A great night for Jurgen Klopp, then, as his surprise selections Divock Origi, Xherdan Shaqiri and Adam Lallana all performed excellently. Not such a good one for Marco Silva, who is under serious pressure now with his side in the relegation zone. “It was a tough night for us,” he says. “We cannot concede goals like we did at this level. We were not good enough.” Andy Hunter was at Anfield to witness a memorable Mersey derby. Here’s his report. Click and enjoy, and thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
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As Anfield celebrates, Divock Origi speaks. “It’s a special game, and as a team we enjoyed it. We showed that we really enjoy to play for Liverpool. The manager showed us trust, and so it was important to get the three points. I think my first goal was important to break the game open, but the second one, technically, I enjoyed that one! We used the space well. We had wonderful service. We have a great team, and we have to be at our best. We try to push each other and enjoy. I’m grateful to be here.”
FULL TIME: Liverpool 5-2 Everton
A rollercoaster ride comes to an end. Liverpool remain eight points clear of second-placed Leicester City, while Everton slip into the relegation zone. Marco Silva warmly hugs Jurgen Klopp on the touchline. Is that his last act as manager at Goodison?
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90 min +2: Liverpool stroke it around as their fans question Everton’s 2020-21 status in song form.
90 min +1: There will be three added minutes. This match can’t end soon enough for Marco Silva and Everton.
GOAL! Liverpool 5-2 Everton (Wijnaldum 90)
Firmino, out on the left, turns Holgate inside out with a cute drop of the shoulder and a shuffle of the feet. He reaches the byline and pulls the ball back for Wijnaldum, who opens his body and sidefoots across Pickford and into the bottom right.
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88 min: A high ball falls towards Pickford on the edge of the box. It’s panto season, so Liverpool’s fans holler as it drops. Pickford, perhaps mindful of what happened at the Kop end last year, does extremely well to claim under pressure.
87 min: Anfield is racked with collective tension. A goal for Everton now would really put the cat among the pigeons. Richarlison competes for a high ball in the Liverpool box, but is penalised for an overly aggressive nudge on Van Dijk.
85 min: Nothing comes of the set piece. Liverpool go up the other end, Shaqiri releasing Mane. He rounds Pickford, but just as he’s preparing to roll home, he’s nudged in the back by Holgate, who nicks the ball away. What a chance spurned! Should it have been a penalty? It would have been a harsh decision. And then, immediately afterwards, Kean is sent clear down the middle! He must score, but slams his shot wide left from the edge of the box. It could have been 5-2, it could have been 4-3. This has been a very odd game.
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84 min: Henderson clanks into Sigurdsson and that’s a free kick 40 yards out. Before it’s taken, Joe Gomez comes on for Trent Alexander-Arnold. Everton load the box and Wijnaldum slices out for a corner.
83 min: This is better, though. Digne bursts into space down the left and stands one up to the far post. There’s nobody in blue taking a chance, and Robertson can clear easily.
82 min: Everton stroke it around the back for a bit, a state of affairs Liverpool are quite happy with. They’re going nowhere.
80 min: Mane should have wrapped this match up, with a pretty bow. Henderson plays long for Mane, who takes the ball down on the edge of the D. Wijnaldum gets in his way a little, but even so, Mane should tuck the ball away. Instead he shoots inches wide of the bottom right. Will Liverpool live to regret that miss? There’s still time for Everton to get back into the game. A goal for the visitors and Anfield will get extremely nervous.
79 min: Digne throws in from the left. Lovren goes up with Kean, who goes over, but it’s not a penalty. Everton keep pressing, though, Richarlison winning a corner out on the right. The set piece is a bit of a non-event.
78 min: Shaqiri whips it in. Wijnaldum heads harmlessly into the Kop while looking for the top left.
77 min: A couple of nice flicks by Shaqiri, then Mane bursts down the left. He’s blocked unfairly by Schneiderlin, and this is a free kick out on the wing, a chance to load the box.
75 min: The match has started to drift. To be fair, the punters have already got good bang for their buck. “Living in deep, dark West Wales, my internet connection is exactly as good as you imagine it to be,” writes Amazon Prime customer Matt Dony. “It’s been nice to see what it would have been like to watch a live match through a ZX Spectrum.”
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73 min: Everton make their last change, replacing Tom Davies with Morgan Schneiderlin. Liverpool respond with a double swap of their own, sending on Jordan Henderson and Roberto Firmino in place of Adam Lallana and Divock Origi, the latter getting a particularly warm ovation for his evening’s work.
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71 min: Robertson fizzes a very inviting pass through the Everton box from the left. There’s nobody there to tap in. Had someone in red taken a gamble, Liverpool would have restored their three-goal lead.
69 min: Shaqiri loops a pass down the inside left and nearly releases Mane, who is forced to check under pressure from Keane. Mane waits for the ball to drop so he can have a bash at goal from the edge of the box ... but it never does, not in an inviting way, anyway. Keane eases him out of the road.
67 min: Davies slides in late on Alexander-Arnold, and is booked for his trouble.
65 min: Davies has a lash from distance. Adrian is behind it all the way.
63 min: All very scrappy, all of a sudden. Alexander-Arnold sticks out an arm in the middle of a melee. A deliberate handball? Not according to the referee. He’d have been walking if the decision went the other way.
61 min: Moise Kean comes on for Dominic Calvert-Lewin. His very first act is to win a corner down the right. Sigurdsson takes, and Richarlison slaps a header straight at Adrian. A great chance. Either side of the keeper, and Everton would be right back in this.
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59 min: Alexander-Arnold goes tearing down the right. His cross is headed out weakly by Keane. Milner chests down and thinks about shooting. Instead he slips a ball down the right channel for Lallana, who spins, shoots over, and was offside anyway.
57 min: Mane is bowled over in midfield by Keane and Davies. Keane is fairly fortunate not to see yellow for blootering the ball away in frustration. The resulting free kick, by Alexander-Arnold, sails harmlessly into the Kop.
56 min: Origi makes good down the right and finds himself hauled down by Mina. A free kick just to the side of the box, near the byline. Shaqiri whips it in, but the referee blows up for an Everton free kick, the result of some pushing and shoving.
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55 min: Another corner for Liverpool out on the right. Alexander-Arnold takes this one, and it’s easily dealt with by the Everton defence. A fair chance the goal tally in this game won’t end at six.
54 min: One corner leads to another. Shaqiri’s second effort is flicked across the face of goal, but Holgate is on point at the far post to clear with Origi and Wijnaldum lurking.
53 min: Origi spins just inside the Everton box and shoots. It’s blocked instantly. The ball breaks to Milner who has another crack. This one’s deflected out to the right of goal for a corner. Shaqiri will take it, and send the ball into a crowded six-yard box.
52 min: Digne takes a good but not great free kick. It’s aimed towards the top right, but always a little high and wide. An interesting stat here: Everton have had nine attempts to Liverpool’s five.
51 min: Robertson’s poor clearing header causes Van Dijk to uncharacteristically panic, needlessly knocking Calvert-Lewin to the ground under a high ball. A free kick just to the right of the D. A dangerous position. If Everton score the next goal, this really is game on.
49 min: Iwobi and Sigurdsson combine well down the right. The ball’s hooked in for Richarlison, who can’t connect properly, and sends a header sailing harmlessly into the arms of Adrian. Anfield still nervous, bordering on silent.
47 min: Anfield is a fairly pensive place at the moment. You wouldn’t know we were in the middle of a six-goal thriller. Or maybe that’s exactly why everyone’s so tense. Van Dijk doesn’t help matters by spraying a simple pass out of play on the left.
Deep breath, then, because here we go again! Everton get the ball rolling again. Liverpool are kicking towards the Kop.
Half-time entertainment. Like you weren’t already excited enough.
HALF TIME: Liverpool 4-2 Everton
Marco Silva goes off down the tunnel in a fury, waving his arms this way and that. Jurgen Klopp isn’t too happy either. On the balance of play, his side should be home and hosed already ... but this isn’t over by a long chalk. Not if those wild and wonderful 48 minutes were anything to go by!
GOAL! Liverpool 4-2 Everton (Richarlison 45+3)
This is absurd! Bernard is fed down the left. He crosses towards Richarlison, who sends a diving header into the bottom right! Actually on second glance, it’s come off his shoulder, not that he cares too much. Everton are still in this! Just about.
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45 min +1: There will be three added minutes. Everton are desperate to hear the half-time whistle. The small margins, though. Had Lovren not slid in to feather that cross away from Calvert-Lewin, it’d be 3-2 and game on. As it is, Everton are in all sorts of bother now.
GOAL! Liverpool 4-1 Everton (Mane 45)
Van Dijk heads the resulting corner clear. Mane scampers up the left, and sends Alexander-Arnold away down the wing. Liverpool are two on one, with Shaqiri free on the right. Alexander-Arnold bides his time, and eventually slips the ball right, not to Shaqiri, but to Mane, who had kept running. It’s a perfectly weighted pass, begging to be hit, and Mane sidefoots it into the bottom left from the edge of the box.
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44 min: Richarlison bustles into the Liverpool box on the right, and whips a lovely ball across the face of goal. Calvert-Lewin is waiting to run the ball home, but Lovren sticks out a leg to divert the ball away for a corner. A goal-saving intervention.
43 min: Van Dijk looks long for Mane down the right, but there’s way too much juice on the ball, and it sails through to Pickford. Everton go up the other end, Bernard nearly sending Davies into the box with a cute flick down the left, but Alexander-Arnold toes the ball away just in time.
41 min: Calvert-Lewin chases a lost cause down the right. Robertson clumsily barges him in the back, and this is a free kick just outside the box, right on the byline. A very dangerous position. Sigurdsson takes, and finds the head of Keane, six yards out, but the defender can’t guide home this time.
40 min: Richarlison spins down the inside-left channel and slips a pass inside for Iwobi, who has a chance to shoot from the edge of the D. Iwobi hooks a strange effort wide left and high. Adrian had nothing to do.
38 min: Wijnaldum juggles the ball down the right, setting Shaqiri off into space. Shaqiri plays Mane in on the overlap. Mane crosses low, forcing Pickford to parry away from goal and into the heart of the area. Fortunately the ball falls to a blue shirt and Everton can clear their lines. But that was risky.
36 min: Everton’s heads have momentarily gone. They are all over the shop at the back. Milner floats a ball in from the left for Shaqiri, who is outjumped by Keane. Corner ... from which nothing happens.
35 min: Everton make a tactical change. Djibril Sidibe is hooked, with Bernard coming on. Everton will play four at the back, with Mason Holgate taking the departed Sidibe’s slot out on the right.
33 min: Keane clatters into Mane in the midfield. No yellow.
GOAL! Liverpool 3-1 Everton (Origi 31)
This one came out of nowhere. Lovren pings a long pass down the middle. Origi takes it out of the sky with his right peg, then opens his body to sidefoot a lob past Pickford and into the net! Shades of Luis Suarez versus Newcastle. What a touch to kill that long ball!
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30 min: It’s getting a bit dirty. Richarlison is late on Shaqiri, studding his left ankle. He sees yellow. Like Alexander-Arnold before him, it could easily have been a red.
29 min: Now Liverpool want a penalty, as Mane tumbles while chasing a pass down the inside-left channel. They’re not getting one. He clattered into Sidibe, but the defender took the ball cleanly, face on.
27 min: Alexander-Arnold is booked, quite correctly, for a late stamp on Digne’s foot. Another referee might have brandished red. Liverpool’s young full-back needs to calm down quickly, or he’ll be the latest in a long line of players to take an early bath in this fixture.
26 min: No penalty. Probably the correct decision, there didn’t seem much contact from behind. Either way, VAR isn’t interested.
25 min: Liverpool play a high line. Iwobi busts it open with a pass down the right, releasing Calvert-Lewin on goal! The air is sucked out of Anfield. An equaliser looks on the cards ... until Calvert-Lewin falls just inside the box, Van Dijk pressurising him from behind. The ball squirts wide right of goal. Everton want a penalty. And there’s going to be a VAR check.
23 min: Richarlison isn’t particularly happy as Alexander-Arnold lands on his leg, studs first. It looked like an accident, though Richarlison clearly doesn’t think it was. The referee gets in between the pair and calms everything down.
22 min: That was very scrappy from Liverpool’s point of view. On the touchline, Jurgen Klopp looks furious. As he fumes, Lallana is stripped of possession while faffing about. Iwobi can’t quite feed Richarlison down the inside-right channel. Had he got the pass right, he’d have freed his team-mate into the box. Anfield is suddenly a very tense place.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-1 Everton (Keane 21)
Everton work a short corner back up the right flank. Iwobi suddenly cruises into the area down the channel and feeds Keane, who breaks through a poor Lovren challenge and lifts the ball over Adrian and into the net. Game back on!
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20 min: A free kick for Everton out on the left. Digne’s delivery is no good, but Robertson slashes at a clearance wildly, and shanks the ball out for a corner on the right. From which ...
19 min: Klopp’s team selection, eh. Everton try to bounce back quickly, winning a corner out on the left. Mina heads it well over the bar.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Everton (Shaqiri 17)
Another stunner! Alexander-Arnold, deep on the right, sprays a widescreen pass to Mane out on the left. Mane drifts infield and slips a ball down the inside-left channel. Shaqiri, barrelling in, sticks out a leg and delicately guides the ball past the outrushing Pickford and into the empty net. What a goal that was.
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16 min: Robertson clips Davies from behind, then falls on his back. Davies isn’t happy at all, and springs up with a view to throwing hands. Robertson smiles malevolently, not wholly unlike the bit in Trainspotting where Renton gets whacked by a car and then grins at the driver through the windscreen.
14 min: Lallana has a dig from 25 yards. His shot is wide left, and he’d used his arm while chesting the ball down anyway. Free kick.
13 min: Everton are asking a couple of questions, though. Another game of bagatelle in the Liverpool box ends with Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin kind of getting in each other’s way, when a shot from 12 yards looked on. Eventually the ball’s shanked wide right. They too should have done much better. This is a nice, open, free-flowing match.
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11 min: Mane is sent clear down the inside left by another raking Van Dijk pass. He should at least get a shot on target, but checks back and shifts inside in order to get a better angle. He allows Mina to get back to block. Should have done much better.
10 min: Iwobi strips Robertson of possession and drives down the inside-right channel. It’s a promising attack, but Milner comes from behind and a superb textbook sliding tackle stops Iwobi in his tracks.
9 min: Lallana spins up and down the left touchline, nearly getting the better of Sidibe ... but not quite. Liverpool are looking sprightly, energised by that early boost.
8 min: Keane flings a ball into the Liverpool area from the left. Adrian claims, then gets into a spat with Calvert-Lewin. Two grown men, and all. Van Dijk breaks it up with a smile.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Everton (Origi 6)
Last season’s hero is at it again! There’s a little bit of pinball in the Liverpool box, started by Richarlison. Robertson clears. Mane picks up possession out on the left, then plays one of the passes of the season, curling a perfectly weighted one to the feet of Origi, who doesn’t have to break stride to collect the ball and round Pickford in one smooth movement, before rolling into the net. That was a delight.
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5 min: Iwobi sends Calvert-Lewin scampering down the right wing, but the striker looked offside and the whistle goes anyway. Turns out Iwobi handled while chesting down.
4 min: A scrappy passage of play in the middle of the park. Everton will be happy enough, especially as its quietened the home faithful a tad.
2 min: Mane and Mina clashed heads when the Liverpool man headed over. Trainers on to look at them both. They’re good to go again. The Amazon picture shifts out of focus, art imitating real life.
1 min: Origi has an early dribble into the Everton box, but it’s a dead end. Everton clear. Liverpool come straight back at them, Robertson tearing down the left after a long Van Dijk pass. He crosses for Mane, who heads over from 12 yards.
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And we’re off! Liverpool get the ball rolling, defending the Kop end in the first half, which is how they like it.
Here come the teams! Some breaking news, and a Guardian world exclusive: Liverpool will play in red while Everton sport blue. Here’s another thing you don’t need me to tell you: there’s a cracking atmosphere in Anfield ahead of the Merseyside derby. You Never Walk Alone gets a belt out, while the Everton end sing in defiance. And finally all four corners of the ground give a round of applause for the continued bravery of the Hillsborough families. Justice for the 96. We’ll be off in a minute or two.
Marco Silva talks! “It is a tough match. It is a special game for both teams and for the city. We should forget their position in the table and the record in the last 20 years; it is an opportunity. Just because they have changed players, they have not changed their DNA and will be a strong team for sure. I see a really strong side to play against. It is important we keep the good things we did against Leicester. Some of the other things we should improve, the way we managed the game. It is a challenge. I would like to see the same Everton I saw here last season.”
Some pre-match jitters in the LFC fanbase. “The film critic Pauline Kael said that Brian de Palma films were so tense you wanted someone to hurry up and get killed so you could have a breather,” writes Ian Copestake. “I find myself almost feeling the same about the agonies one goes through watching Liverpool remain unbeaten. But please, not now! Not to them!”
Anthony O Connell adds: “That team Klopp has picked tonight is worrying. Very, very worrying. Lallana in central mid, too light. Origi a great sub, not a great starter.”
“Great to see Shaq getting a start,” begins Alyson Douglas. “Not so much confidence in Lallana.”
And finally here’s Alex Davies: “Perhaps you can reassure me - it may just be my inner pessimist - but I can’t shake the feeling, looking at this lineup, that Klopp has gone utterly mad.”
It’s almost as though everyone can suddenly feel Pep’s breath on the back of their neck, in the wake of Manchester City’s 4-1 win at Burnley last night. A title race, right here.
Jurgen Klopp talks to Amazon Prime. “One change I had to make, the other four we wanted to. We did it because we can do it. I have said a lot of times we have the squad. It will be intense. It’s a very important game for both sides, but you try to fight as hard as you can for the three points. It’s all clear, it’s a very difficult game, I don’t care about the stats and history. It is nothing we think about.” He also praises Everton, their fans and representatives for their support over Hillsborough during recent trying times. “The people in the city stand together, we are 100 percent united.”
Don’t forget, there are five other Premier League games taking place tonight. They’ve already kicked off. Simon Burnton has your back.
Adrian talks to Amazon Prime. “It is my first derby with Liverpool. I hope we have a great night. I am really happy to be back, it is an opportunity for me, and I’ll try to give my best. We need some fresh legs as we have many games in front of us, a heavy schedule. We have quality enough to play any game with any kind of player, we have a big squad.”
Alex Iwobi’s making his first appearance in a Merseyside derby too, and he’s also been chatting to the new broadcaster on the scene. “I’m excited. I’m no stranger to a derby as I’m used to one in north London. We did very well at Leicester, there’s a lot of positives to take and bring into this game. The pressure’s on all of us, but that’s why we are professionals and we’ll do our best. We’re not afraid, we go out there to battle and do our best. If we get a result it’ll turn our season around.”
Liverpool make five changes to the XI sent out against Brighton last Saturday. James Milner and Adam Lallana replace Jordan Henderson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in midfield. Adrian deputises for the suspended Alisson in goal. And up front, a couple of big and perhaps surprising calls, as Xherdan Shaqiri and Divock Origi allow Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah to put their feet up on the bench. It’s the Powercube’s first start in the Premier League since January.
Everton name the same XI so unlucky to lose at Leicester. Another 5-4-1 it is, then.
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The teams
Liverpool: Adrian, Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, van Dijk, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Lallana, Milner, Shaqiri, Mane, Origi.
Subs: Keita, Firmino, Salah, Gomez, Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kelleher.
Everton: Pickford, Sidibe, Holgate, Mina, Keane, Digne, Iwobi, Davies, Sigurdsson, Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin.
Subs: Baines, Walcott, Tosun, Schneiderlin, Bernard, Kean, Lossl.
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral).
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Preamble
Everton haven’t had much luck in the Merseyside derby of late. It’s been 19 matches since they won one of them, when Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta saw off Mr Roy’s Reds in 2010. And it’s been 20 years since they won at Anfield, their last triumph in their old home courtesy of a Kevin Campbell goal. God speed, Toffees.
Liverpool are currently eight points clear at the top of the Premier League, while Everton hover just a couple above the relegation zone. So it’s not just the history books that Marco Silva’s side are up against; the current form book suggests only one likely result, too. But a quick flick through our third tome - the great big book of hoary old cliches - will tell you that form goes out of the window in a derby. So ...
... there is hope! For starters, Everton usually give Liverpool a proper game. They were the better team at Anfield last season, only to be undone by Jordan Pickford’s surreal late error, while they were awkward and cussed in a goalless draw at Goodison that handed title advantage to Manchester City. It’s been a while since Liverpool have had it easy against their neighbours.
And while Everton have injury problems of their own - no Jean-Philippe Gbamin, Andre Gomes, Fabian Delph or Seamus Coleman - Jurgen Klopp’s side is depleted in a couple of important positions. They’ll miss Fabinho’s midfield glue until the New Year, while keeper Alisson is suspended after his reckless red card against Brighton.
So can Everton spring a surprise that may save Marco Silva’s job? Or will Liverpool keep onwards and upwards in their relentless pursuit of that elusive Premier League title? We’ll find out soon enough as the 234th Merseyside derby plays out in front of our very eyes. It’s on!
Kick off: 8.15pm GMT.
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