Youthful Reds bounced to dead rubber defeat in Brussels
Union SG 2 Liverpool 1, 14th December 2023.
UNION SG 2 (Amoura 32, Puertas 43)
LIVERPOOL 1 (Quansah 39)
With the demise this week of the United’s of Manchester and Newcastle from this season’s European football, these twin twisted joys tasted even sweeter as I relaxed into the deadest of all possible “dead rubbers” this evening at Lotto Park, the temporary European home of Belgian Pro League leaders Union Saint-Gilloise. Despite a 2–1 defeat for a very youthful Liverpool side, they had already secured top spot in Group E and a place in the last 16 of the Europa League come March 2024, however USG or “Les Unionistes” desperately needed a victory to overhaul Toulouse for second place in the Group and alas, the French side matched their near Belgian neighbours with a 2–1 away win against LASK of Austria and although a celebrated victory, it was all in vain, and USG now face a play-off in February to remain in the Europa League.
There were no such considerations, pre or post game, for a much changed and incredibly young Reds team captained by Curtis Jones. At 30 years old, Wataru Endō was by far and away the oldest member of a starting XI boasting the return from injuries of 19 year old Kaide Gordon and 20 year old Conor Bradley, 19 year old Luke Chambers acquitted himself well at left-back and 20 year old Jarell Quansah netted his first Reds goal on 39 minutes and a suitably deserved personal goal it was too following his disallowed goal in Toulouse last month. Although experienced at first team level, goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher and Ibrahima Konaté (25 and 24 years of age respectively) completed a very youthful defensive back line that was rather torn to shreds time and again by a USG team happy for Liverpool to have possession of the ball but rapier sharp on the counter-attack and breaking through the lines of midfield into attack. Such forays into the Liverpool half of the field resulted in their two first half, game defining goals from Mohamed Amoura and a very impressive Cameron Puertas either side of Quansah’s equalising goal.
3 goals in 11 minutes ultimately defined a rather drab game and one the Reds barely featured in as an attacking threat with Quansah’s goal on 39 minutes their only shot on target in the entire first half and just Ryan Gravenberch and Harvey Elliott forced USG goalkeeper Anthony Moris into any meaningful second half action. 18 year old Ben Doak was snuffed out of the game whichever attacking wing he patrolled, Harvey Elliott may be highly experienced for a 20 year old but this was a game to forget for the highly talented kid from Chertsey in the middle of a very impressive season so far and Cody Gakpo plowed a lonely footballing furrow in attack with little or no service.
USG undoubtedly deserved their victory and I wish them well in their play-off next year. Their 2–1 victory appears slender on paper but had it not been for some smart saves from Caoimhin Kelleher to deny Gustaf Nilsson a first half goal and a host of saves in the second half from goal bound efforts from Mohamed Amoura and substitute Dennis Eckert, it would have been far worse. Couple this with the glaring free header missed at close range by Nilsson on 70 minutes and the VAR disallowed goal minutes earlier, USG were deserved victors and the Reds of Liverpool thoroughly beaten.
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The ultra positive news comes in the shape of game time for youngsters Kaide Gordon, Conor Bradley and Luke Chambers together with substitute appearances from 18 year old Calum Scanlon and 19 year old James McConnell, plus the fact that qualification for the last 16 of the Europa League was already assured ahead of this evening’s game and this third defeat of the season is also the second which has zero bearing on a season which sees the Reds top of the Premier League after 16 games and still in all four competitions they entered in August.
In such a transitional and evolutionary season, the Reds are way ahead of schedule, and the kids are alright.
A final word from The Boss
“I think we definitely all saw the same game, so for us it was a deserved win for Union. Even though I heard now the first goal might have been offside but nobody can tell properly. We will see that, but who cares? They are well set up, they are top of the table, they played a stronger side, I mixed up the team completely, so I think the changes we made, the amount of changes, were too much for rhythm. We needed to grow into the game. I am really happy that happened in the second half more and more and that we gave it a game, a proper game in the end. Before that, they gave us possession, won the balls on counter-attack and it was really tricky, to be honest”.
“I saw good performances and, of course, as a team it is not a fair assessment if I say now they are top of the table in Belgium and we come here, bring kids — altogether that’s really difficult. But I thought we gave it a go and that’s OK for me. Nobody got hurt, nobody is injured, so we recover, go home and go again”.
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