ANFIELD — This is Anfield, just not as we know it. This ground, before, after and during its extensive redevelopment, has enjoyed afternoons and evenings on which you knew you were witnessing history and folklore being written.
This was not one of those days. As one elderly gentleman filed past the press box, he admitted to a steward that the bitter cold was not his only reason for early departure, more a handy excuse.
Last season, Chelsea and Liverpool finished the Premier League’s top three. As they prepared to meet in Merseyside’s bitterly cold January wind, little warmth from their form. Liverpool and Chelsea was ninth vs 10th.
In 2019-20, that fixture was Burnley vs Sheffield United. Whether it be transition, atrophy or turmoil, these are strange, disconcerting days. Burnley and Sheffield United supporters may remark that their fixtures were never as bad as this.
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'Good is not good enough': Erik ten Hag's motto is central to Man Utd's quest for silverware21 January, 2023Watching Liverpool used to be fun. Win or lose, there was joy in the experience as risks were taken and endeavour burst out of every pore. That is the great shame of this season. Not the dropped points or missed opportunities, but the loss of alluring innocence in Liverpool’s football. They have no contractual obligation to entertain, but you at least used to believe in its possibility.
There are hallmarks of decline everywhere you care to look. After 15 minutes, Andrew Robertson stood over a throw-in close to the halfway line. For 15 or 20 seconds, he scanned around for options and found none. Red-shirted figures were moving but never quite fully offering themselves to receive the ball. At which point Robertson attempted a long throw that went straight to Kai Havertz.
In defence, enough panic to suggest that centre-backs were playing in an isolated patch of ice. Joe Gomez dithered and dallied; Ibrahima Konate and Alisson seemed intent on playing without verbal communication.
It manifested itself best from set-piece situations, when Chelsea players found inexplicable gaps but were unable to capitalise. Blushes were spared by a VAR intervention after less than two minutes. Virgil van Dijk’s absence offers only a part explanation.
We move further up the pitch (although Liverpool were often unable to). What happened more often: a pass played straight into touch, a player taking four touches when two might have done or Cody Gakpo shooting over the bar from a presentable position?
All provoked an identical audial response, groans followed by an urge to do better. This stadium used to be soundtracked by heady cheers. Now they sigh as James Milner tries and tries but usually ends up delivering a hopeful cross into the box for nobody to meet.
Gakpo is an interesting case, given he is Liverpool’s only new signing of this window. We are used to insisting patience in players while they learn the exacting demands of a new league and team culture, but it was alarming to see how easily, and regularly, he was harried off the ball. Gakpo has a window before Liverpool’s missing attackers get fit; he has work to do.
Liverpool did not lose the match, even if that feels like cheap consolation. Chelsea created the better chances, particularly after Mykhailo Mudryk’s introduction, but they played their part in the gloomy fare and the haphazard passing. Watching Graham Potter’s team is still to see a compartmentalised collection of parts. For periods of the match, they were just as frustrating as Liverpool.
Twinkle toes
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) January 21, 2023
Terrific quick feet in the box from Chelsea debutant Mykhailo Mudryk who just misses the target! pic.twitter.com/kARRNHB94B
But is that any wonder? On the back of Liverpool’s matchday programme, written in small, capitalised grey letters underneath the names of Chelsea’s players, were six words: “Squads correct at time of print.” As inadvertent digs at Todd Boehly’s scattergun transfer approach goes, it was a doozy.
You can see the point, intended or otherwise. Chelsea have spent £440m since the beginning of the summer and completed six signings in the last three weeks, yet Graham Potter’s team is a mishmash of conflicting ideals and strategies. Potter had already warned that his club couldn’t simply keep buying players without it becoming counterproductive. Cue the arrival of Noni Madueke on Friday. Chelsea’s manager could pick a team of wide attacking midfielders.
That was the overriding feeling of Saturday lunchtime’s game: disorganised hopefulness. It is not that these two clubs are not trying. It isn’t that they do not possess the individual players to concoct something fabulous. It is that these two managers, one newly arrived and one managing the 1,000th match of his career, are out to prove that they can take their clubs into a new era.
Those sorts of plans are best made in private, but that is not an option in football. Chelsea are battling after an alternative future under new ownership, a sea of change. Liverpool are battling for what has quickly been lost on the wind, grasping at their recent history as supporters fear it may be drifting out of reach. Neither are pretty to watch.
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