KNOCKED OFF THEIR PERCH
Strikers misfire again as Liverpool are. . .
MOST years, a draw at Goodison Park is considered a decent result for Liverpool. Derbies are different, after all. Just because the red half of Merseyside boasts the better team, it does not mean the blues capitulate.
True, it is now 19 games in this fixture without an Everton win, the longest run in Mersey derby history, but Liverpool do not come away with three points every time. Their last seven visits here, for instance, have produced six draws — and usually that is fine.
Not yesterday. This is a head-tohead title race and results have to be matched. Manchester City won this weekend, Liverpool did not. Now they trail by a point, or two taking inferior goal difference into account. It is a tiny margin — but it represents an eight-point swing since the morning of January 3 when Liverpool were preparing to play City in the evening. Liverpool led by seven going into that game.
Since then, in 2019, they have won four of nine league matches, losing one and drawing four. That is not title-winning form. Liverpool have dropped 11 points out of 27 and as a result City have reined them in, by winning eight of nine. Look, this is not the end of the world. It is a point. Liverpool win, City draw, and they are back on top. There are plenty of games left, plenty of swing potential — not least a Manchester derby — but the advantage is now with Pep Guardiola’s men, and every red slip from here is potentially decisive.
The roar that greeted Martin Atkinson’s final whistle told its own story. For Evertonians, stalemate felt like a victory, which would have been their first in this fixture since 2010. The scoreboard may have displayed all square but in Liverpool’s circumstances a draw is rarely just a draw. The key to slugging it out toe to toe is to match the result, even when playing the harder fixture.
A trip to Goodison Park was always going to hold more danger than City’s match at Bournemouth. But that is the test. In recent weekend programmes, City have faced up to Wolves, Arsenal and Chelsea when Liverpool have played Brighton, West Ham and Bournemouth — and City have come out on top by two points. On February 6, City visited Everton: they won 2-0.
Liverpool have now drawn three out of their last four games 0-0 and while the quality of the opposition — Bayern Munich at home and Manchester United and Everton away — serves as mitigation, it was disturbing yesterday to see Mohamed Salah spurn two chances he would have been considered odds-on to score a year ago.
The first came on 29 minutes when Morgan Schneiderlin was caught out in midfield by Fabinho, who put Salah away, one on one against Jordan Pickford.
Twelve months ago, goal. Yesterday, fabulous Pickford save. Jordan Henderson pounced on the rebound and Seamus Coleman blocked his shot as if taking a bullet for the president. It was that sort of game for Everton.
Some managers think fourth place is a trophy. For Everton, this season, messing up Liverpool is
probably as good as it is going to get. It certainly sounded that way as Goodison emptied. If Liverpool fall short by one or two points, they might even book an open-top bus.
The best performances, the best moments, all belonged to defenders — and from both sides. Virgil van Dijk was quite brilliant for Liverpool, head and shoulders the best player on the field. It is more than seven hours since Liverpool conceded in the league and Van Dijk set the standard after 10 minutes when, following a move that involved Lucas Digne, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and finally Gylfi Sigurdsson, he stopped the ball getting to Theo Walcott for what looked a certain goal.
Equally, there was a quite wonderful tackle by Michael Keane to keep out Salah, and another from Digne after Fabinho took a touch at close range, when a first-time shot would almost certainly have won the game.
Neither goalkeeper had a lot to do, but the handling in difficult conditions was good, even if Pickford’s kicking made one think he was trying to win a place in Eddie Jones’s Rugby World Cup squad, so often did he find touch. Alisson, in Liverpool’s goal, saved well from a header by Calvert-Lewin, but if this does not sound much by way of action, that is about right. There was lots of noise, plenty of fury, but not a great deal of goal threat.
In that way, it was like one of those old-school Merseyside derbies from when the teams were more evenly matched. It was built up to such an extreme level of anticipation, it could probably only disappoint. So there was lots of blood and thunder, plenty of huff and puff but little of great quality to further define it.
That is why Van Dijk stood out. As others struggled to find their game, it was as if the ball had a homing device linked to implants in his feet and head. He was aided by Everton’s bizarre conviction that Calvert-Lewin would have the beating of him in an aerial battle. There was little evidence to support this and Everton’s best spell came when Richarlison entered the field in the 60th minute, and took the game to Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp’s team are not trying to do the quadruple like City but they have future complications, such as the Champions League visit to Munich. And, as Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino pointed out last week, standards are being set almost impossibly high.
In 2008-09, Liverpool lost the least games of any team failing to win the title: just two, as Manchester United collected the prize. Yet if they and City won all of their final games, Liverpool would break their own record, losing a single game in the campaign, and still finishing second.
This is a year in which decent results can be made to feel like defeats. Liverpool did not do badly at all yesterday, they just did not win. And if City win, so must they — no matter the venue, no matter the opponent, no matter the occasion. It’s that simple.