Youth, Culture, and Building the Next Great Liverpool Team
The kids are not alright. They're better than alright.
Disallowing Virgil van Dijk’s first goal was a disgrace. (“Flimsy” said ex-ref Mark Clattenburg; “incredibly harsh” said ex-head of referees, Keith Hackett.)
But in hindsight, it was beautiful.
(Not that the near-aneurism I experienced can be taken back.)
Its disallowance allowed something else. As Pep Lijnders had corrected stated, every disadvantage has its advantages.
Without it? – no 118th-minute winner, which is always all the sweeter; sweeter due to the timing and to the sense of an injustice corrected. Sweeter as too late in the game to be overhauled.
Without the disallowed goal, Bobby Clark, James McConnell, Jayden Danns and Jarell Quansah don’t come on; or if they do, they may play 18 minutes, not 48 minutes with extra-time added. Harvey Elliott, still only 20, was about 2mm away from a 116th minute winner, before van Dijk deservedly won the game, the man of the match trophy and the actual League Cup.
And in fairness, it was the 30 minutes of extra-time, as Jamie Carragher dubbed them “Klopp’s Kids” that led to Gary Neville calling Chelsea “billion pound bottle-jobs”.
For once, Neville was understating things.
That Liverpool had to overcome yet more terrible officiating, mainly from the VAR John Brooks, who has done nothing but pettily punish Liverpool since Jürgen Klopp shouted in his face almost a year ago (for which Klopp was rightly suspended, but for which an official cannot launch a vendetta); and Chris Kavanagh forgetting his yellow cards for Chelsea players, even if they made red-card challenges.
The attitude seemed to be: Let’s not send off players early in cup finals. But it’s more than fine to send them off on a stretcher, and out for weeks or months.
Hackett again:
“Moises Caicedo’s foul on Ryan Gravenberch in the first half was reckless and it endangered the safety of an opponent. Again, there’s plenty of inconsistency here ... Aside from the clear and obvious nature of the offence, it left Gravenberch needing a stretcher. These types of challenges need outlawing from the game.”
“Accidental slipping motion” said Brooks, with the kind of cognitive dissonance a 1940s’ Chicago cop would deal out in letting a city official go with a carved-up hooker on the passenger seat and 3kg of heroin in the glove compartment, suggesting, without looking properly (or choosing not to see) it was a blow-up doll and some talcum powder.
Yet Caicedo is upright, and only slips after nearly breaking Gravenberch’s ankle. It’s so late the ball is totally out of shot.
But the main photo on this page is a great picture from yesterday.
No Caoimhín Kelleher (a candidate for man of the match), Curtis Jones, or the impressive Tyler Morton, now of England U21s, out on loan.
But the rest of them – wow. It’s worth a bit more of a look into what these players, and the club, is doing, in the majority of this article, that follows below after the paywall.
*Note: the ZenDen is additional content separate from the TTT Main Hub. Rather than seek to write freelance work for other outlets, to supplement my income and keep TTT running (as everything gets more expensive), I write paywalled, zen-like material on the ZenDen. The ZenDen is a quiet space with no commenting – just articles to read. The community remains on the Main Hub, and its where I interact with subscribers, write different articles, and provide post-match analysis.*
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