Liverpool’s crazy Bilbao double-header is future of pre-season football
Here is a challenge for the forthcoming football season which will test your powers of recall to their limit: try to remember this summer’s friendly matches. This can be a difficult task, even in a timespan measured in hours.
Anyone who consumed Bournemouth 0 West Ham 2 in front of more seats than fans in Atlanta on Sunday night had likely forgotten it by bedtime. Yet we must strive to carry the memory of these games in the US, Hong Kong and South Korea into the coming months, as winter turns to spring, when European competitions become serious and managers start complaining about fixture pile-up.
Then will be the moment to summon an image of Arsenal 1 AC Milan 0 (in Singapore, naturally) Newcastle 0 K-League XI 1, or Liverpool 3 Yokohama FM – Kanagawa Prefecture’s biggest mix of jazz, J-Pop and football! – 1. Globe-straddling pre-seasons are now the norm and, clubs would argue, a necessity in the PSR era.
They are also needlessly expansionist, which should remain front of mind whenever managers of the biggest clubs whinge about the inconvenience of domestic cups. Initially Liverpool playing back-to-back games against Athletic Bilbao on the same night seemed part of this inexorable bloat. In fact, perhaps it showed a path to a saner future.
This was a mutually convenient arrangement for two clubs that wished to give minutes to every player in their generously sized squads. Given Athletic’s unique Basque-only recruitment restrictions this presented a challenge. By the time subs were required in the second game perhaps there would be run-outs for Bilbao-eligible culinary hotshot Martín Berasategui or Latin rock ace Manu Chao?
Game one was the support act, with starts for Darwin Nunez and Harvey Elliott, who are likely to be wearing another team’s colours by the end of the transfer window.
It was Liverpool’s first game at Anfield since the deaths of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva. Phil Thompson and Athletic president Jon Uriarte led the tributes, and the game was stopped for applause in minute 20, Jota’s now-retired squad number.
It was 4-0 on the hour, a friendly slipping pleasantly into the relaxed mode associated with the form.
The second team of the evening was the first team. Arne Slot’s XI for round two looked a lot like the one which will start the Community Shield against Crystal Palace on Sunday, if Alisson and Virgil van Dijk remain unavailable. They faced Athletic’s best and brightest too, both Williams brothers and Spain’s No 1 Unai Simon in goal although no place, even on the bench, for cruelly overlooked Manu Chao.
Turnstiles at Anfield closed shortly after the first game began, so anyone wishing to watch the main event had to endure/enjoy the second string in the early kick-off at 5pm. This seemed a stretch on a work day, school holidays or not, but the Kop (and the other three stands) looked credibly full. Many wore the new Adidas home kit, which got some valuable minutes into its microfibres which deliver “moisture-managing” technology “with smooth interlock fabric”. It must be important if it is on the Adidas website.
Athletic are credible opposition, playing in the Europa League next season and fourth behind the predictable top three in last season’s La Liga. When Mohamed Salah opened the scoring the cheers were appropriately muted.
A dwindling crowd enjoyed Cody Gakpo’s decisive third, for which even the traditionally orgasmic Spanish-language commentary felt restrained:
It felt like a throwback to a simpler time. Far better this than jet lag, absurd temperatures and going through the motions against the Thailand All-Stars. Two matches on one evening against the same opposition seemed an odd idea, but on Monday night it also seemed to make a lot of sense.
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