The opening minutes of Tuesday night’s Champions League Round of 16 first leg tie against Galatasaray were at the very least promising for Liverpool, with the Reds pressing effectively high up the pitch and their opponents looking nervy and turning the ball over repeatedly in their own end.
It wasn’t what many were expecting given the reputation Galatasaray have for being difficult opponents to play away at their Istanbul home, but it was certainly promising from a Liverpool point of view. Only Liverpool didn’t
turn that early edge into anything, Galatasaray scored on their own first chance, and after that the game turned into a largely ineffective slog for Arne Slot’s Reds.
In some ways it felt an encapsulation of the season. Pressing promise giving way to stale futility. An inability to take their own chances combined with an increasingly preposterous preponderance to having their opponents convert theirs. A mystifying lack of team cohesion or defined patterns of play that emerges after a setback.
“If you come here you know it will be a tough game and if you play like this it’s not enough,” reflected midfielder Ryan Granberch following the 1-0 defeat away for the Reds at RAMS Park. “But we know it’s only the first game, we have the second game at Anfield, and we have to turn it around there.
“Sometimes we start to have the feeling also on the pitch that the luck is not with us. Especially in the first five or ten minutes tonight where I think if we scored one or two goals then it would be a much different game. But in the end we didn’t play a good game and we know that, and we know that next week it has to be much better.”
From mentality monsters two seasons ago to whatever the hell this is meant to be, it hasn’t been a fun trip for the fans—or, one imagines, anyone involved with the club—and it feels increasingly painful to try to pick through the detritus of each new disappointing result or underwhelming performance.
Almost without fail there will be an air of what if to it all the day after, as against Galatasaray and an opening ten minutes that conceivably could have seen Liverpool up. Each game will see at least a few good moments from the defending Premier League champions, moments that leave you thinking on another night or if that had gone in or if that 50:50 call had gone our way.
Yet there are only so many times it can all fall apart where that counts for very much, especially with a side that seems so mentally fragile heading into the final months of the season. A side that in March still seems to have no identifiable tactical identity, whose passing and buildup patterns remain impossible to identify.
It is only halftime of this two-legged tie, though. Galatasaray has to come to Anfield and the Reds are only down a goal on balance, even if this team and in particular this coaching staff have, a season and a half on, yet to show that they know how to channel and orchestrate the home support effectively.
“If you don’t score against them and get the first against you, with this atmosphere and these fans it will be difficult,” Gravenberch added. “Hopefully next week with our home fans we can turn it around. Next week we play at Anfield. We have a good team, have good players, but we need to work hard. They are happy now but we have to show them that we are happy next week.”
