Super Subs, the farce of VAR, and the Reds top the Premier League
Crystal Palace 1 Liverpool 2, 9th December 2023.
CRYSTAL PALACE 1 (Mateta 57)
LIVERPOOL 2 (Salah 76, Elliott 90+1)
So where shall we start with today’s game and a win that was never in the offing for 76 minutes but, through the wind and rain, the Reds walk on with hope in their heart to sit proudly at the top of the Premier League?
How about we start with Alisson Becker whose performance on return from his recent injury should not be underestimated or forgotten, nor his brilliant and quite astounding first half near post save that denied Jefferson Lerma an almost certain goal on 27 minutes before pulling off an even more crucial save in the final minute of second half injury time to deny Joachim Andersen and his 10 man “Eagles” a deserved drawn point. The Brazilian stop stopper is back and the greatest goalkeeper in the world was on top, game winning form.
At the other end of Selhurst Park, would it surprise you to find Crystal Palace goalkeeper Sam Johnstone who, having not dirtied his goalkeeping gloves for over 70 minutes from a Liverpool team who NEVER tested him in a sluggish and drab display, then having to be replaced through injury by goalkeeping substitute Remi Matthews who, similarly, didn’t have a shot to save yet conceded two late goals from a Reds team who yet again found a way to win, and win late, in a game they under-performed?
How about the eight yellow and one red card dished out by referee Andy Madley in a game that barely saw a foul let alone nine reasons for brandishing a disciplinary card and taking of a player’s name? Ghanaian striker Jordan Ayew saw both yellow and red for two innocuous reasons for leaving the field early and mere seconds later, his team’s 1–0 lead vanished and the ten men left behind were pushed and pushed by an improving Liverpool until Harvey Elliott’s delicious left footed long range drive saw the Reds only really play in earnest for 14 minutes yet still claim victory and top spot in the Premier League.
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With Arsenal losing 1–0 away to Aston Villa in the day’s late and final game of the day, the Reds hold on top spot at lunchtime will remain in place at the end of yet another chaotic weekend in the wild world of the English Premier League and after yet more interference from those doom mongers in the VAR booth. Post game the general consensus was that both decisions referred to those bureaucratic footballing killjoys resulted in the “correct” outcome and first the overturning of a penalty in favour of the home team late in the first half before the awarding of a penalty for Crystal Palace on 57 minutes but this, frustratingly, misses the point. It took a combined five minutes of game playing time for VAR and a referee now watching the exact action he’d just seen, with his own two human eyes from the best vantage point in the entire stadium in real time, to overturn and then award separate penalties, the second of which stopped play after nearly two minutes had passed, many phases of play too, before the referee stopped play to troop off to the side of the pitch to see if his eyes were indeed lying to him after all.
I agree that both decisions were ultimately “correct” but this farce of VAR cannot continue and sadly, it will and, deep breath everyone, it’s going to get a whole lot worse and, take an even deeper breath, deliberately so. Football is theatre, art, a spontaneous spectacle, instantaneous, thrilling, nerve shredding, joyous, exciting or, more simply, a bloody game. This is vapid, vacuous, sterile and bureaucratically incorrectly correct for consumers and tourists and not real football fans. It’s for a new generation happy to stare at their shoes and told when to cheer or boo by a big screen or larger authority telling them not to get excited or enjoy themselves and crucially, to not believe their lying eyes. It’s for betting companies to fleece ever more millions from willing consumers looking for exact and “correct” ways of betting and losing oodles of cash as well as their (football) shirts.
And it’s so much more than this.
It’s anti-football, anti-human nature and correctly bloody incorrect.
And it’s here to stay.
So much for all that!
The Mighty Reds top the Premier League and as well as casting thankful eyes in the direction of their returning Brazilian goalkeeper it was a day and victory turned on the “Super Subs” of Ibrahima Konaté, Curtis Jones, the attacking verve of Cody Gakpo, the winning goal and brilliant cameo performance from Harvey Elliott and especially so the second half display of “Man of the Match” and much maligned Joe Gomez who raided constantly from defensive right back along the attacking right wing. Joe is so often prone to a defensive rick and it’s somewhat staggering to note he’s still only 26 years old after a Reds career entering its ninth year, but today was his day, and the bear hug that greeted him at full-time from manager Jürgen Klopp told its own story.
Through the wind and rain, the Reds, unconvincingly, march on.
A final word from The Boss
“I’m a very happy manager in this moment, but I know we were lucky as well. If you only win your really good games you have no chance to be really successful, that’s how it is, and obviously today was not a really good game from us. For 76 minutes it was a really bad performance. We did have rhythm changes; we didn’t have any kind of acceleration. We had no timing. But what we did from 76 to 105 minutes or whatever, that was really good because we all know against 10 men you can have much more problems than we had today”.
“We really turned the game around, the subs were super-influential and made a super impact. That’s actually the story so far this season, what we bring from the bench has a real impact. That’s why we could do it, but again if Harvey mishits that ball, it’s a draw, if Mo is not there where he is and the ball doesn’t get deflected then we lose the game. I know these things happen like that, but with the last 15 or 20 minutes we deserved it. Before that, we deserved nothing”.
“We came through this week; Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday 12.30pm. It was really tough, really tricky, but all good”.
Thanks for reading. Please consider taking a peek at the marvellous self-published book on Liverpool in the middle of this article as a delightful present for a Reds fan or indeed football or soccer fan this Christmas!
"Anti-football"? Goodness gracious....