Poetry in motion

BOOM!! What a performance, comfortably our best display of the season so far in my opinion and the fact it came against the team I despise the most in world football makes it all the sweeter.

The fact is, the scoreline massively flattered Chelsea. If that game had finished 10-0 they could have had no complaints. Darwin could’ve had the other 6 on his own!!

There was so much to like about that display. I can’t remember the last time we started so quickly, we’ve been slow starters for a while now and if there’s a criticism I’ve had of the team, not just this season but probably going as far back as the season we almost won the quad, it’s too often we play out a drab first half as if we just want to get to halftime and then Klopp will tell us what to do to win in the second half. None of that tonight as we went after Chelsea from the first minute and really should have blown them away in the first half.

To individual performances then and there’s only one place to start – Connor Bradley. The latest addition to LFC from the Celtic brotherhood and he looks to the manor born. I said on the thread that he reminds me very much of Robbo in his style of play and coming from me, I could pay the lad no greater compliment. He’s tenacious, quick, direct and he has an end product. Both his passing and crossing are good and judging by his goal tonight, he can finish too. A night of firsts for Bradley – his first PL goal, first PL player of the match award and saving the most prestigious for last, his first 4KK McMOTM!! Take a bow son.

Staying in the subject of right back, I’ve made no secret of the fact that I despise the inverted fullback role and can anyone honestly say we’ve not looked more defensively solid this past few games with Bradley playing as a proper RB? It’s his natural position and he has an appetite to defend, tackle and harass players in a way Trent just doesn’t. Now that’s totally understandable, when you’ve got Trent’s skillset you want to be on the ball creating chances and spraying it about with your incredible passing range and rightly so. Only De Bruyne comes close to matching Trent‘s passing ability in the PL but all the more reason to convert him into a full time midfielder in my opinion. The time has come in his career that he needs to be playing there in my opinion but not only that, the team has evolved and plays a different way now from when Trent first came into the team. At that time we had a functional, defensively minded midfield that provided a platform for our fullbacks to be our source of creativity but now, we have a far more technical and creative midfield. Plus Trent spends the vast majority of his time in midfield now anyway but it’s leaving a huge gap down our right flank that leads to goals conceded almost every game. With Connor not just arriving at the party but kicking the bloody door down and flipping tables, it’s time Trent became a CM and Connor got a crack at first choice RB in my opinion. Plus they can rotate it, it’s not like it has to be set in stone. It gives us great depth at RB now though, with Gomez as well. To think at the start of the season, most fans universally agreed that we needed to sign a RB.

Jota continues his excellent form and is arguably our most important forward, certainly this season. I’ve long been a huge fan of Jota and felt he doesn’t get the credit he deserves. I bemoaned his loss last season, when he missed so much time injured. I can remember writing countless post match articles after the many disappointing results last year, saying we can’t underestimate how big a loss Jota is. He’s not flash or showy, just ruthlessly efficient and his in-game intelligence is off the scale. Rarely chooses the wrong option, quick thinking and always the coolest man in the stadium. If Darwin had half of Jota’s composure, he’d be unstoppable!

Speaking or Darwin, I was trying to think how to describe him tonight and the best I could come up with is ‘wonderfully frustrating’! He’s a brilliant player to watch, he’s everywhere and you can’t take your eyes off him anytime the ball goes near him. Part of that is he’s so unpredictable, he goes from the sublime to the ridiculous multiple times a minute, never mind a match. I played CB and I can only imagine how utterly horrible he must be to play against. He’s so quick and he has some engine on him, runs his socks off all night long. He’s a physical specimen and aggressive with it so you’re not going to bully or intimidate him and he’s an absolute chance magnet, I can’t ever remember another forward we’ve had that gets SO many chances a game and it’s not luck when it happens every week. The only problem is, he generally misses them! The thing is, he’s not doing much wrong. It’s fine margins, as proved tonight by setting a new PL record of hitting the woodwork four times in one game and it’s been a theme from him all season. I said it on the thread, there’s actually nothing wrong with his finishing technique, he just puts too much on pretty much everything. Trying to make sure of the goal by smashing it past the keeper. A great example of how Darwin does it compared to how it SHOULD be done came in the form of his and Szoboszlai’s respective headers. Darwin tries to smash if past the keeper into the top corner and hits the bar, whereas the much calmer Dom glanced it downwards, knowing it doesn’t have to be sniper accurate, as the keeper can’t get down in time. I do believe it’ll come for Darwin though. One day it’ll just click into place for him and when it does, he’ll be unstoppable. Until then, we’ll just have to put up with him being a walking contradiction of joyful frustrations.

The wonderful thing about this current squad though is, for as brilliant as they are just now, the vast majority of the team have got major room for improvement and polishing their game. I was watching Diaz tonight and as much as I love him and his ‘get you out your seat’ style of play, sometimes his decision making is woeful. Gakpo is another who has all the attributes but needs to settle into the kind of player he’ll be moving forward, which I don’t think will be as an out and out winger as he’s been prior to joining us. Funnily enough, Van Gaal was in the crowd as his guest tonight and was the first manager to play Cody centrally and told him he would end up playing there. Staying on improvers, Mac and Dom are master technicians but are both still young and can improve, particularly in terms of consistency. I really hope Thiago is back soon, I truly believe even a few months of playing and training properly beside him would be massive for Mac Allister. Jones has made huge strides this season but still has big too. For improvement, as does Gravenberch, Bradley, Quansah, Elliot and even Trent!! Just think about that though. I just named half our squad as ‘improvers’ and I don’t think I was being disrespectful, I think most of us would agree all need to improve certain aspects of their game but despite that, we’re top of the league, into the first cup final available and through to the next stage of the FA cup and Europa league respectively. Just how good can this team get over the next 2-3 years?

Last notable mention tonight is Virgil looking back to his imperious best, both defensively and in particular, the way he was spraying those long diagonals around like a prime Xabi Alonso. Maybe he was trying to impress him… nod, nod, wink, wink.

Ok I’ve ended up rambling on a bit so apologies for that but there was so much to gush about after tonight’s performance and we’ve certainly put to bed the question of whether Klopp’s departure was going to galvanise or destabilise the team. I think tonight showed it’s certainly the former.

A great night to be an LFC fan then and whisper it quietly but if we beat Arsenal on Sunday, I’ll start thinking of us as favourites for the title for the first time this season. I didn’t believe we could be this good in such a transitional season but Klopp’s once again done what he’s done since the day he arrived – Turned doubters into believers! Walk on!!