May the 22nd, 2022. AM. The morning before the Wolves match. ‘Two games from greatness.’ August the 22nd, 2022, PM. The mourning after the United ‘match’. ‘Two games from a crisis.’ Life and football sure comes at us quickly.
Three months on from a week that almost saw us break all records—the Reds were only a Villa capitulation (yeah, I know) and a Courtois man-of-the-match performance away from the greatest season in our or anyone’s history—and while all may not be doom and gloom, there’s definitely lots of anxiety about.
While the ‘two games from greatness’ line still rings true, the ‘two games from a crisis’ is far-fetched. Make no mistake, should we fail to beat Bournemouth on Saturday, alarm bells will and should be ringing (they already are for some). But a pile-on on this group of players and management given their credentials would be misplaced, I think.
Of course, there should be no hiding away from the dreadful start we’ve made to the season, nor has there been. Klopp was the first to call out the players for their non-display against Fulham. Hendo also referred to it in his Palace programme notes. Robbo fronted up after the United match and said our football hasn’t been good enough. The players have been generally poor individually, with only one or two coming away with any credit, Elliott and Carvalho, promisingly, amongst them.
When those who have been the poorest have been some of our most important players over recent years, it’s bound to have an effect. Van Dijk, Trent and Fabinho are three who need to buck up their act, and quickly. Along with Alisson, much of our success under Klopp has been built on these three: the spine of the team Alisson, Van Dijk and Fabinho, the menace of Trent (and Robbo). That’s not there at the moment—the individual performances of these players, usually 8 or 9 out of 10s, are down around 5 or 6. You can afford to have one or two players below par, not four or five. When that happens, as it did against Fulham and United, the result is inevitable.
It just feels like we’re not playing games on our terms yet. We’ve been lacking in invention with the ball (we had 70% possession against United but nothing to really show for it) and off the pace in terms of our pressing without it. I’m not sure there’s much of a market for Lethargy: Inside Liverpool FC: Our Story. There’s a way to lose and coming second to a notoriously lazy United team in terms of intensity is not one of them…
Going behind early is definitely a problem we need to fix. It’s happened seven times in a row now so there is something to it. However, we did win three of those and drew three, so there’s a lot to be said for the team’s character, still. Going ahead, as the boys referred to in the podcast, just changes the dynamic: teams have to come at us and we are usually so good at picking them off. That’s not disappeared overnight—we just need to get back to doing what we’ve done so well for years.
This group is essentially the one we achieved greatness with, minus Sadio. I have every faith that this is a mere blip and that we’re going to click sooner rather than later. Just harp back to 18/19, 19/20 and 21/22 (the COVID-affected season being an obvious outlier).
Apart from the trophies – The European Cup, the League Title, the FA Cup, the League Cup (and two European Cup finals), just look at the statistics.
21/22. 147 goals! 94 of those in the League. That’s an average of just about 2.5 goals a game. 49 out of 57 points at Anfield. 63 games out of a possible 63 played. A goal difference of +99 in all competitions! That’s astounding. That’s what these boys are capable of. Still.
97, 99, 92 points in the League in those three seasons. And all this while playing the best football most of us have ever seen. We would have three League Titles had we not been up
against perennial cheats.
We’ve been blighted by injuries, too. That’s no excuse for the performances this season, we should have had enough to beat the three teams we played, but it doesn’t help. A bigger squad keeps everyone on their toes—we are threadbare so most of them know they are going to play. Performances are going to pick up, these players are too good to not bounce back. Other players are going to start coming back from injury and we’ll have more options.
Konaté / Matip will improve us; Jones needs to produce a big season; Jota got 21 goals last season; Nunez will surely come good—Klopp deserves to be trusted on him, given his transfer dealings. Diaz will get better and better. Mo will continue to be prolific.
The Reds have two home fixtures in a row, a chance to get the show back on the road before the derby. There are no guarantees of course, but we couldn’t have asked for a better fixture list—two home games in quick succession followed by the derby where intensity should be a given. Fast starts are vital, as Robbo alluded too, all the more so as that nervousness in the crowd could seep through to the lads, whose confidence is at a low ebb.
Let’s see where we are three months down the line, on the 12th of November, before the break for the World Cup. We’ll have played 16 and I bet the doom and gloom will have lifted as this team gets back to what it does best, winning and entertaining.
John Brennan
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