Reds Two, Blues One, Yellows Minus A Thousand
I have to start with John Brooks, because his horror show today should be – indeed, must be – a candidate for the worst refereed game of the season. It’s easier to point this out when your team wins, which the Reds did today. It was no thanks to Brooks’ exemplary display of inconsistency, inability to read the game, and lack of control. Were it not for the players themselves who, when the game got heated midway through the second half, seemed to have decided collectively to protect from further harm the miserable, lost figure in yellow, who was running around aimlessly while randomly blowing a whistle he found somewhere and flapping his appendages, it could have been a lot worse.
The competition for the worst ref in the league continues apace.
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On today’s evidence, John Brooks is giving it a jolly good go.
This was Liverpool’s first test against a preseason title contender, and after a depressing first twenty minutes, the Reds found their stride, grabbed the momentum, and a wonderfully taken Salah penalty soon established a deserved advantage. In the second half, Jackson squeaked by an offside line that was too far back due to a trailing Konate leg to equalize. Then Curtis Jones, who was excellent, scored off an outrageous pass from Mo. Salah may not be the wizard dribbler he used to be. His speed off the line is a bit slower, which looked to be what led to his unusual offside in the first half that canceled an otherwise lovely goal; he was trying to compensate. But his vision keeps improving. It wasn’t just the assist to Jones, but also a series of downright ridiculous passes that could have easily led to more goals.
Compare Jones to Szoboszlai, who had another quiet game on the ball (albeit a decent one on defensive duty), and you have to consider that the former should be ahead of the latter in the pecking order.
Darwin Nunez was another surprising candidate for excellent defensive work. He came on to replace Jota, who suffered a knee to the ribs from a Caicedo foul that looked remarkably similar to the one that earned Arsenal’s Saliba a red card yesterday. The addition of Nunez created a different kind of jeopardy for Chelsea’s shaky defensive line, and it mostly worked, but Nunez’s real contribution came in defense, as he time and again got in the way of promising buildups from the blue shirts. Darwin’s lack of maturity showed later, even if much of it had to do with John Brooks. It looks like being under Slot is doing good things for Darwin Nunez, though.
Another surprisingly solid defensive performance arrived on the right from Trent Alexander-Arnold, who also appears to benefit from new coaching. His defensive awareness is improving, and he was easily the better defensively of the two fullbacks today. Still, even in a game full of solid defensive performances, one stood above all, and that was (again) the captain, the indomitable Virgil Van Dijk, who is my man of the match. Gravenberch was very good again, but he’s spoiled me and I’ve come to expect it from him.
Still, the star of his own horror show was the ref, and that should never be the case. I don’t expect anything to change, nor should you. I don’t entirely understand why the premier league teams put up with it, but in the end, it’s their league. On my part, I’ll enjoy the win and the extra gap to Arsenal, who are next. If we can put them to the sword at the Emirates, then we may truly begin to consider the possibility that somehow, Liverpool could be slant-eyeing that perch.
Now wouldn’t that be something?
