Liverpool 2-1 Everton (Gravenberch 10′, Ekitike 29′ | Gueye 58′)
ANFIELD — It is 1980 and Bill Shankly is in the directors’ box. He is no longer manager but a spectator at the stadium he helped turn into the most forbidding in the country.
He spots Alex Ferguson, whose Aberdeen side will be playing Liverpool in the European Cup in midweek. “Come to look for weaknesses in this great team of ours?” Shankly says before giving out a dry laugh: “Aye, they all try that.” Aberdeen will lose 4-0.
Premier League managers have long since stopped doing their own scouting but for Ruben Amorim, whose Manchester United are the next team to come to Anfield in the Premier League, where are the weaknesses in this great team of theirs who have begun the season with six straight wins?
The most obvious one is that Liverpool do not keep clean sheets. The Merseyside derby wove a roughly similar pattern to Wednesday night against Atletico Madrid or the season’s opener with Bournemouth.
Ryan Gravenberch with a beauty of a finish to give Liverpool the lead in the Merseyside derby
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 20, 2025@tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/9WguHrhgSA
Two quick goals, this time wonderfully put away by Ryan Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitike, then a period of retrenchment that allowed the opposition back in the game. It was only roughly similar. Everton did not quite have the skill to level the game. There was no need for the stoppage time drama that had overturned all Bournemouth’s and Atletico’s hopes.
Arne Slot’s side is a better, slicker team than the one he inherited from Jurgen Klopp, the man who built the modern Liverpool in the same way Shankly built the Liverpool of memory. However, Klopp’s appeared slightly more ruthless. Once an opponent was down, they kept kicking.
For the derby, Liverpool had a bench with golden boots. Once Idrissa Gueye’s fabulous drive had given Everton hope, Slot introduced Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak, £241 million-worth of talent, who cost more than David Moyes’ entire Everton squad.
After spending all summer forcing his move from Newcastle, Isak trotted on with the afternoon 67 minutes old and spent the rest of his time trotting around the pitch in something less than third gear, palpably unfit.
League debuts can be deceptive and after a summer in which he has not properly trained, hopes were not especially high for the Swede. The match had been preceded by a minute’s applause for the late Bobby Graham, who had scored a hat-trick against Aston Villa on his Liverpool debut in September 1964 and then found himself eclipsed by others in Shankly’s great team.
Anfield is more of a fortress now that it was 61 autumns ago. Since an Everton side managed by Carlo Ancelotti won here in February 2021 in an empty stadium during a season ravaged by Covid, three other managers have won at Anfield. Jesse Marsch with Leeds in October 2022, Oliver Glasner in April 2024 and Nuno Espirito Santo with Nottingham Forest a year ago. They ought to meet for a drink, a meal and reminisce once a season. The Anfield Club.
They were all managers of what, by Premier League standards, were ordinary teams rather than an Arsenal or a Manchester City. Each of their teams snatched the lead early and defended with every fibre of their being, much as Everton’s James Tarkowski defended here.
Your next read
The side he captained, however, conceded the first and the second goals and the gap Liverpool left them was too narrow for Everton to squeeze through.
Moyes must feel the Anfield Club is something he will never join. Sitting on the bench before the serious business began, the Everton manager gave an interview which was more interesting and less formulaic than these snatched conversations usually are.
Moyes conceded it was pointless trying to take on a Liverpool side with these strengths in an open, attacking game of football. Given the disparity in the two clubs’ resources, there could be only one possible outcome. He promised Everton would close down space, fight and hope their moment came.
These blood, sweat and tears tactics are largely the same ones Moyes’s Everton attempted on his first visit to Anfield in December 2002. He earned a goalless draw then and in 22 subsequent visits, a goalless draw was as good as it got for David Moyes. Long before the end, the chant of “Champions” was rolling around the Kop. It could have been a statement of fact or a prediction for the end of the season.
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/O3ExKhc
Post a Comment