Szoboszlai steers Reds to opening day victory
Ipswich Town 0 Liverpool 2, 17th August 2024
IPSWICH TOWN 0
LIVERPOOL 2 (Jota 60, Salah 65)
There are many candidates for a headliner’s digital pen today but none more deserving than Hungary national captain Dominik Szoboszlai. The 23 year old from Székesfehérvár will only be absent from such headlines in due deference to a performance settling opening goal from Diogo Jota and a game winning goal from Mo Salah five minutes later. Reds captain Virgil van Dijk was imperious all afternoon before his magnificent raked cross field pass started Salah’s 212th career goal in a Liverpool shirt and in front of him: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ryan Gravenberch and Luis Díaz all grabbed a game by the collar of its shirt the Reds hadn’t started in the first half to completely dominate in the second. For 25 minutes the Reds of Liverpool clicked into gear and were a magnificent menacing threat who looked likely to score with every wave of attack on the Ipswich goal, and Dominik Szoboszlai was instrumental both in terms of playing his part in this blizzard of attacking intent as well as dragging his team forward and into a game they hadn’t started for 45 minutes.
Newly promoted Ipswich Town, led brilliantly by their tenacious captain Sam Morsy, pressed high, never gave the Reds of Liverpool time or space to build any momentum into the game and crucially won nearly every 50/50 contested loose ball. The home team “Tractor Boys” were a yard sharper in their thinking as well as their execution in every facet of the game, every part of the field, and had they enjoyed a half-time lead of 2–0 it wouldn’t have flattered last season’s Championship runners up. Their continual high press forced a disjointed Liverpool to play from the back but under pressure, hassled with every pass until limply relinquishing control of the ball, and indeed the game, a game firmly under the control of the hosts who dominated to such a degree as to completely shut out their visitors from any attacking intent or threat on goal whatsoever. Stand out Jacob Greaves should have scored with his far post header on 20 minutes and Omari Hutchinson tested Reds goalkeeper Alisson Becker from distance 10 minutes later, rounding off an impressive half an hour of complete dominance from the home team. Still the high press continued. Still Liverpool had one and only out ball to Mo Salah. But this only relieved the pressure on the Liverpool goal briefly before they were forced to retreat into a rigid defensive shape and dare I say hanging on for the half-time whistle from referee Tim Robinson.
Hanging on or not it was all change come the blast of the referee’s whistle to commence the second half and Dominik Szoboszlai, coupled with another impressive outing from Ryan Gravenberch, immediately stamped their mark on the game from midfield. Szoboszlai twice released Luis Díaz on 50 and 55 minutes before combining with Alexis Mac Allister on the edge of the Ipswich penalty area and after both of their shots had been desperately defended, Alexander-Arnold’s beautifully whipped cross was headed wide by Diogo Jota when he could and should have scored. Mere seconds later the Portuguese striker duly scored, a reward for the Reds unrelenting pressure on the Ipswich goal and a strike of real quality as from Ryan Gravenberch through to Mo Salah (via Alexander-Arnold’s pinpoint inside through ball) and through to goal scorer Diogo Jota, the ball never left the lush green turf of Portman Road before being rapped past Ipswich goalkeeper Christian Walton. 5 minutes later the Reds doubled their lead and arguably both ended the game as a contest as well as bettering their earlier supreme goal. Virgil van Dijk’s magnificent 60 yard cross field pass found Salah in stride, Szoboszlai returned his pass through a gaggle of defenders, and the Egyptian King did what he’s done on 211 previous occasions, slotted home a nerveless finish and after not participating in the game for 45 minutes, the Reds cantered and cruised to an easy victory with fully 20 minutes and more still to play.
For 45 minutes Ipswich were magnificent today, but didn’t score.
For 20 minutes Liverpool were rampant, scored two quality goals and could and should have doubled their tally before strolling to the finish line and 3 Premier League points at the first time of asking.
And despite the howls of derision and apoplectic anger from the children of The Matrix, Arne Slot fielded arguably his strongest starting XI today (though I’d always start with Wataru Endō!) and his substitutes bench was as strong today as at any time under Jürgen Klopp. The squad is weakened for sure and seemingly one less with the anticipated departure of Joe Gomez. A whole summer without new signings has left the children screaming like banshees for anyone, everyone, to be signed by the Reds. I for one will be overjoyed to see the closing of the media delight that is the “transfer window” and trust in the judgement of the new boss as to who he needs for the coming season.
Time will tell.
It always does.
Up the “Unbearables”.
Arne’s Afterword
“We as a team made a big change at half-time because we came out totally different to how we had come out in the first half. I have to give credit to Ipswich as well because I think they were aggressive, they were not afraid, they were playing one-v-one all over the pitch to defend us. Then it is about winning your duels and winning your second balls. I think they won more than us and that’s why it was absolutely an equal game in the first half”.
“Second half, we won more duels, we won more second balls and we played more balls in behind because if the other team takes the risk of playing one-v-one and you have the likes of Luis Diaz, Mo Salah and Diogo Jota then use them, play the balls in behind. That’s what we did better in the second half and from there on gaps opened up and you could see how good and how well we could play in possession”.
“When I started here, there were many things that had been told to me, but one of them was that Jürgen hated the 12.30 kick-off, and today the team showed that we hated the 12.30 kick-off because we were not in the game in the first half. And the second thing what people told me is that there are no easy games in the Premier League, and we showed that today. If you play against a newly promoted team and they can make such a fight out of it as they did in the first half, they can make it so difficult for us, then there’s probably a lot more to come”.
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - link to Amazon
"A final word from The Boss" - 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.