Liverpool fail to win Fulham thriller but show key trait in title race
Two points dropped, one test of character passed. It remains to be seen which proves more significant in the final reckoning but this was stirring stuff from Liverpool fc.
Twice in the position of being both a goal and a man down, they conjured two equalisers in a demonstration of their spirit and Arne Slot’s resourcefulness. If the Dutchman was supposed to be about control, this was a sequel to the chaos of the 3-3 draw at Newcastle. Slot, normally that byword for calmness, was caught up in the emotion of the occasion, getting cautioned at one point, his head in his hands at another.
Yet if he displayed some cool thinking to extend Liverpool’s unbeaten run to 19 games, so did Diogo Jota. Seven minutes into his comeback after more than seven weeks out, the substitute showed the composure to level. In a match of fluctuating feelings, Slot was left with contrasting thoughts. “I think it is the opposite from Girona where I was pleased with the result but not the performance. Here I am very, very pleased with the performance - I couldn’t have asked for more - but if you drop points in a home game against Fulham, that is definitely not what you expect.”
The bare facts are that victory eluded Liverpool for a second successive league match just as Fulham fc, after holding Arsenal, made another intervention in the title race. In a match that turned into a 107-minute epic of 28 shots, seven yellow cards for the players – plus one for Slot – and a red, Fulham held their own.
If it is their misfortune to be demoted to a subplot, it was a tale of two left-backs. Antonee Robinson was the outstanding player on the pitch, Andy Robertson soon off the pitch. The Fulham flyer set up both of his side’s goals as well as defending wonderfully against Mohamed Salah. “What a performance,” said manager Marco Silva. But Robinson’s Liverpool counterpart shaped the occasion, compiling an unwanted hat-trick of sorts in his brief, painful outing. Hurt in the first minute, with Issa Diop perhaps fortunate to escape an immediate expulsion for his studs-up challenge, he got the final touch for Fulham’s first goal and then collected the early red card himself.
It meant that, when added time was included, Liverpool played almost 90 minutes with 10 men. If Slot has excelled as a problem solver so far in his reign, he tinkered, at first unsuccessfully and later more influentially to change a game that threatened to get away from Liverpool.
Fulham were much superior in the first half. Yet while Slot may not seem as inspirational an orator as his predecessor, Jurgen Klopp, he has shown a capacity to galvanise his team at the interval. When Jota struck, 22 of Liverpool’s last 25 goals had come in second halves.
His capacity to work with and, at times, reinvent, Klopp’s players was given a further examination when Robertson departed which, with Kostas Tsimikas injured, left Liverpool without a natural left-back. Slot got creative; sadly for him, his team did not before the break.
Further managerial interventions revived his side, often involving Ryan Gravenberch. “Ryan did outstanding again,” said Slot, after a revelation as a defensive midfielder became a quasi-defender. “He was mostly in our last line without the ball. With the ball he came into the midfield.” By the end, he was almost a one-man midfield as Slot overloaded on attackers when Darwin Nunez and Jota came on. “We just bring all the players in who can score a goal,” said Slot.
And a substitute did. Nunez, criticised for his lack of goals, instead made one, finding Jota, who marked his first appearance since October by turning past the excellent Jorge Cuenca and beating Bernd Leno.
Yet the first managerial switch to pay dividends came when Marco Silva recalled Andreas Pereira, marginalised since suggesting he wanted to join Marseille, for Emile Smith Rowe. Fulham have a potency, as they showed by scoring for a 15th consecutive league game, and Liverpool conceded for the first time in 447 minutes at Anfield, Fulham succeeding where the champions of England, Spain and Germany had failed by breaching their defence. Pereira volleyed in Robinson’s deep cross, though it may have required the deflection off Robertson’s thigh to defeat Alisson.
The Scot’s afternoon was to deteriorate further. Robertson’s poor touch came at a sizeable cost, allowing Wilson to scurry on to it and behind the Liverpool defence. When Robertson tripped him, the second red card of his Liverpool career followed. His manager accepted the decision was correct but felt Robertson had been hampered by Diop’s early lunge. “I think Robbo might have been a bit too injured to keep going because normally he’s faster than that,” he said. “Nothing to blame him. It says a lot about his character he wanted to continue.”
Cody Gakpo initially assumed some of his duties, going to left back for five minutes. “It looked better on the tactics board,” reflected Slot wryly. He restored his compatriot to the wing and Gakpo surged into the box to meet Salah’s curling cross with a diving header. It was a seventh goal in his last 10 games for the Dutchman. Even as Salah’s scoring run ended after seven straight league games, he had his 100th assist for the club.
And Liverpool were relentless, powered by the running of Dominik Szoboszlai and Joe Gomez. The defender felt he deserved a penalty when Kenny Tete blocked him in a manner more suited to the oval-ball sports.
Fulham, meanwhile, turned this around again, looking on course for just a third win in 39 trips to Anfield when Silva was the first manager to introduce a scoring substitute. After a second surge deep into Liverpool territory by Robinson, he crossed and Rodrigo Muniz’s low finish went in off Gomez. “We have the feeling we should have won,” said Silva.
Liverpool had the same sense, the same combination of pride and disappointment, of what could have been from what was a wonderful game.
