QUITE the achievement a 3-3 draw against top six rivals where both sides come away disappointed.
But Liverpool and Arsenal are second to none in delivering disappointment to their supporters in new and innovative ways.
Fair play to them. A Merry Christmas to them and theirs.
For Liverpool they have two massive individual errors for Arsenal’s first two goals and a catalogue of errors on the third when heads had gone. It’s shocking from Joe Gomez and whatever shocking is doubled by Simon Mignolet.
There are errors in decision making and execution all over the pitch in key moments from Liverpool. In the run in towards the break Liverpool should make it 0-2 and instead flash at too much too often. All game Sadio Mane was poor.
But that doesn’t matter. You get to win games 0-1 or 0-2. Mane gets to be poor because he gets to be absolutely brilliant. He gets to sometimes be a passenger. It’s the nature of the beast.
After Liverpool go 0-2 they needed a big five minutes. It was do or die for Arsenal. Instead The Reds have the smallest five. The tiniest five imaginable. And then it becomes a game of moments and a game of errors.
When it wasn’t a game of moments or a game of errors Liverpool showed the gulf between the two sides. Liverpool are better at football than Arsenal. They really are. Significantly so, and yet we are where we are now, disappointed and cross with our side — a side which is downright strange. There is something strange about the way we control games.
Make no mistake, Liverpool were in control of this game but this Liverpool side’s grip is never vice like. It’s the grip of a brilliant juggler, balls shifting and moving and it is never in doubt until the balls are all over the floor, a baggy trousered juggler left bereft and confused.
Liverpool go in 0-1 at the break and it should be more. When they make it 0-2 it should be more. This isn’t the territory of “he should be scoring from there, Clive,” more the dominance and chances to create chances should have led to so much more.
The point is tidy in the grand scheme of things for Liverpool. The bigger picture makes this a good result for us but it doesn’t feel that way. When, in April, we’re up the wall this is one which will return to this consciousness, a chance to steal a three-point march on Arsenal and to hurt them. Instead we have given them hope both tonight and in the bigger picture and this is a Liverpool side which distributes hope in great big spoonfuls. Hope to their rivals. Hope to sides who come to Anfield. Hope to all opponents at all times.
It has to stop. Hope has to leave the building. Too many points are being clawed back from this side. Too many sides Liverpool are far better than are getting away with it.
Liverpool are irresistible until they are too easily resisted. In control until there is chaos. Unstoppable until they stop. They remind you it is sport until you despise the fact it is sport. I loved Steve Davis. I admired Stephen Hendry. Jimmy White can fuck off.
That this is a football team with character is without dispute. They dig themselves out of their home and equalise for the love of everything holy.
Friday night football delivers a thriller. London delivers a blinder. But in this thing we have to just deliver. The better side needs to win more often. Because if they don’t everyone will tell you the table doesn’t lie come May.
It occasionally does. The scoreline does tonight. Liverpool deserve three points. They deserve no points. They don’t deserve one.
Recent Posts:
[rpfc_recent_posts_from_category meta=”true”]
Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
This is it in a bittersweet nutshell: “It has to stop. Hope has to leave the building. Too many points are being clawed back from this side. Too many sides Liverpool are far better than are getting away with it.”
Spot on
Perfectly put. Your match reports encapsulate the balance between emotion and logic as a football supporter better than any others I’ve read. Keep up the good work.
Absolutely nailed it with this one Neil.
I am still shaking my head Gomez and that first goal. What the hell was he thinking??? And then the juggler just dropped the balls, because that is what this team does. Incredible.
Is right – great juggling analogy, as though the PL will always be ready to toss you a few more balls, especially with our back 5 (when it’s not Moreno or Lovren, it’ll be Gomez or Mignolet).
We don’t ever seem to be able to ‘do one’ when it really matters – take someone out; a critical substitution; or an exquisite goal to win the game – don’t know what we lack, but it could be the competitive kill. Let’s hope not.
Maybe it’s just watching on tv, but the cohesion up front seemed to go tonight, especially from Mané (but also Coutinho) – getting a little anxious about him now. Still, a point shared down there isn’t the end of our season, far from it! Up the anxious Reds.
Nice piece. Your writing style is very well pitched Sir. More of this type of thing.
Carragher and Neville nailed it afterwards, it’s never going to change until the players change and/or the manager drastically changes the way the team plays.
It’s pointless talking about clean sheets against shite teams or teams that park the bus, as soon as a decent team has the temerity to have a go at us it’s complete panic stations, heads go.
How the fuck that game wasn’t over at 0-2 is beyond me, we should have been 5 up, they hadn’t had a shot on target yet and their fans were booing them! 5 minutes later it’s 3-2!!!
Our game management when things get a bit hairy is absolutely abject.
Thank fuck for our forwards
Spot on. Neville summed up it up honestly and succinctly. We will continually flatter to deceive defensively but as soon as we face some real quality and a sustained bit of pressure we will crumble. How many times can you say we’ve turned a corner defensively before it begins to mean nothing? If rumours are to believed as well our lord and saviour Virgil will be off to the Etihad soon enough, demonstrating once again that our failure to seize the moment and capitalise in the summer will come back to haunt us.
Carragher also put to bed this nonsense about our forwards missing too many chances. We scored three at the Emirates and in the crucial moments couldn’t control the game and let it slip away from us, once again due to individual errors from defensive personnel. How many chances do people expect us to score in games? If we converted at the rate some fans and contributors expected us to our players would be playing in the white of Madrid or at the Nou Camp. Interesting how United went to the Emirates and managed to win- it’s amazing what a good goalkeeper can do for you isn’t it? Of course there’s not many better in the league than Mignolet is there? Gomez asleep for the first, but I can forgive him. Mignolet kills us with that second, absolutely murders us. No excuses.
I always loved Jimmy White. Until I saw an interview with him recently where he said he still had the chance to win the world title. Then I felt sad.
I’m not sure we do deserve a win actually.
Sure, we were and are better than them, but we didn’t bury them when we had them all over the place. You don’t go for scissor kicks into open goals, your legs can’t turn to jelly when all you’ve to do is square it for an open goal and you don’t totally miss the ball when it’s squared to you. You don’t get to do these things and deserve to win.
The moment Sanchez scores every single Liverpool fan alive or dead knew they’d at least equalise. Wouldn’t you know it, 13 seconds later they were ahead. It was boring. I don’t like the surprised sounding voices of the commentators. It’s what we do. Gomez completely falls asleep for Sanchez’s goal, Mignolet has chocolate wrists for their second and their third can just fuck off.
It was a night I could not enjoy. Not a single second of it. We were just brilliant for so much of it. Seriously brilliant. This Liverpool side takes the piss out of teams on their own ground but then seems surprised when the home team doesn’t really like it and tries to respond. I hate games like tonight. I know it’s been a ‘great game for the neutral’ (copyright Sky Sports) but I hated it.
Anyway, we dug ourselves out of it. Yes, dug ourselves out of a hole we had originally dug for Arsenal before forgetting to fucking well put them in it.
What a brilliant, horrible, exciting, dreadful game it was.
This is my favorite comment of the day. Even rivals Neil’s for artistic merit and pure brilliance. Thumbs up.
I thank you. It came from the depths of my despair.
Having looked back at things with a slightly clearer head, I suppose it is possible to be somewhat pleased with a draw at the Emirates. It’s not a place we’ve traditionally enjoyed going to. I just wish we hadn’t been so superior. If you’re going to draw it’s actually easier to stomach if you’ve been the inferior side.
The high these Reds take you on is just the ultimate high, but fuck me the lows!!! Up the away from home goal scoring Reds.
A draw before KO? I’d have taken that away from home. Score 3 away from home and still don’t win? Not excusable. We were by FAR the better team for the majority. Arsenal looked scared. Wenger went defensive? But how many fucking times are we gonna score 3 and not win? Not good enough Reds. Again. Not. Good. Enough. ☹
Throughout this season and in fact throughout Klopp’s tenure, we all seem to be reluctant to call out the elephant in the room. This is a side blessed with incredible ability. Going forward we are on a par with, or perhaps only just shy of, one of the best sides I’ve seen in English football in my 30 or so years of being really engaged with the game. But we are mentally fragile, to the point where it is almost self fulfilling. We can talk about their level of professionalism, talent and the mental profiling that is undertaken all we like but this season it’s been abundantly clear that we don’t have the mental strength and clarity at the points we really need it. A big 5 after we score to go 0-2? Of course. But in that 5 we capitulate. Having bossed the game for 50 mins we go into a 10 mins period where we lose all of our identity in the game. Individual errors are the symptom. The cause is much deeper. Character to come back, yes. But at the point where we needed clarity, focus and understanding, we had none. Again. I’m sick of it.
“Mane gets to be poor because he gets to be absolutely brilliant. He gets to sometimes be a passenger. It’s the nature of the beast.”
— Neil this sounds more like an excuse, and not a pass for Mane. The guy was clearly off the mark even before the acrobatic bullshit. Klopp I am convinced is at times off his medication and doesn’t know when to really sub the player that is truly not at his best.
“That this is a football team with character is without dispute. They dig themselves out of their home and equalise for the love of everything holy.”
— Again sounds like another excuse. What character are you on about? After going 2-0 up and then bottling it in a span of 4 minutes I guess is character for you because we drw a game which we could have won. Mind you, it was a lucky equalizer that for some reason Cech didn’t save it well. Even Salah’s goal was a lucky goal otherwise it was headed straight into his hands.
Why oh why do we have players that run like fucking ballerinas, and don’t know how to shoot with their other foot??!? Fucking hell we had Arsenal, like Everton by the fucking throat. What do we do, we play Santa Claus instead.
Salah is wasteful. One minute he is a God-send with his fantastic speed and footwork and posing to shoot like the legends we know, the next minute he is like a kid with all the talent in the world and doesn’t know what to do with it at the park and looks pedestrian.
So did we really deserve a point. In the context of how Arsenal played, then maybe. For me we should have won.
And yet again Klopp demonstrates his tactical ability by bringing on Winaldum because he finally realized Mane was off the boil. Genius! And who was that who came on in the dying minutes to bring us glorious victory?!?! Oh yeah the Ox. Fucking classless Arsenal fans. The guys played for 6 years and did his best, yet he is given this reception, and worse, not given enough time to really pay back those Arsenal fans for their warm reception.
Anyways it was a great comedy to say the least once they started scoring. Really enjoyed the match overall, mostly due to the Monty Python Circus never failing to entertain when it really matters. Klopp is the German John Cleese on the sidelines.
Soooo…the mighty Burnley might overtake us next week in the table should they triumph. I’ll just have to wait until Feb or March to see the table for it is then.
Hoping the Spurs/Burnley, United, City and Chelsea lose their respective games, but whenever we have a result like this and chance to catch up, the rest win and so, on it goes.
On the brighter side, Christmas is around the corner. Hope everyone has a nice one.
Cheers!
Nothing merry in that post. Just a lot of bitterness and some over the top ‘analysis’. Understandable but a bit uncalled for to have a go at Neil. It isn’t his fault.
Wasn’t having a go at Neil but responding to his opinions in his writing.
And if you’re looking for Merry comments I suggest you go read some Hallmark cards.
@sharpman just reread my post to you. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to be a schmuck.
I hope you have a really good Christmas.
Fair play on coming round! Everyone gets grumpy when we don’t win!
@Sash. It’s all cool. Have a brilliant one yourself.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Klopp summed up really well in saying that we usually don’t make three individual errors in a match, definitely not in five minutes (leading to three goals).
Stay positive. And let’s hope for a better 2018. We are better than the points and the table reflect.
Trying to stay positive, but this chucking away nailed on wins has happened too many times now. There is a fundamental flaw in the team psyche and/or set up. We just can’t seem to recognise an intense spell, take the sting out of the opposition and close ranks to protect the lead. Before we know it the opposition are either level or, as last night, in the lead in a flash.
Understood your point. I was away from TV for three minutes right after Salah scored our 2nd goal, and it was 2-2 by the time I got back.
Possibly it’s more psychological? Concentration? Game management?
At 2-1 and 2-2, some of our players seemed a be shell shocked, to be honest. I am sure Gomez will learn from it. (Clyne has made similar mistakes before too in red shirt). I am sure Robertson will also learn from it. Can seems to have given up the fight and dropped his shoulder/chin whatever after Arsenal equaliser. At the current form, I rate Gini higher than Can for his more reliable/stable display especially in ball possession and seem to better compliment Hendo.
Positive thing is we have 19 more matches to go and opportunity to turn the 8 draws into wins!!!
If Carra and Neville are so adamant about Mignolet, you would think his team-mates are too. Surely there is no way back for him now.
The second goal was an obvious error, but then Neville on sky highlighted the third as well. A lovely finish from Ozil but Mignolet is diving before he’s even kicked the ball- terrible goalkeeping and not something a quality keeper would ever do. Debate is over. Either Klopp goes with Karius or he goes for someone else entirely in the future transfer windows.
Then again, didn’t we all say Lovren had no way back after Spurs? Let’s see what happens in the transfer window for the truth on what Klopp thinks of these players and how redeemable they are.
Hope Danny Ward is given a chance too.
Who’s Danny Ward? ;)
Actually think the 3rd was almost as poor as the 2nd. Why did he need to commit so early making Ozil’s mind up for him instead of standing up?
I’ve had it with him. I’d like to see Ward or Karius given a run now.
Fantastic piece Neil – wonderfully written and nailed it on several levels and issues. I will be stealing the juggler analogy.
“A baggy trousered juggler left bereft and confused.”
Happy xmas Neil
5 years Mignolet’s had, and in those 5 years he’s continually our weakest link. It’s been glaringly obvious since his first season he’s not good enough for Liverpool Football Club. He spreads fear and doubt throughout the defence and while he’s our keeper we’ll continue to struggle. We deserve better, our forwards deserve better. This will only stop when he’s replaced with a real top quality keeper.
Not.Ruthless.Enough.
If I’m not mistaken, Jan Oblak’s release clause is 100 million euros. That’s probably the only solution I can see to ending the cycle of Mignolet doing relatively fine for 6-week stretches before throwing in a howler and reminding everyone how he used to throw one in with greater regularity.
I think the plan was always to buy another ‘keeper next summer, and sell Mignolet soon after. I feel that Klopp has been preparing Karius for the league in the way he’s managed him after last season’s experiment, but I think it’s fair that we’re all nervous about him taking over as No. 1 and no one knows what to expect. Spending 100 million might be the only way the recruitment people get it right.
Got to stop being loyal to players who keep letting him and fans down
I’m going to apologise in advance for the repetitive nature or things I and others have said previously in this post.
As always Neil, I’m in awe of your ability to produce such insightful, coherent and structured pieces so soon after a match. I usually have to have a night’s sleep to compose my own thoughts.
In the grand scheme of things a point away at Arsenal is something we could accept pre match. But like the capitulations against Chelsea and Sevilla it feels like a loss. Which is mad because we actually clawed back a point- from the 3 we had in the bag. As Dan says earlier we dug ourselves out of the hole we forgot to put Arsenal in.
Our heads are melted. Again.
We were the better team. Again.
Not by a fraction but considerably. Again.
Individual error(s) with match changing consequences. Again.
Heads falling off and a lead squandered. Again.
Lack of composure under pressure. Again.
Lack of leadership on the pitch. Again.
Frustrated fans doubting players ability and long term suitability. Again.
Fans questioning our manager’s faith in players. Again.
It’s Deja Vu all over again.
I personally think we have been better than every single side we have faced this season. Yes, City and Spurs included. We’ve all done the post mortems and rationality of those two.
What are we to think?
That Klopp is a charismatic clown who has too much faith in his players?
That he has no tactical nous?
That he has no ability to be ruthless?Do we accept that this is very much a work in progress?
That Klopp is actually accomplishing what Rodgers described as fixing the plane while it’s flying?
That a manager who was lauded for not being a cheque book manager is still trying to coach solutions rather than purchase them and needs to do a U- turn?
I don’t fucking know.
I do think that we need upgrades in goal and at centre back ( although neither Deggsy or the Klav were bad tonight- Deggsy’s inability to pass 10 feet apart).
I do think we are far too fragile when a goal is conceded.
I think that this is the opportunity Karius has been waiting for. JoGo is young, will have an error or two while becoming the top notch defender we all want him to be and thus will be forgiven but like Skrtel before him, Big Si is always at the scene of the crime.
I think yet again that we need a gnarly, utterly ruthless, Souness-lite character in midfield. There is no personification of indomitability any where in midfield.
I’m not sure if Hendo would have been able to get the team’s heads to stay attached even if he was on the pitch.
I think that Klopp knows what he is doing. I think he’s trying to forge this squad into an unstoppable behemoth of a team.
But I think that he is hamstringing himself by a refusal to give up on the human beings he works with on a daily basis. A reluctance to throw anyone under the bus. But.
I think that no matter how decent, how sound, some of our players are – they are not of the ability we require.
I think the interminable duration since our last league title weighs far more heavily on our collective fan psyche than our manager’s.
It clouds our thoughts, it colours our perspective, it’s a King Kong shaped monkey on our backs. It makes heavy weather of every setback.
And we need to be believers not doubters. Again.
Up the Reds!!
Excellent.
I expect no data nor statistics to back this up. But I could obviously notice that this team is definitely better than 2016-17 team. More exciting going forward. More team work. And much better bench. As you have rightly pointed out, we all could feel disappointed with the draws (maybe except the West Brom game) because we could and should have won all of them instead.
That’s how close we are. Just add another 10% to this. Probably add a better CB (Klopp wanted to) and maybe a proper keeper, and we will be seriously challenging. For this season, I strongly believe that we will overtake MU and Chelsea.
Let’s take pride that all other teams fear us this season. Let’s continue to believe in what Klopp is building here.
Your post is deja vu in some ways.
But you and others like Amy might be right in that we are a few experienced players away from having a rounded team that can grind out wins when needed.
For now it’s just the way it is with these players and in turn with Klopp.
My main frustration is with his timing of subs and sometimes his subs and the team’s inability to finish the job under pressure, in this instance the opponent and their home ground support.
Good review Neil. I can’t help but feel though that even if we’d won that game the balance of the team seemed off – I’m not convinced that playing all four of the “fab four” is better than playing only 3 of them, and I wouldn’t mind if Salah is on the bench next match to see if that solves Mane’s problem. I’d always play Firmino though. And as others have mentioned (and Carragher and Neville yesterday) the players and manager need to find a way to slow the match down especially when the crowd becomes overwhelming. It’s not the first time it’s happened and it can’t be that hard to fix.
I’m a pensioner been a red all my life seen all the ups and downs. In
this present team Gomez is not a right back ! plays at every level for England at centre half why not for the reds with matip ? found a diamond in Trent can go with Moreno or Robertson. got to go with karios or ward who has premiere experience with Huddersfield ,stable back five and see were that takes us
midfield hendo whinny llalana up front takes care of its self
got to forget magician an can there gone in jan or summer
also we’ve got naby and maybe van dyke in summer
Merry Christmas to the greatest supporters of Football. Maybe exaggeration on a bottle of Christmas Eve wine but without you guys there’s no fun or LFC!!!
I hope you have a really good year in 2018 and more.
Up the Reds!!!