This kit clash is wild isn’t it? You’ll never really see a clash of reds in nature because teams, you know, aren’t both allowed to wear red. The nature of pre-season marketing means we do get to see the (frankly gorgeous) next season away kit on show. I find myself vaguely yearning for an all white (with dominant red accents, don’t mistake me for Real Madrid here) ensemble purely for the simplicity of it all.
I know I should be talking about the football here, but it’s pre-season…I managed to find the channel this is on about two minutes before kick-off and fire it up then having spared not a thought to the experience before that. This is for fun and development and differs not at all from a lazy day on the AYSO pitch looking for eye-catching teenagers that might be lighting up the tournaments in a few years.
I see Danny Ward’s kicking about over there. Hiya, Danny.
For a stretch of time that contained nothing really I had a nice time watching a Liverpool side with real hunger and impetus from the start. In saying this I truly don’t mean to denigrate the last manager — I think a tactic that asks for quiet control is a smart one for a team liable to be often better than its opponents, I just think this sport is such that “control” is a hard thing to maintain. It’s easier, perhaps, to come in being up for it with a plan to make your opposition go through hell rather than to come in with cool heads and hope to take the sting out…this is a game with a lot of luck involved, and on-paper inferior sides can disrupt the best-laid plans.
All this is to say that the start was really something I enjoyed watching, as the first five minutes especially and opening period more broadly gave us a Liverpool side that looked energetic and willing to fight. It was crowded and ugly, but the Reds were the authors of the tone — and too often last season the opponents controlled the opening period.
Its pre-season, though, under a new manager, and in a World Cup year this was always going to be a group of younger players fighting to catch the new manager’s eye. Watching these gives us no real certainty of what to expect from Andoni Iraola’s side come regular season, but that it does feel exciting is something I enjoy. Ignore the practical concerns around minutes played, this sport is something we watch to enjoy and be entertained by, and I’ve seen nothing to suggest the Liverpool play next season will bore us.
There were very few flashpoints in the opening 45, but it’s worth giving credit to the big Georgian in goal who has had some questions asked of him in recent times: for both onside and offside chances he showed himself to be self-aware and a sure set of hands. Giorgi Mamardashvili not quite the man of the first half, but he did well.
It also almost goes without saying, but the most exciting moment came from Dominik Szoboszlai, who is showing no signs of slowing down following a very strong last season. He single-handedly created a promising chance that was put out only by “incidental contact.” Who says no to the Hungarian as vice captain?
Much more of the same this second half, with no one making themselves a standout either in the positive or the negative sense. There were flashes of promise — notably one exchange between Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones — without anything properly eye-catching.
I found myself unsure of the positives of a right side with both Rio Ngumoha and Jeremie Frimpong in attendance, as both players have a number of attributes that are similar: while Ngumoha can’t match Frimpong’s remarkably rapid pace, both players make smart runs and are assured in possession, capable of injecting directness and wrong-footing their opponents one-on-one. We saw that once or twice with the two trying to link up cleverly in close quarters, but having both men capable of inflicting such danger occupying the same space seemed to allow Wrexham to overload that area and make everything that much more difficult.
As I was mulling that over I knew naturally a goal would come from there, and it did…though more hilariously than expected. It was a goal that came from a (likely) on-target shot and sure they all count, but I cannot replicate the laugh I made when that one looped in. The most pre-season of pre-season goals. Regardless of the nature of it, Rio looks like he wants to be a serious player, and I hope Liverpool affords him the space to be one: he has all the ingredients of an exciting attacker who we can all get behind.
We didn’t have much to dwell on in earnest, but it is worth saying that 18-year-old Ifeanyi Ndukwe looked assured at the heart of Liverpool’s defense. Without taking any eye-catching risks he exuded a lot of confidence in a position the Reds are very knowingly thin on.
It was a lot of fun really, no one got embarrassed — though we’re all admittedly left wondering what went wrong behind the scenes to have Frimpong showcasing new Adidas that was perhaps intended for a very different man. All the same, I suppose it’s nice to see the throwback “tucked in top in big shorts” back on a main stage.
Have fun everyone winding their way out of Yankee Stadium.
