Liverpool FC Week 2 Review – Early Disappointment Reigns
We are barely two games into the season and Liverpool FC have already given fans a glimpse of things to come. Snakes and Ladders, Cops and Robbers? They’re not even close. An opening victory, financial savvy at last and then sent crashing back to earth by unfancied opposition. Plenty talking points as the season kicks off.
The Reds made their customary point of filling the fans with unrequited enthusiasm on the opening day of a new season. A well-deserved three points away to Arsenal was enough to do that. An exquisite Philippe Coutinho brace, a rare Adam Lallana goal and a peach from Sadio Mané were enough to get the hopes up. The season ahead looked bright. A big scalp to start with and surely, many more to come. The virtual capitulation late on went largely unnoticed in comparison to the result.
Then the wheels wobbled. An injury to Mané in training, his being pictured leaving training with his arm in a sling, was enough to indicate the optimism could be short-lived. Fortunately, the injury was not as bad as first thought. Jürgen Klopp hoping only the Burnley game would likely be missed. We’ll see. I’ll err on the side of caution and expect at least another two games, maybe more.
Off the pitch things looked brighter. The club sealed a suitable offer – reportedly in the Region of £32m (incl. “add-ons”) from Crystal Palace for the services of Christian Benteke. A great bit of business to recoup a not inconsiderable outlay from the season before. For once, the club is getting a fair price for their assets. Same went for Martin Skrtel and Jordan Ibe. No matter how much they were worth, just that the return is relative.
Yesterday the wheels came off with the visit to Turf Moor to face newly promoted Burnley. Surely the early form established last week would continue. A fixture one looks at, at the beginning of the season and thinks “Yes… Should be three points there…!”. How wrong could one be.
A more insepid performance I haven’t seen since the 6-0 mauling at the hands of Stoke a couple of seasons ago. This really does make you wonder which planet Klopp was on when he made his “…everything is possible…” statement. I suppose it was true in so far as it’s also certainly possible to get stuffed by Burnley in only the second game of the season.
Spot on. Klopp was noticeably shaken in his summary: “We had absolutely no luck and everybody needs to be more clinical… But our timing and decision making really was not good.” Somewhat of an understatement one fears, epitomised from Coutinho’s 14% shot accuracy on the day. persisting with his cut-in from the left followed by high, wide and not very handsome trick. Yawn…
The incessant back passes to “sweeper-keeper” Simon Mignolet to absolutely zero effect. The fruitless passing back and forth across the Burnley penalty box with no apparent clue or clear approach to break through the claret wall. The pointless taking corners “short” when there’s only 15 minutes to go – and 2-0 down, instead of just pumping it in the box. Desperate times and all that.
Before the game, Klopp spoke of the “long balls” that Liverpool needed to “be prepared for”. From the 19% possession that Burnley had, I didn’t notice too many of these long balls. Burnley however, deserve credit for a good tactical performance. Manager Sean Dyche deserves credit for setting his game plan and seeing Klopp’s approach for what it is.
Dyche commented after the game, with regards to the 80% possession that Liverpool had “…It takes concentration and focus from the players to see through that and see they’re not hurting us that much and that we will have breakaways and counters.”
In all, it’s not been a great week for Liverpool Football Club. The win at Arsenal was flattering to say the least and the result against Burnley just showed how in flexible and lacking in creativity this current team is. Klopp needs a full compliment of defenders to choose from as soon as possible. James Milner offered little more, if anything over Alberto Moreno and Dejan Lovren and Ragnar Klavan can’t be first choice on this showing.
To reiterate my target for the first five games: 10 points at LEAST. Next up come Tottenham, Leicester and then Chelsea. That will take us up to five games. Liverpool need at least seven points from these three games to remain in the hunt.
With each performance such as yesterday’s, any hope of a top-four finish diminishes. With some of this luck Klopp refers too, next week will be better.
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