For the first 20 minutes or so, things were going very much to plan for Liverpool in the FA Community Shield, the traditional curtain-raiser to the English football season. The new signings had made a stunning impact, with Florian Wirtz setting up Hugo Ekitike for the first goal and Jeremie Frimpong’s mishit cross looping over Dean Henderson for the second. Though Liverpool had conceded an equaliser against the run of play after a clumsy foul from Virgil van Dijk, they were very much in control of proceedings.
Some of their interplay, movement and speed on the break was frightening to watch. But that bright beginning was pretty much just that. For the rest of the match, Crystal Palace more than matched their illustrious rivals and could even have nicked the game in normal time. Ismaila Sarr’s equaliser late in the second half had a feeling of inevitability to it, with Liverpool‘s defence creaking each time Palace broke at speed.
The expectation when Liverpool spent so much money to strengthen in the summer was that it would make a team that won the league by 10 points last season almost untouchable, but football is not arithmetic where 2+2+2 is always six. On the evidence of the Community Shield, the other 19 teams have much to be hopeful about. For all the money spent on attacking players, Liverpool still looked decidedly vulnerable at the back.
Also Read: Dean Henderson stars as Crystal Palace upset Liverpool to win Community Shield
There remains a contract stand-off with Ibrahima Konate and he could well follow Trent Alexander-Arnold’s path to Real Madrid. It may not happen this transfer window, but the likelihood of Konate leaving on a free next summer is very real. Jarell Quansah has already been sold and they simply isn’t any specialist back-up at centre-back apart from the injury-plagued Joe Gomez. Mark Guehi, who played superbly for Palace on Sunday, is one of the options they’re looking at.
Reinforcements are definitely needed, with Arsenal and Chelsea also having strengthened. Manchester City had already done half their remedial work in the January transfer window, and it promises to be another intensely competitive season. What Palace showed, however, was that it’s no longer about six or seven big teams anymore. With so many exceptional young coaches around, like Oliver Glasner of Palace, even the so-called lesser teams really fancy their chances of bloodying the noses of the bigger clubs.
Palace showed that on Sunday, and it could well be the portent for another thrilling season where the gap between the haves and have-nots shrinks further.
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