Neil Atkinson’s post-match review after Liverpool 1 Newcastle United 1 in the Premier League at Anfield…
IF you don’t kill games then you get killed.
It wasn’t being killed, though. It was torturous. It was watching everything fall down around your ears yet again.
Deserve has been the word of the week and we’ve all agreed you have to deserve what you get. Liverpool deserved to win 6-1 and didn’t deserve anything by the bitter end.
Score the goals that are repeatedly there for you. Liverpool missed chances and wasted chances to create chances in both halves. They were stupidly well acquainted with the opposition penalty area. They were constantly either in or just about to be.
And they never get their second goal. I don’t need to tell you. You know.
It’s the defining factor of the game. I am all for blaming defenders or talking about individual managerial substitutions but all of it is moot if Liverpool’s marvellous players just take their chances. I wish I had more for you but I don’t. I have this over and over and over. I had this over and over against Leeds United and now I have it again.
It is astonishing how collectively bad excellent finishers managed to be in front of goal today. Every single last one of them. Even Mo Salah after his early goal still falls into the habit of missing.
I wonder about the idea of the collective, that if you have a fabulous collective who believe in one another, does it allow bad habits to flow? Does it mean that missing over and over becomes a collective thing?
Whatever is true, it is hard to dispute that Sadio Mane is basically in ribbons and all I want is for 50,000 people to sing his name for a bit. I wish he knew how much we could love him. I wish he knew it was all OK. There was a point today where he pirouetted three times, held people off, did the hardest of hard parts and then got the pass wrong.
He is all over the show and he is such a splendid person and footballer. I wonder if he has ever struggled like this before. I doubt it. He just needs to rebuild one step at a time.
Regardless, Liverpool don’t put the game to bed, Newcastle hang on in, to their credit, and then Newcastle turn the screw. The point is that they are happy with 1-0 on 85 and Liverpool can’t deal with it. We have no moves left by then, can’t anchor ourselves in their half.
None of it is good enough. It’s been a long week and it is strange to think Liverpool could win 5-0 and in the end are thankful to VAR, at least theoretically, not to lose.
We needed the release and relief of the goals. We have received neither release nor relief. Talk of points deductions; Liverpool are doing that on their own.
We’ve a weekend to get on with. No idea how.
Subscribe to The Anfield Wrap for instant reaction to all the Liverpool FC news and events that matter to you…
“With us seemingly looking fluid throughout the game, you still kind of thought this is the perfect opportunity for Newcastle!”
🗣 Liverpool 1-1 Newcastle | The Post-Match Show | #NewPodcast | #LFC
Subscribe to Listen:
👉https://t.co/oaOWcUzrlr👈 pic.twitter.com/dI9MVX4qvS— The Anfield Wrap (@TheAnfieldWrap) April 24, 2021
Recent Posts:
Klopp needs to try something new. On current form mane and firmino should not be in the team. How bad do they have to be.. Or how bad are the squad options that other players are not getting a start.. On the manager really..
First time in years that I have been left in a stinking mood after a game. First time in years that I have swore at a player (Mane. And I LOVE Mane) after missing a gilt edged chance Newcastle were shit, one of the worst visiting teams in recent memory, but still come away with a point. How can that happen?
There’s no value in labouring the point it’s obvious why we didn’t win the game. With 20 minutes to go’ like the rest of us I’m thinking this has 1-1 written all over it. Predictably they score, the goal disallowed, which is both correct and wrong at the same time….and we collectively breathe, but our players collectively choke and it is torture when we concede with the last kick.
We played well, yet apart from the point gained, it all feels a bit pointless.
Onwards
All I can think is that a game against Manchester United, a derby of epic scale; can stir in this collective group of players enough inner strength to get up to gear and meet their own high standards of play. All may not be lost just yet and we may as well go through United to try and salvage a top 4 run. May not be enough naturally but it will still be good to beat United. The offensive play between the boxes was just fine again throughout the game, just a matter of horrendous finishing; Mo’s opener aside.
We get what we deserve at the end of the day.
I’ve been saying it over and over for months and months Firmino is a busted flush. His stats are simply appalling. 6 in 42 this season. Yet he plays week in week out and is seemingly immune from criticism. I don’t understand it. It’s like playing with ten every week. TAW will never criticise ‘Bobby’. Goals simply make all the difference. Have people in the team who can take chances. The silver lining for me at not getting fourth is that we then admit it isn’t working. We need to update the squad. We have to invest.
As a fan who has supported LFC for 50 seasons I am heartbroken. I have seen many defeats, many bad performances but this season is the first season that I have ever witnessed us throw away points. Yesterday we put classed Newcastle for 80% of the game. We had chance after chance!!! Why oh why do we not mix it up why do we play out from the back, why do we play a high line and when they get in behind us don’t we close the door. How is it that the Man of the Match is substituted? This is heartbreaking and it is happening time after time why not get a second goal put the game to bed and then park the bus !!!! Having stood on a sideline watching my daughter play football her teams as amateurs played better football and found the net and defended their own net. Something has to change and the excuses have to end – we need to find our Mojo guys!!!!
Big summer for FSG coming up.
They will have to balance the COST of buying players to STRENGTHEN the squad against the very real COST of falling revenues and asset values due to lack of on field success.
This risk is heightened by the fact that I feel ARSENAL will get bought over and have a huge summer of investment!!!
I think its time that we as fans realise the team, although legends, is no longer good enough. The players are exhausted and injuries have been unimaginable, but as champions, we failed to find a solution to these problems and not only failed to compete but looking like we have dropped in performance level so much, we will be in the Europa league next year. No one predicted this, no one thought this would be possible. So what happens next? Klopp needs to sort it, despite FSG’s recent issues, they have supported him with transfers, so Klopp now needs to sort this mess out. I do not believe Klopps ethos works without a crowd, and how this team has missed the KOP. I’d love to see a genuine goal scorer come in and challenge/push Bobby on, and we definitely need something more in Midfield as Gini going, Keita being a flop and Thiago being just ok, means we are light there. From champions glory to this is such a come down, these players never got to celebrate the PL win with us, never go to hear the crowd singing their names… this cannot be underestimated as to what a psychologically damaging thing any sportsman could go through