Back on track… ish

Never has what would normally be considered a routine 3-1 win for LFC over a smaller club like Fulham, been met with such relief but such has been the Jekyll and Hyde nature of our performances recently (and it’s been a lot since more Hyde than Jekyll), fans really didn’t know what to expect from Sunday’s game. Anything less than three points however and our fading hopes of a title win would have been over.

Klopp rang the changes, completely changing our midfield three and in attack, only Diaz retained his place in the starting lineup from our recent league games. I heard pundits before the game saying that Klopp was taking a big gamble but personally I didn’t see it that way. The so called first choice players haven’t been performing in recent weeks and nobody should be a guaranteed starter at a club of our stature if they’re not putting in the performances to merit their place in the team so I was glad Klopp made changes. At the end of the day, we were actually performing better with the kids than we have in recent weeks.

It was a strange game in a lot of ways. We started brightly and were on top, although as has been the case recently, not really creating much in way of clear cut chances and once again we required a goal from a set piece to break the deadlock. This one wasn’t a coin toss of a Salah penalty however, it was an absolute rasper of a free kick from Trent, reminding us exactly what he can bring to this team with a beautifully converted strike.

So far so good then, we’d actually taken the lead in a match for once but if we expected a bit of game management at that point to see us through to half time, we would be disappointed as a failure to clear our lines saw us concede yet another soft goal to go in level at the break.

Second half we improved a bit if still a little disjointed, although that was to be expected somewhat given our midfield three had never played together before. Endo for the most part was doing his bit, intercepting and keeping it simple. Harvey was his usual industrious self but as has often been the case this season, he’s struggled to impose himself when starting games. He’s been good off the bench but nobody wants to be saddled with the super sub tag and never get a start. It was the final member of the triumvirate that made the difference though, as Gravenberch scored an excellent goal from outside the box that would ultimately prove to be the winner.

He’s a bit of a conundrum is Gravenberch. At times he looks a real player, full of class and technique to go alongside all the physical attributes you’d want in a CM. He’s plagued by inconsistency however and unfortunately that’s a theme running right through the squad at the moment. Gravenberch, Nunez, Gakpo, Jones, Elliot and Szoboszlai all come under the category of you having no idea which version of the player is going to show up from one week to the next. Dom started the season like a train but tailed off after about the first ten games and has been average at best since, although given the fact he looks like a 35 year old Turkish waiter, it’s easy to forget he’s only 22. Jones is the perennial false dawn player, every time you think he’s taking the next steps, he gets injured again and it’s back to square one. Gravenberch is in and out of the team and goes from looking like a world beater one week, to being totally anonymous the next, although again we need to remember he’s still a young player despite his size. Darwin goes from the sublime to the ridiculous, as does Salah if we’re being honest, Harvey as mentioned has only proved effective coming off the bench this season and Gakpo’s confidence has looked shot to bits at times this season. Consistency is one of, if not THE hardest thing to maintain in your game, however it’s that which differentiates the best players from the rest and there’s too many players in our squad at the moment where it’s sorely lacking.

One player who doesn’t suffer from that however is Jota. I’ve been bemoaning his loss to injury these past few months and his goal demonstrated exactly what we’ve been crying out for these past few weeks – composure. I’m a huge Jota fan, he’s the most underrated player in the PL in my opinion and his goal just demonstrated what he’s all about. Unlike Darwin, he knows how to stay onside and time a run, unlike Diaz he doesn’t try and overcomplicate it when he’s put clean through on goal by trying to cut across the defender, he just ran into the space where he knew the defender wouldn’t reach him and he’d get his shot away, even if it narrowed the angle slightly and unlike Salah, he can do that because he can actually shoot with his weaker foot. The outcome being the goal that killed the game. I’ve long said he’s our most effective attacker and I saw some stats the other day that back it up. Jota has something like a 25% conversion rate. Salah was next up on around 11% and then Darwin was around the 8% mark. What might have been this season had Jota stayed fit. Unfortunately his Achilles heel is he tends to pick up at least one bad injury every season that keeps him out for months, rather than weeks.

The most important thing however was we got back on track with the win and collected the vital 3 points. Alas, I suspect both ourselves and Arsenal have blown it again this season. I can’t remember City ever faltering during the run in under Pep, they tend to be pretty perfect in the final 10 games and never seem to buckle under pressure. It’s frustrating this year, as they’re not the same team they were last season, which was to be expected after winning the treble and both ourselves and Arsenal have had the chances to pull away from them this season and have been unable to do so, whether that’s been because we’ve bottled it, run out of steam as the number of games took its toll or whatever the reason has been, we’ve failed to take advantage when the opportunities have presented themselves and generally when it gets to this stage of the season and City are in control of their own destiny, they tend to see it through and get over the finishing line. The only hope is that with them still being in the FA cup and having a game in hand, if we can put the points on the board before they play that game, it will add a little extra pressure on them. It’s hope rather than expectation at this stage though.

Anyway the result on Sunday was all that mattered and we got back to winning ways. Back on track? Well… ish! Walk on!