After this year’s Premier League, it is believed that the term ‘Mentality Monsters’ should be emblazoned on the front of Liverpool’s shirts instead of their Standard Chartered sponsorship. Jurgen Klopp coined the term after hallucinating the 4-0 comeback against Barcelona in 2019, Steve Kerr co-opted it, and that’s how Liverpool have been judged ever since. Considering the Reds have amassed 18 points this season in games they have left behind, it’s easy to point to something intangible as to why they never concede and seem to find a way to get back into games (unless VAR holding them back, as I am obliged to say as a Red).
But that’s not what we’re talking about here. Everything has an explanation, everything has logic, otherwise we’d just roll in the corner and take the piss. Unlike when we do that to get out of a meeting, but that’s just pure tactics and not a deep-seated reaction to confusion. And there is an explanation for Liverpool’s ability to turn games around.
Liverpool have had a host of substitutes who have been able to influence games from the bench. On Saturday it was Harvey Elliot at Crystal Palace, and he is probably the most common player to do this. But Darwin Nunez, Ryan Gravenberch, Curtis Jones, Joe Gomez, Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz and Wataru Endo have all had an effect on matches when coming on as substitutes. Yes, it is depth. Liverpool has a lot of good players.
But it is also more than that. Because Liverpool is playing in the Europa League this season, and has so far used it as a bonus League Cup, that depth is also kept sharp. They can roll out the B team (or A team) more often than one or two Carabao Cup matches. Their substitutions come on Premier League weekends and not all players are barely getting minutes. Liverpool have 19 outfield players who have received 500 minutes or more in all competitions this season. Compare that to Arsenal’s fourteen or City’s sixteen, and it’s easy to see why Liverpool not only have more options, but more options that haven’t faded through inaction. Arsenal and City need to use more of their first-choice players in Champions League matches.
That advantage could quickly disappear depending on who Liverpool draw in the last 16 of the Europa League and how seriously they take it. They have a League Cup quarter-final next week, which comes in the middle of the Premier League’s crazy December schedule. But for now, when Klopp looks at his bench, he not only sees many options to turn a match the way he wants, but he also sees options that are well warmed up in the pen, so to speak.
What else happened this weekend?
4. Aston Villa doesn’t need your stinking projects
And Liverpool going to the top of the league wasn’t even the story of the weekend, at least not anywhere outside my apartment. Aston Villa defeated their second title challenger in four days at Villa Park, this time with a 1-0 win over Arsenal. As always at Arsenal, it was somehow the referees’ fault.
While Villa absolutely crushed City on Wednesday night and the 1-0 didn’t really show how superior they were, they needed to survive against the Gunners. On Saturday they had less than half the vaccinations than Wednesday, about a quarter of the xG. And yet, with all of Arsenal’s possession, they didn’t target Emi Martinez (only five shots on target). Some of that was Arsenal’s wayward finishing, some of it was Diego Carlos batting it all away like Kong in the Empire State (with a better ending).
Whether Unai Emery likes it or not, they are now in the title discussion. They will have to adapt their away form to stay there, but so will almost every other team in the league. As far as the overall picture of Villa Park is concerned, this piece from ESPN’s Ryan O’Hanlon outlines that this is not really a ‘project’. All of Villa’s regulars, apart from Boubacar Kamara, are between 26 and 30 years old (although Jacob Ramsey would be playing more if he hadn’t been injured), and therefore truly in their prime. It is not a team that is forged together over time, but established professionals who do everything they can to create this immediately.
But that’s typical of Emery. The Villareal team he took to the Champions League semi-finals was slightly older (28.0 average age versus Villa’s 27.3), and one of those young stars was Pau Torres, whom he took to Birmingham. His last Seville side to win the Europa League, which they made a habit of, had only two players under the age of 25 playing more than 1,000 minutes.
What does that mean? Well, it’s harder to gauge than just saying this is a bunch of players peaking together and things will never get better, although they certainly can. If Villa were to get into the Champions League and the money that comes with it, we will know more when we see what they add with that money and whether it is for the longer term or for the current situation. Still, Sevilla won three Europa Leagues in a row, so it’s not like Emery has produced miracles in just one season. He may not install really deep foundations. But now find a Villa fan who cares.
Also Emi Martinez, with blood streaming down his face, the crowd roared behind him in stoppage time. Hero.
3. Man United are back, in a good way for the rest of us
You’d think observers would have more in-depth analysis than to think that a midweek win over perhaps the only club that’s a bigger mess than them was something of a corner kick for Man United, who beat Chelsea as they did on Wednesday. After being beaten 3-0 by Bournemouth at home on Saturday, United are back under the bridge where they spent most of the last decade.
When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was ousted as manager, the blow to him was that all United had ever had was chaotic wins and chaotic losses. There was no noticeable plan, system or identity. They pulled rabbits out of their hats for no apparent reason, even though Ole called it ‘We are Manchester United.’ And then they got robbed the next game, and everyone else said, “This is Manchester United.”
Where are we 18 months later? Scott McTominay might be able to put a few shots through the posts to pick up points or survive the cauldron that was their trip to Goodison Park to play Everton straight after the latter’s points deduction penalty, but then they’ll be tied down by Bournemouth or Newcastle, or they fall apart in Copenhagen or Istanbul. And that’s all from last month!
We still don’t know what United are trying to do. They have players in the lineup who were all acquired for three or four different systems, and none of them are that good or play well at all.
Anyway, we all love Erik Ten Hag’s hat.
2. Talk about clutter
Perhaps Chelsea and Man United have some sort of bet on which the club can burn more money in, non-Musk division.
Chelsea were dismal against Everton on Sunday, with no cohesion or chemistry between the eleven players on the pitch. Reece James was injured again, Enzo Fernandez is doing nothing and they still don’t have a number 9 who looks like he should be playing in any team other than a mid-level Premier League team at best.
We had a lot of fun here with Mikhaylo Mudryk. . . and we’ll do a few more! Mudryk was able to create a few openings by doing what he always does: running straight as quickly as possible. But that works when you’re up against a fossil right-back like Ashley Young, who couldn’t keep up. That doesn’t mean Mudryk’s final product was good or even existed.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, Dwight McNeil playing on the left for Everton got fewer looks, but did something Mudryk seemingly can’t do, which was come in, beat a man with something other than speed, and actually create a chance:
Let’s also give a round of applause to Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, for whatever this was:
Flopping on shots that aren’t near the target is Jordan Pickford’s specialty, and apparently Sanchez decided to raise him by flopping on a shot that actually went into the net.
1. Newcastle is on its feet
It is difficult for teams to cope with their first attempt to balance the Champions League and Premier League duties. It becomes more difficult when they have a whole team fighting for whirlpool time in the training room, as Newcastle do. Thirteen players were out injured for the Magpies, meaning Sunday’s match against Spurs was the fifth straight game in all competitions in which they had to play the same ten outfield players.
For a team built on their energy, that’s a recipe for disaster, and you can see it in the first two goals they gave up, with how many players are only about six steps behind their counterparts:
Especially on Richarlison’s goal, where you can see that Bruno Guimaraes sees the danger half a beat too late, which is different from him, and is half a step too slow to get there, meaning he just puts a hand on Richarlison’s shoulder can do. from behind before scoring. But it’s okay, they only have six games in the next 21 days.
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