Premier League Match 15 - Liverpool 3 Southampton 1

 

Nathan Jones Blue and Light Blue and Gold with Swirly Wave Patterns Army

It’s the last game before the World Cup and we are away at Liverpool. Not only that of course, it is the first game of the new era under Nathan Jones. This time last week he would have thought he would be managing a game at Kenilworth Road today against Rotherham, in front of about 10000 fans with Matt Taylor (not the ex-Skate) as the opposition manager. As it is, he’s at Anfield in front of a combined 55,000 Scousers and tourists and a certain Jürgen Klopp in the opposition dug out.

People have been somewhat underwhelmed of course by Nathan Jones arrival but there’s nothing that would get everyone on side more than Lyanco scoring a 90th minute winner at Anfield and Jones doing a full knee slide past Jürgen Klopp and flicking him the bird as he goes by. The only reason that won’t happen is because Klopp has a one match touchline ban for berating the fourth official a month or so back, whilst they were in a bit of a run of dodgy results.

Of course, they are not in a dodgy run of results now so he’s the all-happy smiley Jürgen that the media all love. There still is an inconsistency about Liverpool though that hasn’t been there in the past few seasons so new manager bounce and all that… Why not?

Well, to answer that question, the glaring reason why not is that we are crap at the moment with no cutting edge and it’s hard to see how Jones will have been able to work on that in the two days since he took over.

He of course had to do a round of media interviews and came across very well. There’s much to like in the things that he said about having a clear identity and being proud to manage the team but these are the exact same things that Ralph Hasenhuttl said when he joined. As we all know, talk is cheap and you have to deliver results on the pitch and Nathan Jones knows that. He acknowledged as much whilst also praising the project that we have here which is the buzzword that he probably felt he had to mention as it’s Rasmus Ankersen that he has to impress.

Results on the pitch are all that matters really between now and the end of the season, maybe not starting with today but starting pretty soon after the World Cup.

Oh yes, the World Cup in glorious Qatar, where of course it should never ever be held. It’s being held there of course because Sepp Blatter was in charge back when the tournament was awarded and was susbsequently banned from all football activities for 8 years. How galling it was this week to hear him being interviewed saying giving the World Cup to Qatar was a mistake. Talk is cheap.

At a push, we had five players with a chance of going to the World Cup and in the event we only have two going. Mohamed Salisu will be there for Ghana and Armel Bella-Kotchap has seen his decision to not have surgery on his shoulder completely vindicated, with a call up to the German squad. It was a slight surprise that Duje Caleta-Car didn’t make the Croatia squad and slightly less of a surprise that Romeo Lavia didn’t make a very strong Belgian squad. He will have plenty of other opportunities.

Thanks for Playing in the Meaningless Games but Jordan and Kalvin are Nearly Fit, So See Yer!

Opportunities are however running out for JWP, who was predictably overlooked for Gareth Southgate‘s England squad. It’s a standard thing for Southampton players and it’s happened for three tournaments in a row.  Ryan Bertrand 2018, JWP 2020 (2021) and JWP again in 2022.  I’ll repeat what I said back in 2021 - it’s okay if you play for Southampton during qualifiers the Nations League games because you will make the squad and get minutes on the pitch, but as soon as it comes down to a tournament, you have got absolutely no fucking chance. All the big club boys will miraculously be available for the tournament and blind loyalty will be the order of the day, so they'll be selected.

We all know that JWP has not had a decent start of the season and that has been down to the role he has been asked to play as much as anything, with the injury absence of Romeo Lavia and being forced to play with Ibrahima Diallo or Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who have both been pretty poor support in a two man midfield.  In Southgate-world, JWP is not seen as a number six so he’s not competition for the selected Kalvin Phillips, who has played one minute of Premier League football this season but he is seen as competition for Jordan Henderson who has been crap/injured for Liverpool, Jude Bellingham who is a completely different type of player and Connor Gallagher who has Chelsea next to his name this season, even though he doesn’t often start and when he does, he quite often get substituted early. In my opinion it wouldn’t have mattered if JWP had been brilliant at the start of the season. He still wouldn’t have been selected, partly because he is easy to leave out and there wouldn’t have been a media campaign to include him like there was with James Maddison.

I don’t think anyone could blame JWP if he thought his career would benefit from a move away from Southampton. On that front, it will be vital to see how the season progresses under Nathan Jones. Of course, if we go down and JWP will be off and so will the more promising of our youngsters. They might be off anyway even if we stay up but if we stay up they’ll be off for £50 million as opposed to considerably less, unless Dragan Solak fancies throwing some more money at it.

So, with only two of our players going to the World Cup, I reckon we should take advantage of the fact that some of Liverpool‘s players are going to be a little bit tentative about things with the vast majority of them off to Qatar to pretend that human rights don’t matter for a month or so. Smash into them. See how much they fancy it.

It’s going to be a weird game today with The World Cup starting next week and we’ve got to hope that Liverpool have got their eye on that more than we have. As I said earlier, Liverpool have been very up-and-down this season with several top performers not being at the top of their game. Trent Alexander-Arnold has only made the England squad because of an injury to Reece James and Andy Robertson has been in and out of the team this season with Kostas Tsimikas quite often taking his place. Even Virgil van Dijk has been found wanting on occasions this season as has Fabinho in midfield and Jordan Henderson. Injuries, notably to Thiago Alcântara have meant youngsters like Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones getting regular starts as well as James Milner who must buy now be in his 40s. It’s all combined to leave Liverpool well short where they normally are and that if nothing else gives us a bit of optimism for today. I see this game as being about us however. It’s about how we play, how aggressive we are and how much intent we show. What did for Ralph as far as I’m concerned was the ‘nothing’ football that we have been playing for the majority of the season, just sitting back and allowing the other team to basically do what they wanted. Fuck that. It has to stop - starting today.

Nathan Jones has got a reputation for basically playing three at the back and that’s what we had in his first line up with ABK, Caleta-Car and Salisu lining up in front of Bazunu. Elyounoussi at right wing back was a worry with Perraud on the left.  Lavia and JWP made up the midfield with Stuart Armstrong with Adam Armstrong and Adams charged with actually trying to score one of those goal things that were not terribly good at doing.  Liverpool's line-up and bench is notable for the absence of Henderson, who probably is injured.

Our brave new era starts well as Liverpool doze off from a throw and Elyounoussi takes one touch and delivers a cross quickly which is marginally too high for Che and he heads over.  The more things change, the more they stay the same and with five minutes gone, Salah dives into Caleta-Car on our left and ‘earns’ a free-kick and a booking for the Croat.  Irritating bastard Robertson swings it in and Firmino walks in front of Elyounoussi and flicks it back over his own head and it beats Bazunu’s somewhat lead-footed attempt to get across and keep it out. I don’t think Firmino even meant that as an attempt on goal but here we are, 1-0 down, five minutes, welcome to the Premier League Nathan Jones.  Deep intake of breath.

OK, we don’t look like we’re going to cave in and it’s a free kick for us out on the left hand side as Firmino gets penalised for a trashing tackle that normally gets you a booking but you can’t have everything. JWP, fueled no doubt by being left out by Gareth fucking Southgate, swings in a perfect ball and Che Adams gets away from van Dijk to plant a header into Allison‘s net. Fucking hell we’ve scored. Nathan Jones Blue and Light Blue and Gold with Swirly Wave Patterns Army!

If we could now do some defending – that would be great but no, Irritating Bastard Robertson catches Elyounoussi out and picks out Nunez down the left-hand side with his cross is met at the back post by Salah - a situation that he’s scored from about 200 times but this time, Bazunu spreads himself superbly to block the shot

To be fair. We are trying to be aggressive and go forward and there is a definite soft touch about some of Liverpool’s defensive work both in midfield and in defence. We can get these but we have to keep the back door shut which we duly don’t as we fail to clear on a couple of occasions, having had the chance to do so and Elliott chips in a diagonal ball from the right hand side and Nunez has peeled off the back of ABK and finishes across Baz to make it 2-1. He looks offside at first glance but he isn’t – really good movement and we are behind once again.

We need to be thinking about getting to half-time just one goal behind and we are indebted to Baz again makes an outstanding close range save from Firmino but of course we don’t manage it as we absolutely doze off pathetically from a free kick in the ball is slotted inside Elyounoussi.  Irritating Bastard Robertson sends it across low and there is Nunez to ram into the net. 3-1 at half-time.  Game over you would think.

No changes at half time and the second half starts with a kind of dead period.  Liverpool are happy to hold what they have and Saints look happy to still be even remotely in the game still.  On the hour mark, Jones freshers things up with Edozie, Maitland-Niles and Walcott coming on for the Armstrongs and Caleta-Car, so it’s now a back four with AMN slotting in on the right.  Edozie immediately combines well with Adams to send Elyounoussi in on Allison and he tries to dink it over him but that’s not happening. From the resulting throw out, ABK has a nightmare when he receives a short pass in defence and Salah is clean through. ABK gets back at him and then Salah does what Salah always does and as soon as the defender gets everywhere clear, he hits the deck with his arms flailing and Simon Hooper probably uses that to not give it.  Despite the theatrics, it looked a foul to me and we are somewhat lucky to get away with it.

Edozie is at the heart of things again as we create another great chance, working the ball across the pitch and Edozie plays a 1-2 with Adams inside the penalty area, picks up the return pass but again Allison shows why he’s one of the best goalkeepers in the world. More chances as Walcott plays in Maitland Niles on the right and he puts over a wonderful cross which is met by Adams and flicked goalwards really well, but yet again, the big Brazilian bastard gets down and pulls off a superb one-handed save. OK we haven’t scored but it’s great that we are creating chances and actually working the goalkeeper.

It’s pretty quiet in the last 10.  Lavia goes down with cramp and has to come off and it’s a bit surreal.  Liverpool are happy to have won with Klopp banished to the stands and we seem quite happy with a relatively decent performance.

Nathan Had Plenty of Opportunity to Try Out His 'What the Fuck?' Face

Overall there was quite a lot for Nathan Jones to be happy about. There was definitely a response to the new man coming in because previously, we would never have done what we did in the second half today and actually worked the opposition goalkeeper. Fair enough, Liverpool might well have had one eye towards just seeing the game out but we played well in the second half. Jones will also have learnt about some of our problems from the first of where we just conceded goals too easily.  Bazunu made a couple of really good saves but will probably feel he should have done better for the first goal, as should a couple of defenders. Defensively we didn’t look quite on it though Liverpool‘s movement will cause any teams problems, we just didn’t deal with things particularly well.  We had chances to clear the ball before Elliott picked out Nunez for the second and the third go in particular was absolutely preventable because we just dozed off and you can’t do that at Anfield, not even for a second. You have to remember though that we are struggling with injuries at the moment and Elyounoussi pressed into service as a right-wing back was always going to be a tough job for him today.  The one mistake I think that Jones made was not starting with AMN at right back.

JWP and Lavia looked decent in the centre midfield today and Romeo showed what we’ve been missing whilst he’s been out, before he went off with cramp.  There was also a good display by Che Adams up front, even though the players around him didn’t exactly contribute very much, until Sam Edozie came on in the second half.  In the two games that the new manager has watched, Edozie will certainly have made a more favourable impression than the likes of Adam Armstrong, Walcott, Aribo or Mara.  Che of course scored one and couldn’t have done any more with the second chance he had, which forced Allison’s best save of the three good ones he made in the second half. January is certainly going to be an interesting time regarding the top end of the pitch but it was nice to hear Nathan Jones talking in glowing terms about Che and how he can make him a better striker. I look forward to that.  Ralph never seemed to rate him that highly so it will be interesting to see how Che responds to a new voice that is more supportive.

Jones interview at the final whistle was pretty encouraging to be honest. He recognised that we were too passive in our defending in the first half and said all the right things about what needs to happen going forward. As I said before though, talk is cheap and we’ll see what sort of team we have when we come back after the World Cup and it will be good to see us in our League Cup game against Lincoln just before Christmas.

We got this one over with today and there were positives.  We didn’t get hammered and the break will now help massively but make no mistake, we have to be back and firing immediately after the World Cup with games against Brighton, Forest and Fulham coming straight away.

Up the fucking Saints.