The Analogy of the Sun is one of the more famous dialogues from Plato’s Republic. It’s (presented as) a conversation between his greatest teacher, Socrates, and Plato’s brother, Glaucon, about the concept of the sun as a bringer of light which also serves as a bringer of illumination in the intellectual sense to those organisms on the planet able to take advantage of it. By this, Plato means “humans” although given the behavior of many in this modern day and age, you’d wonder at their capacity to absorb said sunlight/enlightenment. Taken to its limit, the analogy makes what I’m about to say mildly ironic (in the genuine meaning of the term “ironic”) in that I can’t stay in open sunlight for longer than about 20 minutes, since I’m about one step up from an albino when it comes to skin pigmentation. But let’s roll with Plato’s approach and imagine that the sun should bring enlightenment to everyone, as it shines down on everyone equally, while other forms of light (in his day, torches and in ours, let’s say… computer screens) are more limited and, thus, show the viewer only what they want to see. It’s an approach for discussing universal truth. I tend toward the objectivist model (e.g. universal) over the relativist one when it comes to these discussions, but I won’t bore you with that.
The topic of today’s (and the last several weeks’, really) universal truth is one Alexis Mac Allister. There was an absurd number of people on r/soccer today after his banger of a goal, talking about how his recent surge in offensive output was an example of him “being used properly” since he “no longer had to play the 6.” These are presumably the same people who complained when we bought him that he couldn’t play the 6, despite him doing so quite ably for the (World Cup-winning!) Argentinian team. Of course, once he demonstrated that he certainly could do that for Liverpool earlier in the season, the complaint turned to how he was being unduly burdened by having to play that role, rather than as a charging 8 up with the fullbacks and the front line. The best thing about them using today as an example of Mac’s newfound offensive freedom? He played the six for at least half the match! The reason we bought him is because he could play both the 6 and as an 8 and could switch ably between the two roles or as part of a double pivot (which is more like what he does for La Albiceleste.) It was the same reason we bought Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch. The idea was to never get caught out by missing our primary DM and having to do with a half-assed replacement or have one of our players (like, say, Fabinho) reduced to a single role every time they were on the pitch. This is totaalvoetbal, man. It’s why we like to employ a front line that can not only switch positions but also drop back and effectively play wingback or fullback as situations demand.
But these people with their single source of light that shows them only the truth that they want to see (Seriously, how could you miss Mac playing as the DM while Dom and Ryan were on the pitch? And continuing to do so when Curtis Jones made his long-awaited return in the second half?) are insistent that only now that Mac is in a hot run of form is he “being used properly.” Couldn’t it be that he’s just turned on in the latter part of the season and is truly demonstrating why we paid what now seems to be the ridiculously low price of £35 million? I’m about thisfar from referring to him as Estefan Gerrardo for the rest of his career, if this keeps up. (Yes, I realize I was saying the same thing about Dom earlier this season; István Gerrarday?) Put simply, Mac is just a really good midifielder, no matter at the 8, the 6, or the number he’s wearing on his back. (I mean, honestly, has Argentina ever produced a better number 10…?) But, yeah, he’s also the first midfielder to score or assist in six consecutive appearances across all competitions since… Steven Gerrard in 2013. It’s actually been eight of the last nine for Mac. Eight is a key number for us right now, as that’s the number we’ll likely need to win to close this out and win another key number: our 20th league title. Here’s to making that an absolute truth.
Liverpool 3 – 1 Sheffield United
Yeah, this is kinda stupid. I mean, you can use the fancy stats like xG to point that out or you can talk about the record-setting amount of possession in a Premier League match (83%; the highest Opta has recorded since they started in 2003-04.) Or you can talk about how every player on our squad, including Caoimhin Kelleher, had more completed passes than any player on Sheffield’s side. Or how five of our players (Ibrahima Konaté, Dom, Joe Gomez, Virgil Van Dijk, Mac) had more successful passes than Sheffield’s entire team in the first half. Or even more basic stuff: 29 shots to 5. 708 accurate passes (91%) to 80 (49%.) 13 corners to 1. And on and on. But sticking with the fancystats for just a second, I thought this was an interesting demonstration of how a couple of them work:
This is the difference between xG (expected goals) and xGOT (expected goals on target.) The chance of scoring from where Mac did is minimal and it’s funny to notice in the Understat diagram above that his and Darwin Núñez’s incredible rebound goal (the very definition of scoring with Other Body Part) looked like a matched pair in the penalty semi-circle. But placement of the shot is really important and can change that minimal chance to a really reliable chance based on where the shooter puts the ball. That’s a great example of how proper analysis can determine whether someone is a great shooter or just someone who happens to be good at carving out space and smashing it in, like a Christian Benteke.
But Mac is, of course, doing so much more. Part of those numbers in comparison to our other midfielders is certainly based on his durability, since he’s spent the least time out for injury among those who started the season and has played far more than the more inexperienced Ryan or Wataru Endo, who needed some time to get up to speed. But the majority is about Mac being an amazing footballer, in the same way that he was easily Brighton’s MVP last season.
But, yeah, Darwin deserves a mention here mostly because what he did in this play is exactly what Jürgen always asks our forwards to do: press the opposition. That includes the keeper. The fact that said press resulted in him scoring with his butt (or other, more tender parts) just makes it the most Darwin goal ever. Incidentally, that’s 30 goal contributions for Darwin across all competitions this season; including 11 goals and 6 assists in the PL; 10 and 5 of those coming in 2024, which means he’s been involved in 15 goals this calendar year, more than any other player in the PL. Speaking of xG, it also led to this hilarious tweet:
Seriously, Captain Chaos, yo. He’s confusing the machines! A lot of people were pointing out all of the rival fans citing Mac as a “flop” for us as early as November. Those people are, of course, dead silent now. Many Liverpool fans said similar things about Darwin. Likewise, silent. That is, of course, because they’ve moved on to calling Ryan and Cody Gakpo failures. And they somehow call themselves Reds fans…
That’s six goals for Cody in the PL in not a ton of playing time. Mac was kind enough to interrupt a Sky reporter interviewing him to mention how happy he was that Cody’s hard work in practice showed itself on the pitch today and he broke his scoring drought. That’s a teammate. The other thing to note about the above goal is, of course, Andy Robertson’s spectacular cross, which went from his boot on the run directly to Cody’s head, with no hope of any defender or the keeper interfering. Robbo has had a lot of injury problems this year and while Jomez has played well in his absence, if Robbo is back for the run-in, that’s a huge asset to have returned to us.
And on a night when defense was the least of our concerns, it’s nice to point out the guys still doing their jobs and collectively doing them better than any other side in the PL, which is part of why we’re top of the league. Big. Red. Machines. Yeah, man. That machine is also what has led us to 26 goals in the last 15 minutes of league matches this season. No other club has more than 16. It’s also worth pointing out that Caoimhin has saved more xGOT than David Raya (Arsenal), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal), and Ederson (Man City) combined. Kweev also has as many appearances this season as Alisson Becker (24.) Michael Reid pointed out that it’s only the second time in LFC’s history that they’ve had two keepers with that many appearances in a season (1988-89 was the other, split between Bruce Grobbelaar and Mike Hooper.)
Alrighty, then. We have to go back to the aging barn down the M62 for one of our most important remaining matches in the PL; not least because spoiling our path to the title carries extra weight for ManU fans, as they’d love to keep us from matching their record total of league wins (20.) After that, we’re back at Anfield for the first leg with Atalanta in the Europa League. Meanwhile, turn your speakers on:
Extra Time 