The relentless Brazilian’s 300th game for Liverpool contrasted sharply with Cristiano Ronaldo’s for Manchester UnitedPerhaps it was fitting that milestones were brought up in trademark fashion. Cristiano Ronaldo completed a triple century of Manchester United appearances as the comic-book hero, comeback king and matchwinner against Atalanta. A day earlier, Roberto Firmino joined Liverpool’s 300 club with a relentless display of scurrying.Diego Simeone’s famously industrious Atlético Madrid met a man who shares their ethos. Liverpool secured one of their finest victories under Jürgen Klopp. “I am pretty sure he was the player who ran the most against Atlético, 100% the attacking player who ran the most,” said a grinning Klopp. “It says a lot.” Continue reading...
Is the tactical wheel turning for Jürgen Klopp, the manager whose guided chaos changed the modern game?‘Something,” Jürgen Klopp said in February 2019 after Liverpool had drawn 0-0 at home against Bayern, “changed in the world of football – everyone adapted to it and we have to make sure we adapt.”He was talking about a new-found willingness from top teams to defend. In as far as it has been possible to trace anything in the vastly changed environment of Covid-19, he was probably right – and yet watching Liverpool beat Atlético Madrid 3-2 on Tuesday, nobody could have believed football has entered a new age of attrition. And in that, perhaps, lies one of the two doubts that lurk behind...
Though erratic, the manager’s side host Liverpool on Sunday taking cues from the past to keep fighting to the final whistleIt was the moment that ignited Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s reputation, not just as a Manchester United supersub but as the provider of dramatic, late goals that made a difference. It was January 1999, Old Trafford was in a frenzy after Dwight Yorke’s 88th-minute equaliser against Liverpool in an FA Cup fourth-round tie and the board had gone up for stoppage time.Solskjær, on as an 81st-minute replacement for Gary Neville, saw Paul Scholes reach a flick ahead of Jamie Carragher and nudge the ball towards him. The Norwegian was on the right side of the area, level with the penalty spot...
All-action victory against Atlético Madrid was sweet for Jürgen Klopp, but less so for his increasingly ragged back lineThankfully there are only 15 days to wait until Liverpool meet their Champions League irritant once again. The emotions, the anger and the lessons from a pulsating encounter with Atlético Madrid are unlikely to have been forgotten when Jürgen Klopp and Diego Simeone renew what is becoming more than simply a clash of styles.Atlético will arrive at Anfield on 3 November aggrieved at the major decisions that went against them at the Wanda Metropolitano and contributed to only their second home defeat in 32 European ties. Liverpool will find motivation in the prospect of winning a supposedly complex group with two games...
MPs’ report on Covid crisis states 37 people died unnecessarily because of Champions League match – it was not an event staged in ignoranceIt has been the way of the last 18 months that each week seems to bring some new moment of double-take. Horrors, failures, bodge-jobs. They just keep on looming up into view like icebergs in the fog.It happened again this week. Perhaps we all have outrage fatigue by now, or just a shared sense of being beaten down, lassoed by whataboutery and tribalism. But this really did happen, and it happened in sport. Continue reading...