Merseyside Derby stalemate just desserts for Reds and Blues alike
Everton 0 Liverpool 0, 3rd September 2022
Goalless draws are often a symptom of the Merseyside derby and the 241st playing of this highly localised footballing derby between the Blues of Everton and the Reds of Liverpool was no different today. Nor was the tepid first half that the home team Blues more than shaded, a scrappy, bitty, hard fought first 45 minutes that won’t particularly live long in the memory, but was more than made up for by the similarly symptomatic and typically frenetic derby atmosphere that produced a fantastic second half of end to end football where any team could have won, the Reds of Liverpool possibly more aggrieved than their near neighbours that they didn’t, and even in spite of the home team Blues having a goal chalked off, and a probable singular winning goal, for offside.
Both teams’ goal frames were rattled a total of four times.
Both teams’ goalkeepers provided world class fingertip touches to ensure their posts and crossbars rescued them.
Both teams’ goalkeepers stood and stared helplessly as the width of a post saved and rescued them when they couldn’t.
Both teams’ goalkeepers could lay a claim to the “Man of the Match” award.
The odious man in the Blues goal was given the TV prize but the correct answer was Reds defender Joe Gomez for a commanding rear guard display that was much needed, both personally for the Englishman as well as his team as a whole, and in a game that ended goal less because of his defensive endeavours to ensure his team of Reds stayed in a game they were always on the outskirts of yet, with just seconds remaining, the barest fingertip touch from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford ensured Mo Salah’s sure fire last minute winning goal didn’t hit his net but rather his post, and a typically tenacious Merseyside Derby ended yet again in a 0–0 stalemate.
Both halves of football today were entirely different but quixotically they also followed a repeating pattern and a pattern that continued throughout the individual 45 minute periods of play. Liverpool started both periods strongly with fast paced moving attacking triangles that gained them momentum and pitch position if not any serious goal scoring opportunities and both times Everton dissipated the pressure with counter attacks ending in half chances for their new signing from Brighton, Neal Maupay. His overhead kick in the second half was barely a half chance but his first chance on just 8 minutes of the game was in the footballing vernacular “gilt-edged”. Following a heavy tackle from the Blues Tom Davies on Liverpool’s Fabinho and a scrambled loose ball falling at his feet, Maupay should have scored but screwed a tame shot well wide of the Reds goal. Where Everton would create the better of the genuine goal scoring chances in either half, Liverpool would rattle the frame of their goal three times and come closest to scoring. Everton would score but were denied by an obvious and correct VAR decision. Their Red neighbours would come closer and closer to the winning goal denied them, until the fingertips of their goalkeeper Jordan Pickford denied Mo Salah a last minute winning goal.
In truth, the first half was a drab, stop-start affair brilliantly highlighted by three collisions between ball and the frame of both goals and a half as a whole heavily shaded by the hosts Everton. Harvey Elliott was easily the Reds stand out performer in the first 45 minutes of a game he ultimately faded from, but his energy and willingness to receive the ball in difficult areas of the pitch was absolutely priceless for his team in a first half they barely started. Darwin Nunez was impressive, defending as well from the front as his assured touches were in attack. Two difficult half chances fell his way before he signalled the Reds second half intent on the cusp of the half-time break with a brilliant run behind the Everton defence, a chest controlled and immediate volley that needed the fingertips of Jordan Pickford to divert a certain and brilliant goal to instead crash off his crossbar. The danger wasn’t over as Luis Diaz collected the loose ball before running across the Everton goal to create the angle for a shot that beat Pickford this time, “all ends up” to use the footballing cliché, but the Colombian’s brilliant shot smashed against the inside of the far post of Pickford’s goal before cannoning dangerously back across his goal and narrowly to safety. As half-time approached, the Reds had finally awoken from their slumbers and had entered this local derby for the first time.
Despite the incredible passage of play that saw the Reds hit the Blues goal frame twice in a matter of seconds, a lead for Liverpool at half-time would have been cruel on a Everton team who’d largely shaded the first half. In addition to Tom Davies hitting the Liverpool post on 32 minutes (with Reds goalkeeper Alisson Becker a mere spectator), Maupay should have scored on 8 minutes, Anthony Gordon forced a sharp save from Alisson Becker on 22 minutes and their overall play was far and away from the expected negative, deep lying formation and only ever looking to attack on the counter. Demarai Gray was bright, sharp and demanding of the ball whilst Nathan Patterson typified their combative and cohesive defensive spirit. The Reds may have hit the frame of the Blues goal twice, but it was the hosts who entered half-time aggrieved they weren’t leading.
The half-time substitution that saw Roberto Firmino replace an injured Fabio Carvalho changed the complexion of the game. The Brazilian forged a hat-trick of goal scoring chances as well as providing the central linking cog between defence and attack as the Reds again started the period of play the brighter, quicker and sharper. The half-chance that fell to Everton’s Neal Maupay was sandwiched between a Red blanket of attacking intent from Liverpool as well as a snap half-volley from Darwin Nunez that started a busy 45 minutes for the Blues goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. The game as a whole burst into life on the hour mark as it resembled derby day games of yore with end to end attacking from both teams, corner after pressurised corner, press and counter attack that saw a thrilling ten minutes of football that culminated in an ex Red scoring for the Blues before the heartbreak of a correct offside decision ended his footballing delirium.
On 62 minutes, Everton reflected the play of their visitors back on them as a long raking pass from ex Red Conor Coady released the run of Anthony Gordon that ended with a dangerous shot from Nathan Patterson deflecting off Virgil van Dijk and narrowly wide for a corner. It was a back to front move so redolent of Liverpool in their Jurgen Klopp pomp and similarly repeated mere minutes later as Neal Maupay again forced a fine save from Alisson Becker after another team move. In between, the Reds created chance after chance in a hectic and breathless period of play as first Darwin Nunez got behind the Everton defence before passing to Roberto Firmino who forced the first of two saves in the next minute or so from Jordan Pickford. From the resulting corner, Pickford beat away a header from Firmino again, then forced into a save again, this time from Firmino’s Brazilian teammate Fabinho. The intensity of the game was as high as it reached at this point and the end to end style of the game continued with Everton forcing corner after corner until Conor Coady would stray just inches offside and not become the “Derby Day” pantomime villain against his former team.
With five minutes to go and a single goal surely to be a winning one, Blues substitute Dwight McNeil saw his goal bound shot deflected by both Virgil van Dijk and James Milner as he saw it arcing over a stranded Alisson Becker in the Liverpool goal before the giant Brazilian pulled off a miraculous fingertip save over his crossbar. Fabinho and Salah combined a minute later for the third of Roberto Firmino’s hattrick of chances to win the game for the Reds before, when with mere seconds left of injury time, Liverpool swept the entire length of the pitch, Mo Salah drilled a low shot toward the near side of Jordan Pickford’s goal, and the England goalkeeper denied him, and Liverpool again, with the merest of fingertip touches onto his near post, away to safety, and seconds later, securing another drawn league point of the season.
A more satisfying point for the Blues? Probably.
Two points dropped by the Reds? Arguably.
Symptomatic of the season ahead for the Reds? Definitely.
A league point for each team just desserts for their endeavours?
Alas yes.
Plenty of positives (Nunez looked sharp, Roberto Firmino looks fit and reinvigorated, Harvey Elliott a guiding light and Joe Gomez imperious).
Plenty of negatives (take a look at #LFC on Twitter if you want to ruin both your evening and your sanity!).
This was a Merseyside derby that was as symptomatic and schizophrenic as the season that lies ahead of it. Two games a week for nine weeks out of eleven, then a World Cup, before the resumption of the madness all the way through to June 2023. It’s going to be a bumpier ride than the “PlayStation Football” of the past glory filled three seasons or so.
The revolution happened a long time ago.
This team, under the guidance of Jurgen Klopp is now in the evolution stage again.
Thanks for reading. My three most recently published articles on the Mighty Reds of Liverpool are linked below:
