Anthony McIntyre ⚽ Not long after a friend said to me that he didn’t watch the Community Shield clash on Saturday due to his lack of  interest in friendlies, I was felled by the Luis Suarez chomp. Bitten, I just had to share, or inflict, my thoughts  on Liverpool FC.


I feel much the same about friendlies but would turn up if Liverpool were to turn out at the Aviva. I even turned up with a full tank LFC hip flask for the Anfield veterans match against a local Louth composition in April accompanied by my son. Some years earlier I took him to see Manchester United play Sampdoria in Dublin. It dissolved my dislike for the Manchester reds and I no longer view them with the enmity of old. That was a carry over from the jail where the rivalry was pretty intense between both sets of supporters. It was all about bragging rights. Even on the blanket protest, sans TV or radio, the results were still followed avidly.  My passion for LFC was religious, dare I use the term! Their existence can be proved, their successes demonstrable as something other than miracles even if at times the odd talking donkey has managed them. 

I thought about what my friend said but not for long. It was all too evident that games between Manchester City and Liverpool meetings are not friendlies in the commonly understood sense of the word. Liverpool losing 4-0 to Manchester United at Thailand's Rajamangala Stadium, in pursuit of something called the Bangkok Century Cup, and where somebody called Isaac Mabaya lined up for Klopp's men, meant sheer zilch. To lose 4 to City at Leicester's King Power Stadium would have been considered a most ominous start to the new season, where long before it has even started, it is regarded in the eyes of most as a two-horse race where come next May both sides will be separated by the thinnest of margins - the rest, also-rans.  As I said to my friend, the Shield does not matter, but the victory does.
 
On Saturday, myself and my son headed to the pub at his “pints” behest. Years ago it was fizzy and crisps in the same venue while we watched Liverpool battle it out, on occasion against City. Now he has progressed to 'pinting' with his da. Perched on our high stools, backs to the bar, we were treated to a feast of fast moving, competitive football. Friendly seems such a limited way to describe what went on at the Leicester ground. It was more a resumption of last year's hostilities.  

On the catwalk were the Liverpool new signing Darwin Núñez and City’s not yet man of the moment, Erling Haaland. The big Norwegian came out second best as the Uruguayan who featured for thirty minutes brought a bite to the attack in the way his compatriot Luiz Suarez once did but without leaving the imprint of teeth. Haaland missed a glaringly simple conversion in the dying seconds of the game that even I could have tucked away. Still, don't make complacency a companion because of that. This is not going to be something straight out of the Timo Weiner academy for slow starters. Haaland is unlikely to require an inordinate amount of time to find his game. On Saturday he was subject to the rule that in every walk of life the prey occasionally evades the predator, but there is something about the hunger in the eyes of Haaland coupled with his movement that suggests a whale shark goal monster has arrived.

As for Núñez there was some speculation that pressure release adequately explains his post-goal joy after some pre-season mishaps. He celebrated much as Chloe Kelly would the following day on scoring the winner for England in the Euro 2022 final, and was booked just as quickly. I saw it another way: as a man who is eager to play for Liverpool and enthused when he does. Like Luiz Diaz, he brings something else that might have gone AWOL with the departure to Bayern Munich of the gifted and intense Sadio Mané.

Here's the rub. Liverpool while not short of finishers have failed too often to create the chances that made finishing possible. I am not sure that the arrival of Núñez has changed that. In three finals last season they failed to score a single goal. The midfield as it ages continues to parry more that it penetrates.

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Shield

Anthony McIntyre ⚽ Not long after a friend said to me that he didn’t watch the Community Shield clash on Saturday due to his lack of  interest in friendlies, I was felled by the Luis Suarez chomp. Bitten, I just had to share, or inflict, my thoughts  on Liverpool FC.


I feel much the same about friendlies but would turn up if Liverpool were to turn out at the Aviva. I even turned up with a full tank LFC hip flask for the Anfield veterans match against a local Louth composition in April accompanied by my son. Some years earlier I took him to see Manchester United play Sampdoria in Dublin. It dissolved my dislike for the Manchester reds and I no longer view them with the enmity of old. That was a carry over from the jail where the rivalry was pretty intense between both sets of supporters. It was all about bragging rights. Even on the blanket protest, sans TV or radio, the results were still followed avidly.  My passion for LFC was religious, dare I use the term! Their existence can be proved, their successes demonstrable as something other than miracles even if at times the odd talking donkey has managed them. 

I thought about what my friend said but not for long. It was all too evident that games between Manchester City and Liverpool meetings are not friendlies in the commonly understood sense of the word. Liverpool losing 4-0 to Manchester United at Thailand's Rajamangala Stadium, in pursuit of something called the Bangkok Century Cup, and where somebody called Isaac Mabaya lined up for Klopp's men, meant sheer zilch. To lose 4 to City at Leicester's King Power Stadium would have been considered a most ominous start to the new season, where long before it has even started, it is regarded in the eyes of most as a two-horse race where come next May both sides will be separated by the thinnest of margins - the rest, also-rans.  As I said to my friend, the Shield does not matter, but the victory does.
 
On Saturday, myself and my son headed to the pub at his “pints” behest. Years ago it was fizzy and crisps in the same venue while we watched Liverpool battle it out, on occasion against City. Now he has progressed to 'pinting' with his da. Perched on our high stools, backs to the bar, we were treated to a feast of fast moving, competitive football. Friendly seems such a limited way to describe what went on at the Leicester ground. It was more a resumption of last year's hostilities.  

On the catwalk were the Liverpool new signing Darwin Núñez and City’s not yet man of the moment, Erling Haaland. The big Norwegian came out second best as the Uruguayan who featured for thirty minutes brought a bite to the attack in the way his compatriot Luiz Suarez once did but without leaving the imprint of teeth. Haaland missed a glaringly simple conversion in the dying seconds of the game that even I could have tucked away. Still, don't make complacency a companion because of that. This is not going to be something straight out of the Timo Weiner academy for slow starters. Haaland is unlikely to require an inordinate amount of time to find his game. On Saturday he was subject to the rule that in every walk of life the prey occasionally evades the predator, but there is something about the hunger in the eyes of Haaland coupled with his movement that suggests a whale shark goal monster has arrived.

As for Núñez there was some speculation that pressure release adequately explains his post-goal joy after some pre-season mishaps. He celebrated much as Chloe Kelly would the following day on scoring the winner for England in the Euro 2022 final, and was booked just as quickly. I saw it another way: as a man who is eager to play for Liverpool and enthused when he does. Like Luiz Diaz, he brings something else that might have gone AWOL with the departure to Bayern Munich of the gifted and intense Sadio Mané.

Here's the rub. Liverpool while not short of finishers have failed too often to create the chances that made finishing possible. I am not sure that the arrival of Núñez has changed that. In three finals last season they failed to score a single goal. The midfield as it ages continues to parry more that it penetrates.

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

5 comments:

  1. I can't understand why LFC didn't replace Ox & buy 2 central midfielders . Had they done so , they would win the title by circa 6 points . Midfield incumbents are - old , injury prone , don't score enough #ReplaceGiniNow

    ReplyDelete
  2. Once again the Charity (farcically nemed Community) Shield is devalued. Playing it at a second tier stadium like the King Power (I still associate Leicester with Filbert Street, many a day out there) is degrading. Old Trafford, Elland Riad would have sufficed, but why not Wembley? They have often played games on consecutive days there, just employ the groundataff to roll the pitch after the first game, easy done. The game is becoming a fucking bigger laugh for us nutters of the seventies and eighties, can't wait for our piss up reunion in Manchester, that is those of us still alive!!😇🏐🏐🏐🏐⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️🥇🥇⚽️⚽️. The game today called football is that in name only, monopoly with a football as one of the pieces would not be an inappropriate description.

    Caoimhin O'Muraile

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  3. In fairness Werner looks like he would be brilliant in Italy or Spain. Can't fault his work ethic either.

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    Replies
    1. he has a great work ethic but so does the busy fool

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    2. Gawd you are impossible to please Anthony!

      Delete