Report and reaction
Right, that’s all from me. It’s been ace. Bye!
Decent stat, this:
32 - Jurgen Klopp has now defeated all 32 of the British clubs he’s faced as Liverpool boss in all competitions – before tonight, Wolves were the only side he’d failed to beat, losing in the FA Cup in January 2017 in their only previous meeting. Rule. pic.twitter.com/96gjJaIaXs
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 21, 2018
Klopp on the title chase:
So far it looks like a really special season. honestly. 48 points, mid-December, that’s just crazy. But Tottenham, City, Arsenal, I think they all will win [this weekend] as well. Nobody drops points and at the end of the season you probably need 105 to win the title. We’re in a good moment but we know the others are good as well so we cannot start a party. For the moment it’s really nice.
Jürgen Klopp has a chat:
That game tonight, it was clear before, was unbelievably difficult. The circumstances, the rain, the pitch – it’s a different type of grass. All the shots were 50% power, and a lot of passes, it’s like, what are you doing? The boys were ready. Set-pieces were decisive. The first goal was brilliant, quick in mind, using the situation, that was cool. The little passes between Sadio and Fabinho on the right was good. The second goal as well was brilliant.
The last 15 minutes [of the first half] we gave the game away. We stopped playing football. You control a game like this in possession. Second half we started again with that. It’s not the most exciting game any more but you have to keep the ball.
We were a constant threat, Mo was unbelievably quick, Bobby again outstanding between the lines, they were all really in the game. It’s brilliant. Friday night, Wolverhampton, they’re on a good run, one of the most difficult games of the season. We won it, and that’s cool.
Liverpool have now kept more clean sheets this season than they did in the entire 2013-14 season, when they last threatened to win the title.
Liverpool now have more PL clean sheets this season than they kept in the whole of 2013-14
— Duncan Alexander (@oilysailor) December 21, 2018
Here’s Stuart James’s match report from Molineux:
The presents have come early this year for Liverpool, who can look forward to spending Christmas Day enjoying the view from the top of the Premier League table. The fact that the team in that position in eight of the previous nine seasons has gone on to win the league is the good news. The bad news it that Liverpool, back in 2013-14, were the one club to come up short.
This Liverpool team, however, is intent on writing their own history and victories such as this one will do nothing to dampen the belief that Jürgen Klopp and his players have their best chance yet of winning the Premier League title.
Much more here:
Virgil van Dijk talks to Sky:
The win was very important today. Wolves aqre very good, they’ve shown it all season. Especially in the first half, a couple of times we lost the ball too easily. They did well, big credit to them, but we won the game and that’s the most important thing.
Scoring is amazing. It was a bit of a tough day for me anyway. I had a bit of a cold so I wasn’t 100%. These nights are very important for us. We won, and that’s a big step for us.
Jürgen Klopp seemed to seek out Wijnaldum and then Van Dijk for little chats after the final whistle. Van Dijk is asked what was said to him:
Things that nobody needs to know. We discussed things.
Wolves defended really well and attacked really poorly, though Liverpool could have been sharper in attack themselves. Still, they scored two smart goal, and have secured the yuletide top spot.
Final score: Wolves 0-2 Liverpool
90+6 mins: And that’s the last kick of the game!
90+5 mins: Nearly a third! Boly’s poor touch almost releases Salah, but the defender slides across to kick the ball straight to Wijnaldum, whose first-time shot rolls just wide!
90+3 mins: Boly’s poor touch allows Salah to run clear, but then Salah’s poor touch allows Rui Patricio to claim.
90+1 mins: Salah is released down ye olde inside right channel for the nth time. He takes the ball past Boly but then tries to shoot from an unlikely angle, when he could have tapped it to his left to leave Wijnaldum with an empty goal.
90+1 mins: There will be five minutes of time added on for stoppages, or thereabouts.
89 mins: What a chance for Wolves! It’s a really good low cross from the left, which Robertson, turning to run away with the ball, accidentally back-heels straight to Gibbs-White, whose first-time shot goes wide!
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87 mins: In further substitutional news, Clyne will replace Mané, once Mané has finished walking off the pitch extremely slowly.
85 mins: Liverpool win a corner, Mané wins the header, but the ball clears the bar.
84 mins: Mané releases Salah again, but Rui Patricio comes out smartly and gets in the way of the shot.
82 mins: Salah has, indeed, been very good this game. Virgil van Dijk has also been great, crowning an assured performance with that goal,” writes Kari Tulinius. “If Liverpool win the title, it will be the Dutchman who’s done as much to attain it as the Egyptian. I thought he was good for Southampton, and good last year in general, but this year he’s been absolutely world class.” He’s just a joy to watch. He makes defending look effortless and cool, he plays centre-back like a great jazz musician plays the saxophone.
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81 mins: Wolves make their final substitution, bringing Ruben Vinagre on for Jonny Otto.
81 mins: Doherty, who has also played well tonight, lifts the ball forward to Cavaleiro with perfect timing. The forward controls, turns towards goal and curls a feeble shot wide.
78 mins: Neves’s shot from range flies straight into Henderson, who comes away with the ball and releases Salah, sprinting towards the penalty area. He takes on Coady, and Coady wins. Corner.
76 mins: Finally the ball bounces out for a throw-in, and Wijnaldum replaces Firmino.
8 - Since the start of last season, Mohamed Salah has scored and assisted in eight different Premier League games for Liverpool - more than any other player in the division. Proficient. #WOLLIV pic.twitter.com/SPUnj80JCk
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 21, 2018
74 mins: Fabinho’s long pass looks tailor-made for Salah, but Boly manages to stay in front of him and Wolves get it clear. Wijnaldum is about to come on, but has been for about five minutes, the ball refusing to go out of play.
72 mins: A chance for Wolves! A long cross from the left is headed back into the mixer, pings about off a few legs and drops to Saiss, whose shot from the edge of the six-yard box is straight at Alisson!
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71 mins: Salah has been excellent today. A classily-taken goal, a fine assist and any number of lovely flicks.
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GOAL! Wolves 0-2 Liverpool (Van Dijk, 68 mins)
Some comfort for the league leaders! From a short corner on the left Robertson crosses to the far post. It’s cleared by Saiss but not very well – it drops to Salah, who lifts it back into the box and Van Dijk runs on to it and passes his volley into the corner with his left foot!
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67 mins: They very nearly made one there, though! Salah and Firmino play a one-two and the Egyptian then passes inside to Mané, who passes to Lallana to his left, whose is closed down before he has time to shoot.
67 mins: Liverpool have been a lot more comfortable in the first 20 minutes of this half than they were in the last period of the first, but they can’t convert their superiority into chances.
65 mins: Mané’s flick-on releases Salah, but the Egyptian doesn’t feel Boly breathing down his neck, checks back onto his left foot and is promptly dispossessed.
63 mins: Wolves make a couple of changes – Moutinho is replaced by Gibbs-White, and Cavaleiro comes on for Traoré.
59 mins: Traoré pushes the ball past Van Dijk and starts sprinting, but the Dutchman just refuses to be overtaken, and Liverpool get the ball back. Van Dijk has got to be a shoe-in for the Premier League player of the half-season award.
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58 mins: Keita is now off, and Lallana is on.
57 mins: Keita is on the turf again, but this time he wasn’t trying to win a free kick, and indeed wasn’t near anyone else at the time. Lallana is being readied to replace him.
56 mins: Traoré goes on a slightly wacky run, starting out heading towards his own goal and then turning round and going in the right direction for a bit, before playing a decent ball into space on the left. Saiss’s cross goes straight to a defender.
55 mins: Mané lays the ball back to Milner, whose left-foot effort from 22 yards or so floats high. Liverpool are playing good football around the edges of the Wolves box, but just can’t quite get themselves into it.
52 mins: Mané’s deflected shot is pushed away by Rui Patricio but only into the back of a defender, and it rebounds vaguely goalwards. It was going wide, though, and was cleared anyway, but for a moment that looked like a potential new entry for the clangers compilations.
49 mins: Traoré and Jimenez combine to roar down the right, but once they near the end of the pitch they don’t seem sure what to do next. Lovren comes across and boots clear.
48 mins: Liverpool win a corner, and play it to Milner on the edge of the area. His control is very good rather than magnificent, and he stretches to fire a shot a yard or so over the bar.
47 mins: “Is Liverpool’s underwhelming defence a result of Milner playing RB but in a more DM sort of way?” wonders Vasu Chaurey. “Can’t help but think he’s playing a midfielder who defends instead of a defender who runs ahead a la Robertson/TAA.” Robertson has been noticeably less keen on overlapping today than normal, presumably under instruction. Instead he’s stopping when he’s level with the edge of the area, and passing the ball inside. But yes, I think Milner’s positioning hasn’t been perfect.
46 mins: Peeeeeep! Half two is on!
The teams are back out, and are unchanged.
Half-time reading: our top 100 male footballers in the world this year, in which some people appear to have forgotten about Lionel Messi:
Half time: Wolves 0-1 Liverpool
45+3 mins: And that’s half time! An excellently entertaining half, but probably not for the purists. It’s been a bit error-strewn, but Wolves have been excellent – without quite creating a clear chance inside the penalty area – and on the balance of play are unlucky to be behind.
45+2 mins: Salah’s backheel flick to Mané is almost worth a goal on its own, but Mané’s pass to Keita is poor and then the midfielder turns and passes straight into touch, for little apparent reason.
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there’ll be a couple of minutes, and Wolves are ending the half in the ascendency.
44 mins: Now Keita gives the ball away to Doherty, who bursts to the edge of the area and smacks a low shot towards the near post, where Alisson saves. Wolves are closing down space excellently, but some of Liverpool’s passing in their defensive third has been appallingly misguided.
43 mins: Doherty ended up on the floor, after he and Milner collided. He thinks he might have got a penalty, but it didn’t look like one to me.
42 mins: Doherty’s excellent run from the right takes him into the area, and as defenders rush towards him he pushes the ball on to Jimenez, who seems to have loads of time and space. Mané, though, arrives just in time to inconvenience him, force an extra touch, and the chance is lost.
40 mins: Keita crosses to Salah, who diverts the ball goalwards but with little pace, and Rui Patricio picks it up.
40 mins: Alisson does a clever turn as Jimenez closes him down, and just about gets away with it. This is wild, pell-mell stuff at the moment.
38 mins: Traoré’s pass hits Lovren’s leg and runs kindly to Jonny, whose low shot is saved.
37 mins: Milner gets into a spot of bother on the right, grappling with Jonny then falling over, allowing Saiss to take possession. His low cross bounces off one defender to another, is poorly cleared, and Neves shoots high from outside the box.
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37 mins: The ball is played long to Traoré again, and this time he is not only outjumped by Van Dijk, but he fouls him as well.
34 mins: The ball is played over the Liverpool defence to Traoré on the left, who has a third of the pitch to himself with the Liverpool right-back, James Milner, way too central. Traoré is, though, offside.
31 mins: This is pretty wild stuff, the game being played at a lightning tempo with both sides giving the ball away far more often than they should. Fun, though.
29 mins: Then Mané returns the favour, and nearly creates a second! His lofted pass into the box looks destined for the Egyptian’s boot, but at the last moment Doherty stretches a leg around him and reaches it first!
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29 mins: Salah keeps trying to flick the ball to Mané, but defenders keep getting in the way and when finally they don’t his team-mate is offside.
26 mins: Wolves again fail to punish the mistake, and then Milner cuts in from the right and shoots from just outside the area, but Rui Patricio’s positioning is perfect and he saves easily.
26 mins: More poor distribution from Liverpool, as Van Dijk passes the ball straight to Neves.
24 mins: Keita dallies on the ball, perhaps wondering why everybody keeps booing him, loses the ball and falls over expecting to be gifted a free-kick. He gets no free kick, and is booed some more.
23 mins: Alisson passes the ball straight out of play. There have been a few errors in defence by Liverpool today: the Fabinho misplaced pass that led to Traoré’s shot, a wild miskick by Lovren a few minutes ago, and now this. They have yet to be punished, but need to cut them out sharpish.
22 mins: “That’s two gorgeous assists from Fabinho in the last two matches,” notes Marie Meyer. Contrasting assists, one all about subtlety and precision, and the other power (and also precision).
20 mins: Keita is now being booed whenever he’s on the ball. Wolves had started the game pretty well, organised in defence and dangerous on the break, but they got undone there by a smart one-two, and a failure to track Fabinho’s forward run.
GOAL! Wolves 0-1 Liverpool (Salah, 18 mins)
The breakthrough! Fabinho plays a one-two with Mané on the right and lashes the ball hard towards the near post, where Salah flicks it into goal with the outside of his left foot!
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18 mins: Keita goes down again, this time after he runs into Doherty. This time a free-kick is given, but he is making himself unpopular with the home support.
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15 mins: Otto and Boly both try to sliding tackle the same player, and Boly only succeeds in booting his team-mate in the buttock. Treatment is required, as is a new pair of shorts.
14 mins: The first significant save, and it’s from Alisson! Coady’s excellent long pass finds Doherty, who quickly moves the ball to Saiss, bursting into the box. He blasts the ball goalwards but it’s straight at Alisson. The save is unconvincing, the ball bouncing away into the middle of the area, but Fabinho is there to clear.
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13 mins: The ball ends up with Van Dijk, who calmly sidesteps one defender before shooting low and hard into another.
12 mins: Firmino shoots straight into a defender again, this time from about 20 yards. This time the ball loops behind for a corner.
10 mins: Wolves break quickly, and rapidly get the ball to Traoré, just inside the Liverpool half with only Van Dijk between him and goal. The Dutch defender calmly ushers him down a blind alley, and when it comes the shot is from an unlikely angle and goes well wide.
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10 mins: Now Keita passes to Firmino inside the penalty area, goes for the return pass and then falls over again. The referee is again unimpressed, and the crowd hoots their derision.
8 mins: A decent Liverpool build-up ends with Keita going down and staying down on the edge of the area, presumably because he thought he was pushed by Coady. The referee didn’t agree.
6 mins: Wolves win the ball and immediately hit it long towards Traoré. They may need to rethink this plan, as he is profoundly outjumped by Van Dijk.
4 mins: Fabinho, under no pressure and in his own half, hits the ball straight into Moutinho and it bounces to Traoré, who bursts to the edge of the box and then blasts a shot into the side netting.
3 mins: Firmino has the day’s first shot, but it’s straight into the shin of a defender standing about a foot away, and bounces back almost to the half-way line.
2 mins: It looks like Jürgen Klopp is wearing two hoods, and possibly a cap as well. His head is very emphatically covered.
1 min: Peeeeeep! Liverpool get the game under way.
The players are out and the captains are busy shaking hands. “Wotcher Simon,” writes Alex Davies. Hello! “I can’t find one of those nifty match previews your folks do with the lineups and odds and injuries etc for Wolves v Liverpool. Am I being daft?” We do them in Saturday’s paper for weekend matches, so there wasn’t one for this game. Sorry!
You can see the line-ups in formation here, if it helps:
Here's how Wolves and Liverpool line up tonight...
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) December 21, 2018
Live text https://t.co/ROxWpY9F2u #WOLLIV pic.twitter.com/JOPvdu4ROb
I was at Molineux once, back in 2003, when a firework flew off horizontally, straight into the face of a female fan. They canned them after that for a few years, but they’re very much back now.
The players are in the tunnel, and the fireworks Wolves appear so fond of are going off pitchside.
“Is Milner slotting in where Clyne or Alexander-Arnold would usually play?” wonders Peter Oh. Yes, it does appear he is. “I wonder if he casually said ‘I’ll be right back’ as he left the training pitch for a run to the loo, and Klopp interpreted it as a positional request for tonight.”
It has started to rain in Wolverhampton, and it looks like it’s absolutely pouring. The rain radar suggests a giant block of wetness has just arrived over the Midlands, and it’s big enough to be there for a while:
Nuno Espirito Santo has had a chat with Sky, and is asked what has inspired their recent improvement in form:
Belief, hard work, confidence, football. Honestly, nothing else. Our approach was always the same, we didn’t change. The wins could end up the other way, and the same before we lost some games we could have won. This is football, this is the game. What’s important is how you face your reality, you react to it and you bounce back from difficult moments. The belief, the consistency, the character of the boys, the way they prepare themselves, realising this is the only way to solve situations.
We have the same confidence against every opponent. We don’t change our approach. We spend the same time preparing for each game. The table doesn’t effect our decision-making. Of course against big teams you’re more motivated maybe, but this is a mistake because we always want to compete.
Wolves fan Phil Russell has sent over his reaction to the teams. “Change for Wolves playing an extra central midfielder and only a front two instead of the usual three,” he says. “Losing Jota wont help but surprised neither Costa nor Cavaleiro is starting. Saiss is primarily there to kick people and not normally a starter so I guess Nuno is setting them up to defend in numbers and try and use Traore’s pace on the counter-attack. Will be interesting to see if Adama manages to play any heads-up football. Lightening quick and strong to boot but has a tendency to go down cul-de-sacs. Could be a frustrating night for Liverpool if they don’t score early. Wolves have a habit of nicking a point from the top teams this season.”
Jamie Carragher has had a chat with Conor Coady, former captain of the Liverpool academy side. Here’s what he said about this game:
It’s a huge game for everybody in Wolverhampton but I’m a big Liverpool fan growing up, they’re flying and unbeaten, it’s going to be so, so tough but we’re ready and we can’t wait. If you think about it too much you start having nightmares, but we’re ready for it, we’re prepared and we’ll play our own game.
Wolves make two changes, bringing in Saiss and Troare while Gibbs-White and the injured Jota drop out.
Jordan Henderson comes into midfield, and Wijnaldum drops out. Why’s that, Klopp is asked:
Because we can, that’s it. Because we can bring fresh legs in a very intense period. Midfield is the heart and soul of the game. If we can be there, lively, really aggressive and fit, that helps massively. So we need legs today, they’re a counter-attacking side with brilliant players. We need to be ready for that, and that’s it.
As long as we can make changes, we will do it. Of course you have to keep the rhythm. You can’t make seven, eight changes every week, you would see that on the pitch. The thing is the number of games coming up.
And here’s a bit more on tonight and the near future:
Tonight is a tough game. It’s not a coincidence that they had good results against all the other [big] teams except Tottenham, and Spurs were really smart that day. We see it game by game. Today it’s Wolverhampton then we have a few days then Newcastle, then Arsenal, then Man City. It’s a lot to come. If you want to be in the region where we are at the moment then you have to win football games, and each in the best way.
[Wolves] were a bit lucky against Chelsea, who should have got a penalty and then the game is over. But they stayed in the game. They have a specific kind of game, and if they win the balls, they’re brilliantly organised. This 5-4-1 it’s really a wall. We need to be brave, we need to have direction, we need to get behind their line as often as possible. We try it, and in the end it’s a big challenge.
The teams!
The team sheets are in, and they look like this:
Wolverhampton: Rui Patricio, Bennett, Coady, Boly, Doherty, Saiss, Neves, Jonny, João Moutinho, Jimenez, Traore. Subs: Ivan Cavaleiro, Helder Costa, Gibbs-White, John Ruddy, Ruben Vinagre, Dendoncker, Leo Bonatini.
Liverpool: Alisson, Milner, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson, Mané, Fabinho, Henderson, Keita, Firmino, Salah. Subs: Clyne, Wijnaldum, Sturridge, Lallana, Mignolet, Shaqiri, Origi.
Referee: Craig Pawson.
Here's how Wolves line-up for tonight's @premierleague clash against @LFC. #WOLLIV
— Wolves (@Wolves) December 21, 2018
📋🐺 pic.twitter.com/CqrPfAygAP
Tonight's line-up vs @Wolves... #WOLLIV https://t.co/QGcIaW7PB4
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 21, 2018
Good tackle, this:
Wolves vs Liverpool, 1973: Not sure there was any contact here, Larry Lloyd rather unlucky to go into the book pic.twitter.com/KrjfIPHpVV
— Adam Hurrey (@FootballCliches) December 21, 2018
The Liverpool team has arrived, and here’s proof:
And here’s Jürgen Klopp on the threat of a Wolves side that has won its last three games:
We have to be really strong, we know that. It will be a really interesting game. They have changed system a few times, so that will be interesting as well, how they do that. We have to be ready for everything.
This is what Nuno Espirito Santo had to say about this game at his press conference a couple of days ago:
It’s a big challenge for us, we are OK, we are prepared. We require a lot, it’s a fantastic team, a fantastic manager – what a game. They are at the top of the league and that says a lot. We are going to face one of the best teams in Europe and we look forward to it.
It will be a packed Molineux, always supporting the team. Noisy Molineux, that is what we want and what we expect. Our spirit will never go away from us, the way we work and believe and the way we support each other. That’s what makes you proud when you have a bad moment and you come out of it. It doesn’t mean it can’t happen again but we are ready.
Hello world!
Jürgen Klopp and his band of currently merry men head to Wolverhampton this evening looking to become the first Liverpudlian group to hit the Christmas No1 spot (excluding themselves, a few times) since the Scaffold with Lily the Pink in 1968 (the eponymous long-haired lover in Jimmy Osmond’s 1972 festive chart-topper was also from Liverpool, but is discounted by virtue of being fictional. And also not a group). Here’s proof that you can reach the top spot despite occasionally terrible performances:
Liverpool need a win to be sure of claiming the honour, with Manchester City a single point behind and hosting Crystal Palace tomorrow. But while Wolves have the division’s 10th best home record they have already beaten Chelsea, taken a point from City and given Spurs a fright at Molineux this season, so nothing can be taken for granted.
Except, I hope, fun. Welcome, let’s hope for lots of it. Now, read this:
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