IT happens from time to time but this very much was a frustrating afternoon for The Reds.
All over the pitch the game seemed a little tougher than it needed to be, with Liverpool either trying to play within themselves or finding the ebb and flow of the game a little bit beyond them.
The poetry — insofar as there is any — of the game is all in the opening scorer. Danny Ings is selected in an attempt to protect not only Roberto Firmino but also to have Firmino available as a sub to help protect another of the front three. Ings scores and all the weeks and months and years of recovery are distilled into the joy of that moment. He probably should win Liverpool a penalty. He probably should see Ahmed Hegazi sent off.
He probably falls short on the day. This is stupidly harsh given the above, but he doesn’t look sharp enough or fit enough. In both halves he fades starkly after the first 15 minutes. The thing is this — for all the recovery work, for everything he has given, for every shred of desire he has shown he still has a lot further to go. He still has to find match fitness and find his level. It could perhaps be with Liverpool in the role he played today but Liverpool need a 90-minute man for that role and it is hard to see the path to Ings being that man. Not impossible but difficult.
Alberto Moreno looked short of the same sharpness. He had a difficult afternoon and never quite seemed into it. It’s striking that his weaknesses through the game didn’t look like Moreno-trademark weaknesses — if anything he wasn’t impetuous enough, wasn’t ambitious enough. He was treading water.
Joe Gomez found it difficult too. You wonder how fit he actually is, Liverpool pressing him into service because of Tuesday. There was Tuesday everywhere. Tuesday in the selection, Tuesday in the songs, Tuesday in the players. It isn’t unreasonable — this is the 10th time Liverpool FC have been in the European Cup semi final. This doesn’t happen to players every year. For some it will be a once in a lifetime opportunity while this is the third time they have played West Brom this season.
Three times we’ve played them and we haven’t won. It’s staggering these are bottom, you know. For me, that’s what this piece of writing should actually be about. A long look at the staggering mismanagement that has taken place since June 2017 at The Hawthorns. This isn’t to argue that West Brom should be eighth, more the idea that they should not be 20th with a gap to 19th. They are no worse than Everton, than Huddersfield Town, than Newcastle United man for man.
They’ve got themselves into such a pickle. There was a period of time where you could argue that West Brom, Stoke City and Southampton were examples of reasonably well run clubs in England’s top flight. Look at them now.
This is the game, what the game does. It moves and it flows and it asks new questions. The river of football doesn’t always carry you along; at times it erodes. And West Brom have been an eroded side. There’s a strong argument that Alan Pardew shouldn’t be given another top-flight job which can be made around West Brom, but the error was in giving him the job in the first place. Darren Moore is currently showing what can be done. Some could argue Gary Megson would have got the side out of trouble. Regardless though, this is what happens when there is no midtable, when that has disappeared. Get two appointments and two transfers wrong and lack firepower and this could be any side not including the top six and Leicester. And even Leicester…
We showed the value of playing well for 10 minutes against these sides today, showed the value of having the firepower both on the pitch and on the bench and the value of being able to snap into demonstrating Tuesday night quality in a trice. There we go, click, click, click, Mo Salah and a second. Liverpool should see the game out from there.
Therefore, this becomes an unequivocal two dropped for Liverpool. Two dropped in general, two dropped with the way the game went and two dropped given the pressure on all of our games. Two dropped may be harsh given that we are playing in a league where a decision has been made we get no penalties, but we are where we are. These results happen at the end of the season but they need to not happen to us, not happen to us now and not happen to us next season.
But you get to drop points. It happens to a football team. It is all about how you recover, all about what happens next. It always is in football, always about the river and how you ride it.
West Brom’s river is becoming a waterfall, a horizon they will fall off. But Liverpool’s could well be golden regardless of the late equaliser.
Tuesday everywhere.
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Surprisingly angry, verging on incandescent, about that last 10 minutes. Haven’t been annoyed to the extent that the red mist descends and becomes a vortex of sheer frustration and irritation since Swansea. I really thought we had stopped those spells of abject defending and gifting opportunities to very poor sides (in my view WBA are pitifully bad but then so are a lot of other teams in what passes for the Premier League). Apparently not. Looked like the effect of just not playing with any intensity so that a few sloppy passages of play and a couple of specific individual errors that create mayhem allow a side that had barely looked sentient for much of the game to reach a position in which they could, laughably, have even won it.
Complacency and individual mistakes.
This team aint done the “challneging on two fronts thing” ever. Still got the top4 very much in our hands.
Typical Liverpool would be to be in the semis but not even have a sniff at top4 this season because of that.
We are still very much on track.
Chelsea can end their season on 75 points. We are currently on 71 points.
As our goal difference is much much higher than Chelsea’s, we only need 4 points from our remaining 3 League games.
Stoke is our biggest game now! The best XI has to be play. Roma 2nd leg is not the priority anymore.
Titus,
Respectfully disagree and think there’s a bit of overreaction here. Brighton home is a nailed on 3 points since they’ll likely be safe and we won’t have to worry about rotation. So one point between Stoke and Chelsea will do it, assuming Chelsea run the table which isn’t guaranteed.
Obv what happens Tuesday colors things, but if we’re going to Rome 1-1, fuck Stoke off and focus on Roma. If we’re carrying a 2 or 3 to nil Klopp can afford to run the same side out as today and you can basically guarantee at least a point.
I reckon the plan with Tuesday-Wesnesday Champions League was to rotate a bit for WBA then go strong against Stoke. Leaves 3 full days between Roma at home then Stoke, and 3.5 days to Roma away. Win against Stoke and basically wraps it up.
Mainly agree but thought Van Dijk did a bit better than that to be honest. Maybe that’s just him standing out because the other theee were terrible. Henderson poor as well.
A timely reminder that squad depth is still an issue. Concerned that all the ‘reserves’ looked rusty and well of match fitness but more the reminder is that we have been gifted with our front three remaining in tact and without that we would surely have struggled.
Plays the lads to get match sharp – 2 of them have been injured recently – then gets criticised for rotating.
Plays the lads and they are not match sharp- gets criticised for playing them.
Who’d be a footy manager.
A shame. Very similar game to Everton in that we never got out of 2nd gear. Difference was West Brom took advantage and scored when Everton didn’t.
Today was another example of our squad players being not quite good enough. Our first XI can beat any side at any time, but we need players in reserve who can come in when required and not look out of their depth. To win the league we need to upgrade on players such as Klavan, Moreno, Gomez, Solanke and Ings.
A bit harsh considering we were cruising to a 2 goal lead with 10 to go.
Dear Jurgen,
Have you noticed every time you bring on a third centre half to protect a lead it backfires?
Just saying…
Happened a couple times at most, not every time as overstated.