Cause for concern?
Should we be worried? Two games against lower league opposition, two draws, an ever growing injury crisis and now a 3 match ban for our new CF. Doesn’t make for pleasant reading does it?
Let’s start with the obvious – the red card. I’m not going to try and make any excuses for Darwin, as there aren’t any. It doesn’t matter if the CB was winding him up or anything like that. You’re paid 140 grand a week to be a professional and headbutting an opponent is anything but professional. The other thing is, he’s just put a big target on his back. If he thought he was being wound up last night, you can bet your bottom dollar that after that reaction, every CB in the league is going to try and wind him up. Focus that aggression on scoring goals. That’s how to get back at the opposition. He’s young and he’ll (hopefully) learn but I said last night that this wants to be a one off and it very much does. The last thing we need is another Suarez, missing large chunks of seasons through suspension.
Anyway, moving on. The performance was much improved from the previous showing, we were well on top in the early stages of the match and created enough chances that we should have been one or two nil up before they scored. Unfortunately as we’ve seen a few times, the opposition scored with their first real opportunity of the game and as usual, it came down our right hand side. Fabinho has to do better in the initial challenge and then Nat found himself caught in two minds and Zaha was in. Could Virgil have done better? Possibly but I think he bet on Zaha not pulling out the perfect finish from that angle to beat Alisson. You win some, you lose some in that respect.
What really baffled me last night was the reaction of the fans that somehow, we drew that game because we hadn’t signed a new midfielder. I just really don’t understand that logic. We totally dominated the game, created bucketloads of chances and had it not been for poor finishing (and the red card) from our forwards, we’d have been out of sight by halftime. I really don’t see that not signing a new midfielder had ANYTHING to do with the result last night. Are we looking a bit short in midfield? Yes but that’s not what happened last night.
There were some positives, I thought Elliot was superb first half, looking really lively and full of confidence. What I really loved though, was Diaz response to us going a man down. He became like a man possessed and really stood up and took the game by the scruff of the neck, scoring a wonderful goal and doing the work of two players to compensate for the loss of Nunez. His efforts and his wonder goal were just enough to pip Harvey for McMOTM.
Where do we go from here then? I doubt any of us predicted no win in our first two and we’re already four points behind City, with a GD gap starting to open up already also. We go into the United game with only Diaz and Salah available out of what I’d class as our first choice forwards, with Bobby joining Jota on the treatment table and now Nunez suspended. Our midfield is ravaged by injury and I suspect the mood in the camp is not good. This is where Klopp comes in. Time to earn that reputation as a master motivator and I dare say his man management skills will have been put to the test, trying not to go for Darwin’s throat last night.
In Klopp’s entire reign, we’ve never had a player sent off for violent conduct. In fact, I can only think of 3 red cards in the Klopp era, one for Alisson as last man and second yellows for Milner and Robbo. It’s obviously something Klopp has drilled into the players, not to pick up silly suspensions and I suspect he’ll be livid after last night.
United up next and the good news is, they’re an absolute shambles. It’s become an absolute must win game however, which seems crazy at this stage of the season but we simply can’t let City pull away from the start, if we want to retain any hope of bringing the title home this season.
A night of frustration then, along with worry of who’s going to be available next week. The injury list is becoming ridiculous. I mentioned over the last couple of days that I wonder if we’ve overdone the preseason and the way the boys are going down, would certainly suggest that.
Ultimately it’s over to Klopp and the staff now to get players back fit, as well as getting the formula right on the pitch to get us back to winning ways. I’m sure they’re as surprised as the rest of us to only have taken two points out of our first two games, although we did very well to salvage a draw yesterday, having been a goal down at the time of the red. We simply MUST get back to winning ways however, starting with United. I’m going to leave it there, as I can feel the anger rising again so until next Monday, walk on!
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