The “Scouser in our Team” keeps Reds in Title Race
Fulham 1 Liverpool 3, 21st April 2024.
FULHAM 1 (Castagne 45+2)
LIVERPOOL 3 (Alexander-Arnold 32, Gravenberch 53, Jota 72)
I was a worried and frustrated man at half-time today as Liverpool had conspired to allow an underwhelming Fulham team back into a game they hadn’t participated in for 45 minutes. João Palhinha, Rodrigo Muniz and Andreas Pereira had all forced rather easy and rudimentary saves from Reds goalkeeper Alisson Becker but they were second best all over the pitch and entering half-time deservedly a goal adrift from a dominant Liverpool and a goal from the footballing Gods from Trent Alexander-Arnold. Rather than, in the footballing vernacular, “clearing his lines” and simply crashing a loose ball into the Fulham half of the field on the cusp of half-time Andy Robertson presented a “hospital pass” to Ryan Gravenberch, the young Dutchman gave away a free-kick, the Reds again didn’t clear the danger from the resultant passage of play and from a position of dominance the Reds dithered, Timothy Castagne didn’t, and Liverpool had once again wasted a great but not perfect half of football to troop in level at 1–1.
This was especially hard to take considering the brilliant start made on the banks of London’s River Thames (and the positive start so demanded of boss Jürgen Klopp and absent without leave in recent games) and although not creating a raft of chances his team had started brightly, ceded a little control of the game for 10 minutes mid-way through the half before the “Scouser in our Team” Trent Alexander-Arnold topped a magnificent personal half of football with a curling free-kick on 32 minutes that two goalkeepers wouldn’t have stopped let alone Bernd Leno on his own. Free from yet another spell on the injury sidelines, the 25 year old Liverpudlian was again given the dual role of his customary right-back as well as having a free reign to dictate the flow of the game from a more central NFL style Quarterback role and how this team has missed his guile, invention and range of long distance passes that transform slow defence into quick attacks, bypassing the man-to-man tactics of the Reds conquerors in Europe Atalanta and today, a rigid, well organised if unspectacular and underwhelming Fulham.
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - Available on Amazon!
The Reds number 66 was today’s star man by a distance but 1–1 at half-time was worrisome and more than a little frustrating and, lest we forget, Liverpool simply have to win every Premier League game from hereon in to stand the remotest chance of winning the league and usurping title favourites Manchester City and the team currently in pole position, Arsenal.
Step forward Ryan Gravenberch.
As is the way in today’s maddening madness of social media (and I’m sure the likes of Twitter and Facebook were ablaze with righteous fury at the boss’ starting XI today!) the young man from Amsterdam isn’t everyone’s favourite to play in Klopp’s once evolving and now sadly final midfield, but despite appearances the kid is just 21 years of age for crying out loud! Instant success is the order of the day rather than the bedding in and acclimatization period of yesteryear when 21 year old’s were given patience and grace to find their feet in a new country, culture and of course, the toughest football league in the world. The kid has scored goals in the Europa League and like the rest of Klopp’s squad has been sidelined through injury this season and infamously at the hands (or should that be the recklessly dangerous feet?) of Chelsea’s Moisés Caicedo that ended his Wembley appearance in the Carabao League Cup Final so early in proceedings.
I feared for the end of his season that day.
Today he kept the Reds season alive.
The delicious irony of football dictates that ex Arsenal and Everton striker Alex Iwobi would make a horrendous error in the lead up to Gravenberch’s beautifully curling goal on 53 minutes and continuing a theme, another 21 year old so heavily pilloried in today’s game of instant success Harvey Elliott, would be the young man who intercepted Iwobi’s poor pass before setting Gravenberch free to scorch a 20 yard beauty past the despairing dive of Bernd Leno. Elliott, like Wataru Endō and Cody Gakpo, grew into the game in the second half of complete Liverpool dominance that saw Alisson Becker having nothing to do whatsoever until a tame 88th minute long range drive from Tom Cairney called him into any meaningful action.
The second half action was all at the “Putney End” of Fulham’s riverside ground in South West London as brilliant team moves on 60 and 67 minutes should have seen Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo extending the Reds 2–1 advantage before, on 72 minutes, Liverpool scored another goal from the footballing Gods. From a largely redundant Alisson Becker to skipper Virgil van Dijk, his precise and probing pass allowed Gravenberch the time and space to turn in midfield before releasing Cody Gakpo who in turn set Diogo Jota running through on goal, and the Portuguese striker found the back of the Fulham net to wrap up 3 precious Premier League points.
Despite my misgivings and frustration at half-time, this was a much changed Liverpool team winning, and winning rather comfortably.
They have 5 must win Premier League “Cup Finals” to go.
Race for the Title
Arsenal P 33 W 23 D 5 L 5 GD 51 Points 74
LIVERPOOL P 33 W 22 D 8 L 3 GD 43 Points 74
Manchester City P 32 W 22 D 7 L 3 GD 44 Points 73
With Manchester City otherwise engaged with Chelsea in the FA Cup Semi-Final at Wembley and Arsenal winning 2–0 away at Wolverhampton Wanderers, nothing has ultimately changed in our 3 horse race for the Premier League title. Arsenal still retain their hold on top spot by virtue of their superior goal difference of 8 but if Manchester City do what they’ve done so often under the tutelage of Pep Guardiola and win all of their remaining 6 games, they will be champions once more. If City achieve their season ending mission as per usual, they’ll accumulate 90+ points yet again, and as prophesied by your favourite football correspondent at the beginning of this season.
The destiny of the Premier League is still in someone else’s hands.
Everton, and the Merseyside Derby, is up next on Wednesday.
A final word from The Boss
“I liked big parts of the first half already but you are right, the second half was a complete performance, if you want. The start in the game was good. For us, you cannot really explain that, but for us Fulham is a tough place to go. I can’t even remember if we won here before, to be honest, we always struggle here a little bit. If we won, I’m pretty sure it was rather lucky than convincing, maybe I see that wrong. From my point of view, that was the best performance we had so far against Fulham away”.
“We won the last game already. Nobody felt that really but we won against Atalanta. It didn’t help but it was still a win. And I thought there’s a good chance we’d make the next step today and we tried that and the boys did that, and it was really good. We just played a really good football game, created much more chances than we used — that’s normal, by the way — but could have scored more often. We had one or two tricky situations to sort I think, self-created pretty much when we lost the ball in an unnecessary moment. I’m really happy with the performance and hopefully nobody got hurt, not that I heard anything, but that would be great. Then we’ll see. We have to recover because then we play on Wednesday again”.
I watched the Liverpool Fulham game and was flabbergasted. So many chances were blocked off the line or put just wide.
I'm a Man City fan though so I'm kinda praying on their downfall. Great season so far, it's going to be close for the title!
I hope the Winnipeg Jets can play in the NHL playoffs the way Liverpool's going over there.