The Reds were never scoring, were they?
In an ideal world I just post a sad face, you all post sad selfies live on 98’, and we move on. It’s hard to write about a Liverpool result that is, once again, really not as bad as it looks — but at a certain point it is. What I do want to say up front is that I don’t think that was a penalty, and that does color any subsequent discussion: I think that penalty was given for a swipe to the face, and I do not believe that contact was made in the face. That does change the entire game after. I’m going to talk about it like it was a draw, because statistically that’s what it was. But doing so allows us to avoid the discourse and talk about just how bad a performance that was from Liverpool, a team that never once looked like winning.
Skip ahead to the last line none of us need to dwell on this.
Winners and Losers
The entire Liverpool team lost in achieving a 0-0 draw in open play/non-pen play. Going 1-0 down and playing with a referee willing to play stop-start does 100% change the face of the game, but it doesn’t change the whole of it. This was another story of missed chances, and another story of failure to connect.
At this point we do unfortunately have to call out Ibrahima Konaté as a loser today. It’s not helpful to mention the rumors, and I don’t think it’s helpful to judge players that way — especially in an industry where Liverpool do not have any of the gossip outlets and Real Madrid have all of them. It’s not just his positioning and defensive choices, though, it’s his passes as well.
You do have to say that the pass that injured Alisson was at first the goalkeeper’s own fault, though: the pass out was poor, and the pass to Konaté was poor. It was a horrible thing to watch from start to finish, and perhaps that should remind us that this is larger than any individual because every major individual mistake likely started with someone else being…not where someone expected. This is something you would fix in training, except the current calendar means it’s games every other day. Worrying, worrying signs.
Reminds me of that loss to Red Star. No one looked up for it.
How The Fans Reacted
No one was happy about this. This should be a longer section, but I also want to call out the horrific in-ground experience, because why were away fans treated horribly AND told within hours of kickoff that having Galatasaray hats could mean you’re not allowed in the ground?
Liverpool and UEFA need to get onto this, it’s not on.
Outside of the framework, though, people have started seeing a pattern:
Not ideal, the Reds. And many care calling for a personnel rethink:
This one is hard to discuss, though, because it was bad. Ignoring the penalty, the performance was properly bad:
What Happens Next
Chelsea is now everything, and no one needed that to happen. In the league going into this patch in London you probably would have taken four points, and that’s now impossible. Liverpool could at best get three, and while Chelsea look able to get got at, my goodness so do Liverpool. And now the Reds are on two losses on the bounce.
It is worth looking at underlying numbers and you should by all means do that. I will not be doing so here as I believe at a certain point the numbers aren’t helpful: it’s less that you’re underperforming and more that you, as a team, are below average. That’s my worry about the Reds.
We need three points this weekend in a way that’s worrying. We then need everyone to somehow stay home the international break and sort their heads out. I don’t mean to be ringing the panic alarm but I am very optimistic…and I worry we’re now backed into a corner.
That said, we’re far ahead of last season, and that’s worth saying. Being a shambles from a position of strength really can’t be the worst place to be.
Category: General Sports
