Four Hours
Liverpool v Everton
4TH of December, 2019
I had four spare, un-expected hours to take; how better to spend them than watching my beloved reds.
As I drove to Davie’s, I said the line-up to myself, as you do. Adrian in goals, Trent-Alexander Arnold, Andy Robertson, Virgil van Djke, Dejan Lovren at the back. With Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the middle with Bobby Firmino, Mo Salah and Sadio Mane up top. I mean, Klopp very rarely changes this right?
Oh, how wrong I was.
It was Dean who greeted me at the door, with the ‘Oh Oh’s’ in the festive window on a fogyish December night.
Quickly he told me that Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri were up top with Sadio Mane. At first, I did not believe him, thinking he was pulling my leg, I believed Davie even less as he is prone to try and joke about the side. However, it was no joke; Klopp had mixed things-up and we all agreed, it has gone stale of late.
Not only that, Adam Lallana was in the middle alongside James Milner – who would be captain and also Gini Wijnaldum, but my, what a strong bench though! We hoped the changes would do the trick.
With the soft sweets so easily being tucked into Liverpool started on the front foot, attacking the Anfield Road End which it has been revealed will be up-graded to the tune of another 7,000 seats, so pushing the grounds capacity past the 60,000 mark – cha-ching!
Mane was on top form. Mane was magnificent – aided by Origi who likes Everton. Soon the reds were ahead. Mane teed-up Origi and before you could say ‘Pickford failed to hold the ball’ Origi finished with a sublime touch, rounding Pickford and slotting the ball without breaking stride, into the bottom of Pickford’s goal and Liverpool were away!
Of course, I jumped off the sofa with baby Kelsey having also got off, as I celebrated!
In the blink of an eye Mane also played a sublime defence splitting angled pass through to Shaqiri and in one fell, left foot swoop, the ball was nestling into the bottom corner of Pickford’s goal. It was 2-0 to the reds and it was as though Shaqiri had answered our question – ‘Where is he?’.
‘There he is!’ – I pointed at the large TV screen, as ‘Shaq’ celebrated. It was only about twenty minutes gone.
A rout was on the cards.
Liverpool were playing like they could – with fast attacks and nice one-touch touches and generally enjoying themselves. It has been a while. They were free-flowing.
‘Keep a clean sheet and we’ve won’ Deano announced as we three had dreams of a 5 or 6 – niller.
However, Everton had not read the script and they got a needlessly given away free-kick and from it, Keane beat Lovren and shot home from close range, into the bottom right-hand of Adrian’s goal. 2-1.
It was sickening.
That was another clean-sheet gone in a flash. No wonder we all said about getting that strapping centre-half from Napoli; the man-mountain that is Kalidou Koulibaly.
Carly – Davie’s wife, who had earlier gone to a supposed meeting which had been nothing but a time – wasting exercise, had put out a box of Milk Tray – could she have been the equivalent of the suave, posh Milk Tray man! It was a dangerous thing to do, oh so tempting, so tempting, ‘Oh sod it’ I thought as I put a square one into my mouth – well, it was nearly Christmas!
Liverpool though soon got their two-goal advantage back as the ball was played out and Trent Alexander-Arnold was running with the ball down our left. Inside of him was Mane. Without breaking stride, Mane shot the ball with his left peg, at full pelt, past the right of Pickford, near the post for possibly one of his best ever Liverpool goals and he has scored a few crackers. 3-1.
It was just fan-tas-tic and a real joy to watch – a line which I have not written too often this season.
There was more though…
Dejan Lovren played a long ball from inside his own half and completely cut-out the midfield. Origi was onto it in a flash and controlled it first time over his head and smashed it into the top left-hand roof of Pickford’s net to send the red fans into a frenzy of joy which ‘Father Crimbo’ himself could not have left under the tree.
It was a stunning goal from the Belgian who likes Everton – having re-launched his Liverpool career in the same week last year, with a 96th minute last gasp winner.
No wonder the Kop was in good voice as ‘Mane Christmas’ boomed around the ground on more than one occasion, along with a few lines of ‘Shankly’s Best’.
For the sake of repeating myself – it could have been 6 or 7 not just 5 or 6.
We were all enjoying it. The half had seemed to go on forever mind and it extended into the break for us though with a sucker-punch at the tinniest tail end, as Everton were allowed to cross in from Liverpool’s right and there was the dangerous Brazilian, shaven-headed, Richarlison, to fire into the bottom left-hand corner of Adrian’s goal, with a flying – un-marked header.
It was 4-2 when it should have been 4-0. I hoped that Davie’s new found election slogan for the Klopp Party, of ‘We don’t do clean sheets – only three points’ was going to come true again.
As two of Davie and Carly’s three girls rummaged through old, old, photo albums, to which there was a snap of a cheeky chappy blond lad who was the spit of the oldest Kayla, and Davie appeared to be talking to himself whilst making the half-time cuppa, we hoped that Klopp was going-off on one at the boys in red at our defensive lapses and also telling them that they just had to manage the game and get the three points.
The Liverpool players must have taken heed. They kept the ball more. It was the key. Trying to stamp out any possible Everton comeback.
Before we knew it, an hour had passed as Liverpool tried to hit Everton on the break – content to sit back. Still though I was on the edge of being very nervous. I mean – really? Yes, definitely, as even though we were two goals-up, just as the Dairy Milk were going down to the dangerous second layer, in an instant the game could have turned dodgy, with an Everton goal.
Deano summed it up, ‘It would be torture’, if Everton had scored it.
Jordan Henderson came on and Liverpool got a tighter grip.
Liverpool could have made the game even safer when all of a sudden Henderson, with almost his first touch, played in Sadio Mane and as he ran alongside Gini Wijnaldum, Mane should have scored, but Mane could only put the low shot wide of Pickford’s left post.
In an almost carbon-copy move, Henderson again picked-out Sadio Mane and again he could have scored but Mane tried to round Pickford on his right and roll the ball into the net. In the end the move came to nothing.
They were had been Mane sitters.
Everton should have made Liverpool pay as they had a glorious chance but Moise Kean flashed his shot wide of Adrian’s right post.
It was edge-of-your-seats football and with a minute to go, Gini Wijnaldum fired home from the right edge of Pickford’s area, as the ball ended-up in the bottom left-hand corner of Pickford’s goal to make it 5-2.
No wonder the Liverpool crowd had sung, ‘Going down’ to the Blues, as yet another defeat left Everton in the bottom three.
It was a relief once it was over and little Kelsey had long gone to bed having taken her medicine for Scarlet Fever – poor dab and Deano began to wrap-up his newly bought pc, after his other one had crashed recently. However, he had managed to save all the holiday Disney snaps though.
All in all, it had been an enjoyable four hours.
5/12/19 1360
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