The game last night was there to be won after we scored the equaliser, we had the wind at our backs, Anfield roaring us on, Manchester United were camped deep in their half. We switched off for the goal, it was horrible to concede having Maguire and his mates free at the back post, it was a certainty of a goal, not sure how on earth that happened.
Still we shouldn’t have been in that position, the passivity of our play in the first half of games is really affecting us, we can’t keep throwing away the first 45 minutes and then having to chase the game after letting in an unfortunate goal, how many times are we going to see the same thing happen?
Though our build up looked better in parts yesterday at others we still looked hopeless – kerkez is not allowed to carry, konate is always standing on the ball with no idea where to go because he has nobody to pass to besides grav, and grav has no idea what to do when he is given space because everybody else is too far away from him upfield and the opposition have retreated deep into a low block.
The amount of times we launch the ball up the field because we aren’t passing through the lines is quite ridiculous, many of our best chances were through winning balls in chaotic situations that were frankly fortuitous breaks rather than organised and coordinated movements.
The worst thing really is that United weren’t even good, they were actually pretty damn poor, just like Chelsea were against us, we just concede stupid goals, look lost a lot of the time passing out from the back and moving through the lines, and mess up chances that players of our quality should put away 9 times out of 10. The Mo of last year would have ended that game with at least one assist and two goals, Cody should have scored at least two.
I have every confidence still that Slot can turn it around, but there are so many problems right now that the scale of the job he has to do, and quickly, is quite formidable.
Whatever happens, Macca cannot start a game right now, he is offering absolutely nothing on either side of the ball, Wirtz came on and was linking the play immediately.
Put Dom next to grav and keep Wirtz in the 10, he needs as much time there as we can give him. As much criticism as he gets there is no doubt in my mind that he is learning with every game, he is creative and decisive, even in the absolute mess of a formation we had at the end of the game last night he was playing some crisp passes to feet and one ball into the box that was a hair away from being an excellent delivery. He needs more time to be able to do those things.
Isak cannot start, he’s running like he’s 10 years older than he is and he isn’t pressing anything like a Liverpool 9 should yet. We are seeing the worst version of Isak at Newcastle, where he would look languid, disaffected and on the fringes of the game, a lot of that has to do with fitness and lack of adaptation to our system, but he can’t lead the line for us in this state. Either start Robbo, who is a much better fit for what slot currently wants to do with his fullbacks, or stop shackling Kerkez, the lad looks absolutely lost in our build up and unsure of what to do with the ball at his feet and space to attack, it’s like we bought the player and don’t trust him to play his game.
While I think there were glimmers of positivity in yesterday’s game, though few and far between, the reality is that we look like our approach is to beat the other team because we have superior players at the moment. On another day, that could very well have worked. But it makes it that much harder when your players who are actually in form, like jones, Chiesa and Ekitike, aren’t on the field, we have to carry two non-pressing forwards and one midfielder lacking match fitness for the first hour, all while throwing the first 45 minutes away with our customary first half caution and passivity.
I’d like to think that ‘winning games through the sheer quality of our players rather than tactical and systematic superiority’ wasn’t actually the grand master plan in the summer window, I truly hope that it wasn’t. Slot has to prove to us that there is a more sophisticated vision in play.