Chapter 873 - 873: Match-Day 2: Wembley

[Wembley Stadium. Monday 20 August 2018.]

Jamie Carragher told the country on Thursday night what Jürgen Klopp was going to do to us and he was right about every word of it.

"Everybody has sat off Crystal Palace since April because they are frightened of Zaha in behind. Jürgen Klopp has never sat off anybody in his life."

I had that on a wall at Beckenham on Friday morning at 8 o'clock with Marcus stood next to it.

"He is right, boss."

"I know he is right."

"Then we have got 3 days."

CRYSTAL PALACE: Krul. Wan-Bissaka, Tarkowski, Sakho, Chilwell. Højbjerg, Neves, McArthur. Bowen, Benteke, Zaha.

Bench: Pope, Dann, Ward, Konaté, Hakimi, Rodríguez, Eze, Grealish, Perišić, Pato, Olise.

Ivan Perišić has been at Crystal Palace 11 days. Rebecca cleared him at 9 o'clock on Sunday morning and wrote 3 lines on the bottom of the sheet, and the last line said no more than 30.

LIVERPOOL: Alisson. Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson. Henderson, Milner, Keïta. Salah, Firmino, Mané.

Bench: Mignolet, Matip, Moreno, Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Shaqiri, Sturridge.

Here is what those 2 sheets of paper actually are, and it is the whole match.

Liverpool have spent 3 years and about 400 million pounds building a football team on purpose. Alisson in July for 65. Van Dijk in January for 75. Keïta agreed a year in advance and paid for twice. Robertson for 8 and Alexander-Arnold for nothing because they made him.

Every man in that side is exactly where Jürgen Klopp wants him and has been coached in that position for 2 years.

We have got a goalkeeper on a free, a centre half we bought off Burnley, a Croatian who has been in the building 11 days, a right back somebody offered 55 million for a fortnight ago, and 14 players in the squad who are 21 or under.

Their bench is 7 internationals. Ours is 11 men and 4 of them cannot legally sign a professional contract yet.

Liverpool have played 2 and won 2 and conceded nothing. We have won a Community Shield, a European Super Cup and a league match by 5.

Neither of us has lost a football match since the 15th of July, and 1 of us lost that one in Moscow.

61,400 at Wembley, 8 o'clock, and Michael Oliver with the whistle.

PRRRRRRP.

RRRRRAAAAA.

They came at us from the kick off and they did not stop for 20 minutes.

I have stood on a touchline against Manchester City twice and against Real Madrid 5 days ago and I have never seen anything like the first 20 minutes of that football match.

They pressed our goalkeeper.

I want to be fair to the man 40 yards away from me, because everybody writes about Jürgen Klopp as if he shouts for 90 minutes and that is not what he does.

He stood on that line for the first 20 minutes with his hands in his pockets and he did not say 1 word to a player.

He did not have to. He had told them on Thursday and they had done it on Friday and Saturday and Sunday, and on Monday night at Wembley 10 men ran a plan he had built for us in 4 days.

That is the difference between his job and mine tonight. He had 4 days and a squad he has coached for 3 years. I had 4 days and a Croatian who has been here 11 of them.

Not the centre halves. The goalkeeper. Firmino stood 8 yards off Tim Krul with his hands out and Salah went to Sakho and Mané went to Tarkowski, and Henderson took Højbjerg and Milner took Neves and Keïta took McArthur, and there was nowhere on that pitch to put a football.

Tk. Tk.

Krul went long 9 times in 20 minutes and Virgil van Dijk won 8 of them.

You want to know what a Liverpool attack is. It is 4 passes and 9 seconds and it starts when you have got the ball.

14 minutes. Watch it.

Mamadou Sakho has it 20 yards outside our own box and he has 2 options, because Højbjerg has Henderson on him and McArthur has Keïta on him and there is no third option, and Sakho is a 28-year-old centre half who has played 300 matches and he knows both of the 2.

He picks the shorter one.

Tk.

Højbjerg, half a yard, and Henderson is on his back before it arrives.

That is 1. Henderson does not tackle him. He puts a foot across and knocks it 3 yards sideways, and Naby Keïta is running at that 3 yards before it gets there because he started running when Sakho picked the shorter option.

That is 2.

Tk.

Keïta takes 1 touch forward and Milner is already past him on the outside, and that is 9 yards of Wembley that did not exist 2 seconds ago.

That is 3.

Milner does not look up. He puts it first time into a space between Tarkowski and Chilwell where nobody is stood, because Sadio Mané is arriving into it from 15 yards behind and has been running since Henderson put his foot across.

That is 4.

shhk.

Mané, 12 yards, across his body.

Thump.

Tim Krul got a strong hand on it and put it over that bar and I was 4 yards onto the grass with both arms going before it had landed, and Michael Oliver looked at me once and I went back.

9 seconds. Our ball to their shot. 4 passes, none of them more than 12 yards, 5 men in our half who were not in our half when Sakho got it.

They did that to us 6 times in 20 minutes.

22 minutes. The 7th one.

Alexander-Arnold put it on Salah's chest 30 yards out and Salah took 1 touch and went between Sakho and Tarkowski like they were furniture.

Krul came.

I have watched it 11 times. Krul came and he came correctly and he made himself as big as a man can make himself, and Mohamed Salah put it under him from 8 yards with the outside of his left foot.

fsst.

0-1.

RRRRRAAAA.

3,000 in the corner behind that goal and they had every right to it.

Our end went quiet in a way I have heard twice at Wembley. Not sulking. A stadium doing sums.

We had won 6 things in 9 months and beaten Real Madrid 5 days ago and we had been outplayed for 22 minutes by a side that pressed our goalkeeper.

Bzz. A tablet in Rebecca's hand.

"They are at 118 per cent of a normal 20 minutes. All 10 outfield."

"They cannot hold it."

"No," she said. "But they do not have to hold it. They have to hold it for 15 more minutes and then you are 2 down."

At 25 minutes I did the only thing I got right in that half.

I took Jarrod Bowen off the right and put him next to Christian Benteke, and I moved Aaron Wan-Bissaka 20 yards up the pitch, and I told Rúben Neves to stop coming to get it.

I came off that white line for it because there was no other way to be heard.

"RÚBEN. STAY. RÚBEN. LET IT COME TO YOU."

He looked at me. Then he looked at Højbjerg and put a hand up, and Højbjerg dropped 6 yards without being told anything by anybody, and that is 2 years of the same man in the same room.

Michael Oliver put an arm out and I went back behind the line.

Every press in world football has a trigger and Klopp's is a midfielder dropping in for the ball. That is the moment Henderson goes. He is not watching the ball, he is watching Rúben Neves's feet, and Rúben Neves has dropped in for the ball 400 times a season since he was 17 years old.

So he stopped.

28 minutes. Krul has it. Sakho splits, Tarkowski splits, and the hole where Neves lives is empty.

Jordan Henderson takes 3 steps forward and stops.

There is nobody to press. Firmino is 8 yards off a goalkeeper who is not going to pass it, Keïta is stood next to McArthur 40 yards away, and Milner is marking a gap.

Thump.

Krul hits it 70 yards.

Thud.

Van Dijk wins it, because Van Dijk wins all of them, and he heads it 30 yards back down the middle of Wembley into a space with 4 Crystal Palace players in it and 1 Liverpool player.

That is the whole idea. We are not going to win the header. We are going to win what happens 2 seconds after the header, because their front 3 are 60 yards up a football pitch and ours are stood round the halfway line waiting for it.

Tk. Tk.

McArthur got it. Neves got it off him and gave it to Zaha.

Thud.

30 minutes. Same again. Van Dijk wins it, we get the second ball.

Thk.

32 minutes. Same again.

Jordan Henderson was pointing at 3 different people by the half hour and 2 of them were pointing back.

36 minutes.

A Liverpool attack is 4 passes and 9 seconds. Ours is 1 man and 40 yards and it has been since April 2017.

James McArthur put a foot in on Naby Keïta on the halfway line. That is all. 30 years old, 250 appearances, no paragraphs.

It came out to Wilfried Zaha with Robertson 6 yards behind him and 40 yards of Wembley in front.

Come on.

shhk. shhk.

He went past Robertson on the outside and Gomez came across and he went inside Gomez, and Virgil van Dijk arrived at the exact moment he was always going to arrive.

And Zaha did not go past him.

He gave it. Square, hard, off the outside of his right foot into a gap that had been empty for 2 seconds and had 1 man running into it.

Christian Benteke. 12 yards.

Everything went slow.

I saw Alisson set. I saw Benteke open his body. I saw Van Dijk turn his head and know.

Thwack.

Bottom corner. Alisson had a hand about 4 inches from it.

1-1.

RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

"WE ARE PALACE. WE ARE PALACE."

24 minutes to 9 at Wembley Stadium.

"AND IT'S GLAD ALL OVER."

I did not move. Bray had both hands on my shoulders from behind and I stood there with my arms folded and looked at Jürgen Klopp, who was already stood on his own white line pointing at Milner.

PRRRRRP.

Half time. 1-1.

***

Thank you to Sir nameyelus for the support.