Silent, yet victorious at Anfield
- Christian Parry
- Nov 20, 2018
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 21, 2018
Despite a 2-0 comfortable victory against rock bottom Fulham, the famous atmosphere at Liverpool seemed quieter than ever on Saturday.
Attending the home game on the 11th of November was superb as usual, however after following the team across countless seasons, it feels like Liverpool may have lost their 12th man.
The Merseyside team are currently 2nd in the Premier League, and the win takes them two points behind title holders Manchester City who are favourites to retain their title, but the passionate, energetic home fans seem to have gone down a gear in comparison to their usual support for their team.
As I stood in the lower main stand, even whilst singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ there was a vibe around the stadium that the fans were still waiting to be wowed by this talented squad of players.
Regardless of the lacklustre energy around Anfield, The Reds won the match with little trouble caused by Fulham, minus the controversial off-side call from the officials leading to Mohamed Salah’s sixth goal of the campaign.
Disrespect to Fulham-Jokanovic
In a post-match interview with BBC Sport, former Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic was disappointed with the decision, despite replays showing it was the correct decision.
"We can talk about this situation for hours, but the damage is done. It's a completely absurd situation to defend. In this country normally, you cannot show disrespect to the referee and this is a problem because it's shown disrespect to my team, myself and Fulham supporters."
Furthermore, the pass from Alisson to Trent Alexander-Arnold, which led to the opener from Salah, appeared to have come from a non-stationary state, causing even more debate surrounding VAR.
The Egyptian’s lightening pace followed by a composed finish, concluded the counter attack just before half time.
Xherdan Shaqiri’s finessed volley in the 53rd minute confirmed the expected result for the home side.
Liverpool nowhere near best
A mediocre performance against a side threatened by relegation is great, so long as the team understand when they face PSG in the champions league, they will need to be a lot more creative.
7 shots on target from 21 in total shows this free-flowing Liverpool team have lots of work to do to get through their champions’ league group.
Roberto Firmino has yet to hit the ground running this season, with only 4 goals in 17 appearances for the club this season, and his performance that day proved it with little flair and movement as seen in previous seasons.
Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah did cause problems for Fulham’s backline, but it was Liverpool’s Swiss international who looked the most threatening at times.
Shaqiri now has 2 goals and 3 assists in his last 6 appearances for his club.
Fulham showing signs of improvement
Even though Fulham lost, on the odd occasion they did look threatening.
24 minutes in Ryan Sessegnon narrowly missed the target after a rare mistake from Joe Gomez.
Plus, The Cottagers would’ve been two up if Mitrovic was onside.
If Fulham had gone into half time with that scoreline, it would of certainly provided Jokanovic with more time to salvage his job with the South West London team.
With new manager Claudio Ranieri coming in though, I’m interested to see if he will get anything more from the likes of Sessegnon as he did with Vardy and Mahrez in their 2015-16 title winning season.
Man of the Match- Xherdan Shaqiri
As of late he has been they key man for having that spark of brilliance, which was the case for Mohamed Salah in his debut season for The Reds.
What's next for the teams?
Newly appointed Fulham manager Claudio Ranieri will have his first game in charge at Craven Cottage on the 24th November, while Liverpool travel to Watford also on the same day.
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