So to just say now “yeah the damage was done last week” feels like it’s excusing the inexcusable. We had a chance to still turn this around and had we got a second goal Atalanta would probably have folded under the pressure. So that second half was inexcusable, because I don’t think we even mustered a serious shot did we? Atalanta out-thought us and they out-fought us, and their defence and goalkeeper have probably not had an easier 45 minutes all season because of the job their midfield and forwards did in stopping us playing.
They were terrific, I’m taking nothing away from them. Fully deserved winners and they did an absolute number on us in both games. That said, we made it incredibly easy for them last night because that was one of the least intelligent halves of football I have ever seen from any Liverpool side. Ever. We can talk about the poor form and lack of quality too if you like, but the thing that was jumping out at me in that second half was that this team is utterly reliant on having Klopp and Lijnders hold their hand through games and solve problems for them, and when they don’t have that they can look utterly lost.
I’ve been saying it for a while now, usually because they’re shite in the first half and only start playing when Klopp tells them what to do at half time. There’s nobody on the pitch capable of sorting these problems. That second half has shaken me far more than anything else I’ve seen from us all season. Far worse than the United debacles or the loss to Palace. Worse than last Thursday at Anfield too, which you could maybe *maybe* put down to an off night caused by Atalanta’s unusual tactics that we’re not used to facing.
We knew exactly what we were facing this time though and in the first half we clearly had a plan to try and cause them different types of problems than we did last week. The movement was fluid, players were popping up in areas we’re not used to seeing them and although it wasn’t great, you could see we were trying to do something different. It was alright and it felt like we were building up some momentum ahead of a second half push.
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