As people we like aggression. We like to see confrontation. It is a gladiatorical instinct that goes back to the Colosseum of Rome in the first century AD and therefore boxing, MMA and other contact sports are so popular.
It's in us. The 'good and bad' is in us. That is why I loved the Goodison Derby on Wednesday evening, and why millions more as I will have felt the same.
The game was a throwback – referred by an official who played his role to allow much more to continue.
It was the kind of game that has increasingly been lost, because of all Johnny-come players who have changed our sport into the reduced spectacle that today it is a very difficult watch to see with passive football, the shown Referee blows his whistle for every push and the annoying simulation that continues.
Don't get me wrong, there is a lot to be found in the modern game. The quality of modern stadiums. The Showbizz Razzmatazz. Those stadiums are full and there have never been football reporting again.
But whether the Johnnies like it or not, people love the kind of spectacle that we have seen on Wednesday. During those for about 100 minutes, the weakened aspects of the modern game, which sometimes borders on a contactless sport, went out of the window.
What we saw was a team, in Everton, who had less ability than the opposition, but he said, “We're not going to play a game on your conditions.”
Their plan was not to go out and say, “Let's have a very nice passing football game.” No. This was: 'We will come to the faces of Liverpool players. We don't let their Flair players be damaged. We will put a few on their ass and see how they respond to that. Let's see who really depicts it. '
That's how it was always. In Liverpool, Ronnie Moran reminded us more times that I can remember that the opposition manager did not tell his players about the corridor: 'Right, we are at Anfield today. Let's go outside and bring Liverpool in a football match. '
It would be a test if we were ready for the fight on that specific day. We had to be two teams. The first had to win the fight. The second had to win the football game. We were confronted almost every week of the season.
Nobody needs to be those 'two teams' anymore. The modern game is weighed against the less technically talented teams.
The top should just be a good football team from the first minute. People roll it out, play on their 18-year line, try to faint the back of the first minute to the 90th minute.
They are protected against physicality and fight because the least small challenge is stopped and carded. The man who is carded cannot be as aggressive as he would like to be for the rest of the game.
Liverpool was confronted with a completely different proposition at Goodison. One that they rarely confronted this season. You have to say they did well and think they should have won that game.
But Everton was fantastic in what they did, which was in their faces. Yes, it was tough. But I repeat, we humans like 'Feisty'.
There was the same passion that flowed out of the stands. All supporters at the end of the day, even the Liverpool that whose side admitted a 98th -minute equalizer, will have respected that level of competitiveness.
That is how people are on merseyside. If a team goes well in red or blue, they will accept you even if you don't win every week.
I suspect that Liverpool fans left that land, “you know what, we should have won, but we had tried. Nobody was missing. '
We also saw Arne Slot all being entangled in it – Caarded red for his comments to the referee. If you win as a football manager, you are an open book and you are everyone's friend.
If you don't win, you have a red face and you are angry with everyone. That red face is also in lock. Until now, he did not have to show any other side than the smiling, relaxed Arne.
We saw another one on Wednesday evening, which is good to see. The red supporters will gladly see that.
I don't think Liverpool can have complaints about the equalizer of James Tarkowski. For me I would look at Ibrahima Konate.
He is a giant of a man and he does not recommend enough. He defends his goal and should have dealt with that specific incident.
That is why he is there – to deal with situations like that. The message must be: “You have a physical presence, so your lines are released.”
What would I not only give one day back in the kind of midfield boiler that we have seen in that game. It was what you lived for.
Playing against the Peter Reids or the Bryan Robsons, knowing that you can rattle their cage and they will rattle your cage and they will not come back for more. In those games you played against the very best – not only the very best in terms of skills, but in mental resilience.
That was the test. I would be awake on a Friday night and look forward to it.
You don't want to see the kind of scenes that we saw at the end on Wednesday. My experience with Derbies was that 90 minutes refused to give an inch or to take a single step back, and at the end we would shake hands.
I remember that in 1981 there was a flare-up at Goodison in the end of Gwladys Street-a bit of a stramash as we call it scots. Jimmy Case collided with their goalkeeper, Martin Hodge, in their box and then people went along. But at the end we still shake hands.
Abdoulaye Doucoure who celebrates for Liverpool fans just asks for problems. Although that may be a bit rich that comes from me! I am the guy who planted a Galatasaray flag in the Fenerbahce Center Circle!
Seriously, Everton has a draw – a draw with the last kick of the ball! For me you should celebrate with your friends.
It was a great evening for David Moyes. He now has another tune from these Everton players. He finds an extra garden of aggression in them.
Of course they do not play Liverpool every week, so the challenge is to get that level of intensity and to control anger and to be over again and again. In the night you have to say that they have played the perfect game almost enough.
What a night! For a man, nobody on both sides hid on what an emotion -oriented, very important game was for both teams. We will certainly not soon forget it.
Bellingham is the completed article – he can be frightening
After seeing Real Madrid playing Manchester City in the week, I have to revise my judgment about them. I said last week that I could only see an English club that won the Champions League. I have to eat my words for that.
When I really played earlier in the season, I felt that they were not good enough to win that big trophy. On Tuesday I thought they looked fantastic and I have to give Jude Bellingham a special mention.
I said on these pages that he should keep his advice a little more, but oh, what a player he saw in that game. If he plays that way, he is really the completed article – already at the age of 21. How good he could be is really frightening.
The city stands for a huge task in the second stage, but we know what that group is capable of and whether it all clicks one night, they can still go to the Bernabeu and win.
Plymouth Slip-up Hammers Home How Crucial Salah is
Last weekend Arne Slot chose a group of players who should have been good enough to go to Plymouth, a team that sniffs and puffing in the championship.
It was the FA Cup, a tournament strewn with teams that were not recorded when we didn't think they would be.
Arne started the game with Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz and raised Darwin Nunez, but Mo Salah was considerably absent.
I think Liverpool should realize how important it is to keep him.
Havertz injury A disguised blessing for Arteta
I am not so sure how much Kai Havertz, who is out for the rest of the season, will be missed.
I watched him the other week in the semi -final of the Carabao Cup against Newcastle. He was always transferred and lost possession.
Mikel Arteta lets Bukayo Saka come back and he just has to think of different ways to score goals and perhaps a slightly different way of playing, while retaining the same basic principles.
It can be a disguised blessing if someone comes up and turns out to be an unexpected goal scorer.
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