A last ever Merseyside derby at Goodison Park will have to wait, only adding to the intrigue over one of English football’s most famous clashes. In the short term, the delay stands to benefit Liverpool most.
Last season, the blue half of Merseyside took great delight in hammering the final nail into Jurgen Klopp’s title charge in his final season in England.
I was there and in the era of sanitised atmospheres that modern identikit stadiums provide, Goodison was shaken to its foundations by a fanbase with very little to shout about in recent times.
On the back of another rare enjoyable trip to Goodison for Toffees last time out against Wolves – a first home win by a four-goal margin in over five years – an emotional crowd ready for one last local tussle was primed to raise the rickety roof again.
While Liverpool – home loss to Nottingham Forest aside – are yet to really put a foot wrong all season, they were coming into Saturday’s clash with plenty of trepidation.
A defensive crisis
“To only have five defenders going into the next nine games is a worry,” coach Arne Slot said this week ahead of the start of a gruelling December schedule.
“It is a bit of a worry but the good thing is that if the window is open, the defenders are back. I’ve said many times at the beginning of the season, I am so, so happy with the squad we have.”
That already depleted backline would have been readying for a Goodison bombardment on Saturday.
The weather
The conditions would have played into the hosts’ hands, too.
Sean Dyche was born in a swirling wind and would have relished trudging to the dugout in sideways rain, most likely in just a t-shirt and shorts, having told his team to go route one, from the off.
Kelleher’s conundrum
Caoimhin Kelleher is right up there with the best stand-in goalkeepers the Premier League has to offer.
His saves at crucial junctures of matches have been as crucial as any contribution to the Slot machine paying out time and again this term.
Yet confidence in a goalkeeper is a fragile thing and going into the Goodison cauldron on the back of a costly late mistake – where he allowed a high, swirling cross to float over his head for Fabian Schar’s equaliser at Newcastle on Wednesday – was far from ideal. It would have been something very much on Everton’s radar.
The most reliable pair of hands around, Allison, will almost certainly be back by the time the two old foes do get to meet, as will some defensive reinforcements.
Buying Slot time
With Liverpool fighting fit on all fronts, a rescheduled derby will lead to a fixture pile-up of some sort later in the season. But the damage a Goodison defeat could do now, to a depleted side, makes a chance to regroup ahead of a gruelling December that bit more valuable.
Liverpool’s title rivals need a lift. This is the time of year Manchester City go into Beast Mode and embark on 20-game unbeaten runs for fun. Had Everton burst their rivals’ bubble, Pep Guardiola and his misfiring side would need no second invitation.
Now, up next is a trip to Girona in Europe on Tuesday after a lengthy break, where Slot may choose to rotate given Liverpool’s incredible start to their Champions League campaign. The visit of Fulham then starts the usual festive chaos.
Fulham and midtable Tottenham are in fact the only top-half sides Liverpool face between now and mid-January – perfect fodder for a reenergised Reds to open up a lead even the might of City cannot chase down.
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