Liverpool F.C. – The Good, The Bad & The Ugly – Gameweeks 18-20
The Reds haven’t let anything drop and enter 2020 still on top. The youngster Jones makes no bones, of making the Blue noses’ fans groan. The club’s future looks bright, as youngsters shine on F.A. Cup night. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Another week reviewed at the world’s favourite football club Liverpool F.C.
The Good
Finishing the festive program with a 100% record. Gameweeks 18, 19 and 20 brought a haul of seven goals and nine points. Home wins against Sheffield United (2-0), Wolverhampton Wanderers (1-0) and a 0-4 away trouncing of Brendan Rodgers’ lethargic Leicester City ensured a successful, albeit busy Christmas and New Year program.
Both Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mané bagged two goals during this spell in addition to Mo Salah, James Milner and Trent Alexander-Arnold. We Reds fans could not have asked for more as the team finished 2019 unbeaten at Anfield. Jürgen Klopp’s team have not suffered defeat in front of their own fans since losing to Chelsea on 26th September 2018 in the third round of the League Cup. A most impressive record by anyone’s standards.
The period wasn’t without drama of course. Two VAR decisions during the Wolves match saw Mané’s effort upheld (something you could have seen from as far away as another dimension). Pedro Neto on the other hand was correctly adjudged offside – albeit marginal.
Liverpool are now 13 points ahead atop the Premier League with a game in hand. The immediate future is looking good. Speaking of the future…
We completed more passes tonight (873 passes) than any team has done in the Premier League era.
What a stat 🙌🔴 #LFC #LIVSHU pic.twitter.com/9BUS2TvlWj
— TheKop.com (@TheKop_com) January 2, 2020
The (Not) Bad
Liverpool cruised into the fourth round of the F.A. Cup with a 1-0 win over the noisy neighbours. One thing that’s always nice to see is that when Liverpool play Everton, there’s never any segregation of the fans. Another pleasure is when the Reds win, which of course is quite regularly these days!
A very special event of course is when we see one of the Liverpool youngsters scoring a blinder to get the win. This we witnessed tonight when 18 year-old Curtis Jones struck a screamer in the 71st minute. The game looked as if it was heading for a bore draw against Everton, who were industrious under new boss Carlo Ancelotti.
Klopp fielded a young side including three teenagers: Harvey Elliott, Neco Williams and of course, Jones. In addition to other young players Nathan Phillips and Pedro Chirivella, joining the impressive debutant Takumi Minamino. Special mention has to go to the Japan international who had a solid and composed debut for the hosts. He looks to be a top player and I can’t wait to see more of him.
The game came at a price however as James Milner came off the field after seven minutes to replace Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the Physio Room, the latter making a second half appearance after overcoming his ankle injury.
Plenty of impressive performances from this evening's win 🤩🙌
Who was your #LIVEVE Man of the Match? 🤔
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 5, 2020
The Ugly
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The injury list at Liverpool. “Same old story…”, I hear you say? Let’s hope it doesn’t turn into a horror story.
There are two crunch games coming up. Tottenham Hotspur away on Saturday and the visit of Manyoo the week after. Hopefully the team can come through those two encounters unscathed and, some of those injured can recover in the time between each game. This week and next week. For the moment, the players can breathe.
Liverpool currently have seven players out injured including Dejan Lovren (perhaps not a huge loss) and Joel Matip. If they lose any other central defenders, then just make sure you’re finger nails aren’t too low, because they’ll lose a bit more as we get to the business end of the season.
Jurgen Klopp again pointed the finger at the fixture schedule after Liverpool were left sweating on the fitness of James Milner.
“That's the situation we are in and that's why a lot of managers make changes. It’s not the cup, it’s the timing of the game.”https://t.co/sI8anuPtmv
— Anfield Watch (@AnfieldWatch) January 5, 2020
With Minamino making his debut today, other notable debutants on the 05th January include none other than: Virgil van Dijk (2018), Bob Paisley and Billy Liddell no less (1946). Our new boy has some illustrious boots to fill… no pressure!
All that’s left is to wish all of you readers a safe, happy, healthy and wealthy 2020.
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