0 voters
Unused subs: Adrian, Milner, Minamino, Origi.
LIVERPOOL 4-3 LEEDS UTD (HT: 3:2)
GOAL: Mo SALAH 4’
GOAL: Virgil VAN DIJK 19’
GOAL: Mo SALAH 32’
Sub: FABINHO on KEITA off 58’
Sub: Curtis JONES ON Jordan HENDERSON off 66’
GOAL: Mo SALAH 88’
Sub: Joel MATIP on Trent ALEXANDER-ARNOLD on 89’
Never in doubt.
New season; new kit; new forum, even. Same old Liverpool, though.
Mentality monsters.
Our tame end to last season (we were generally poor post-lockdown) and indifferent pre-season (only drawing with Arsenal? Really?) led many to question if we were resting on our laurels. The lack of BiG nAmEz over the summer was used by some as an indicator of our owners’ “lack of ambition” (ignoring the fact that FSG had enough ambition to hire Klopp, buy Virgil and Alisson, win the Champions League and then end our thirty years of hurt but, well, you know…) and the ongoing Gini/Thiago saga hasn’t helped at all. I’m not going to cover the entire close-season in this post, or we’d be here forever, but I will say that I’m glad that the owners aren’t taking out loans when future revenue streams are so uncertain.
A great start- arguably a fortunate penalty decision, with the ball deflecting off Koch’s thigh and onto his arm- was soon negated by Harrison’s cracking equaliser. It must be said that Trent, Gomez (who looked shaky from the start) and Ali-beaten at his near post, once again- didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory, however. Fortunately, a towering header from Big V soon restored our advantage. Virg turned from hero to zero when he casually gifted the ball to Bamford for Leeds’ second equaliser; fortunately, Mo restored our advantage with a breathtaking strike in the 33rd minute- beautiful control and finish. He certainly likes scoring on the opening day of the season!
The second half couldn’t possibly live up to the first… or could it? Virgil headed over when unmarked; Trent had an own goal disallowed after Harrison was adjudged to have been marginally offside; Mané should have done better when played through by Salah. At the other end, Hernandez was thwarted by Alisson and then Costa played an exquisitely timed pass to Klich, who controlled and volleyed home with aplomb. It really was a terrific goal and no more than Leeds deserved, to be honest.
Two disallowed goals in each half and for each team as well; all looked legitimate decisions, although you would need the vision of Eagle Eye Action Man to have spotted in real time Jones’s trip on Koch which caused Virgil’s close-range finish to be chalked off in the 83rd minute.
Still: cometh the hour (or, in this case, the 88th minute), cometh the Mo. Salah bagged his hat trick with a second penalty, awarded for Rodrigo’s senseless and totally unnecessary foul on Fabinho.
Three points; job done. Jürgen won’t be happy with the defending, but that’s for another day.
MOTM: Every single one of you. I only joined TIA in 2014, having previously led a somewhat peripatetic online existence on the official LFC forums, RAWK and the now defunct TCAA. I was an admin on the latter and I know just how hard it is to build a community, then sustain it and the satisfaction in watching it grow and flourish. Seeing so many of you switch over from TIA to TAN, and settle in so quickly, has been wonderful; while my sincere thanks go out to Matt and Max for bringing us all together in our previous home, it’s all of you who deserve today’s award. Let’s make TAN a bastion of invincibility.
Take it away lads 
If you dont vote Salah as MotM you are dumb…
Defence and midfield need to spend hours training to get their mojo back.
Leeds are going to upset a few teams.
Echos of Norwich.
Mo, take a bow, he’s on it. The league should be fucking worried.
Brilliant game.
Glad to get 3 points. Doesnt matter how we win, 3 points is all that matters.
Hopefully we sort ourselves out soon.
Attack wise we were fucking awesome.
Holy Smokes Wow
Phew!
Still undefeated this season, yay
That was fun. van Dijk scores then makes a mistake. Fabinho makes a mistake and then wins a pen.
Salah with his best game for a long time.
I expect many people will say that was too stressful but I absolutely loved it.
Fuck me we were shite. Back four and Alisson were a disgrace in all honesty. Midfield battled and front three were electric bar Bobbys finishing that one time.
Salah is back from his poor pre season and has ice cold blood 
Can’t be said for the rest.
Curtis played well when he came on.
Change needed but a good 3 points
Mo Salah MOTM by an absolute mile. If we’re going to retain the title we’ll need him in this form for a considerable period of time. Absolutely brilliant tonight even ignoring the goals.
The back 4 need an absolute rocket up their arse (Robertson excluded from this), or a few hair driers thrown at them. A shite, lazy performance from them.
The midfield needs to improve. Henderson will be better off for the minutes. Keita did well. Jones was confident on the ball. Wijnaldum needs to start tracking runners again and if he could finish one of the easy chances he gets that would be nice too. The less said about Fabinho the better.
We’ll need to be better next week against Chelsea or we’ll get battered. Come on reds, wake the fuck up.
3 points. I’ll take the 3 points. MotM Mo. We really need to wake up again. Rather enjoyed Leeds; I think they will do OK.
Have you been writing it during the game @cynicaloldgit
A note on Leeds. They are really good and should have no trouble staying in the league. I’d back them for a top ten finish. But there is a naivity about them, and they’ll get some absolute fucking hammerings along the way.
I always do. Unless the missus has got other plans…
That was entertaining but why are we making so many errors and getting punished.
Mo was very good today I can’t say the same for the rest. Happy to get the 3 points but next week away to the chavs.
Perhaps this is the cautionary tale that the game never stands still.
Except for the Palace game we have not played well since the restart.
Fantastic match to watch but also a tad worrying. I had a lot of fun, thank you all , both team and forumites. But this was a rough match.
About to go out for a few beers now, and my only thought about the game right now is that I thought we were lucky. Leeds probably deserved a point, we made too many grave errors. Leeds surprised me, much better than I assumed they would be in the first match.
Anyway, 3 points is what was vital, if you can stumble away groggy with 3 points you take that of course. But man, this was a much too close a game ! 
Pheew !! great game, well deserved result. Leeds are going to be tough to beat on that showing but we showed similar character and had the edge for most of the game. I doubt if Virgil is going to give away goals like that very often . Some obviously played better than others but really a good team showing. Curtis looking the part. Delighted for him.
Don’t know what the fuss was about. I thought we completely dominated the first 3 minutes.