time to garner his first two touches of the ball and to be instrumental in blowing this turgid and terrible Merseyside Derby wide open. Until his introduction, a dreadful game (utterly blooming dreadful) was meandering to a nervous stalemate that Everton desperately needed in their fight against relegation. Yesterday’s defeat leaves this storied Merseyside football club in the relegation zone and in danger of a drop into a Division so many fellow storied teams of the recent past have struggled to climb back out of. If Everton do not fall through that trapdoor this season there is a high likelihood they will in 12 months time. Yesterday’s first 45 minutes was as anti-football as anything Sam Allardyce could wish to create in any of his anti-footballing dreams. The comparisons were to a Chelsea team under Jose Mourinho, 10 men behind the ball and “parking the bus”. Yesterday’s football didn’t include a bus or a football for that matter. It was an anti-footballing lesson straight out of an ex England Manager’s domestic playbook.
But the Reds go marching on, beating to the tune of a masterful German drummer and to the heart of his Belgian striker’s knack of scoring important goals, and at exactly the right time.
I opened my match reports on Liverpool FC earlier this season positing that they may well need 90+ points to even compete to win the League Title this season and even with this gargantuan points haul, still not secure Bill Shankly’s “Bread and Butter”. That may still be the case. But with 5 league games to go, 15 points to play for and just 1 point behind Manchester City, the Mighty Reds of Liverpool are still in every possible competition they entered in a long ago August.
An incredible season rolls on.
Thanks for reading. There are numerous articles within my archives on Liverpool FC. Please see the following links to the 3 most recently published:
7 European trips following the Mighty Reds of Liverpool
Volume 7: FC Basel, Champions League Group Stage, 2002/03. 10th to 15th November, 2002.medium.com
Liverpool 4 Manchester United 0
Yet another perfect half of football and the Reds are back on top of the most important perch of all.medium.com
7 European trips following the Mighty Reds of Liverpool
Volume 6: Bayer Leverkusen, Champions League Quarter-Final, 2nd Leg, 7th to 11th April, 2002.medium.com