ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK!
If rest of season is anything like this, we’re in for a thriller
THE greatest first round in boxing history, by common consent, took place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 1985. Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns battered each other to a standstill for three minutes of swinging hooks, shuddering uppercuts and brutal combinations. When the commentator caught his breath, he summed up what he had seen. ‘There has been no boxing, just fighting here,’ he said.
At Anfield yesterday, we were privileged to see one of the best first-day games of any English football season. There was no boxing, just fighting. There was no defending — or none that interfered much — just attacking. There was no caution. There was no timidity, just daring. Liverpool, the champions, and newly promoted Leeds went at it like two of the great clubs of the English game and it was beautiful.
It was a seven-goal thriller, a spectacle that would have graced any opening day and quite a way for Leeds coach Marcelo Bielsa to announce his eccentric genius to the Premier League. Leeds, returning to the top flight for the first time in 16 years, played with the kind of boldness and determination to entertain that few sides attempt at this fortress and there were times when Liverpool seemed taken aback by the impudence of their opponents.
In the end, Leeds fell to a late penalty from Mo Salah, who started the season with a hat-trick, but this was one of those matches where it really felt as if everyone was a winner. If Leeds keep playing like this, they will stay up with ease and they will get us off our seats in the process. This match was pure escapism. It was football at its best and that was because Leeds were not afraid. Once they were called Dirty Leeds. Not any more.
Liverpool were good. Of course they were. At times they were brilliant. But it was impossible not to be drawn to the way Leeds took the game to them, the effortlessness with which they escaped the champions’ press with their passing, the speed and precision and energy with which they scythed through Liverpool’s defence, the way they refused to let Liverpool settle in possession.
Perhaps those who had not seen the way Leeds played in the Championship under Bielsa were not expecting this. It must have been a revelation. They scored three, they had more possession than the champions and they are entitled to feel a little hard done by not to get a share of the points.
This was a Liverpool team, don’t forget, who won the league title by 18 points from Manchester City last season and were beginning the pursuit of a 20th title that would bring them level with Manchester United. And this was a Leeds team who have gone through periods since they were relegated in 2004 when they never thought they would play on this stage again.
But if the Premier League did not get Lionel Messi, it did get Bielsa and Bielsaball. The Leeds boss, known as El Loco because he once threatened a crowd of disgruntled supporters with a live grenade, struck a curious, hunched figure on the touchline.
The blue bucket that the 65-yearold perches on to watch matches has become a symbol of his eccentricity and it was placed in splendid isolation in the Leeds technical area a couple of hours before the match began. It soon became an object of curiosity. Photographers took pictures of it, cameramen filmed it, Jamie Carragher conducted an interview as he sat on it.
But it is Bielsa who is the embodiment of this Leeds renaissance. It is 19 years since Leeds reached the semi-finals of the Champions League but it feels like a lifetime. They spent so liberally on transfer fees and wages that agents took to calling their chairman, Peter Ridsdale, Father Christmas. When it all went sour, Ridsdale defended his reign of excess by saying Leeds had ‘lived the dream’. And then the dream turned into a nightmare.
The last time Leeds played in the Premier League, they lost 1-0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on May 15, 2004, fielding a team that included a teenage James Milner in midfield, Lucas Radebe in defence and Alan Smith on his own up front. It has only taken them 16 years, three months, 28 days, two relegations, 744 matches and 15 managers to get back to where they belong. Now they are here, Bielsa, acclaimed as the best manager in the world by Pep Guardiola, has got them playing the kind of football that will make them crowd-pleasers as soon as fans are allowed back into our stadiums. They may have to work on tightening up their back four but if they can prise defences apart the way they troubled Liverpool’s, they will score enough goals to steer clear of trouble.
Liverpool had opened up the Leeds defence straight away. Less than three minutes had gone when Naby Keita burst forward and played in Roberto Firmino. Firmino eschewed the chance to shoot and pulled the ball back into the path of Keita but the ball was cleared.
Unconcerned, Liverpool took the lead a minute later. Salah collected the ball on the edge of the Leeds box, turned and hammered a shot goalwards. It ricocheted on to the outstretched hand of Robin Koch and referee Michael Oliver pointed to the spot. Salah took the kick himself and hammered it high into the net past Illan Meslier.
For a few minutes, it looked as if Leeds would be overwhelmed. Liverpool played as if they were having fun in a practice match. Sadio Mane nutmegged Luke Ayling, Firmino was full of tricks and flicks, Leeds seemed mesmerised. But then they remembered some of the assurance with which they played last season and hit back.
Kalvin Phillips, who had a superb game a few days after making his England debut, drilled a perfect pass out to Jack Harrison on the left wing. Harrison controlled it superbly with his first touch and then lifted it past Trent AlexanderArnold with his second. Joe Gomez came to close him down but Harrison slipped the ball through his legs, took a couple of paces forward and rifled his shot low past Alisson for the equaliser.
It was tit-for-tat now. Liverpool attacked and scored again. Andy Robertson curled in a corner from the left and Virgil van Dijk escaped his marker and powered a free header straight at Meslier from six yards out. Meslier caught the ball but he was falling backwards and it was headed with enough power to force him into the back of the net.
Midway through the half, Liverpool nearly went further ahead. Robertson had two attempts at crossing the ball in from the left. When the first was returned to him, his second was deflected towards goal in a looping arc by Pascal Struijk and Meslier had to back-pedal furiously to tip it over the bar.
But then, after half an hour, Leeds hit back again and, again, it was a stunning goal. Once more, the visitors had the confidence to play the
ball out from the back. Stuart Dallas took a long ball on his thigh, nudged it inside, moved on to the return and then lofted a ball forward towards Patrick Bamford.
It looked as though the danger would be snuffed out by Van
Dijk when the defender intercepted it but, for once, he was too nonchalant and when he tried to hook the ball towards Robertson, Bamford cut it out and clipped his shot past Alisson. Time seemed to stand still as it rolled slowly towards the net and nestled in the corner.
Now it was Liverpool’s turn to look bewildered. They are not used to teams taking the game to them like this. They are not used to teams treating their press with disdain. But they have the confidence that comes with being champions and they refused to let up.
Three minutes later, Liverpool took the lead again. Robertson curled a free-kick into the heart of the Leeds area and Struijk could only head it back to the edge of the box where Salah was waiting. Salah took one touch, let the ball bounce and then hammered a shot high past Meslier for Liverpool’s third. It was heady, breathless, brilliant stuff.
Five goals in the first 33 minutes of Anfield’s new season.
Fifteen minutes into the second half, Liverpool provided another reminder of how they could bewitch us going forward, too. Firmino turned sweetly away from his marker and accelerated into space. He threaded a pass through to Mane, who played it first time into the path of Salah. Salah played it straight back before Mane floated a chip just over the bar.
The magic did not stop there, though. Anything you can do, Leeds said, we can do, too. Midway through the half, Leeds won possession from a Liverpool throw-in, Mateusz Klich played the ball out wide to Helder Costa and then ran on to his cross. Klich controlled the ball and watched it pop into the air before volleying it past Alisson. What a game.
It took Liverpool until three minutes from the end to win it. Substitute Fabinho pounced on a loose ball in the box and Leeds’s new £26m striker Rodrigo mistimed his challenge and Fabinho tumbled over his legs. Salah slotted the penalty past Meslier. If there are more games like this, it is going to be quite a season.