NO JURGEN, NO PROBLEM
LIVERPOOL’S KIDS TOO GOOD FOR PLUCKY SHREWS
Here’s all you need to know. Four minutes’ injury time had been signalled, and nobody was leaving. Well, a few. There’s always a few.
Yet for 99 per cent of those inside Anfield, this was utterly gripping. It might as well have been Virgil van Dijk and Mo salah out there. Better than Van Dijk and salah, actually, for these were local boys, many of them, from places like Toxteth and rainhill, in st Helens.
so when they won, they celebrated in front of the Kop as if this was the pinnacle of their season, nott the league, not europe, because that’s exactly what it was. Then they took those celebrations to all four sides of the ground, hugging each other andnd their coach Neil Critchley as if hee was Jurgen Klopp because, to them, he is.
so what part of this was disrespectful, exactly? What part was a betrayal? Klopp gave the FA Cup the sprinkling of magic so many claim is missing. He gave it vitality, excitement, joy — and the thrill of the unexpected. For once, nobody knew how it would go for Liverpool. Not this Liverpool. Against a League One side, they may even have been the underdogs. Then came a victory for a gutsy team of teenagers. A fifthround place for a band of little brothers. raw and flawed but also, in their way, quite magnificent.
The winning goal was unfortunate, headed into his own net by shrewsbury defender ro-shaun Williams, a former graduate of Manchester United’s academy. Yet its effect has potency. It leaves Liverpool on course for an unprecedented quintuple of league, FA Cup, Champions League, UEFA super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, the most successful successful season in english football history history if accomplished. There is a long way to go yet, obviously, but two of those titles have already been won, and another is merely a matter of time. Only the FA Cup and Champions League remain in the balance.
Klopp’s decision to field his Under 23 side, right down to coach Critchley, was controversial but ultimately vindicated. When ro-shaun Williams headed Neco Williams’ long ball past his own goalkeeper, one of the key arguments — that Klopp had given up Liverpool’s hope of a unique five-time success — fell away.
Debates about principle remain. Yet nobody present felt they saw anything less than a Liverpool team giving their all. They even stopped singing for heroes currently sunning themselves in Dubai and the Maldives as the game wore on.
As for shrewsbury, they were unimpressive, but ultimately came up against an opponent even more unpredictable than a bunch of teenagers. VAR. They don’t have it in League One, and they won’t have any Salopians proposing it in a hurry either, after this.
shaun Whalley thought he had opened the scoring on 58 minutes, but VAR ruled substitute Daniel Udoh offside in the build-up in another troublingly close call. It was one of those moments that do not get repeated for the underdogs. That was their chance to score at Anfield. Once it was gone, nothing like it came around again.
For all the criticism, this was a singular event. Liverpool reduced ticket prices and the callow nature of this team was so well-publicised, nobody at Anfield could claim to have been short-changed. Instead, they were treated to a rarity: an unpredictable Liverpool game. Klopp’s first team have set such heights of excellence this season, we arrive expecting one outcome — certainly at home.
Here, no one could be sure. Would Liverpool’s young men still have too much for shrewsbury, 16th in the third tier, or would age and wisdom beat youth, beauty and a funky haircut? Dave edwards, shrewsbury’s captain, was 34 on Monday; Harvey elliott, starting for Liverpool and a star in the making, won’t be 17 until April. His captain Curtis Jones was, at 19 years and five days old, the youngest skipper in Liverpool’s history. He was leading Liverpool’s youngest team, too — an average age of 19 years and 102 days, with seven teenagers in the 10 outfield starters.
The argument is that by taking his stance Klopp has disrespected the competition, the opposition, even the broadcasters — oh, won’t somebody think of the broadcasters! — who declined to show this tie. More fool them.
This wasn’t the greatest game in terms of quality but it had an element of the unknown, and plenty of edge once shrewsbury gave the impression that they could bully the youth off the park.
Jones caught a beauty, right in the kisser, from ro- shaun Williams as he tried to nip past him on the left. scott Golbourne on Neco Williams soon after had more intent and earned a booking from Andy Madley. Minutes later, Neco Williams left a foot in on
Aaron Pierre, and got the night’s second yellow card. But it set the tone. These boys were going to be no soft touch. Neco Williams had two very good shots, too.
so Klopp did no disservice. It is not his job to make the FA’s wish for a winter break, and its refusal to compromise on replays, sit comfortably together. Whatever was agreed by club officials at the start of the season, Klopp was plainly out of the loop and had every right to be staggered by news that the gap in the schedule was to be used as a dumping ground for superfluous additional games.
so he drew a line in the sand. He knows the pull his first team have, he knows the cameras lap him up, too. so he determined that the Cup wouldn’t get any of it, during the winter break. Not his team, not him. Maybe he should at least have occupied a seat in the directors’ box as one of his players, James Milner, did. But Klopp probably needs a rest as much as any of them.
Would Liverpool have found it easier with even a sprinkling of first-team squad players: Adam Lallana, Takumi Minamino,
Xherdan Shaqiri? Almost certainly. Yet the club were bolstered by this display and so was the competition.
Young people bring a different dynamic. Jones pulled off a Rabona cross; Elliott sprinted 50 yards past two players and was only stopped by a foul; a quite lovely move after 52 minutes saw Neco Williams force an outstanding save from Shrewsbury goalkeeper Max O’Leary.
There was romance here, after all. And integrity. Football does not have enough of either.
LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Kelleher 7; WILLIAMS 8.5, Van den Berg 7, Hoever 7, Lewis 7; Millar 7 (Hardy 82min), Chirivella 7.5, Cain 7; Elliott 8 (Dixon-Bonner 90+4), Clarkson 7 (Boyes 90+2), Jones 8. Subs not used: Jaros, Gallacher, Bearne, Norris. Scorer: Williams 75 (og). Booked: Williams.
Manager: Neil Critchley 7. SHREWSBURY (3-4-3): O’Leary 7; Ebanks-Landell 6, Williams 6, Pierre 6; Love 6, Edwards 6, Goss 5 (Cummings 74, 5), Golbourne 5; Whalley 6 (Walker 82), Lang 5 (Udoh 57, 6), Laurent 5.
Subs not used: Murphy, Beckles, Sears, Hart. Booked: Love, Golbourne.
Manager: Sam Ricketts 6. Referee: Andy Madley.
Attendance: 52,399.