Liverpool vs Norwich City (4 - 1)
My only concern going in to this match was having a barrage of messages from friends back in Norwich rubbing it in if Liverpool dropped points...and I mean really freakin' rub it in. I was 99.9% confident we'd witness nothing but a sizable victory for the reds, but you know how it gets.
No Suarez, no problem!
I predicted a 6 - 0 victory prior to kick off, mainly for the fact I could use the Kloppo GIF we all have in our 'recently used' GIF list:
30 minutes in and it really looked like my prediction would come to fruition. I thought Divock showed us (again) that he can come in and do a decent job and ultimately score goals in the absence of Mané, Salah or Firmino. We didn't need a 70 million quid back up in the summer. He was driving at players and causing them headaches which ultimately resulted in the first goal. Welcome back to the Premier League, Hanley (sorry). Gotta feel for the lad.
Bobby was my man of the match. He had an ace performance all round which was only missing a goal. I was gutted his chest, turn and volley which Krul saved didn't scream in to the top corner (mainly gutted for me as he's in my dream team). That's a goal that you would see kids practicing over and over again in playgrounds around the world. His deft touch set up Mo's first of the season, and he ran for days lasting almost the full 90.
Bobby was my man of the match. He had an ace performance all round which was only missing a goal. I was gutted his chest, turn and volley which Krul saved didn't scream in to the top corner (mainly gutted for me as he's in my dream team). That's a goal that you would see kids practicing over and over again in playgrounds around the world. His deft touch set up Mo's first of the season, and he ran for days lasting almost the full 90.
VVD's cheeky smile as he turned to celebrate his goal tells you all you need to know about that one. He shouldn't have been able to tuck that away with 3 defenders close, and without needing to lift off the ground! I also liked his anger when we conceded...
Norwich played well to be fair. They stuck to their principles and played attacking football. Good on 'em. Come the end of the season we'll see where it gets them. Against Kloppo's redmen though, no chance.
The only tarnish on the game in my view is the injury to Alisson, seemingly keeping him out for 3-4 weeks according to various reports. When Alisson went down I think Kloppo had flashbacks to last season when Clyne was granted a loan move, only for TAA to get injured immediately after. You can hear the social media backlash now about allowing Migs to leave without a "proper" back-up 😑
A winning start, 3 points on the board and a good performance to build on.
Player ratings will be introduced in the next post-match blog. We'll close this one with some fan reactions (not necessarily specific to Liverpool's match)...
Social Media reactions...
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| On Man City scoring 4 |
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| Before a ball was even kicked at Anfield |
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| On Adrian's unexpected minutes |
Coming up...
On we march to Istanbul with a few days head start over Chelsea. Let's stick another piece of silverware in the cabinet! My prediction is 3 - 0 win for Liverpool, and I hope Ox gets some minutes and perhaps a cheeky 25 yard grass-cutting goal!YNWA
