Hunger is the oxygen of success. Liverpool’s rise under Jurgen Klopp has been fuelled by savvy recruitment, excellent coaching and unsurpassed man management, but there’s nothing quite as tasty as the carrot that lies just out of reach.
Champions League glory? They were atoning for Kiev. Premier League assault? Nobody wants to be remembered as the best runners-up. Klopp is a masterful motivator, but anyone at Anfield who needed geeing up to take this club back to where they believed they belonged wouldn’t have lasted long anyway.
So perhaps we should have expected a post-coital slump. It happened to the best of them, after all. When Manchester United won the title in April 2001, they promptly lost their last three league fixtures against Derby County, Southampton and Tottenham and still won the league by 10 points. Like Klopp, Ferguson demanded total commitment from every player. Like Klopp, he struggled to maintain intensity without the lure of unrealised achievement.
This was less appetising than the Etihad, make no mistake, despite the eventual comfort of the victory. On Thursday, Liverpool created and squandered chances before being punished by a wonderful opponent with incentive to reprove their own worth. At Anfield on Sunday, Liverpool barely created at all. They were out-shot by an opponent who may well be playing Championship football in September.
This is not the only league win of Liverpool’s season that came in spite of their general performance – “mark of champions” and all that – but surely the first that felt so entirely pedestrian. Fair play to those in the Sky Sports Fanzone for mustering the gusto to jump from their sofa and cheer as requested.
Crossfield passes failed to reach their target or sailed over the head of a jumping red shirt. Midfielders took three or four touches when two might do. Forwards failed to control a pass or cross, that true signifier of concentration lapses. Some of the misplaced through balls were uglier than Aston Villa’s away kit. In the first 30 minutes, Liverpool possessed 70 per cent of the ball but barely enjoyed it. The shot count was 2-0 in Villa’s favour.
To Liverpool as a team, this matters not. The return of football behind closed doors always promised to provide more anti-climax than climax, exacerbated when the i in champions had been dotted and the t in nineteen crossed. Liverpool could fail to collect another league point and their domination in earning that breathing space would still merit glowing praise. Add in an empty Anfield and a short break before next season and coasting is not just forgivable but entirely expected.
But to some individuals – and to borrow Liverpool’s own hashtag – this might mean more. Klopp has played down suggestions that he will invest heavily in new players in a truncated summer transfer window, but this post-title period affords him the chance to run his eye over fringe players who still do have reason to hit full pelt.
Divock Origi ensured his cult status at Anfield with crucial goals against Everton, Barcelona and Tottenham, but he is surely the least effective back-up striker of any Big Six club. The only noticeable aspect of his 60 minutes was the new bright, white haircut. Origi loses possession too easily, often turns back when given the chance to run at a full-back and fails to find the requisite space to manufacture clear cut chances.
In midfield, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was substituted at the same time and received the most vocal of Klopp’s touchline screams. At his best Oxlade-Chamberlain recycles possession quickly and acts as the perfect Deliveroo driver of Liverpool’s counter attacks – order what you want and rely upon him to deliver it piping hot to the feet of Sadio Mane or Mohamed Salah – but this was a laboured, staccato version. No shots, no chances created, more than a quarter of his passes misplaced and five fouls committed.
It is instructive that Liverpool improved after that pair were replaced by Roberto Firmino and Jordan Henderson, and instructive too that Curtis Jones scored his first Premier League goal in the game’s dying embers. If Klopp is looking to galvanise extra competition for places as this remarkable season edges towards its close, perhaps it is his academy graduates rather than squad staples who can provide the spark.
Follow i sport on Facebook for more Liverpool news, interviews and features
More on Liverpool
- Coutinho: From world-beater at Liverpool to failure at Barça, Newcastle may be his only hope
- Liverpool’s excuse for not signing Werner is a sign of things to come
- Lessons for Liverpool: 5 dominant champions who failed to defend their crown
- Barnes exclusive: ‘Could I have played in this Liverpool team? Great players fit into any era’
- How Liverpool went from Europe’s best to waiting 30 years for another title
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3gwvpFM
Post a Comment