And here’s Paul Wilson’s match report. I’ll be off then. Bye!
Liverpool scored a slightly fortunate goal at an opportune time – with Huddersfield cramming the penalty area they were finding it impossible to create clear opportunities, and the longer that situation continued the more frustrated they would become, and then perhaps, in time, some degree of desperation would follow, and that’s when the home side might have profited. Instead Can scored with a deflected long-range volley, and Liverpool relaxed and – particularly after they scored another goal at an opportune time – took control.
Final score: Huddersfield 0-3 Liverpool
90+3 mins: And without further drama, it’s over. The managers embrace on the touchline, and Liverpool pocket the points!
90+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there will be three minutes or so.
89 mins: Liverpool make their final change, bringing Solanke on for Firmino.
89 mins: Van la Parra’s cross from the left should have been cleared, but various red shirts stood still and Ince ran 15 yards to reach it first instead. Nothing comes of it, and Milner is now giving his team-mates a proper dressing down.
87 mins: A shot! Huddersfield have a shot! It’s pathetically weak and easily cleared without getting anywhere near the goalkeeper, but still. It came from Tom Ince, who along with Rajiv van La Parra came on a while back, with Mooy and Lowe going off.
85 mins: A spell of Huddersfield possession ends with Hogg being passed the ball by, I think, Zanka at such pace that he feels compelled to knock it straight out of play and start shouting angrily at people.
82 mins: Liverpool make a double substitution: Salah and Henderson go off, and Oxlade-Chamberlain and Wijnaldum are on.
81 mins: Can lifts the ball into the area and Firmino, from out to the left of goal, attempts a ridiculously optimistic volleyed shot and shanks it wildly, when he might have sidefooted back across goal to Salah.
80 mins: Swansea are now just a point behind Huddersfield, with better goal difference. Liverpool, meanwhile, will be eight points ahead of Arsenal this evening.
🙌 GET IN THERE!!!!! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/jynbyghMIU
— Swansea City AFC (@SwansOfficial) January 30, 2018
GOAL! Huddersfield 0-3 Liverpool (Salah, 78 mins)
Lossl dives to his right, and the ball goes to his left! The home fans, unhappy that Liverpool got their penalty when Quaner got nothing at the other end, boo lustily.
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77 mins: That is a penalty, I think. There was not only a bit of a nudge from the back, but also an arm and an elbow flailing around Can’s neck.
Penalty to Liverpool!
77 mins: Can feels contact from Billing behind him, and down he goes!
75 mins: Elsewhere, Swansea are now 3-1 up against Arsenal, with less than five minutes to play.
73 mins: Salah should have scored a third! Gomez lifts the ball forward, a defender hopelessly misjudges, he races past the goalkeeper and, from an acute angle, finds the side netting!
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72 mins: Huddersfield have the ball inside Liverpool’s penalty area! Mooy lifts it to Quaner, who is so surprised to have a potential goalscoring chance that he falls over! Actually he wants a penalty, but contact from Robertson was minimal, and the referee waves play on.
71 mins: Karius’s clearance lands in the centre circle, where it bounces between a defender’s legs and out the other side, and for a moment it looks like Salah will scamper clear. But then he doesn’t.
70 mins: Huddersfield cross the ball! Lowe gets to the byline, and he crosses it! Into the penalty area! It’s cleared into touch, though, and the resulting long throw is caught by Karius.
69 mins: Another difficult headed chance for Mané. Again Can is the source, curling a fine cross from deep, on the right wing. Mané dives, but heads wide.
67 mins: With absolutely nothing happening on the pitch, BT Sport show us Steve McMahon, who’s in the press box, and Adam Lallana, who is in the stands somewhere with his young son. They spend at least a minute of the match doing this, without risk of missing a major incident.
64 mins: Before that, Huddersfield actually had the ball in Liverpool’s half for a bit. When they gave it away their forwards immediately jogged slowly back towards their own half, allowing Liverpool to calmly tap a few passes around. Zanka finds this so upsetting he rampages to the halfway line and steamrollers Mané, conceding a free-kick.
63 mins: A Huddersfield substitution: Steve Mounie goes off, and Collin Quaner comes on.
62 mins: Liverpool engage in a bit of unchallenged keep-ball.
59 mins: Zanka’s perfectly-judged interception stops Milner skipping clear inside the penalty area. Liverpool win it back straight away, but Mané slips in the act of shooting, and the ball squirms wide.
58 mins: Milner’s 25-yard drive is hard and rising, and though it’s nowhere near the corner Lossl decides he has no chance of catching it and fumbles it over the bar.
57 mins: Robertson benefits from a narrow offside call and puts in a testy cross, and the home fans, glad to have something to respond to, boo a bit. it sounds like they’re making plenty of noise, but largely despite rather than because of what they’re watching.
54 mins: Chance for Liverpool! Can’s long, looping cross from the right is flighted perfectly to land on Mané’s pate, but his header is from a little too far out, and Lossl saves.
53 mins: Huddersfield have so far made 15 passes in the final third of the pitch.
50 mins: The second half has started very much as the first ended. Huddersfield’s best “move” so far was a long punt forward from Lossl, which Karius only just claimed ahead of Mounie.
47 mins: So far this season Huddersfield are 12-11 up (before tonight) in the first half of league matches, and 30-7 down in the second. At home they are (again before tonight) 8-6 up in the first half, but 10-3 down in the second. This is not encouraging.
46 mins: Peeep! They’re back under way.
The players are back out!
Sadly Robbie Savage has a point, on BT Sport at half-time, when he says that the deflection on Can’s shot wasn’t so much down to luck as to Philip Billing’s weak attempt to close the Liverpool player down. This is I think an issue of technique rather than cowardice: you don’t maximise your chances of blocking a shot by waving a leg at it, you somehow need to put your torso in the way.
“Please can you explain how anyone volleys a ball after it’s bounced once (Can’s goal),” asks Geoff Wignall. Well, it was a great big bouncy bounce, and Can hit it with the ball falling, and it thus counts to my mind as a volley rather than a half-volley (hit with the ball rising having recently bounced).
Half time: Huddersfield 0-2 Liverpool
45+2 mins: The first half is over, and Liverpool deservedly lead.
45+1 mins: Mane’s backheel flick releases Firmino into space, on the left side of the area. He takes the ball almost to the byline, waits for support in the middle, and then ignores it and sidefoots off the inside of the near post and in, with Lossl expecting a cross and wrong-footed!
GOAL! Huddersfield 0-2 Liverpool (Firmino, 45+1 mins)
How has he squeezed it in from there?
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43 mins: Down the other end, Milner pokes the ball through to Firmino, who is also offside.
42 mins: Mooy heads the ball into the area, Mounie taps it across goal and Depoitre rolls it in. Mooy, though, was well offside, and the whistle had gone a long time before the shot was taken.
40 mins: Ooooh! Lowe tries a left-footed curler, and it whistles a yard wide of the far post!
40 mins: There are seven Liverpool players, and three from Huddersfield, in the wall. Surely Karius can’t see a thing.
39 mins: Huddersfield have a chance here, after Mane conceded a free-kick a couple of yards outside the penalty area with a ludicrously clumsy challenge.
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37 mins: Robertson gets a lucky bounce over Hadergjonaj and finds himself in space in the penalty area, but though he picks out the right pass he underhits it, and it’s intercepted.
36 mins: Possession stats over the last 20 minutes would be severely lopsided. Huddersfield, after a positive start, have regressed to an almost entirely defensive mindset.
33 mins: You get booked for the mildest shirt-tug these days, but Lowe properly bear-hugs Salah to stop the Egyptian scampering into space and is punished only by the award of a free-kick.
30 mins: Liverpool continue to control proceedings, though there has only been one genuine goalscoring chance, and Huddersfield made it.
27 mins: That was exactly what Liverpool needed – there’s no need to pick out passes in a wildly congested penalty area if you can just blast the ball into the net from outside it.
GOAL! Huddersfield 0-1 Liverpool (Can, 26 mins)
A header out of the area bounces once and is volleyed by Can, 25 yards out, clips the calf of Billing and spins perfectly into the corner!
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25 mins: Liverpool work the ball around Huddersfield’s area, but the home side have nine players inside it, and two more within two yards of it, and the visitors can’t find a gap. On the plus side, every clearance inevitably goes straight back to them.
24 mins: Can curls a shot with his left foot that wasn’t very hard but was extremely accurate, forcing Lossl into a diving save.
21 mins: A bright start, full of action, but except for those two Huddersfield raids down the wing it’s all been a little clumsy. “‘We are experiencing some site issues, so if you think updates are coming through a little belatedly, it’s not my fault’ sounds like what someone whose fault it was would say,” notes Mac Millings. Gah, that’s the last time I listen to the guy who told me to write that.
17 mins: Great chance for Huddersfield! Lossl’s long kick if flicked on by Billing to Lowe, who is totally free, bursting forward on the left. His low cross reaches Depoitre just inside the penalty area, and the first-time shot is firm and on target, but Karius saves!
15 mins: Huddersfield get down the right, where Hadergjonaj goes on a barnstorming run and produces a decent cross at the end of it, which is cleared.
12 mins: Liverpool try a long ball of their own, and when it comes down to earth Lossl outjumps Mane with the greatest of ease. “I’m watching the game at West Ham,” writes JR. “Benteke has just given Palace the lead after invisible Hammers defending. But the most entertaining thing so far was in the 14th minute when under no pressure James Collins lost the ball out of play and in a very quiet London stadium and very close to a microphone screamed the C-word for which Bill Leslie immediately apologised.”
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10 mins: We are experiencing some site issues, so if you think updates are coming through a little belatedly, it’s not my fault, and it’s being worked on.
8 mins: Huddersfield have control of the ball for a good while, working it down the left, keeping possession, passing back into their own half, and then pumping a long ball forward towards Depoitre and losing it.
6 mins: Huddersfield have come into the game a bit, though their attacking has so far been confined to kicking a few high balls for Mounie to fight for.
3 mins: Firmino chips the ball through to Mane, who might have been clean through but can’t take it in his stride, has to check back, and tees up Firmino for a bobbly low shot that’s easily saved.
2 mins: Huddersfield are yet to touch the ball. Oh, now they have, Zanka kicking it out of play for a throw-in.
1 min: Peeeeep! Liverpool get the game started.
The players are on the pitch, and we are just an anthem, some handshakes, a bit of warming-up, a coin toss, perhaps an end-change, maybe a player-huddle, and one small ad break away from kick-off!
Some last-minute pre-match reading:
“Maybe it’s because I’m American and the lunch hour is approaching here on the west coast, but all this talk about BT got me thinking about a BLT sandwich,” writes Peter Oh. “But then the image of lettuce and the potential of a Liverpool keeper’s hands being compared to said leafy green led me to quickly swat that idea aside. In fact, I punched that idea firmly away with locked wrists and solid fists. No lettuce for lunch! I hope.” Crikey.
Klopp has also spoken about his team, confirming that Lovren has come into the team just to give Van Dijk a bit of a breather, and sayin this about the inclusion of Milner and Henderson:
Milly is only playing because he’s from Yorkshire. I think at least one from Yorkshire should play tonight. No, both did well when they came on against West Brom. We need physicality, we need to know about the specific challenge at a place like that. Both players bring that in. That’s it, and that’s all.
“Simon, instead of just repeating Klopp’s allegation re BT, could you get one of your journalist pals to ask the question why there were only four minutes added on when VAR wasted 10 minutes?” suggests Andrew Champney. I fear it will remain a mystery. PGMOL have released a brief statement, however, which places all the blame upon the VAR of the day, who I believe was Andre Marriner:
The VAR official will advise the fourth official on the number of minutes to be included as added time for each half in respect of any time lost through VAR. Broadcasters are not involved in this process.
David Wagner speaks:
We’ll see if it’s a good time [to play Liverpool] or not. For sure, both teams aren’t having the best run at the minute. It’s up to us to make the best out of it. Will I surprise him? Usually he knows everything about me. Maybe we’ll surprise him, maybe not. We’ll see.
[On the changes to his team] Changes are part of the game. Usually we make changes. To be honest I’ve no idea how many. We wanted to have fresh legs. We wanted to have power in the game, pace in the game, and we’ll see. Hopefully there will be a surprise.
BT Sport have firmly denied influencing the amount of stoppage time played in the Liverpool v West Brom game, which Jurgen Klopp suggested had been the case:
They’ve just spoken to Klopp about the allegation, which he notably failed to retract, saying only that “I know what I heard”:
I said how it was. For everybody in the stadium it was clear – there should have been minimum nine minutes and it was only four. So of course you ask the question. Obviously somebody misjudged the situation. We didn’t lose the game [because of it], it had nothing to do with the result, it was only one part of the VAR issues. That was everything I wanted to say, nothing else. I know what I heard. It was obvious that it should have been 10 minutes. If the VAR takes 10 minutes it should take that time. I’ve heard what I’ve heard, that’s it.
So six changes for Liverpool from the side that lost to West Brom, the most noticeable of which see Jordan Henderson make his first start of 2018 and Virgil van Dijk drop to the bench. Also coming in: Karius, Gomez, Lovren, Robertson and Milner. Out: Mignolet, Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk, Moreno, Wijnaldum and Oxlade-Chamberlain.
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The teams!
The team sheets have been handed in, and the names upon them are these:
Huddersfield: Lossl, Hadergjonaj, Kongolo, Schindler, Jorgensen, Lowe, Mooy, Hogg, Billing, Mounie, Depoitre. Subs: Smith, Coleman, van La Parra, Pritchard, Ince, Quaner, Hefele.
Liverpool: Karius, Gomez, Matip, Lovren, Robertson, Can, Henderson, Milner, Salah, Firmino, Mane. Subs: Van Dijk, Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mignolet, Ings, Solanke, Alexander-Arnold.
Referee: Kevin Friend.
TEAM NEWS with @ViessmannUK: @KongoloTerence has been handed his first @premierleague start by Head Coach David Wagner for #htafc's match against @LFC; 8pm kick-off (AT) pic.twitter.com/WoRsu6mnVx
— Huddersfield Town (@htafcdotcom) January 30, 2018
Tonight's team to face @htafcdotcom 🔴 pic.twitter.com/7nptEH4fAV
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 30, 2018
Liverpool beat Huddersfield 3-0 at Anfield back in October, a match that featured Daniel Sturridge’s final domestic goal for the club, to break the deadlock five minutes into the second half. Before that match, talk was of the friendship between Jurgen Klopp and David Wagner, whose relationship goes back a few years. This is what Wagner told the Guardian about their relationship back in 2015:
I’ve known Jürgen longer than I’ve known my wife. I know he is living this job 100%. He always thinks about football or his team, always. I think you do this if you are a good head coach. You can never stop your brain from thinking about what could happen tomorrow or next week or the next hour. It is not possible to close your brain to this in football.
Now, there are other things to worry about. Huddersfield haven’t won a league game since they gave a comically ragged Watford side a merry tonking at Vicarage Road in mid-December, since when they have taken three points from five league games. The last time they beat Liverpool Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister, Cliff Richard was at No1 with Travellin’ Light and Simon Cowell was less than two months old; in their last six encounters Liverpool have scored 12 times and Huddersfield not at all. As for Liverpool, they had gone precisely three months unbeaten when they travelled to Swansea last week, but having lost then and again at home to West Brom in the FA Cup on Saturday, they need to rapidly return to winning ways.
Here’s a brief highlight from Klopp’s pre-match press conference, reflecting on his side’s current micro-crisis:
It is how football is, how life is. Two weeks ago we had an 18-game unbeaten run and then you lose twice and everything feels different. That’s OK because for us it is important you feel it and don’t think it is not important. We have to make it much better from now on. If you use a defeat to learn from then it is still bad but it is OK. If you don’t learn from it you are silly. Huddersfield is a special place, the whole city fights for the league. They don’t expect brilliant football, they expect a proper fight and that is what Huddersfield Town is ready to deliver. We need to deliver as well.
And here’s what Wagner had to say about this game:
Liverpool have lost two games in a row. They look vulnerable at the minute,” Wagner said. “Does it mean we will be successful? No. Does it mean we have a chance? Absolutely. We are both in a situation where we need the points. Liverpool can have all the points in the Premier League, but not tomorrow night and for this we will fight for every yard in the stadium to cause them the biggest problem they can ever have.
And so, here we are. It should, he said confidently, be a belter. Welcome!
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