Post Match Report - Crystal Palace v Liverpool

We weren’t punished for something I suspect Arne Slot will punish them for…

Fixture: Crystal Palace 0 v 1 Liverpool FC (Jota 9’)

Arena: Selhurst Park, London

Date: 10/5/24 Saturday first thing. It’s like going first in a public speaking class - for the next few days you can chill and watch everyone else sweat through their powerpoints.

MOTM: Diogo Jota and Not Diogo Jota

Thoughts: We weren’t punished for something I suspect Arne Slot will punish them for…

He was irate, wasn’t he? It’s good to see. Lessons from winning positions are rare in football, and this will be an opportunity for the manager not to miss. We should have killed Crystal Palace in the first half. The fact that we didn’t score at least a second goal meant the variance of football always had a chance, as did the inevitable in terms of Alisson’s injury. We must be beyond variance. Especially when Crystal Palace were holding open the curtain to perfection. 

I said last time that I’d talk more about Alisson when he was the story, so here goes. Mamardashvili is Alisson’s replacement, not Kelleher’s. My instinct is that his hamstring injuries are more pervasive than we would all like, and that the schedule in the premier league makes it really difficult for him to recover properly. If Alisson had it his way, I’d bet he’d like a year off and to give it one more go at Liverpool, but things don’t work that way. Mamardashvili is too hot a prospect to squabble with Kelleher for the #2 shirt. I think he knows there’s an exit strategy for Alisson already in place.

This is pure conjecture. But it’s based on a lot of Alisson’s comments, both for club and country, and his body language, the kind of mistakes he tends to make, etc. He just spoke out about the schedule. He would have seen Rodri go down after doing the same thing. I feel really bad for him, and he’s the best keeper we’ve had in generations, but at this rate, injury-wise and concentration-wise he won’t be that for much longer. I think he already isn’t. Kelleher is not a step down, and I think we have to talk about whether he’s a slight step up on Alisson in his current form.

Today at Crystal Palace, Jaros did well with his kicking and one well-positioned save that Eze should have done better with. I actually thought it helped in a weird way when he came on - Palace took a few shots to test him when their build up play was giving us problems. Alisson did nothing wrong. I actually thought he had a very good game before the injury. But the fact that his hamstring let him down again does take away from how good we should think he is for Liverpool. I want a keeper that plays every game. That’s not something I’d say about any other position, especially with the brutal schedule Alisson and others are right to criticize, but I think it’s OK to want that from your keeper. Maybe I want it even more from Goalkeeper because rotation is so necessary everywhere else. I’d take a slightly worse goalie if you promised me he could play in every important match. That’s Kelleher. Or Mamardashvili.

But it wasn’t Alisson’s injury that made us all nail-bitey. And just to reiterate - I love him and he did have a very good game before he went down. It was the fact that we hadn’t scored a second goal in the first 55 minutes, where Liverpool were absolutely dominant to the point of groans from the home crowd. If Glasner was looking to “Nottingham Forest” us, he almost got it right, but it may have helped if he mentioned something to the crowd in his match notes…

Don’t tell anyone, but we’re going to rope-a-dope 

these Red robots. Just like Nottingham Forest. 

Don’t tell Eddie Nketiah, either. He’s bait.

Don’t groan.

But maybe the groans sold the ruse. Liverpool didn’t finish, and Crystal Palace were still in the game when goalkeeping issues arose for Liverpool. That and the substitution of Mac Allister at half-time caused the momentum to swing. Diogo Jota who is probably MOTM in some regards also very much isn’t, as it fell to him to finish the chances and he couldn’t. All week the challenge from Arne Slot has been more goals from the striker position, but critically more opportunities made for the #9 as well. We did the latter today, but unfortunately Diogo got it wrong in positions he’s usually deadly from. 

He scored though, and climbed a ladder? Scratch ‘em, Cat? I’m not sure of the celebration. The goal and the first half, separate from the frustrations of the second, were excellent. A perfectly good performance at a ground like this, with all the challenges. 12:30 kickoff, European Wednesday, against a team like Wolves who haven’t won yet this season. At their ground. They didn’t see the ball. Crystal Palace were my favorite team to watch at the end of last season. Where have they gone? Eberechi Eze might be one of those players who wants to be the second best player on the team. With Olise gone, and Andersen, the weight seems too much on Eze. Like when the weight was too much on Coutinho. 

Commentators criticized Palace’s work rate, but work rate is almost always down to uncertainty about your position. Why aren’t the players closing down? We’re not even getting a kick! Put a foot in! That’s all Palace’s players having starting positions too far away from Liverpool players. If you’re not in a good starting position, you can’t close down, and you know you shouldn’t because the next pass will go behind you and screw your teammates. For Arne Slot’s first public go at a back-5 for Liverpool, he seemed to have no issue. It may have also given him the excuse to put Gakpo in the starting lineup, which I suspect he’s been looking to do for a little while. Riding the peaks and troughs of player form is important, and if this manager can input players at the peaks of their forms, and take them out before the bottom of their troughs, then everyone will stay fresh - full of games and opportunity.

I thought you felt Mac Allister’s absence in the final minutes, as Liverpool finally suffered a Crystal Palace response. Van Dijk was casual, but excellent, however around him you felt an urgency to get out that meant Crystal Palace could come up 10, 15 yards. The Robertson substitution for Tsimikas (nice pass for the first goal!) was smart, as his running meant Palace should lose a few of those gained yards. But the lack of Mac Allister, the president of the Guile High Club, meant Liverpool had Curtis Jones, Dom Szoboszlai, and Ryan Gravenberch finishing the match in midfield. That’s a very young, inexperienced midfield, regardless of how well they’ve been playing recently. 

But three points! Top of the table with both competitors drawing at home as I write. Man City seem less threatening every week, no Rodri, and a lot of aging players with so much silver in their pockets. How hungry can they be? Arsenal are the main threat, in my opinion. They will be desperate every week. We look methodical, maybe a little too methodical, but playful with the passing in a way I really like. Shoot chants are getting out of hand, but those people probably don’t like foreplay, either. Liverpool players feel good in the current setup. The extra pass can be frustrating when it doesn’t work, but when it does we score like we did in the 9th minute. From a foot away, all standing up, defenders sliding out of view.

Liverpool are sliding out of view.