Liverpool 3 Brentford 0
Where has the PlayStation football gone? And why are fans on Twitter “conceding the Title”? An alternative match report
Where has the PlayStation football gone? And why are fans on Twitter “conceding the Title”? An alternative match report
My football editor, clearly drunk on whiskey and still lamenting how embarrassing the England cricket team were earlier today, rose from her midday and post cricket watching slumbers, and no doubt from those dirty dreams she often has surrounding the Zimbabwean International and ex Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar, to inform me that my column for Sports Unillustrated requires another match report to fulfil my contractual obligation, and who am I to disappoint them? Addled with drink and muttering swooning love songs for “Brucie Grobbelaar in our goal” she reminded me that Twitter is a madhouse that has long since fascinated me and with a simple hashtag of #LFC you can delve into a winter wonderland of weirdness, and of screams for Liverpool to buy every player under the sun and fans “conceding the Title” to Manchester City with a third of the season still to go. How they can do so without lacing up a pair of boots or playing for the Mighty Reds in person remains an amusing mystery to me. Fans conceding the Title? Fans with bottomless pits of money and clamouring to buy every “rated” player ever to set foot upon Robbie Fowler’s beautifully green earth?
Reading #LFC Twitter you’d think the Reds were destined for relegation rather than being competitively alive in all 4 competitions they entered 5 months ago!
So I watched this afternoon’s game with half an eye on Liverpool’s Skipper Jordan Henderson as firstly he seems to draw the ire from the Twitter crowd despite being an English, European and World Champion Captain for the club and because he was way off form just three days ago against Arsenal in the League Cup Semi-Final. I have rather a keen admiration for Henderson and so this is highly likely to be biased, but as well as being highly worried as the Reds continually gave the ball away toward the end of a goalless looking first half, I was following Henderson’s every move and in a patchy, dire and rather uninspired first half he and Diogo Jota were the most effective and most probing of the team he proudly captains. Henderson was everywhere within that middle third of the pitch, barely giving away a pass (I counted 1 possibly 2 in the entire game) and also popping up very wide and trying to cross dangerously into the Brentford penalty area.
Being the age that I am I remain bemused by Twitter and the lambasting Henderson receives from within the deep bowels of The Matrix. He’s “too slow”, “always passes sideways” and other such nonsense and completely missing the point of the Reds Skipper. He’s the team’s “water carrier”, in charge of the ugly and necessary, and alongside Fabinho the additional barrier of defence to ensure the keeping of a clean sheet. Perhaps the kids of Twitter don’t remember the water carriers of the past, Claude Makelele of Chelsea perhaps or (in)famously Didier Deschamps for that fantastic and World Cup winning French team of a couple of decades ago? Twitter it seems has a short memory and indeed an attention span, and I bet the hashtag of #LFC was red hot after 43 minutes of today’s dour and insipid game!
Then in the 43rd minute Brentford failed to clear a simple corner and Fabinho stooped at the far post to head Liverpool into a deserved lead. Deserved yes, but inspired and free flowing “PlayStation Football”? No. In fact, prior to the goal that put Liverpool into that deserved lead both Alexander-Arnold and Joel Matip were incredibly careless with the ball around the Liverpool penalty area and gifted half chances to a Brentford team that had played admirably well and were deserving, in their own way, to be level at 0–0 on the cusp of half-time. Fabinho’s goal changed that and after a scrappy half of football that had seen a somewhat slow and ponderous Liverpool with plenty of the ball but no inspiration, and only half chances for a glancing Henderson header and one for the busy Diogo Jota, the Reds went into half-time 1–0 to the good and with high hopes for a smoother and more ruthless second half to come.
Under the guidance of Skipper Henderson (who simply cajoled his team and always found a Red shirt when he passed the ball), the Reds were more ruthless, probing and threatening in the second half, but only after a half scare as Bryan Mbeumo should have equalised on the hour mark with a snap shot that passed the post rather than nestling in the corner of the net. Curtis Jones impressed in the second half, upped his work rate and had a fine run and shot shortly before Andy Robertson’s brilliant curling cross cut out a static Brentford defence and which was met by a good header from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and with the score now 2–0, the game was effectively over.
Diogo Jota continued to be busy and constantly buzzing around “The Bees” penalty area and played his part in a move that resulted in his superb first time cross shot hitting the post before mere minutes later Brentford gifted the Reds a third goal and this time, the game was truly over. Roberto Firmino (doing his best Ian Rush pressing impression) stole the ball from a hesitant Brentford defender and with a quick 1–2 presented a simple tap in birthday goal for Takumi Minamino in front of The Kop, and the game was done with 14 minutes to go.
Another 3 League points for the Reds sees them currently 11 points adrift of pacesetters Manchester City, but with 1 game in hand. If (IF) they win this extra game they’ll be 8 points behind and with 16 League games still to play and a maximum 48 points to play for. Concede the Title? Are you mad? On that basis, Liverpool wouldn’t have won the European Cup in 2005 or the FA Cup a year later, both under the tutelage and loving guidance of Rafael Benitez. To hear his name ring out today from The Kop was a thing of beauty and we collective Reds, Twitter screamers or not, remember the man who gave us all such joy and I bet Rafa heard the chants from his nearby home. He’s the archetypal “football man” is Rafael Benitez and takes the footballing chance where he believes he’ll make a difference and even if it means managing Chelsea, Real Madrid or Everton. His sacking was sad and inevitable but the football man needs football, and in a football mad world that will sadly swallow all of us eventually.
The “PlayStation Football” maybe a little off the mark at the moment and of course the Reds desperately miss the energy, urgency and raw pace and skill of Mo Salah and Sadio Mane. They will of course return, but perhaps not in time for the Reds next draw or defeat and when #LFC Twitter rises as one voice to declare that “The Title Race is Over!”.
It’s never over until it’s mathematically and completely impossible. But then again, European and World Champion Captains are dismissed by those who give up on the League Title weeks before the Spring colours return to this currently monochromic world. Liverpool need their “stars” back from the African Nations Cup as soon as possible but until then, give a little love to the water carriers of the footballing world. You’ll miss them when they’re no longer patrolling the midfield for your team.
The Reds are still in every single competition they entered at the start of the season, and there’s a vast volume of water to be carried until the end of the season in 4 months time.
And stop “conceding the Title”!