Report by
Dave Usher at Anfield
It had to come eventually, and it was no real surprise that it was bogey team Palace who delivered it. Klopp’s unbeaten start went up in smoke as Alan Pardew’s level of smug reached heights usually only achieved by Tory politicians.
Three wins on the bounce in various competitions had provided hope that we could start to climb the table but this was always going to be the biggest test so far of Klopp’s tenure, and we failed it. It's not the end of the world, we've taken a step back after taking a few forward and even in defeat there were signs of progress.
Trips to Tottenham and Chelsea might look to be more testing than a home game against Palace, but for me this was the toughest game we’ve had so far for a number of reasons (for the record, I'd say it's tougher than the trip to City we have coming up next too). First and foremost, Palace are a good side. They’re especially impressive away from home, and they’re a really bad match up for us in terms of style. We struggle at home against teams with pace and power who can defend deep and hit on the break. West Ham beat us 3-0 at Anfield earlier in the season and there are a lot of similarities between them and Palace. We couldn't beat Southampton either, and I'd put them in the same category.
Klopp has worked wonders in a short space of time but for the most part I don’t think supporters had gotten carried away by it. Talk of this being a “reality check” is wide of the mark, as we know what our reality is. We’re not winning the title, but we could make a run at the top four and this result doesn’t change that. Clearly though we need to find a way to win these games because for all the improvements we’ve seen under Klopp, some glaring issues remain.
Klopp downplayed the significance of having to play Palace just three days after a Europa League game in Russia but it definitely does play a part. It's right that he dismisses it as if you tell players they're tired they'll convince themselves they are. I’m not necessarily buying into the “tiredness” argument, but the sharpness was effected by it and as so often happens with teams who play in the Europa, we made a really sluggish, sloppy start.
I’d put part of the blame for that on Mignolet though. He was farting about in the opening minute putting defenders under unnecessary pressure by passing it out to them instead of clearing his lines, and before you knew it we were making mistakes all over the shop. That set the tone and his distribution throughout the first half was dreadful.
The Palace goal was a farce from our point of view. Moreno should have cleared it initially but cocked it up, then Can made a complete pigs arse of it in his own box and presented the ball straight to a gleeful Bolosie who finished well. He’s becoming a real thorn in our side him, he’s such a handful.
Can was having one though, and ended up in a heated discussion with Moreno after he passed one straight out of play. Can was right to feel that Moreno should have been moving onto that ball, but he played it without even looking so it was on him. He could do little right in that first half, but the team as a whole wasn’t really functioning well either.
Matters weren’t helped by Sakho getting injured after an awkward fall. He looked in a bad way so it was surprising to see him come back on and try to run it off. As much as I liked his desire to get back out there, I didn’t think it was a great idea as clearly he’d done something to his knee. It wasn't a contact injury, it was obviously some sort of ligament problem. You don’t run those things off usually.
What really pissed me off was Mignolet passing to him seconds after he’d come back on. That was just absolute rank fucking stupidity. I’m sorry, but even as a kid you know not to pass to an injured team-mate, especially if he’s the last man. Sakho dealt with it and played it down the line to Moreno, but that silly little bastard gave it straight back to him too. Honestly, some of our players are thick as fuck. Sakho was immediately put under pressure and gave it away in a dangerous area, but thankfully it came to nothing.
While he seemed to be moving ok, the real test was going to be whether he could jump for a header. That was how he’d gotten injured to begin with, and it was noticeable that the first time he needed to deal with an aerial ball he never even got off the ground and immediately signalled that he had to go off. He may have done more damage he did by going back out there, but at least he wants to play through pain. Unlike someone else I could mention...
So Lovren came on which didn't fill anyone with confidence, particularly given how Bolasie & co ran rings around him in this fixture back in May. As it turns out, he did ok and we’re going to need to him to do a job for us now because Sakho isn’t going to be back any time soon by the looks of it.
Despite the bad start and the loss of Sakho we improved as the half wore on and it was clear that Ibe was the player we needed to keep feeding. He was driving at the defence and causing problems to their left back and the link up with Clyne on the right was working well. Those two combined well for the equaliser, as Ibe waited for the right moment to roll the ball inside the Palace defender for Clyne to run onto, and although his cross was flicked away from Benteke by Lallana, thankfully Coutinho was on hand to bury it at the back post.
Having drawn ourselves level I felt good about us going on to win it and the second half was end to end stuff. We were the better side but they always looked like they might do us on the break with their pace. Skrtel seemed to play the entire game at full stretch, it was taking everything he had to keep Bolasie in check but he stuck to his task well.
We were playing some good stuff and creating chances. Not always clear chances, but we were getting into some promising situations. Unfortunately, as usual, the finishing wasn’t up to scratch, with Benteke particularly wasteful. He hasn’t looked fully fit to me in these two games he’s started, and he’s looked more effective coming off the bench. We’ve got no choice but to start him though. Fucking Sturridge.
The problem we have is that if our centre forward isn’t scoring then there’s nobody else who will. Ok, Coutinho has got three in his last two, but before that he wasn’t getting any. Lallana seems like he can only score in the Europa League, while Ibe only has one senior goal to his name. That is our biggest problem in a nutshell; not enough goals.
Not being able to defend set-pieces comes a close second of course. That was a really shitty goal we gave away and it’s just like Southampton the other week when we let them score a cheap goal from a free-kick. It would have been easier to take if Palace had scored from the lightning counter they had a bit earlier when Zaha blew by Lucas and Coutinho and crossed for Sakho who fluffed his lines. At least we could say they’d had to work for that goal. This one we just gifted to them.
Poor marking, shite goalkeeping and then not enough desire from players to get to the rebound. Scott Dann wanted it more than our lads unfortunately, although any set up that results in Firmino picking up a big centre half is clearly flawed. I don't care if we go man to man, zonal or a mixture of both, I'm really not bothered how we defend, just that we do it properly. Having Firmino trying to mark Dann is just asking for trouble though.
That doesn’t excuse hundreds of fans around the ground getting up and walking out though. Klopp said he felt “alone” when he saw that, which just made me feel sad and embarrassed. I wonder what he must be thinking about Anfield. He’s used to Dortmund fans and the great atmosphere they create and now he’s walked into this sorry arse situation.
Theres a lot to say about all this and now probably isn’t the time to go into it in any great depth. All I’ll say is that it’s bang out of order for so many fans to just head off in a sulk because we’ve fallen behind. Maybe they’d have left anyway, plenty do, but it just looks terrible when we concede and loads of fans just fuck off. It has to affect the players in some way.
Having said that, if Klopp is privately thinking that our support is shit compared to Dortmund’s, I can’t blame him for that as it’s true, but there are mitigating circumstances which I doubt he's aware of. Dortmund has retained it’s hardcore following as tickets in Germany are affordable to all. Loads of our hardcore, most passionate and loyal fans who helped to create the atmosphere that earned us our reputation simply can’t afford to go anymore.
The club have done their best to drive away those supporters and this is the result of it. The atmosphere is shite, there are no original songs anymore and loads of people are fucking off early to “beat the traffic”. Still, people are paying £50 a ticket and the club shop does a roaring trade on matchday, so mission accomplished.
It’s easy to blame the fans, and don’t get me wrong here, I’m not defending the early darters at all, but the club are more to blame for this entire situation than anybody else. If Premier League clubs treated their fans the same way Bundesliga sides did, we’d all be a lot better off for it. I daresay it's a hell of a lot easier getting out of Dortmund's stadium and back to the City Centre than it is here too. People leave early as they don't fancy waiting an hour for a bus / sitting in traffic for an hour / walking miles to get a taxi.
Until all these issues are resolved, don't expect anything to change. What we might see now is trouble between fans when those who stay get pissed off with those who are sneaking off early. It was entirely understandable why Klopp drew attention to it, but he may have opened up a big can of worms here.
Anyway, star man was probably Coutinho. Not back to his best yet but certainly improving. Ibe was decent too, as was Clyne, who was very good at both ends but blotted his copybook with a ridiculous 35 yard shot in stoppage time that brought back memories of Lovren at Wembley last year.
Team: Mignolet; Clyne, Skrtel, Sakho (Lovren), Moreno; Lucas, Can (Firmino); Ibe (Origi), Lallana, Coutinho; Benteke:
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