Salah and Gakpo rescue a point in a “miracle” game against the Red Devils
Liverpool v Manchester United, 5th January 2025
LIVERPOOL 2 (Gakpo 59, Salah 70)
MANCHESTER UNITED 2 (Martínez 52, Diallo 80)
24 hours on from yesterday’s game I am still of the firm opinion that Liverpool, via their worst performance of the season, rather got out of jail with a drawn point and were incredibly underwhelming in this fiercest of all local derbies when considering the otherworldly heights Arne Slot’s team have reached in his 6 months in charge. I saw a team in 3rd gear and coasting with no urgency or impetus and on the other side of the ball I saw a visiting Manchester United, a struggling, down on their luck and languishing in an unheard of 14th place in the Premier League, replicating exactly what the Liverpool Reds did so often when these roles were reversed in the 1990’s and throughout large parts of the first decade of a new Millennium: they were compact, competitive, a real threat to score on the break and determined to show what they were really made of in THE premier football game England has to offer the world. I also saw a bedraggled Liverpool desperate for both the half-time and full-time whistles, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves.
Breaking from the norm and ringing in the new year with a change in my reporting conventions, here’s a rough translation of my scribbled notes and despite Peter Drury on Sky TV calling yesterday’s match a “belter”, I didn’t make very many:
1st Half
For 20 minutes of a deadly dull game whereby the Reds simply hadn’t started (and before Cody Gakpo and particularly Alexis Mac Allister sprang into life with Mac Allister forcing a smart near post save from United goalkeeper André Onana) I marvelled at the sight of the overnight snow piled high surrounding the pitch! Such memories of days of yore! I also jotted into my trusty notebook that the conditions were ripe for Toshack and Keegan of the past and “Stevie Heighway on the Wing” and that Anfield was as quiet as the football before them on the pitch. Ryan Gravenberch had begun to have an influence on the game in the midfield (whereas Curtis Jones looked “lost”) but soon after the Dutchman scorched a tremendous long range drive just inches wide of the United goal on 29 minutes, the Reds created nothing of any further substance whatsoever as the visitors grew into the game and continually exploited the space vacated by Trent Alexander-Arnold on the Reds right-hand side. Either when one-on-one with Diogo Dalot or when the “namby-pamby fishwife” (see my other books on the Mighty Reds) Bruno Fernandes joined him, Alexander-Arnold was outplayed time and again or the space behind him exposed. As Rasmus Højlund did on 41 minutes when running clear on the Reds goal and forcing a brilliant smothering and close-in save from Alisson Becker.
United were well on top and dominating the game and frankly I was desperate for the half-time whistle even if no-one else was!
2nd Half
GOAL! Liverpool 0 Manchester United 1 (Martínez 52)
A goal was coming as the Reds hadn’t started the second period of play at all and whilst Martínez smashed an unstoppable shot past a helpless Alisson Becker in the Reds goal, the lead up to it, from a Liverpool perspective, was shocking. Trent Alexander-Arnold’s pass from defence was easily intercepted by Martínez (a central defender lest anyone forget) but there was no challenge or pressure on the ball carrier, Martínez continued his run into the penalty area, Fernandes easily passed through a lazy Reds defence and, according to everyone’s favourite ex Manchester United legend Gary Neville on TV co-commentary: “This is a miracle from where this team has been the past few weeks”.
GOAL! Liverpool 1 Manchester United 1 (Gakpo 59)
The visitors lead lasted for only 7 minutes but the Reds still hadn’t even begun to start playing in earnest until Alexis Mac Allister (easily Liverpool’s best player on a day best forgotten) received a sharp pass from Ryan Gravenberch, released a perfect relay pass to Cody Gakpo who cut inside and curled a beauty into the top corner of the United net. Boy did the Reds need this goal and more importantly, Cody Gakpo is having one hell of a season and scoring goals for fun. Long may this pleasing trend continue!
GOAL! Liverpool 2 Manchester United 1 (Salah 70)
Alexander-Arnold’s curling cross received an instinctive goal bound header from Alexis Mac Allister (that man again) and although Matthijs de Ligt’s initial handball went unpunished, VAR (although I despise this dystopian system with every fibre of my being — see ALL my previous books on football!) rightly adjudged it an offence, Mo Salah slotted home the resultant penalty to go level with Thierry Henry on the all time Premier League goal scorers list, 2 goals behind Frank Lampard but far, far more importantly, another goal closer to Gordon Hodgson as the Reds 3rd all time goal scorer and the Reds, without really playing at all, were in front.
GOAL! Liverpool 2 Manchester United 2 (Diallo 80)
Leading and in the ascendancy, the Reds never threatened a third and game sealing goal before conceding another sloppily defended equaliser. Ibrahima Konaté never got close enough to challenge Alejandro Garnacho and even though his cross into the penalty area was a scuffed, weak effort, it defeated three Reds defenders before Amad Diallo swept home.
In the time remaining the game took off in earnest and in an end-to-end, helter-skelter style of previous boss Jürgen Klopp and although the Reds went close three times on the cusp of full-time through Diogo Jota, Conor Bradley and Virgil van Dijk, the clearest game winning goal scoring fell at the Anfield Road End in favour of the visitors and thankfully for all concerned, Harry Maguire (a central defender lest anyone forget) skied the easiest of chances over the crossbar for a deserved away win for the visitors.
Peter Drury on Sky TV described the match as a whole as a “belter”.
For a neutral perhaps!
For anyone with skin in the game: Liverpool escaped with a point from a game that passed them by and Manchester United overperformed, were by far the more impressive team on the day, and should have won.
But they didn’t.
So halfway through the Premier League season the Reds have lost just once, dropped only 11 points from a possible 57 and sit 6 points clear at the top of the league with a game in hand. Rejoice I say!
But this was a stinker.
Arne’s Afterword
“Of course, it feels for us as two points dropped. I think many people, what stays in their head for a long time is what happens in the end and that was a big chance for Maguire, of course. But what we tend to forget is two minutes before, Virgil had maybe such a big chance as he had to make it 3–2 for us. In the end, it was a difficult game. A bit similar to maybe the Nottingham Forest game, where the playing style of both teams was quite similar”.
“Of course, we had to do much better in the two goals we conceded, but that’s what every manager says, probably — Amorim will tell you they had to do better in the two goals we scored. Taking control against a team that plays almost every ball into your last line is not as easy as another playing style”.
On whether recent speculation affected Trent Alexander-Arnold…
“I don’t believe in those things. I think 9 out of 10 people will tell you it affected him but I am one of the 10 that tells you I don’t think that affected him. What affected him was that he had to play Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot, who are two starters for Portugal. Great, great, great players”.
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.