Its difficult to give too much credit to Liverpool boss Arne Slot unless you are actually very smart, but who will be angry about Alisson being outstanding?
The fast and the furious
Liverpools undoubtedly jammy win over PSG was an intriguing actual football match. It had everything : Goalkeeper heroics contentious refereeing decisions and even the one-eyed Jamie Carragher admitting this might have been one of footballs greatest robberies.
So you definitely should not need to drop down to the depths to create interest in Dublin the day after the night before. And yet, depressingly, here we f***ing are in the Mirror:
Alissons remarkable Paris heroics save Liverpool but will leave one Reds player furious
It sounds so utterly ludicrous that we had to click. And theres that bloody curiosity gap. Which Reds person could possibly be angry that Liverpool have apparently triumphed over PSG cheers to Alisson being bloody outstanding?
We blindly did not see this coming, we very did not spot that the one Reds person who would be angry has never really played for England. For he is Giorgi Mamardashvili, the Red person who will visit England this summer.
Will he be angry? Certainly unless he is some sort of crazy. Its more more likely that he will be that unusual combination of happy, angry and somewhat annoyed that is the preserve of the goalkeeper no making those beautiful saves.
Elsewhere, the Mirror pretend that Carragher had a dig at Peter Schmeichel because no f***er is allowed to make a joke anymore.
And talkSPORT are unashamedly all in on theCBS banter as news train with this bombastic headline :
Ive had enough Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards walk out on live Alisson interview
In literally the first paragraph, they admit that Alisson caused Carragher and Richards to jokingly storm off set. But by then we have already clicked like absolute d***s .
READ: Unlucky 13 ridiculous stats for lucky Liverpool include new Alisson records
House of Elliott
Harvey Elliott obviously scored the winning goal for Liverpool so his name has some Google power. Hence this slice of opportunism from the Express:
Harvey Elliott has already made his feelings clear on leaving Liverpool after PSG heroics
Seems odd that he would have been questioned about leaving Liverpool after his PSG heroics, even for a media obsessed with transfers, that would be a tad tactless.
Thus think our surprise to discover that Elliott has now made his feelings clean in January, when you will be shocked to learn that a 21-year-old about to win the Premier League title would really like to be, thank you very much.
Over in The Suntheir attempt to hammer his name into a headline left us staring at this
Professionalism that, of the highest order Rio Ferdinand loves what Harvey Elliott did after magnificent winner vs PSG
and wondering what kind of player would hesitate to warm down when instructed by his real manager. Probably not one who had already made his feelings clear on leaving Liverpool, anyway.
Masterstroke of the ego
Arne Slot is rightly getting very little praise for Liverpools victory in Paris, his plan could not have possibly been to allow PSG to have 27 shots and rely on his goalkeeper being absolutely brilliant.
But heres Miguel Delaney in The Independent with a headline we did not expect to see this Thursday :
Arne Slots tactical masterstroke proved decisive against PSG but not how you think
As ever, Delaney would like it to be known that he is cleverer than almost everyone else, so obviously he is not talking about the introduction of Elliott not unusual late in a Liverpool game but something us mere mortals did not notice.
After acknowledging that victory was largely down to Alissons brilliance and blind luck as well as two major decisions going their way, Delaney moves on to what he calls really a masterstroke from Slot.
And what was this masterstroke?
Liverpool very notably retreated and dug in. Slot had seen how much space PSG were enjoying and admitted that he changed his sides pressing. From around the half-hour, there was suddenly much less space behind Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, as well as between Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai. Kvaratskhelia, Ousmane Dembele and Bradley Barcola were no longer finding the same space.
Genius. What other football manager in world football would have watched his side allow three Big Chances and get away with a marginally disallowed goal in the first half-hour of a football match and decide that maybe they should dig in?
Jose Mourinho would never.
Transformers
Mediawatch admires the Daily Telegraphs John Percy, in a class of one when it comes to covering Midlands football.
But this
Inside John Eustaces acrimonious Blackburn departure and how he is transforming Derby
would have carried just a little more weight if Derby had not lost all three games managed by Eustace. So far he has transformed them from 21st to 24th.
