Mid-table bore draw helps neither Chelsea Blue nor Liverpool Red
Liverpool 0 Chelsea 0, 21st January 2023.
Liverpool 0 Chelsea 0, 21st January 2023.
On 22nd August 1964 a British television institution was born. “Match of the Day”, for the uninitiated, has been the prime time Saturday night re-cap show of the highlights from every game from England’s premier league with, as the title would suggest, the most exciting, goal filled match of the day to headline this much loved late Saturday night live gig. Helmed by ex England, Leicester City, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona striker Gary Lineker, I’d call him a divisive figure these days at the BBC but that would be an exceedingly low crossbar, but Gary remains the master director of a rotating gaggle of ex players as they discuss the day’s soccer shenanigans and the footballing fortunes of the footballing famous.
When I used to, as they say in the glorious city of Liverpool, “go the match”, I collected many superstitions, mottos, sayings, truisms and routines, a silly, self containing schedule of leaving at certain times, lucky socks, saying “we never score from a corner” as we never did but we said it to break a jinx that would lead to a Reds fanzine back in day entitled “Another Wasted Corner”. If you brought sweets to the match, don’t you dare have any Everton mints! Don’t sit down before kick off! It’s bad luck!
3pm kick-off? Back to the car for “Sports Report” on the radio and the joy of listening to your rivals defeat and the long wait to find out the score of your favourite Scottish team. Come on Stenhousemuir! Night time kick-off? Everyone falling asleep in the back of the car? There was always someone with an annoying, if vaguely amusing story. Usually the driver. Usually me.
But if you masochistically wanted THE topic of conversation that everyone feared to have on the return journey it was guaranteed to commence on the saying of this very simple phrase:
“I bet our game will be last on Match of the Day tonight!”
With the fuse lit and your lucky socks pulled up, let the moaning commence!
The astute amongst you will have noticed that I haven’t made a single reference to today’s game and despite a page of notes, I doubt I even will. OK I might, but today’s mid-table dirge from two of England’s premier teams and both recent winners of “Big Ears” and Europe’s premier football competition, will undoubtedly be the last game featured on tonight’s “Match of the Day”.
Both teams couldn’t afford to lose.
Both teams achieved their lowly goal.
Both teams receive a single drawn point that helps neither team.
Doesn’t make a lick of sense to me but don’t listen to me. I wear lucky socks!
On the Royal Blue side of the footballing ledger, Thiago Silva was rightly accorded “Man of the Match” (in a match that won’t be match of the day) and he was as supreme as he always is. Incredible footballer. New signing Benoit Badiashile, at 18 years of age is under half the age of the Brazilian legend next to him in defence, looked assured, untroubled and should have scored with his downward header on the half hour mark from Hakim Ziyech’s fizzing free-kick. The Moroccan became a more attacking presence in the second half and often interchanged or exchanged passes with Chelsea’s latest mega money signing Mykhailo Mudryk who impressed in his cameo from the substitutes bench. Conor Gallagher constantly buzzed around the midfield in search of loose balls and although he fizzled out in the second half, Kai Havertz was an attacking nuisance in the first half and can feel incredibly unlucky to have had his 2nd minute goal chalked off for offside and via that unwanted VAR killjoy and suspicious eye in a footballing sky. The visiting Blues from West London easily shaded the first half and arguably just shaded the second. They more than deserved their point and they could make a reasonable argument as to why they deserved all three.
On the Liverpool Red side of the football, 18 year old Stefan Bajcetic started brightly but faded before being out on his feet at 70 minutes but…….another very promising cameo of things to come. Cody Gakpo, still seeking his first Liverpool goal, had two half chances in each half before forcing an easy enough save from Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga at his near post on 68 minutes. The young man from Eindhoven needs a goal and in another of those quaint old fashioned footballing phrases “a goal is coming”. James Milner was his usual rambunctious self as a make shift right back and Andy Robertson arguably the Reds “Man of the Match” at left back (especially so his last minute intervention that prevented a defeat), and these veterans flanked a defence that rocked and rolled, especially in an uncertain first half.
I rarely list the negatives I see, even in a Reds defeat, but Mo Salah looks increasingly worryingly and a man looking in from a disinterested outside, the shocking, static defending for the goal that VAR deleted shouldn’t be forgotten as the lack of organisation at corners continues to be a huge thorn in this current team’s side, and Naby Keita shouldn’t be anywhere near this starting XI and the fact he is speaks volumes for the uncertainty of a team that was on the verge of unprecedented greatness just a handful of months ago and now looks a dishevelled, off kilter and out of sorts mess.
Afterword from the Boss, Jurgen Klopp, on his 1,000th game as a Manager
“First and foremost, before the game I got a lot of messages [about my 1,00th game] and not all of them were nice. I think Arsene Wenger lost his 1,000th game 6–0, so I am really happy that didn’t happen. I liked the start in the first half, I liked particularly the start in the second half, so that was good but we have to extend these spells. We have to play more football, especially in the first half when we won balls back, when we defended really well, when we were really aggressive and then we gave the balls away too easily”.
“For me, it is clear, in this situation you have to be ready for little steps — and this was a little step today, that’s how it is. I expect progress and I think from the last league game it was progress, definitely, and that’s important. I saw us in a lot of moments really compact, really being together, good challenges, but of course the opponent is there as well and sometimes you have to defend them with passion. We didn’t do that two weeks ago but today we did, so when you have a block in the last second like Robbo had, that is really important. These things are positives and from there we go”.
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:
Elliott wonder strike keeps the holders in the FA Cup
Wolves 0 Liverpool 1, 17th January 2023.medium.com
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