Groundhog Day. It feels like we’ve lost every home game 1-0 for months. I actually said that to someone yesterday and they corrected me that the Derby actually ended 2-0. Not to me it didn’t. I’d blocked that second goal out because the penalty they got was so egregious. So the point remains. Every fucking home game seems to be the same now.
We never score in the first half anymore and we barely score any in the second. As soon as we concede you know it’s over. We have plenty of the ball but give up more chances than we create. We usually have a bright ten minutes to start the second half but when that doesn’t produce a goal it all just fizzles out. Every. Fucking. Game.
The worst part about this loss was that I absolutely expected it. We’re the Champions, we’re facing a bottom three team and I’m going into it absolutely convinced that we’ll lose. It wasn’t irrational either as there was absolutely nothing to suggest we would win the game other than wishful thinking.
We’re playing so badly right now at Anfield that I don’t think we’re capable of beating anybody. I’m made up that Champions League tie has been moved because there’s definitely some kind of mental block with the players at Anfield now. Not that we’re much better away from home, but we aren’t quite as shit.
I think the sight of the empty seats might just be depressing them and reminding them what they’re missing. They’re clearly feeling sorry for themselves, it’s blatantly obvious every time they go behind. It’s not that the lads aren’t trying, but they aren’t going out there with that mentality where they just refuse to lose either.
Every team we come up against wants it more. Fulham wanted it more. Just like Brighton did. And Everton. And Burnley. And loads of other teams that have beaten us. I can’t even keep track now as we’re losing all the fucking time.
It doesn’t matter who plays either, the performance is exactly the same regardless of personnel. You can bring in Shaq or Origi up top, Neco at full back or Keita or Ox in midfield, what does it matter? None of them are doing any better than the first choice players they’re replacing, who themselves aren’t delivering. It’s all fucked now and I don’t know how we get out of this. The hole seems too deep.
Klopp doesn’t know how to get us out of it. I said that the other night but it’s just becoming more and more obvious. He just stands there, watching in stunned silence. Occasionally there’s a rueful smile when we miss a rare chance or a decision goes against us, but he was actually angrier when we were good. There are no bollockings, no calling players out publicly, he’s just backing them 100% nd taking all the blame himself.
Not that I’m holding that against him. Who knows what his mental state is right now after what he’s had to deal with. I’d like to see him take the fucking stick to the players instead of feeding them carrots all the time, but he must have his reasons.
Some of this mess is on him but most of it is on the players. They were top at Christmas but now look at them? There’s just no way that can be pinned on Klopp. He might be unable to fix it but I’m not going to say he’s the one that broke it because he isn’t. The players’ toothless performances and general lack of fight in the face of adversity did that.
And you know, I’m getting sick of hearing about how the lack of centre halves is the cause of this. Nah, it just fucking isn’t. We’re letting in one goal a game but somehow that’s enough for us to always lose. It shouldn’t be, but it is. Remember the days pre-Virgil when if we conceded three we’d go and score four? Now it takes three months to score four goals.
The lads at the back have been pretty fucking heroic all things considered. Even in this game you’ve got Rhys and Nat doing a fucking stellar job. They aren’t top class players but we can’t ask for any more than we got from them. Before that we’ve had Hendo and Fab sacrificing themselves for the good of the team and defensively we’ve been mostly ok.
Frankly it’s insulting to reference the absence of the centre backs as any kind of justification for this defeat and several of the others for that matter. Rhys and Nat were fine. You can win with them playing the way they played.
Can we say the same about everyone else? Can we fuck. Only Alisson gets a pass because he had no chance on the goal and didn’t really have anything else to do. Everyone else was varying degrees of dogshit. Again.
Not only do we not score anymore, we usually don’t create much either. One or two good chances a game maybe, if we’re lucky. In this one we had a header from Mané that hit the woodwork and a volley from Jota that was saved. What else did we have? Not much.
We can’t even blame the refs. Kevin Friend was fine other than continually allowing their keeper to waste time on every goal kick. The keeper would bring the centre backs all the way back to the six yard box as though he was going short, then we’d line the edge of the box and he’d then be like “no no no can’t risk it” and send them upfield. And each time it took around 45 seconds minimum to take it.
He was clever though as occasionally he would take it short which kept the ref sweet. It was irrelevant because Friend could have added another 90 minutes on and we wouldn’t have scored, so I’m not using this as any kind of excuse. It was just pissing me off that he kept falling for it.
I’m now at the point where I don’t care what happens for the rest of the season. Why should I when half the team clearly doesn’t? They’ve written this season off. As soon as it became clear they were not going to retain the title they just quit mentally. They’re just wanting this over with so they can start again next season with our injured players back and fans in stadiums.
Top four is 100% not happening now, it’s patently obvious. I’ve made my peace with that. Finishing below Everton is much harder to deal with. It’s inevitable now as we’re clearly not going to win enough games to prevent that. That really hurts. At least it hurts some of us.
No doubt Firmino will be liking Richarlison’s “the City is Blue!” Instagram post complete with screenshot of the league table after the final game. The cunt. Firmino I mean, not Richarlison. Although he’s obviously a cunt too.
I'd be much more invested if we could go to the games. At least that way you feel like you can make a difference. I'd be there supporting the players and doing my bit to help them get out of the rut they're in. But we can't go to the game, we can't help them and they clearly don't have the fight in them to help themselves now.
I forgot to mention this the other night but a mate brought it up and it's very valid I think. Kovacic smashed the ball into Sadio's face as he lay on the ground and one of our players did anything about it. They left Sadio to deal with it on his own. There was a time not so long ago when that would never have happened. Remember "Don't worry Sadio, I'll get him for you". Feels like a lifetime ago.
I remember Carragher saying back when he was playing that "team spirit is always great when you're doing well. It's only when you aren't doing well that people question it". That applies perfectly right now. They aren't in it together and it wouldn't surprise me at all if they're in little groups now pointing the finger at other groups and blaming them. I have nothing to base this on other than the complete lack of unity and fight I'm seeing on the pitch.
The only silver lining to this black cloud is we’re so bad that there’s very little chance that we’ll finish in the Europa League spots, which at this point is actually some consolation to me. Fuck Thursday night football. That’s the last thing we need with our lack of depth. We’ve already ran our squad into the ground these last few years so a season without midweek football may help them get some kind of spring in their step again.
Of course the owners will use no Champions League as reason for not spending, but we spent fuck all after winning the thing so how will we tell the difference?
The players may be thinking “we can still qualify by winning the Champions League” but it’s not that simple. You can’t flick a switch from being shit to playing well enough to beat the best teams in Europe. Imagine us having to play PSG, City, Bayern etc with Big Nat and Rhys at the back and the shower of shit we’ve had masquerading as our midfield and forwards since the turn of the year. It would be ugly.
Of course for that to happen we need to overcome Leipzig this week. We’ve got a two goal lead but is anyone confident we’ll see the job through? They won’t be as bad as they were in the first game and it’s unlikely they’ll gift us two goals again. If they score early I fully expect us to collapse like a house of cards.
As for the star man…. fucking hell. I could go Rhys Williams but I’ll give it to Fabinho for his little cameo as it was the only remotely positive thing I saw all day. He looked completely re-energised at the chance to finally play in midfield again and was using those telescopic legs to get his foot in and win it back in their half. I don’t want to see him at the back again, regardless of who we need to play back there instead.
Team: Alisson; N Williams (Alexander-Arnold), Phillips, R Williams, Robertson; Wijnaldum (Mané), Milner (Fabinho), Keita; Shaqiri, Salah, Jota:
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