Right, that’s it for today’s blog. Here’s Barney Ronay’s report from the Amex. Bye!
And here’s Tom Bassam’s take on that entertaining back-and-forth between Klopp and Kelly.
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This is an excellent point from Gary Naylor
“A big shift that VAR has brought in is that there was always a sense that an ‘ordinary’ foul was not enough for a penalty - hence the ‘soft penalty’. There’s a related point that people feel that intent is required for a penalty - but not for a foul elsewhere on the field. Now any foul is being given as a penalty as BT Sport appear to be saying. This is not a rule change, but a cultural shift, an alteration in normative behaviour by officials. Shifts like this are always uncomfortable because it feels underhand or undemocratic, but they happen all the time - as those without power in any culture will attest.”
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More from Jurgen Klopp
“When we had a talk between the managers a week ago, most wanted five subs. Since then nothing happened. Chris Wilder or whoever says constantly than I am selfish. I think all the things he said show that he’s selfish. Three subs hasn’t worked for them so far - they’ve got one point. For example, if we have five subs today I take off Robbo to protect him and bring on Kostas Tsimikas.
“I only go for the broadcasters when we have to play Wednesday and 12.30pm on a Saturday. Only seven managers have a similar problem and they all agree. In this season it’s a bigger problem, and it’s not okay. We’ve had this slot three times. Look who else had it three times: nobody.”
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This is brilliant, if slightly weird, TV. Klopp and Des Kelly are having a lively row.
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Jurgen Klopp is fuming with BT Sport’s Des Kelly
“The two offsides I didn’t see, but our analyst said they were [correct]. The penalty? Mmyeah, it’s how it is. I think the decisions were right. [But Jordan Henderson said some of the Brighton players agreed it wasn’t a penalty] Look, you’re trying to create a headline at my cost again – you always do. If I say now it wasn’t a penalty… Don’t look like this! You try, always. I said it was a penalty and you’re not happy with that. What do you want to hear? Give your answer to yourself.
“The performance was very good. I couldn’t be more proud of the boys. We struggled a bit in the first half an hour with their balls in behind the defence. We got that sorted and in the second half that was fine. We had a few problems with energy but that was all. The situations around our goals, even the ones that were disallowed, were brilliant. In football you always need a little bit of luck. Today we didn’t have it.
“The day Mo Salah is smiling when he leaves the pitch, something is wrong. He has had Covid so we have to be careful. He doesn’t like [being subbed], I know that. [Is James Milner’s a hamstring injury?] Yeah, congratulations. Hamstring. Surprise. Ask Chris Wilder how we can avoid that.
“I don’t know how often I have to say it – you picked the 12.30pm kick-off. You. Not you personally. I’m not having a go at the broadcaster, I’m just saying how it is. It is really dangerous for the players.”
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Jurgen Klopp’s post-match interview should be imbued with a certain belligerence. He was in a bad mood for most of the game, never mind after the penalty.
“You were right, Rob,” says Patrick Crumlish. “This Liverpool team doesn’t do hard-fought 1-0 wins.”
The more I see that Brighton penalty, the less sure I am. I’m not having that it was a clear and obvious error.
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Here’s Danny Welbeck “It was a soft penalty, but we’ll take it. In today’s game, with VAR... I touched the ball before him and he kicked me before he kicked the ball.”
“This new sport of penaltyball is going places,” says Niall Mullen.
Full time: Brighton 1-1 Liverpool
Liverpool go top of the league, though they won’t feel like celebrating after a frustrating afternoon at the Amex Stadium. It was another VAR special, with two Brighton penalties and two disallowed goals for Liverpool. There were the usual injuries too - Maupay, Lallana and Milner all had to go off.
90+7 min Jahanbakhsh almost nicks it for Brighton with a shot that hits Phillips and deflects wide.
90+4 min Klopp was sarcastically, and aggressively, clapping the assistant referee after the penalty was given. I love Klopp but he’s a bit out of order there.
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GOAL! Brighton 1-1 Liverpool (Gross 90+3 pen)
Gross rams the penalty straight down the middle!
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PENALTY GIVEN!
Andy Robertson is not impressed. Jurgen Klopp is laughing.
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VAR CHECK!
90+1 min Stuart Attwell is looking at the monitor!
90 min Welbeck nicked the ball away from Robertson, who kicked his foot a split-second later. I think it was probably a (very soft) foul, but I’m not so sure it’s a clear and obvious error.
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90 min: VAR check for a Brighton penalty! This might be given.
90 min There will be five minutes of added time.
89 min “Rob, I partially agree with you,” says Patrick Crumlish. “Liverpool don’t do 1-0 wins, no, but they do hard-fought single-goal victories. Last season they made a habit of it. It was City couldn’t do. When City when last year, it was by 3 or 4 goals, but they couldn’t eke out the tight wins. Liverpool beat Leicester 2-1, West Ham 3-2, Brighton 2-1, Bournemouth 2-1 last year, and that’s off the top of my head.”
Yeah, I meant the specific scoreline. They’re one of the best teams I’ve ever seen at coming from behind to win by a single goal.
88 min Gross’s corner is chested (!) down by Firmino in his own six-yard box and booted clear by one of his team-mates.
87 min Welbeck gets behind Phillips on the left side of the area. Phillips recovers really well to concede a corner.
87 min One-nil is never a safe lead, but a Brighton equaliser would be firmly against the run of play.
85 min “I don’t support five substitutes in a match, but I do think that a substituted player should be allowed back if a manager so chooses,” says Gary Naylor. “That would allow players to be protected if they feel a twinge in the knowledge that, if the game changes, they can return.”
That’s veering too close to Big Bash territory for my liking.
NO GOAL! Brighton 0-1 Liverpool
Mane was offside. Next.
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GOAL! Brighton 0-2 Liverpool (Mane 82)
That wrongly awarded free-kick leads to the second goal. Robertson curled it into the middle, where Mane planted a fine downward header past Ryan.
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82 min White makes an extremely good tackle on Jota - and is booked for it.
81 min: Great chance for Brighton! March broke down the left and hit a terrific cross towards the unmarked Jahanbakhsh at the near post. He missed the header completely, and the unsighted Robertson kneed the ball over his own bar. Jahanbakhsh should have scored; Robertson almost did.
80 min Brighton have offered very little going forward since Connolly went off. Jahanbakhsh makes a promising break down the right but his cross is tidied up at the near post by Phillips.
79 min This Liverpool side don’t really do hard-fought 1-0 wins, but that’s what they are heading for today.
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78 min “Do you think the Premier League will bring in five subs this season?” says Ben Jackson. “Given the number of injuries it does seem to be a player welfare issue. I also think some managers are reserving one of their tactical subs so they’re not reduced to 10 men should a player go down with a hamstring injury in the last 20 minutes.”
I think they will, pretty soon probably, though really it’s a band aid for a bullet wound.
77 min Now Nat Phillips is down after landing awkwardly. Jurgen Klopp is agape as he watches on. It looks like Phillips will be okay to continue.
76 min If it stays like this, Liverpool will have kept consecutive clean sheets in the league for the first time since June. Who needs Virgil/Joe/Trent?
75 min “Imagine substituting Maradona to rest him,” says Gary Naylor. “I suspect that the director might train a camera on him and the ‘Apologies for any bad language’ graphic at hand.”
74 min March’s free-kick is comfortable saved by Alisson, falling to his right. In other news, Jones has gone to right-back.
74 min Milner is replaced by Curtis Jones. I’m not sure yet who will play at right-back because Brighton have a free-kick.
73 min Welbeck is also down after a clash of heads with Phillips.
72 min Now James Milner is down with what looks like a hamstring injury.
71 min Ah jeez, this is pretty sad: the substitute Adam Lallana, who was only on the field for eight minutes, has gone off injured. He’s run straight down the tunnel to be replaced by Ali Jahanbakhsh.
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70 min Liverpool have the game under control at the moment. They’ve been much better in the second half.
68 min “Given you’ve broken your own no more Maradona rule, I feel entitled to return to the subject,” says Richard Hirst. “The two greatest national sides I’ve seen were the 1970 Brazil team and the Dutch team throughout the 1970s ( a new debate - the greatest team not to win the World Cup?): you can see Messi fitting seamlessly into those sides, Maradona not so much. Conclusion - if nothing else, Messi is more of a team player.”
I don’t agree with that. Liam Brady makes a good point about Maradona the team player in this fine tribute. Anyway, enough!
67 min “I think it’s totally wrong to equate Maradona as a ‘luxury’ player who could spray passes about but not a lot else,” says Mark Hooper. “He was utterly committed on the pitch, built like a brick wotsit (albeit a short, stout one) and would run himself into the ground.”
That’s true. I’m still not sure he’d love the concept of the high press, though.
66 min Connolly was also pretty aggrieved to be taken off, but Salah has taken it to a whole new level.
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64 min Mo Salah is replaced by Sadio Mane. He is absolutely fuming about that.
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63 min Adam Lallana comes on to replace Aaron Connolly, which is a bit of a surprise.
62 min Brighton appeal for a penalty after a handball from Fabinho. It probably would have been given but Trossard was offside.
Jota took that so well. Salah tucked the ball round the corner to find him on the edge of the area. He pushed the ball between Trossard and White and started to make an angled run into the area. Then he dummied Webster and Dunk by shaping to shoot. Finally, having made the space, he dragged a precise low shot back across Ryan and into the corner. Superb stuff.
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GOAL! Brighton 0-1 Liverpool (Jota 60)
Diogo Jota gives Liverpool the lead with another terrific goal!
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59 min Sadio Mane is about to come on.
57 min It must be a while since Liverpool failed to score in consecutive matches (edit: it happened at Watford and Chelsea in February/March this year). They have 33 minutes to ensure that doesn’t happen.
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54 min: Good effort from Welbeck! That was really nice play, at least the first part. Welbeck poked a bouncing ball away from Fabinho on the halfway line and ran into space down the right. He moved into the area, cut back inside Henderson and drove a low left-footed shot that was comfortably saved by Alisson. In hindsight he should probably have tried to find Connolly or Trossard at the far post.
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53 min There’s definitely a greater urgency to Liverpool’s play. He’s best known for his baseball cap, but I suspect Jurgen Klopp also has a pretty powerful hairdryer.
52 min “It would have been fascinating to see Maradona play in the modern day,” says Chris. “Growing up in the 80s and 90 you had loads of players (Le Tiss, Hagi, Molby, Ginola, Carlton Palmer) that offered basically nothing to the team in terms of fitness or positional play but were first pick every week due to sheer talent.
“Modern teams (Bayern and Liverpool I’m looking at you) have no place for such players and are simultaneously more effective and all the poorer for it. I think Ronaldinho at Barca was the last player who excelled for a top team and fitted that mould. This brings us to Maradona because he was that good that he’d have to play for a top side. I do fear that modern coaches wouldn’t know what to do with him and there’s a risk he’d end up being a 1980s Ozil.”
50 min Wijnaldum slides a pass down the inside-left channel, whose cross-shot on the turn flashes across the face of goal. Liverpool look a bit livelier than they did for much of the first half.
48 min “As I lift the 2020 Guess the Job trophy I must hand it over to the nurses of the world,” says Mary Waltz. “The absolute heroes of the Covid epidemic and after Rashford has finished feeding the kids he should shift his focus to raising the wages of nurses. Underpaid life savers.”
Amen to that.
47 min March plays a penetrative pass to find Connolly on the left. His first touch isn’t great, however, and that allows Phillips to come across and clear.
47 min “I think the problem with VAR is simple - the definition of a ‘clear and obvious’ error is totally misunderstood in soccer,” says Madan Raja. “Cricket and NFL have the video assistant. But the on-field call has more weight. The goal is not to get to 100% in cricket and NFL. It is to avoid a blunder. In soccer, I think people are trying to design a perfect system.”
Yes, that’s an excellent point. Another difference, certainly with cricket, is the culture of entitlement and intolerance in football, which means every single decision is a DISGRACE one way or another. Anyway, that’s enough of VAR, at least until the next DISGRACEFUL decision.
46 min Peep peep! Brighton begin the second half.
Liverpool have made a half-time change: Jordan Henderson replaces Neco Williams, which means James Milner will go to right back.
“Much-needed halftime for Klopp & co,” says Rob Moore. “No rhythm or pace to their play. So many times the fullback has been building up speed with space ahead of them, and the pass has been to foot, forcing a stop and cut back, killing any momentum. Brighton have done very well to keep the front four quiet, as well as create a few excellent chances of their own, but the addition of Henderson & Mané could and should change things. ‘Delicately poised’ or something like that.”
Yes, it’s odd to see Liverpool play so sluggishly. I suspect Jurgen Klopp is impolitely advising against a repeat in the second half.
Guess the job! “I’m a psychiatric nurse at a state hospital,” says Yasin Ntume. “We are not allowed phones so our best bet are patient TVs in their dayroom lol.”
Three points to Mary Waltz (43 min).
“Hey Rob,” says Yash Gupta. “VAR is not good and it is flawed but please things like Umpire’s Call are just calling for A HELL LOT OF TROUBLE AND NEW LEVEL OF CYNIC IN FOOTBALL.”
Half-time entertainment
It’s the one we’ve all been waiting for: Mac Millings’ Diego Maradona Tribute XI!
- Andy Dribble
- Mal Maradonaghy
- Vaccinathan Aké
- Jamie Carradona
- Johnny Hand of Metgod
- Diego Jota
- Jordan Pibe
- Rafael Armando Vaart
- Dries Mer10s
- Diego Maradona
- Harry Co- (That’s quite enough of that. Don’t you know this is a family website, Millings? - Ed.)
Lovely stuff, Millings. But you missed the Brazilian left-back, Bronca.
“Guess the job,” says Stephen Carr. “Election auditor.”
Heh, very good.
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“I’m a Liverpool fan so I have to declare an interest but the Salah goal was NOT offside,” says David Buckley. “If you look closely at the replay the ball had already left Firmino’s boot when the image was frozen. Half a frame it might be but the ball had been struck and was in motion. The technology is not quite there for these marginal decisions and the benefit of the doubt has to go to the attacking side.”
Yes, this split-frame issue is another problem with VAR. There’s a good argument for having the equivalent of ‘umpire’s call’ in cricket, which would have meant Salah’s goal being given.
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Half-time reading
Half time: Brighton 0-0 Liverpool
Peep peep! Brighton are holding Liverpool at the Amex Stadium, and the scoreline doesn’t flatter tham at all. Neal Maupay missed a penalty and Aaron Connolly has been a constant threat to Liverpool’s makeshift defence. Apart from an excellent first five minutes, Liverpool have been surprisingly sluggish. Mo Salah had a goal VARed for offside, but that was about it.
45+1 min Veltman is booked for a lunge at Firmino.
45 min “Hey Rob,” says Ross O’Connor. “Don’t you think the whole VAR business has gotten a bit ridiculous? The offside rule was devised to stop clumps of players goal-hanging in the opponent’s box, thus reducing the game to a series of lumped balls from one penalty area to the other. It was not designed to rule players offside by the width of a piece of paper. And I speak as someone who can’t stand Liverpool.”
I loathe almost everything about VAR, but I do understand the ‘offside is offside’ argument. I’m not sure there’s a satisfactory solution to any of it, because it won’t be put back in its box.
44 min There’s a break in play while Bissouma receives treatment, I think to his hip. He’s going to continue for now. He’s a really important player for Brighton so they won’t want to lose him.
43 min “Guess the job,” says Mary Waltz. “Graveyard shift at a hospital. I get Peacock on my package so I also do the 4am west coast wake up call. Retired. Afternoon naps are lovely.”
Afternoon naps are tremendous , especially when they’re on the Guardian’s dime .
42 min A shot on target! Dunk’s clearance only goes to Minamino 25 yards from goal. He controls the ball and flicks a shot with the outside of the boot that is comfortably saved by Ryan.
41 min Gary Naylor is not a fan of the high press.
“Okay lads, Mo Salah on Saturday - you know what to do.”
“Drop off and give him no space to get in behind boss?”
“It’s 2020 lads! Press up to the halfway line - what can go wrong?”
40 min Neither side has had a shot on target yet.
39 min “Like many other people, I guess, I’ve been dosing up on Maradona videos these last few days,” says Charles Antaki. “It’s tempting to mentally cut and paste those into what we’re seeing in front of us. It’s sort of works; a dribble from the halfway line, a push through a crowded box, a goal from an impossible angle… but everything else about it fails: the air of the Premier League 2020 is just too sterile for that kind of genius. Maybe all of football has been since the turn of the 21st century.”
It’s an interesting point. I’d love to have seen him on these perfect pitches and against defenders who weren’t allowed to butcher him from behind.
38 min A cross shot from Welbeck drifts across the face of goal. Brighton have had plenty of openings like that, more than you usually get against Liverpool.
NO GOAL! Brighton 0-0 Liverpool
Salah was just offside. Jurgen Klopp is telling the fourth official what he thinks of the decision.
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35 min This is really tight. I think it might be disallowed.
Alisson drives a goalkick to Firmino on the right wing. He chests the ball down and volleys it over the defence to Salah, who runs through and bobbles the ball past Ryan with his right foot. That was devastatingly efficient from Liverpool - the ball didn’t bounce for 70 yards. It’s being checked for offside though.
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GOAL! Brighton 0-1 Liverpool (Salah 34)
Correction: Liverpool had been rubbish.
33 min Trossard curls a few yards wide from 20 yards after a good pass from Connolly. Alisson had it covered. Liverpool have been rubbish in the last 15-20 minutes.
33 min “It sucks that we can’t catch any early games here in the US on NBC anymore but I appreciate the Guardian for the work you guys do to bring us the games,” says Yasin Ntume. “As someone who works at night this is a great way to follow the game that I love so dearly. Time check 4:49am.”
Let’s play ‘guess the job’. Security guard?
32 min Liverpool have some good options on the bench, Mane and Henderson in particular. If it stays like this we’ll see both of them, perhaps as early as half-time.
30 min “In most instances technology is often a vast improvement on the fallibility of humans,” says Mary Waltz. “VAR is the exception that proves the rule. Bin it. Yes there will be howlers from the Mike Deans of the world, yes we will scream at the officials, but I would rather complain about a human rather than a machine that is just as fickle.”
It’s too late, it’s out of the box. Like something equally poisonous, social media, it needed to be stopped at source.
29 min Connolly’s pace and movement are causing Liverpool a lot of problems. He’s now playing down the middle in place of Maupay, with Trossard on the right. Jurgen Klopp looks pretty displeased with how his team are playing.
27 min “I’m biased as a Liverpool fan but it looked to me that Connolly put his leg closer to Nico Williams in order to gain the foul?” says Mike MacKenzie. “He may not have done that but I’ve seen it done. Very hard for a ref to determine if that occurred.”
Yeah, Connolly often does that, though I still think it was probably a foul. It certainly wasn’t a clear and obvious error.
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26 min There’s a VAR check for handball against Robertson, who waved his hand in the air as Connolly lobbed the ball over him. It didn’t touch his hand and play continues.
25 min Leandro Trossard comes on to replace Maupay.
25 min Liverpool started really well but have been sluggish in the last 15 minutes or so.
24 min Veltman clips a good pass behind Phillips to find Connolly, who can’t control a difficult ball on the run.
23 min Maupay, who missed the penalty, is now going off with a hamstring injury. He’s walked straight down the tunnel, in a rare old funk.
22 min That penalty award shows the inconsistency of VAR. It was almost identical to a penalty that Connolly won against Manchester United after a foul by Paul Pogba, a decision that was then overturned by VAR.
MAUPAY MISSES THE PENALTY!
20 min Oh my days. Maupay sent Alisson the wrong way but slid the ball this far wide of the right-hand post.
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19 min: PENALTY TO BRIGHTON! A clumsy tackle by Neco Williams on Connolly has been penalised. Stuart Attwell took his time before giving the penalty, but I don’t think it will be overturned.
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18 min Brighton are having a more even share of the game now. March’s inswinging corner is headed away at the near post by Milner.
16 min I thought Minamino was playing as a No10 but increasingly it looks like he’s the third central midfielder alongside Wijnaldum and Milner. You can never get complacent with tactics, that’s the beauty of them.
15 min Jota slips White neatly and is flattened. White is lucky not to be booked.
14 min “Hi Rob,” says Gary Naylor. “I read an excellent piece last night that got to the heart of El Diego’s ‘other’ World Cup (well, one of them). It sounds, as so much does this week, more myth than truth, but truth it is.”
Oh, Gary.
13 min Connolly almost gets in again, this time from Gross’s smart first-time pass. Alisson comes a long way from his area to clear.
11 min “Hi Rob,” says Duncan Edwards. “It’s a shame Tariq Lamptey isn’t playing today as he’d have given Andy Robertson something to think about other than getting forward and wreaking havoc. I can’t believe his red card wasn’t overturned as I don’t think he deserved that second yellow and the fad Grealish made a meal of it. Pah.”
I don’t think they can overturn red cards that are given for two yellows, a regulation that feels a bit outdated.
10 min: Connolly misses a great chance! Brighton almost scored with their first attack. Maupay turned on the halfway line and slid a lovely through pass to Connolly, who scooted between Phillips and Fabinho. He reached the edge of the area, opened his body and sidefooted the ball just wide of the far post.
9 min Possession so far: Brighton 22-78 Liverpool.
7 min Brighton’s front three have barely had a kick so far. Liverpool have started with impressive authority.
5 min “So what if Messi didn’t score in a World Cup knockout,” says Tom Andejri. “Give it a rest man. Who cares about the WC anyway?”
The world? Anyway, that’s enough of Maradona v Messi. I can’t be bothered, and there’s a game to watch.
3 min Liverpool have made an excellent start. Fabinho drives a pass over the defence to Salah, who makes a fine run inside Webster. He takes the ball down on his chest and smashes a half-volley just wide from 20 yards.
3 min I thought Mo Salah might start in the centre but he is playing from the right, with Firmino as a false nine and Minamino the No10.
2 min Firmino slides a nice pass inside White to release Jota in the inside-left channel. He tries to find the unmarked Salah at the far post but underhits the pass slightly, which allows Dunk to get back and concede a corner.
1 min Peep peep! Liverpool kick off from right to left.
“Can we all stop the Maradona hagiography now?” says Richard Hirst. “Not even the Argentinian GOAT, let alone the world’s. Unless of course it is true that Messi is from another planet and therefore ineligible.”
Messi has never scored a goal in the knockout stages of a World Cup. Anyway, let’s leave it, we’ll just bore each other.
It’s a beautiful November day in Brighton & Hove, sunny and clear. There will be a minute’s applause before the game to commemorate the greatest footballer we will ever see.
“Morning - sorry - afternoon Rob,” says Colin Young. “Why are LFC fans so fearful that Klopp ‘will be moving on’ when it’s not necessarily the case? True, there are those managers who like to make a point then move on (Mourinho being the most obvious space-hopper of the lot) but it’s not a nailed on certainty is it? Perhaps it’s all down to Arsene Wenger - who could have gone literally anywhere in the summer of 2004 but chose to stick around at Arsenal, winning diddly afterwards and watching as his career, and with it his reputation, slip away? It’s strange though... it now seems ‘obvious’ that managers will move on - even more so than players. Why is this?”
I suppose it’s because 99 per cent of them do move on. Post-Wenger, is there anybody in world football who has been at a club for over 10 years? I do think Klopp will buck the trend to some extent, though, and it won’t surprise me if he does a full decade at Anfield.
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“Hi Rob,” says Kishalay Banerjee. “Based on Pep and Klopp’s statements over the years, it seems that they have plans for managing Spain and Germany at some point in the future. Given the intensity and detail-oriented nature of their management, I wonder how (or if) they would modify their approaches to suit the fact that they will have a much limited time with their international squads. It would be fascinating to watch how their approaches differ from their club tactics, and how it affects their head-to-head results.”
It’s a really good point. I’m not sure it would suit either of them, particularly Guardiola.
“Is that the weakest Liverpool bench you’ve seen for a while?” askys Neill Brown. “I know Mane is one of the best attackers in the world but the others are... trusted by Jurgen Klopp, so must be bloody good. But the bench still seems a bit thin for the best team in Europe. I don’t mind Brighton’s chances today.”
Henderson, Jones, Tsimikas, Mane... I’ve seen worse. I know what you mean, though - I fancy Brighton a bit more than I did before I saw the teams.
Alternative MBM action
The biggest scandal of the Hand of God game was that Terry Fenwick could have been sent off four times.https://t.co/8dJF5jkKEU
— Nessun Dorma Podcast (@nessundormapod) November 27, 2020
“Morning Rob,” says David Horn. “As a Liverpool fan I’m forced to confront (and when I say ‘forced’ I mean ‘masochistically compelled’) the fact that one day Klopp will leave us. I like to imagine who, on that terrible day, might step into the breach, bringing something new while embracing something old. And, among others, Graham Potter springs to mind. He seems to me to have the right mix of idealism and pragmatism, innovation and tradition. Of course I also like to think we have a few more years of Klopp left. (Oh and Nuno is one of the others who my thoughts turn to, since you ask.)”
How long do you think Klopp will stay? I think he’ll want at least two more league titles, and ideally one more Champions League, before he does one.
“Hello Rob,” says Martin S. “Do we really think Spurs can mount a decent challenge this year? As that’s the fixture LFC fans will surely look closest at tomorrow. Or will Lampard have a shot? OR will it be a Mourinho flop?”
I think Liverpool will win by 10-15 points, but Spurs are capable of finishing above the rest and I certainly think they’ll finish in the top four. I hope they mount a challenge, though. There are few things I would enjoy more than Jose Mourinho winning the Premier League and turning his acceptance speech into a relentless eight-hour score-settler.
“As Larkin said, the dropping of Mane ‘brings the priest and the doctor, in their long coats, running across the fields’,” says Ian Copestake. “He was last left out for the Aston Villa debacle.”
If only they’d picked him; it might have been 7-4.
Pre-match reading
Team news
Adam Lallana is only fit enough to be on the bench against his old club. Aaron Connolly replaces him, and Joel Veltman is in for the suspended Tariq Lamptey.
Liverpool have made six changes from the team that lost at home to Atalanta. Joel Matip is rested, which means a start for Nat Phillips alongside Fabinho, and Takumi Minamino starts in what looks like a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Brighton (3-4-3) Ryan; White, Dunk, Webster; Veltman, Bissouma, Gross, March; Welbeck, Maupay, Connolly.
Substitutes: Steele, Burn, Lallana, Alzate, Molumby, Trossard, Jahanbakhsh.
Liverpool (4-3-3) Alisson; N Williams, Phillips, Fabinho, Robertson; Minamino, Wijnaldum, Milner; Salah, Firmino, Jota.
Substitutes: Adrian, Tsimikas, R Williams, Henderson, Jones, Mane, Origi.
Referee Stuart Attwell.
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Preamble
Hello and welcome to live, minute-by-minute coverage of Brighton v Liverpool at the Amex Stadium. Liverpool will go top of the Premier League if they avoid defeat. It might only be for 24 hours; it might be for the rest of the season. Although they have had a slightly odd start to this very odd season, there have been enough signs that Liverpool are still the best team in England by a fair distance.
Most of those signs have been at Anfield. Liverpool have won only one of their four away games in the league, though there were mitigating circumstances for the draws at Everton and Manchester City. It could be worse: Brighton have won only one league game at home all year. And they haven’t even drawn a game against Liverpool since 1991. Brighton are a decent, very likeable side but I’m not sure I fancy their chances today. If they do win, tomorrow’s front pages will be theirs.
Kick off 12.30pm.
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