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Roundtable: "When the Emotions are Paladean": Blues 0 Reds 1

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Yorkykopite:
Roundtable - Everton 0 Liverpool 1

For matches like this only google-translate will do. Pick a foreign newspaper - any country will do - look up the match report and put it through the mincing-machine of google translate. I picked Marca from Spain and, sounding like a drunken Kopite, this is what the esteemed organ had to say about the 227th Derby.

"The forest of legs and testosterone that watered Liverpool and Everton prevented the game from flowing. A sea of inaccuracies, a flood of failures, the jostling and the quarrels were brushed and sprouted. Challenge, brawl and a  battle without rest. Klopp is a nightmare for Everton. Twice he has crossed with the Toffees and twice he has triumphed. When the emotions are paladean, the German technician is grown. Liverpool are still dreaming"

I have no idea what "paladean" means, and don't want to know, but in my opinion that captures the essence of what happened on Monday might better than anything you could write in conventional English. Perhaps only a Jamie Carragher scream comes close.

What a game. What a night.  I'm savouring the result more than any other this season, not just because of Sadio Mane's exhilarating strike at the death but because Everton came at us with hammer and tongs for the first 45 and we were strong enough to withstand them and then, in the second 45, calmly disarm them of their ironmongery and treat them to a game of football. Not one of our lads wilted and it was a genuine team effort that saw us prevail. That was a big test for Jurgen Klopp's boys and they passed it with honours.

The Goodison sod was cut more for a game of rugby union that football, the grass in places long enough to hide Aaron Lennon. It was clear that Koeman - who claims to be Dutch - wanted the ball permanently belted in the air, not fizzing across the turf, and thought that Liverpool would be handicapped by having to play on lush pasture rather than the close-cropped carpets that we're used to seeing in the Premier League these days. Rumour has it that on the morning of the game the Everton ground staff were told to look into the legality of digging a few ditches and erecting a couple of dry stone walls to make the playing area even more agricultural. In the end they put a ring through Barkley's nose and told him to get on with it. 

We were good. Anyone complaining that the boys didn't put on a football show just hasn't been watching the Derby over the last 30 years. This was never going to a beauty contest. What was at stake were not our good looks, but our character. Full marks then to Ragnar Klavan who started the game, the experts told us, as a likely achilles heel and ended it with Romelu Lukaku jostling with the loose change in his pocket. A mighty performance from our Estonian. There were no last-ditch tackles, there was no shirt-pulling and there was no grappling and flailing and inviting the ref to get a card out, or worse. There was just a defender in supreme control of the situation. He simply guided Lukaku out of the danger areas, almost cooing in his ear so closely did he mark his man. "Don't go that way Romelu, that's the penalty area and it's always a bit manic there, come this way with me where nothing happens."  And in the first half too, when the Reds struggled to keep the ball and show for it, and too often took the Everton option and hit long, it was Klavan who brought some fluency and rhythm to Liverpool's play. His first touch is always good, his body shape highlighting the fact that he's already thinking about his second. And he has that lovely ability to accelerate into the second touch which immediately starts to tease open little spaces to move into and little lanes in which to deliver passes.

But this is obvious. He's played in the Bundesliga. And German centre backs know about these things. Klopp's not stupid.

In the second half when Koeman's loyal and willing farm animals began to tire we began, at last, to assert ourselves. There was a purple 20 minutes from Lallana where he seemed to be playing with the benefit of three feet, not two (Did I really see, at one point, 3 Cruyff turns in 3 seconds?) There's a touch of Johnny Barnes about the way he appears to offer an opponent the ball only to whisk it away at the last moment.  And just as in the game against Boro, Lallana dropped very deep at times to get Liverpool into passing mode. When his days as a marauding midfielder are over there's clearly going to be an opportunity for this boy to finish his career, like Stevie, in a deeper midfield role. He knows so much.

Elsewhere in midfield Gini Wijnaldum was excellent too. The more I see of him, the more I like. There are no histrionics, and no showboating, but his movement and passing are crisp and inventive and his tackling is hard and efficient. Plus he seems to be tireless. Firmino struggled valiantly without ever reaching the heights he's capable of, but I wouldn't underestimate his contribution. The lad's a bloody handful even when he appears to be driving into cul-de-sacs and the determination with which he fought to retrieve the ball epitomised the team's spirit on the night. Hendo, like Lovren, shrank a bit in the first half but clearly absorbed Klopp's message over the half-time cup of tea, and emerged to play one of his best 45s in the second. His confrontation with Barkley might have brought back memories of McMahon v Reid but such was the savagery of the Everton man's late tackle ( a three-match ban pending surely) that it more accurately evoked the horrendous clash of Beglin v Stevens. Hendo was lucky. That leg could easily have been shattered. And then he showed his class, first by staring down the offender after he'd booted the ball away to waste time (thanks for that Ross) and then in his post-match interview where he played at being ambassador to the United Nations. 

The end was crazy; one of the best ends to the Derby there's ever been. Sturridge came on and with his first four touches failed to control the ball. His fifth touch was a mishit too, but the pace with which he glided away from the Everton defence to get the shot in was a hopeful sign. When the bobbled effort hit the post Sadio was in Bronze position. A second later he was in Gold. Then the smoke poured out of the Bullens and the entire Liverpool team celebrated in what looked like a war zone.

It had been. And the traditional enemy was vanquished again.

On to Stoke.

kavah:
Great that la.

the 92A:

At the end of the season you look back on certain games and realise they where more significant than you realised at the time. It's tempting to put this game into that category but the significance of what we did on Monday night hasn't been lost on our fanbase, we delighted in an 94th minute goal against Everton team who's ambition had been pushed back to seeing out a draw, that their fans would have celebrated like a great victory over the nasty redshite, as much for denying us 2 valuable points in our attempt to keep on Chelsea's heel's as anything to do with their own teams performance.

It rises above a parochial derby game, where we put Everton's hope to the sword because of the manner of the win. A four nil victory with us dominating with incisive passing would have been nice but that's so last year, it would have proved nothing. We know this team is capable of the sublime football destroying teams when everything clicks. What we have been unsure of is the ability to nullify and gradually overwhelm, when things aren't all roses and light, to do the things those of us who remember the leauge wins understand was the true hallmark of the great Liverpool teams, carrying on with the belief that we'll snatch a goal with an inevetability that intimidates opponents, for the youngsters think Man Utd under Ferguson.

We might not be there yet but Monday night hopefully is the start of the team learning what they're capable of, if not it was a lovely way to win a derby after Everton threw the kitchen sink at us.We let them run ragged then picked them off with a sucker punch. It felt good but I can't help thinking this is just the start of something and ultimately that is far more important than silencing a baying Goodison for another year however satisfying that is. This team are growing and it's a delight to see

Garstonite:
Mark Chapman on MOTD2 said that the game was 'quite rubbish' but I thought for the most part it was everything a derby should be. Tense, nervy, agricultural. Maybe they're not exactly the traits that a neutral is looking for, but fuck the neutral. It was refreshing to see Everton revert back to their old derby rough-housing style. Those Rodgers and Martinez years were boring as shit. You can always imagine Lance Corporal Jones giving them their final instructions in the dressing room. 'They don't like it up 'em!' And for the most part we don't. But there's something about a derby where we have the knack of showing that unstoppable defiance. The sort of mentality that, for the most part, Everton can't seem to muster. I think their lack of attacking quality came into it on Monday, of course. Valencia and Lennon? Really? Stop Lukaku, you stop Everton and you sensed that once we got through the first half it was ours for the taking.

McCarthy for Barry was a big plus too. We were getting an extra few seconds, which meant there were more pockets than the first half. Klopp talks a lot about us needing to be quicker when things aren't going well and that's where you've got to look at Henderson, Can and Wijnaldum and think whether they are good enough if we're going to become an 'elite' team. Sorry if this sounds negative or picky. Just an observation.

Oh and it goes without saying that the write up was as much of a joy to read as ever, yorky.

elbow:
Great stuff as always Yorky.

That Google translate is beautiful. "A sea of inaccuracies, a flood of failures". That could be the new Everton motto.

Where's the lifejacket money Bill?

I've got nothing to add, I will however leave Filler's free form jazz odyssey (c/o Garstonite) take on the game:


--- Quote from: Filler. on December 20, 2016, 10:27:14 pm ---Hopefully we'll be getting a Round Table for the game. Been missing them. Anyone know if one is on the cards?


I doubt I'll get the time to watch the game again. I should do I guess, but sometimes, even when watching the game on a stream of very dubious quality, you get a more accurate picture of what the game was about watching it 'live', and all you've got to do then, is to try and recount, and sow up the hundreds of little points you see while watching the game into some sort of logical whole.

Am glad RAWK has kept the half time threads going during games, even if it can be at times flushed with frustration, but I was at odds with a great deal of it. I wasn't interested in dipping in initially. I was happy with 0-0 at HT, but thought there would be some complaints that I didn't really have the energy for. But after 10 minutes, and a new tin, I scrolled through.

They came at us all blood and thunder, and didn't we kick off that first half, and played the ball long straight away? I liked that (if my memory serves). Canny I thought. We've thought about this I thought. Play 'em at their own game for this opening salvo... don't do what we normally do right now, as they'll be in our faces, so get rid occassionally, throw it up there, and don't worry about our usual game. Not today, not yet, not for these first few. It's probably the first time where there was a distinct change in direction ala Spinal Tap's. And I liked it.

I thought we managed that first half really well. And two/three, maybe four times, we still managed to remember that cute, quiet football can open up games... a little touch here, a dummy there... little moments.

In a game like that tho, anything can happen, and anything might have done, but 0-0 at HT was a great thing to have in the pocket last night.

Now we'll play. Can you keep that up Everton? That was the question, and I believe the dressing room knew the answer... I just hoped we knew it. Very good stuff.

--- End quote ---

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