Just back in. Whew, long day with train delays etc. So, what of the game?
Well, there are draws and there are draws. That honestly felt like a win. The fervour in the stand after the equalizer was unbelievable, 4 or 5 minute sof 'hair on the back of your enck standing up' stuff. What a c*nt awful team Pulis has created, time-wasting, kicking, booting. From my vantage I didn't see the Skrtel and Milner fouls, but thought the Lovren one was innocuous enough to be fair.
Was the slap on Benteke in the penalty box a penalty? Very strange not give it. Was their disallowed goal definitely offside? Looked it to me, but old lad beside me disagreed. They took an awful long time to decide. Thought the ref had a poor game, but then it always appears so when you are furstrated in the stand.
Far more egregious was Mignolet ballsing up for their goal; he came, missed it and then got lost while WBA kicked it into the back of the net. Before that Liverpool looked bright and dangerous, scored one and looked like they would paste a shit team. After that WBA just booted everything long and created all kinds of panic. I don't think the backline were great today, Lovrena dn Skrtel both let players run past them a few times, a better pass would have killed them. Also, Skrtel and Lovren were very poor with their distribution, not helped by Mignolet playing a lot of strange balls back across the line. Have to say, two corners, far post and near post, backs don't deal with either; shameful stuff. While Lovren has been solid in Sahko's absence, you do miss Sahko's quality, he is just a better defender than either Lovren or Skrtel.
In the middle, Can was superb at times, a head wreck at others. Henderson played some very poor balls, but is feeling his way back to full fitness. I would credit him with trying to play progessive balls, but very badly. Milner had blinkers on all game, he kept playing balls behind the full backs, instead of in front of them to run on to. This alone fucked me off more than I could say. It's one thing Firmino does very well, a weighted pass for players to run on to. All game long the Liverpool midfield played to feet instead of in to space, it slows the attack down and gives shit sides a chance to recover. Frustrating.
The front three were hit and miss. Coutinho played some lovely stuff, but just back from injury got subbed unsurprisingly. Lallana was all kinds of Frustrating, how you miss a 1-on-1 with so much time is beyond me. All game long he was doing good things followed by stupid things. Benteke didn't help. No attempt to run ion behind, no attempt to chase, no attempt for a ball just a yard from him. His entire game today was to either stand between two CBs or go far post waiting for a deep cross. He did some good hold up play, but overall he just looked ordinary to my eyes. We were crying out for someone to run in behind.
When Ibe, Firmino and Origi came on they made a big difference. Ibe in particular with his direct running, but Origi also helped with some good wing play and of course the all important deflected goal. Firmino also took up good positions and made good runs.
Whwn the equalizer went in the main stand went mental. Thr Klopp spat with Pulis was cheered to the rafters and Klopp's decision to go cheer the fans with the team was inspirational stuff. The Kop loved it and rightly so. I love what he is tryong to do, connecting fans with the teama nd making teh team realise how important that link is; it was a hard game but I think by the end everyone realised how hard the team had tried. There ws more than one player blowing hard and with his hands on nhis knees (I will give Lallana a break because eventhiugh he was a bit shit at time, he put in ana mazing shift all the same).
So, a draw, but a good result in the circumstances. the fortitude ti fight to the end was great to see. Its the kind of thing that builds reputations. Liverpool, a team that fights to the 98 minute, Anfield a place where you can still drop points in extra- extra-time. No bad thing that. Lets be honest, we haven't seen that fight for a year and a bit now. 1 point closer to 4th is a decent result and all.
