Last night was good for a lot of reasons, to be fair.
Roberto Firmino played like the creative genius he was three years ago with Marco van Basten’s shot.
Mo Salah scored the fastest hat-trick in Champions League history.
The Liverpool fans made fun of the Rangers Ultras, The Union Bears, who for some reason decided to charge our section after being thrashed 7-1…
However, Thiago’s cameo was the thing that made me smile the most.
When he came on in the 68th minute, Liverpool were leading 3-1. The game had ended like a contest, really.
But even though he’s already won the competition twice, as well as a meager 11 league titles during an illustrious career, he played like his and our whole lives depended on it.
Why would a player prone to injury launch himself into sliding tackles?! Maybe he had something to prove after the referee flagged him as a kick for allegedly warming up in the wrong spot before his submission…
Maybe this whole season caught him and he wanted to have fun. He made 19 passes, three of which were described by stats folks as ‘key’. He won two headers and four duels. He could have been booked twice for endless and completely unnecessary sliding tackles. It was the rarest performance by Rovers’ Roy from a player who usually epitomizes cunning and finesse in a match where he absolutely did NOT require it. And yet it was brilliant.
The Liverpool players were having fun again. The shackles were lifted. They were just playing football: passing, moving, scoring. And in the case of Thiago, the people who rattle as well.
If it turns out he can’t play against Manchester City due to some discomfort, I’ll be immediately angry with him, but for now, he and all his team-mates have, to be fair, cheered me on.
We have scored 18 goals against Bournemouth and Rangers this season. Against everyone else, we’ve stunk up the place. If only we could spread out our goals a little better, we could still be in contention at the top of the table!
But to Thiago, thank you. I loved it. He made me laugh. He confused me and made me, in a way, look towards Manchester City’s visit to Anfield on Sunday with a bit of excitement.
