Terrace Talk - Liverpool: Keep this nonsense up and they might rediscover football without fans
A general view of fans in the stands during the Premier League match at Anfield, Liverpool. Picture: Mike Egerton/PA Wire
Liverpool have moved into third gear in two games. Impressive. Greater challenges, etc.
If Klopp hoped for a good performance from Elliott to stifle transfer whinge he was sadly deluding himself, but he got one anyway. It was a strong bench, for all the complaints.
Coming in a week when Barcelona announced they were a billion plus in debt, you’d think everyone’s spend-lust could be reined in. If that’d been City, we’d have drowned in outrage. Maybe blue Mancs have a point about “the elite”?
Is the club waiting for funds from Shaqiri, Origi and Phillips (I’d keep him) before making a move? Seems small-time, albeit sensible. More realistic offers may have to be accepted, then.
First proper home game of the season saw a new mode of entry. We’ve gone contactless. Pandemic-related? Odd when you’re sat amongst thousands, any one of whom could be your worst nightmare.
It appears even the vaccinated aren’t entirely safe, but there we all were, mostly maskless. Who wants to sit through a match for two hours, breathing through a piece of cloth?
I cannot stand mobile phones. I think they’re a curse on civilisation, a death sentence on conversation. Had to get a new one to comply, so I’m already grumbling parsimoniously.
This thing is like a flattened brick. When hooliganism comes back, it’s the first thing I’ll use on the away end. It’ll take one of them out. There’s progress for you.
Asking everyone to get to the ground 90 minutes before the start was a tad optimistic. Don’t be fooled by that “pre-match entertainment” rubbish. It consists of the DJ playing his usual records, including his favourite goth monstrosity twice.
Still, your phone ought to keep you titillated – reading a daily influx of club sales emails for whatever tat they’re plugging now.
Can’t switch them to spam, there might be a ticket update. Like a fly caught in a greedy spider’s web, there’s no escape.
“Football without fans is nothing”. Keep this nonsense up and you might find out how true that is.
I expected the atmosphere to be ramped up on everyone’s return, but it was remarkable how everyone sank into the old routine. We’ve got our Sunday best, European nights, and the rest of the time we slouch around in our comfies, scratching ourselves.
Burnley fans shushed us, satirically I assumed, since their team could put a glass eye to sleep. Their pantomime villainy provoked Klopp into one of his spasmodic public declamations, but it was annoying to be fair.
Referees should not point to their watch after five minutes, should they?
Booing Elliott because he’d been on loan at Blackburn also seemed petty, but a few of ours slurred an obscure Chelsea loanee at last week’s game so we’re in no position to pontificate.
It never put him off, anyway. One or two short passes, potentially lethal against this opposition, he still looked more than capable of contributing. The same people moaning about spending will be the first to celebrate our ‘discovery’ if it comes off.
The football was good. Shame about Salah’s effort; weren’t wafer-thin offsides supposed to be a thing of the past? Not for us, apparently.
My boy Jota got his usual goal. For all Firmino’s trickery and link-up play, someone who just scores may well be the future after all.
Alisson was called on more than we’d like, his saves better than his palpitation-inducing passing and possession.
Van Dijk and Matip are the number one defensive pairing, no matter the sighing about Gomez’s absence and the cash spent on Konate. How many times we see them together depends on how much ice they pack Joel into between games.
Everyone’s written us off before a ball was kicked. Odd, for a team that’s finished second, first and third and has just won its tenth consecutive league game.
Fine by me. Let us lurk in the shadows a little bit longer.
