It is amazing what a bit of prime airtime can do. Joachim Andersen enjoyed a fine first season at Crystal Palace, but was hardly widely lauded beyond Selhurst Park, with centre-back partner Marc Guehi more regularly the focus having made a more eye-catching switch from west London to south, arriving from European champions Chelsea rather than relegated Fulham.
Just a week into the new campaign, however, and Andersen heads to Anfield for tonight’s meeting with Liverpool with his reputation notably enhanced after a superb performance against Arsenal in last week’s showpiece Premier League season-opener. It was, despite the 2-0 loss, a terrific display and not one that will have come as a surprise to Patrick Vieira, nor the Palace fans that watched the 26-year-old play 34 times in the League last term.
But in this age of football viewership, the hits pay far more than the back-catalogue and Andersen’s night returned a Holy Trinity of sorts: a clip-able highlights reel, quotable praise from a set of premier pundits and a list of statistics (six tackles, 12 “duels” won, 348 successful headband adjustments) to be tweeted in bullet-point form, accompanied by some probably irrelevant emoji.
Of course, with recognition comes scrutiny, and while Andersen’s long-passing looks ideally suited to exposing Liverpool’s vulnerability in the space behind Trent Alexander-Arnold, the court of public opinion (read: Football Twitter) will no doubt be just as swift to proclaim the Danish Titus Bramble should the Eagles centre-back find life defensively more difficult against a Reds line that will surely be led by Darwin Nunez.
Jurgen Klopp has been cautious with the £64million summer signing, bringing him off the bench in the Community Shield victory over Manchester City and the draw at Fulham.
Nunez scored in both cameos and at Craven Cottage, in particular, his arrival transformed a limp attacking display and helped Klopp’s men to salvage a scarcely deserved point.
The German will expect a response tonight, as, surely, will Palace, who will not have had a trip to Anfield down for much given they have lost the last ten meetings between the sides.
If they are to leave Merseyside with anything, it will surely involve Andersen shining in the spotlight once more.
