SATURDAY night comes creeping. Saturday night comes weeping and sore.
Something hits me more than anything else as I ambled out of Anfield tonight:
Liverpool have only progressed to the fifth round of the FA Cup four times since winning it in 2006.
Tonight is my nadir, my January 2016 v Wolves and Monday night v Swansea combined in one agonising encounter. It’s my Coventry ’98. Darren Huckerby legging Dom Matteo all around Anfield and selling a sobering truth to my 10-year-old liberated soul. It makes me feel old, long in the tooth, in an unwanted position of now mythicising six glorious trips to Cardiff spanning back not 20 years ago but feeling a whole lot longer.
If this Liverpool manager wants to tell me I need to enjoy life a bit more and “be cool” then I’m fine with that advice, I welcome it in fact, but I’d really love to lift a silver thing and be drenched in Cava every once in a while. Honestly, it would do wonders for my complexion in these harsh winters Jürgen, mate.
The harsh reality of all of this though is that there is a separation of fans who feel this gulf now, who constantly have to defend the antics of yesteryear without ever actually living and embodying the notion that this football club exists to win trophies. They need and deserve a body of evidence of their own to reference as much as anyone. They need to to be able bellow with belief that Liverpool FC are by far the greatest team the world has ever seen.
It feels like tonight was one which broke ground in many ways. It feels like we’ve all witnessed something tonight. The beginning of 7.45pm kick offs on a Saturday evening feels a lot like a thing to come. I loved it; enough time to weed out the daily weekend chores and still arrive in town with more than enough drink and and social time.
Add to that the hugely favourable first big controversy surrounding a VAR system which, ultimately, ensured the boys in red didn’t go into the break 1-4 down and saw what felt like a game-changing opportunity to get back in the game through a Roberto Firmino penalty squandered.
VAR feels really bemired at present. It’s in its teething phase, yet you feel it has too many grey areas. What is appealable and what isn’t? The time taken out the game and who that ultimately advantages? The fact there was a measly four minutes added time after three goals, two substitutions and two potentially game-changing decisions feels hugely inconsistent.
Yet, in all of what felt like a somewhat innovative night in Anfield, the same old scripted home truths came home to roost.
This Liverpool side need to address an issue. For all that Swansea and tonight can be cast as just “one of them”, the problem that remains is that neither opposition are crawling off the pitch. Neither back four are having to be carried to the team coach. Onlooking neutrals aren’t looking at that 90 minutes knowing they’ve witnessed something completely freakish and highly unlikely to happen again.
This is my biggest worry. I want this Liverpool side to be serious. To hold true all of the notions that this type of thing doesn’t happen twice on the bounce, yet when you look around tonight there is nothing to alleviate this in any form.
Liverpool go from hungry and tenacious to rash and ill-considered within a millisecond. There is not enough grace given to the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold who has an off night but walks off without one arm around his shoulder throughout the whole game.
It feels like these Reds need some kind of break glass in games like this from the first whistle. Yes, being able to concentrate and hold onto an advantage helps, but if we’re going to be mad, then be the absolute maddest version of yourself without having two players in Gini Wijnaldum and Emre Can seemingly ghosting in and out of possession and sitting 10 yards in front of two centre backs who have all the ball they ever want and need in a game of football.
Liverpool rally in the second half without ever really battening down the hatches. The substitutions from Jürgen Klopp emphasised the first-half midfield shortcomings, with the introduction of a more diamond-shaped system with Jordan Henderson at the base providing more structure.
Yet Liverpool couldn’t disengage from basically acting as crossing practice for Ben Foster in a game where you feel that no one who passed the ball in red asked a question. Nobody put the ball in a place where they thought their teammate should be, instead giving them something akin to saying “see what you can do with that”.
This side need to get back to trusting each other. They need to rid themselves of this rigidity they’ve adopted in the past week. This isn’t about players leaving or coming in, it’s not an argument of solid versus liberated, it’s about doing what needs to be done against the opposition in front of you at any one time. It’s not as black and white as it’s being made out, this side need to get back to believing they’re better than the team currently running away with this league, and they need to do it quickly.
West Brom love Anfield, we seem to be the place that makes Alan Pardew able to live out all of his braggadocio, with all the discomfort and vexation that comes with it. Gareth Barry is able to resemble Andres Iniesta’s second coming. They fucking love this place, and we do nothing to make them hate it.
We get the chance to bounce back in three day’s time. These games now look increasingly complex and devoid of the concept of setback. These lads need to remember how and why they should be winning games of football again. They’re more then good enough to ensure another trophy-less season can meet the minimum required target for us to invest for another year.
This hurt doesn’t go away. With each year that passes the need to see the name of Liverpool Football Club married with the term “winners” yearns evermore. We need to feel this as part of our DNA, it’s what makes us what we are, it’s what makes us pedigreed victors and generally brilliant people.
We’ve all witnessed something tonight. Saturday night’s alright with me, but these Reds currently aren’t. Sort it out fast.
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Liverpool 2 West Bromwich Albion 3: The Post Match Show@johngibbonsblog @PaulSenior1 @C_Hannan7 @steve_graves https://t.co/pB3aC6o8qf pic.twitter.com/TgJHa1jqGG— The Anfield Wrap (@TheAnfieldWrap) 27 January 2018
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Tee hee
I saw the squad and it looked strong but then I saw Moreno at left back and I felt scared.
For some reason some red fans have said he played well this season. I never did.
The simple fact is that in the premier league and in Europe and in any game, your weaknesses will be exposed. Maybe not today or tomorrow. But those weaknesses will betray you in the end.
Any Liverpool fan can tell you about LB and GK. Klopp has taken the confidence out of Simon Migs and he looked a pale ghost out there. Zero confidence. Moreno is not even the fourth or fifth LB in the squad. Gomez, Milner, Robertson and Clyne are all better at LB.
Mighty Liverpool lose to the bottom two teams in the table after defeating the unstoppable Man City.
Hopefully this blip won’t last any longer.
Tee hee. The joke’s on me.
Something has happened over the last couple of weeks …
Since coming back from the long free week after the city game there is a fog hanging over the club … extending from the supporters onto the pitch.
Soon as Phil left I felt uneasy … simply because I KNEW the men in charge would not sign anyone after VVD unless things crashed and we had to.
We’ve switched from a team who were envied across Europe to a team that looks like a bad joke …
Phil was only one man … but his leaving is MORE than just the loss of his physical presence …. It’s the loss of strength showed in the summer. The loss of riches to rotate up front … perhaps even the loss of belief from the players that we are a team that is serious about competing.
We lost plenty of games WITH Phil … but the emergence of the “fab four” suddenly saw us go on that impressive unbeaten run … sometimes you can’t put a price on just having a good vibe about something. That goes for fans and players.
His sale has basically slapped us back down, cowering in a corner as we learn to know our place again.
I’ve unsubbed from the Anfield Wrap today not because of comments around today’s game but mainly because I’ve felt a growing sense of unease around the commentary and perspective pervayed by the site in recent weeks. Way too much hyperbole and an increasing level of entitlement around where we should be and what we should be achieving, in the context, for me, of the best manager we could currently wish for, both in terms of developing the club in terms of the (stacked) odds that we face but also the most genuine football loving, honest and insightful person that we could hope to have in that role. I’ve supported the club for 40+ years now and appreciate the desire for success but the way in which the club is being denigrated here, in a tabloid short-term termist perspective, no longer accords with how I see things. I accept the argument that we should be a broad church in accepting differences of opinion but the continual myopia being demonstrated here is too much for me. All the best though to Neil, whom I’ve enjoyed listening to so much over the last few years, as well as Sean and Copey on the Review, which has been the single most interesting and informative football podcast I’ve had the pleasure of listening to. Bye and YNWA.
Ah well.
In other news, Katya and Meghan Markle quit Twitter. Stephen Fry standing firm, for now.
“I accept there should be differences of opinion, but I’m hearing too many people express views differently to mine and I don’t accept that so I’m off. All the best to the lads who have been most like me in my thinking, the rest can do one – how dare they be so short termist; it’s not like LFC have gone years and years without winning a major trophy. Oh wait.”
In 13/14, we beat City and it left us so exhilarated that we were drained for weeks. Chelsea and Palace were waking nightmares where we were left frozen in place, helpless to watch as the horrors we dreaded slowly unfolded into reality like slow, torturous clockwork.
This time around, the wounds are not nearly so deep, simply because we feel the numb of repetition. The players have made us dream, as we walked out beyond the precipice like Wile E. Coyote, hovering for a moment as our circumstance becomes clear, and then proceeding to hurtle down to the jagged rocks of reality, the dream once again deferred.
One less trophy to weigh us down, the road becomes clearer. We had an impressive unbeaten run, but few of us expect to get down the road without bruises, and there is no sense that we will meet the end of that road. We still have a fighting chance at glory, and a chance to earn the right to get back on the road next season.
But damn if the life of the road isn’t a hard one. YNWA
Last season too. We beat Man City in the final game of 2016 and then went on a horrible run of results all through January.
I have nothing to say other than, this burns, because I can’t fucking stand that twat Alan Pardew.
At least Rafa understood the value of the FA Cup after one bad result at Burnley. Klopp hasn’t. In fact he hasn’t handled January’s at all well since he’s been here.
Fat lot of good the rotation’s and the holidays to Dubai have done us. Out of the Cup for the third season running in the 4th round after losing to the bottom club last week.
I STILL don’t understand why Dalglish was sacked after winning a trophy and I never will. Every other manager since gets years and still wins fuck all!
The King stood up to them and told them the Liverpool way was to win trophies and he also told them to shove their money ball ideas where the sun doesn’t shine there were scared of Anfield so they pulled him over to Boston and told him “you are fired” for wining a shit trophy and not moneyballing all managers since have not been footballing but moneyballing didn’t Klopp moneyball brilliantly by taking £8M and selling it for £145M that’s your trophy won right there Chris
Kenny won 19 points from his final 18 league games in charge. Not to mention the state of the players he bought & that it was clear the game had passed him by after spending years and years out of management. Conpletely right to sack him.
Like it or not, the league cup isn’t important in the modern game, & the FA Cup is much diminished. It’s all about getting into & competing in the champions league. That’s where the money is, that’s when top players will want to join. Imagine saying to Lemar in the summer “listen lad, I know we aren’t in the champions league & we’ll be playing Dundalk FC on Thursday nights, but we won the league cup so come and join!” His agent would rightly laugh us out of the room.
Fans don’t like it because football was always about & is supposed to be about winning things, and it still is to some extent – but in 2018 only two trophies really matter; League & CL. After that, the best achievement is top 4, not finishing 8th & winning the milk cup.
That’s just a fact. You don’t have to like it, but you have to acknowledge it.
The facts are that King Kenny won a cup call it whatever you like but you must start from somewhere he was also within a whisker of a bad ref call to win the FA cup another shit cup as you say but another fact is Klopp has won nothing since he came we were in two finals where we played exactly like yesterday but he is being given a chance to turn it around last season we scrapped 4th this season it will be cliff hanger as usual but not a single hint of pressure from the owners and the FACT IS Klopp is dancing to all their musical dreams of moneyball which is more than the league CL and 4th spot combined please deduct £8M from £145M and see what you get now I’ve got another one for you deduct £35M from £200M King Kenny is old school from Shankly through Paisley and feared no one and schooled them as such. He got no support from them because in their eyes he was the fans favourite so once the going got a bit tough they were quick to shove him aside Klopp must do better than fourth and that is a FACT.
“within a whisker of winning the FA Cup”
When you have to resort to outright lies to conjure up an argument, that should let you know the weakness of your position.
We are in a far better place under Klopp than we ever were under Kenny. Klopp also has a record of being successful in the modern game – the last time Kenny was a success the Pope was an alter boy. If ever Klopp takes a pathetic 19 points from 18 games, he’ll be sacked. And rightly so. It’s not my fault your hero worship of Kenny prevents you from seeing things clearly.
As for the rest of your comment, it’s a mixture of conjecture and bullshit. You’ve no idea what happened with Kenny and FSG. Neither do I. But I’m not claiming I do. If FSG didn’t support Kenny, they wouldn’t have given him the job full time in the first place. Why are you overlooking that? You also don’t know if Klopp is dancing to FSG’s tune either – from where I’m sat it’s very clear Klopp is in charge of transfers and it’s his decision when we buy. Like with Van Dijk, who FSG just spent £75m on, Klopp was prepared to wait for him.
Finally, it’s ironic you are crying about Kenny getting sacked for finishing 8th, while declaring Klopp must do better than 4th. If ever something was going to get you to wise up, this realisation would be it.
The article is a bit melodramatic and emotional. I expected this.
Just seeing through my glass, half full, of whiskey that is.
Realistically we had no chance of winning anything this season. Not even with the likes of Coutinho. We knew he wanted to leave and so did the team and Klopp. So they at least got him to stay until December and contribute. We got VVD and Gallacher in.
If the transfer window has affected the team, let’s wait until it closes.
We may regain our focus and struggle through.
Klopp needs to his job and the team theirs. Today the team didn’t play well and we went out of the cup. We’re still in the CL and need to give it our best. Not expecting to win that cup either but gotta try and win that match.
Losing to Huddersfield almost seems inevitable but I remain optimistic that Klopp will sort it out. If not that game then the next.
Klopp can fuck off after the next season if he and the team repeat this and past season performances then.
I have seen the glory days and the dark days as a supporter, but I cannot keep looking at this negatively anymore. I did so with Brendan Rodgers and in the end I really felt bad for him. It’s just fucking football.
Up the Reds!!!
Yay, we signed an 18 year old left back for the reserves. After losing our most creative player. Never mind the fact that other rivals around us have strengthened their attacking options or are strongly aiming to.
Positive thinking in motion, tra LA LA LA LA
“This is my biggest worry. I want this Liverpool side to be serious. To hold true all of the notions that this type of thing doesn’t happen twice on the bounce, yet when you look around tonight there is nothing to alleviate this in any form.”
Spot on, Danny. You’ve touched on the fears that worry me.
Klopp took the FA Cup seriously this year but we still botched it. It hurts. And it’s impossible to find any positives in the last week.
Yet you found a way to avoid extreme reactions, which you no doubt feel like the rest of us, and put your finger on the angst. Well played. Great write up. We need measured commentary when all we want to do is scream and break things.
What is Pard’s result history vs Klopp? Pretty sure it’s well in the positive. For some reason he seems to be able to read Klopp.
Klopp may be Guardiolas Kryptonite, but Pards is clearly Klopps,
The Captainship band was once the mark of respect, sign that you were the boss and the beating heart of the team. Now it’s being given to any tom,dick and harry who wants to leave the club. Can does not want to play for the club, then why is he being given the band. Is LFC some sort of desperate lover who has to beg/bribe it’s players to stay. Haven’t transfers been rejected because the said players never showed commitment to the club.
The saddest part of the match was TAA. Someone, probably the CAPTAIN needed to put his arm around him, tell him it’s going to be alright, we are gonna win tonight. To me, he was probably the only player bar top-3 who was trying to create anything.
Pardews record since joining WBA is worse than Pulis. Losing to him is an insight into our weak transfer policy. We are holding on to the Coutinho cash Rather than strengthening and it will cost us.
I was fuming so I watched an episode of the detectorists and I was better .
well what a midfield display by the reds,back 5,hahahahhaahha,back to basic boys,pass and move,put a tackle in.should been 4-1 half time,we had 11 players @VAR,still got beat,come on klopp,please
For all the talk of Bobby being boss,I personally think he needs to play behind a mobile striker who threaten oppo CB with runs towards their goal.The midfield is okay high octane battles but are woeful when we require players to carry ball forward and/or find a quick forward pass.Need to replace Can and Gini with Kieta and A.N Other if were gonna progress.City have Debruyne/Silva and we badly need our own cersion of these two.Lallana is unreliable so hopefully Klopp can find another to assist Nabby in this crucial area.Our deffence is gonna take years to sort out by the looks of it.
midfield
Van Dijk is not that good
Seriously though. Don’t worry. If all else fails Stevie Gerrard will become next manager and we will win everything
I cannot take us being the side that give managers like Shakespeare, Allardyce and Pardew an excuse to think they’d be managing Real if they weren’t English.
I HATE losing to these managers more than I can articulate. We never put these sorts of managers back in their place. Remember when Allardyce came to Anfield and got sat the fuck down after ten minutes in what turned into a 5-0 rout? Thanks for coming, now fuck off. That’s what I want.
I knew we’d lose to Swansea as soon as Carvahal said they were planning to “surprise” us. I just knew that, whatever that surprise was, it would work. Then when Pardew said he was planning to be a bit more expansive I knew that’d beat us too. Everything shit managers try against us works. Everything. We are so fucking hospitable and we don’t make them earn it.
This summer I want us signing unfriendly, unaccommodating footballers. Players who are affronted at the idea of losing any game.
I just don’t get why the team can’t play consistently against all other teams. I wouldn’t mind if we were consistent and lost. Instead we just don’t look up for it It’s a coaching issue or a recruitment issue. It’s not Anfield. It’s a millionaires on the pitch getting their heads out of their arses issue.
I think Morenos being attacked unfairly. Klopp and Guardiola have similar challenges. With opposing coaches parking the bus they need to spread the opposition and occupy the back 5. The full backs are critical to that function. Moreno and Trent Alexander both have huge pace, excellent control and attacking verve. Earlier in the season Moreno doubling up with Mane down the left cause created space and options for the other players around them. You saw at Swansea what happens when we don’t have this and the attaching play got channeled down the middle, where it got too crowded. The real weakness is the lack of a decent specialist defensive midfielder. If was painful to see how easily and quickly the ball got behind Can and Gini, leaving the defense exposed.
If you accept that defending starts with the attack, rather than with the keeper, the tweak is needed there. If you accept that Sadio Mane is currently the weakest part of the attack, the tweak is needed there. I submit that the last time Sadio played truly excellently was when he was playing on the right side. So, put him on the right side. Put Mo in the middle. Drop Bobby to #10. And find someone who can be at least competent on the left. Milner was an upgrade there over Mane. Who else? Moreno, Ox, Woodburn? No one wants to mess with Salah, but unfortunately this may be what’s needed to bring Mane back online.
“Onlooking neutrals aren’t looking at that 90 minutes knowing they’ve witnessed something completely freakish and highly unlikely to happen again.” – Very valid point and what’s more damaging is that onlooking LFC players, staff and fans are thinking the same thing. The drop off since the Man City game is astounding. I was worried about our strength in depth but now our preferred first 11 are short on confidence, belief and in turn short of a willingness to attempt to do things that have served us so well for the past months. Great that we have the opportunity to play again so soon on Tuesday night but also gives little time for Klopp to make any changes not just to starting 11 or formations but to mindset.
Klopp hasn’t fixed the defense in two and a half years. He’s had five transfer windows and failed to button up the defense. He persists with the goal keeping coach Achterberg. It’s a shambles. Wonder weather the Liverpool reporters from Goal.com and The Echco have the courage to call Klopp out on his inability to bring normalcy to our bang awful defense.