Trent Alexander-Arnold and a stroll in the Liverpool sunshine
Liverpool 3 Aston Villa 0, 3rd September 2023.
Liverpool 3 Aston Villa 0, 3rd September 2023.
LIVERPOOL 3 (Szoboszlai 3, Cash Own Goal 22, Salah 55)
ASTON VILLA 0
For 70 minutes yesterday afternoon, 24 year old West Derby born Liverpudlian Trent Alexander-Arnold had a ball in the Merseyside sunshine. Floating back and forth between his professional position of right defensive wing back and his youthful teenage position of an attacking midfielder, the newly installed Reds vice-captain and skipper today in place of the suspended Virgil van Dijk conducted a masterclass of long sprawling balls from defence into attack as well as precise, incisive defence splitting passes that continually carved open a rather disjointed and ragged Aston Villa rearguard. His final contribution to the game was a slight mis-control of the ball that he worked to his advantage before striding purposely from inside his own half and through a retreating Villa defence before unleashing a fizzing drive from 25 yards that was only inches away from being the spectacular goal his display merited.
That seconds later the “Scouser in our team” dropped to the Anfield turf before hobbling from the field with a suspected hamstring injury must be a concern for England manager Gareth Southgate and one can only hope, with a heavily Red tinged Liverpool supporting heart, that Alexander-Arnold’s injury is a slight one, a twinge rather than a tear of the hamstring, and an “England injury” that will clear in time for the Reds resumption of Premier League play in 12 days time away at Wolverhampton Wanderers, or a week later for the visit of high flying West Ham United to Anfield.
Time will tell.
It always does.
At the time of writing there is no official announcement as to the extent of Alexander-Arnold’s injury but the team he captained yesterday announced themselves individually, and collectively, in quite the promising fashion indeed. Alexis Mac Allister had arguably his best game so far in a Mighty Red shirt of Liverpool and fellow Summer signing Dominik Szoboszlai scored a brilliant opening goal before turning in yet another incredibly impressive display. The kid is just 22 years of age and has fitted seamlessly into Jürgen Klopp’s on-going evolution as though he’s played at Anfield all his life which, in his dreams, he probably has.
Mo Salah notched yet another goal. Joël Matip and his dancing feet were imperious and one mistake aside, Joe Gomez was superb too. Andy Robertson continues to poke his ridiculous detractors in the eye with another solid performance, Curtis Jones too, and Darwin Núñez contrived to hit both the post and the crossbar of the Aston Villa goal in a first half of beautifully chaotic footballing madness, and had run himself into the ground with a brilliant performance by the time of his substitution on the hour mark.
Aston Villa were limp, never recovered any foothold in the game after going behind so early (from a corner Pau Torres needlessly conceded after being hassled by Darwin Núñez lest we forget) and only threatened yet another clean sheet for Alisson Becker in the Reds goal via Matty Cash’s powerful header 2 minutes into the second half.
10 points from a possible 12. Tricky away games at Chelsea and Newcastle out of the way and two upcoming and very winnable Premier League games on the horizon after the resumption from the deadly dull international break.
Evolution is in the air, and in the sunshine around the fields of Anfield Road.
A final word from the Boss
“It was a top game, the best for a while, a long time. I don’t know the last time we were that convincing, and we had a few good games obviously now, especially the end of last season and these kinds of things. That was really good. The mix in possession between control and direction was close to perfect. That’s how it felt. We could use the formation today properly, everybody wanted the ball or protected or showed or offered. So, it was a top game, cannot say differently. I don’t know when I can say that the next time, but for today it was as good as could be, because the opponent is extremely strong and we didn’t let that happen today. That’s a massive compliment to my boys”.
Thanks for reading. Please see the links below for my match recaps from the Reds first three games of this new season, together with a link to my new Youtube channel where I read extracts from my recently self-published book on the Mighty Reds:
Núñez at the double as 10 man Reds stun Newcastle
Newcastle United 1 Liverpool 2, 27th August 2023.medium.com
Szoboszlai and Díaz sparkle for 10 man Reds
Liverpool 3 Bournemouth 1, 19th August 2023.medium.com
Reds and Blues flatter to deceive at The Bridge
Chelsea 1 Liverpool 1, 13th August 2023.medium.com
The Blackford Book Club
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