Cheat Code
[Liverpool 3 – 1 Sheffield United].
When we brought in Alexis Mac Allister, there was hope that he could step into Hendo’s big shoes, but it might take a while. He didn’t cost much, either, so I think many fans adopted a wait-and-see attitude. Out of necessity, Klopp stuck him in the six role which did Macca no favors. Still, he performed admirably until Endo adapted to the Premier League… and then.
And then. And how.
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Ever since Mac Allister moved further upfield, into his comfort zone, the reason he wears that coveted number ten, he has been nothing short of sensational. We only have one World Cup winner in the squad, but boy does he show it, game after game. It’s not just his capacity to determine the pace of any game, be it against the Blades or against City. It’s not just his ability to drive the team forward or back as necessary to build momentum or regain it. It’s not just his vision and composure and dear god oh god, his penetrating last passes. It’s that moment, right when it’s most needed, when he unleashes a ballistic missile that would tear the hands off any keeper who might be unfortunate enough to touch it. Not that, in reality, any keeper could get anywhere near that kind of hit. If it were me, I’d be running the other way.
Macca is a cheat code.
Of course, he’s man-of-the-match.
The thing is, the Blades didn’t come to open their legs. They played well to their limitations, and while Liverpool dominated – well over 80% possession, and pretty much every meaningful chance – United did remarkably well in defense, limiting the Reds to 1.65 expected goals (xG) out of 29 shots. In that sense, the Reds actually outperformed in front of goal.
It took a what is now known as a “Nunez moment” to open the scoring. It made poor Grbic look awful, but go watch the replay; Nunez doesn’t look particularly threatening, sort of lazily closing the distance which players do all the time. Then, suddenly, with absolutely perfect timing, the Uruguayan goes into action right when Grbic has to momentarily drop his eyes to the ground for his impending goal kick, and boom, there’s Nunez leaping into the stands. I initially thought Nunez scored with his ass, but no, he jumped so high he scored with his studs. Chaos agent supreme. Conor Bradley had another good game, but then had the pleasure of scoring his second own goal for the season, on an otherwise not particularly threatening move, to tie the game. The result?
Cheat code activated.
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Coming on, Robbo injected a massive amount of momentum to revitalize the Reds’ efforts, reminding anyone who forgot why we miss him so much. His assist to Gakpo was a peach, and he also got to add another miss to his impressive collection of identical ones. Gakpo himself looked the best he has in a while, the international break clearly doing him good, and he took his goal with confidence. Last word goes to Kelleher, whose instinct save thirty seconds into the game surely qualifies as one of the best of the season; that one chance accounted for pretty much Sheffield United’s xG for the whole game.
In the end, we got the predicted outcome, but Liverpool never makes it easy on us fans. It was nice to score the first one for a change. Still, I am beginning to suspect a secret partnership with, uhh, big blood pressure.
Still top of the league.
Can we finally beat Man U this season on Sunday to stay there?
