Where to start…
I’ll warn you, this is going to be a rant. That was dreadful. We were very lucky to get all three points against Leicester and we rode our luck again tonight – if we’d been 4-0 down at halftime we could’ve had no complaints. Once again, incredibly easy to play through, defence a complete and utter shambles and concede an early goal. This seems to be the script for the season.
The trouble is, it doesn’t seem to matter who’s playing, the same problems persist. I’ve often said over the past few seasons that you could have us wearing any team’s strip but we’d still be instantly recognisable as Liverpool, our pressing was so unique, so fluid, the whole team moving as one. This is unrecognisable, there’s practically no press at and what there is of it is disjointed or individual. Now that’s fine if you’re then controlling games with possession but we can’t string three passes together either.
Someone mentioned on the thread that we seem to be heavily outnumbered both in defence and attack and it did feel like that in the first half, like Brentford had 15 players. The defending from their corners was absolutely horrendous as well, one of the disallowed goals, how can their player have time to take it on the chest, turn and volley without anyone getting close to him? Then to concede 13 seconds after they had a goal chopped off is just criminal.
Klopp rang the changes at halftime and it was no shock to see Harvey and Kostas go off, Harvey was a passenger and Kostas and Ox weren’t on the same wavelength at all. Robbo and Keita made an instant impact and probably the only positives of the game and when Ox scored, it looked like we might be able to salvage the game, only to be outdone by some of the weakest CB play you’ll see from Konate.
Gakpo coming in will hopefully give the team a boost and will certainly improve the quality of our LW while Diaz and Jota are still out but we need a lot more than a left winger to sort this shambles out. We’ve conceded the most big chances in the league so far this season, as well as Nunez missing the most big chances, with Salah hot on his heels. Not the kind of stats you expect a team like Liverpool to be racking up.
Speaking of Nunez it was typical of the way his luck is going just now. Unlucky with the early chance cleared off the line, finished one chance brilliantly but was offside and then a comical miss to round things up.
A few of the lads were saying yesterday they hadn’t given up on the title yet but surely even the most optimistic, glass half full LFC fan can see this team is not capable of winning the league this season. We’re in a dogfight for top four with Spurs, Newcastle and United and could really have done with capitalising on the aforementioned duo dropping points over the weekend.
How to fix it? I have no idea, we see the same problems regardless of who’s playing. We need Konate back, we need Fabinho back etc etc. It doesn’t seem to matter who’s playing. With regards the pressing, it wouldn’t be accurate to say we’ve no legs, Nunez runs his socks off, Harvey is a willing runner, Salah has been doing it for years but it’s like we’ve stopped working on it in training or something. It just isn’t there and we’re so easy to play through. Virgil and Fabinho continue to look shadows of themselves and it’s pretty astonishing that that’s Trent’s first assist of the season in the league, when you think how prolific he’s been.
It’s a season of transition then but there are glaring holes in this team now, that we don’t seem to be able to rectify with the players available to us. The team needs investment in at least two midfielders and I was quite surprised by Klopp’s comments yesterday about us not being about it to splash the cash. I thought we’d have prioritised midfield this window and when I saw the Gakpo signing I fully expected a midfielder to follow, as if we were addressing that area of the pitch that we’ll only be light in for another month or so, surely we’ll be addressing the midfield which has been light all season? Perhaps we will and the boss is just keeping his cards close to his chest but it did sound like Klopp dampening the fan’s expectations when it comes to signings, which is something we’ve become used to. This window and the summer will give us a good indication of FSG’s continued (or lack thereof) ambitions with the club I feel.
Anyway, got that off my chest. Wolves next in the cup where we’ll hopefully get another glimpse at some of our talented youngsters. If ever there was a time one of them could stake a claim for more game time it’s now. Walk on!
Recent Comments