The unbeaten streak still lives, but another frustrating draw despite late heroics from Cody Gakpo hangs heavy. Fulham was of course going to be tough, as all teams will be against this Liverpool side, and the brief minute of elation after Gakpo’s winning goal was great until it was undone by Harrison Reed. The side was already set upon with losing Hugo Ekitike to a late injury concern, and fielding only one true forward in Gakpo, so there were so ideas that this would be an easy match.
Unfortunately
it all seems par for the course for this squad this season, and head coach Arne Slot gave his analysis following the match.
“I think if you are not a part of Liverpool and you don’t follow us every game then you think you win it,” Slot began.
“But unfortunately, I am experiencing this for months now that the first chance the other team gets and the only chance they got in the first half led to a goal. That’s one thing we usually see with us. The second thing we see a lot is that that the other team scores a goal you don’t expect in extra time, so this is then a surprise.”
To their credit, while the squad at times looked incredibly static rather than working to create chances, they did continue to turn the screw until Gakpo’s ultimate goal. They were more unlucky than not, but the lack of shots or big chances should still be concerning for anyone analyzing this squad and their matches.
“We showed great resilience from the start if you miss out on so many attacking options and you come here against Fulham,” the coach continued.
“They are a good team having good ideas about football and we hardly conceded a chance against them. I think they had one other chance in the second half when we maybe messed it up a little bit ourselves when they had a chip on the bar. But for the rest I think we controlled the game and yes, I would love us to create more from our ball possession.
“I can tell you this. My philosophy of football hasn’t changed this year compared to all the seasons I was a manager before. But we have to do it with the players that are available. I think today 11 very good football players were on the pitch. Maybe not all of them in their normal position. But in the first half they controlled the game and just before [Fulham] scored, we had exactly the same chance from Cody Gakpo, which went on the other side of the post. In the second half, two disallowed goals, two goals scored and a header onto the bar. So, [there] are things to like – but the result is again probably not what we deserved.”
The first half saw only four shots from Liverpool and none of those were actually on target. Anyone watching could say two things: that it was incredibly frustrating to see high level players continually miss shooting at goal, and incredibly frustrating to see high level players continually choose not to take any shots when near goal. So yes, we did create chances, but did very little to follow through on those chances, and were not supported by any other choices. The problem also was that Fulham completed the two shots they had on target.
“I don’t completely agree with you but it’s not that we had chance after chance. That’s obvious. I see a lot of football, when we went in here, I saw a game of football, hardly conceded a chance from both ends in the first half,” Slot explained.
“This is how the Premier League usually works; I think more in the second half it becomes a bit more open and there are more chances, more moments where you create chances. We’re not the exception to that. I think we had a few good moments in the first half where we were close to creating or we did create.
“I can remember a cross that Curtis Jones was close to scoring [from], I can remember a shot from Cody Gakpo deflected and a one-on-one with the goalkeeper from Cody Gakpo. I would love to create more but if you play with the amount of midfielders we played with and one attacker against a 5-4-1 of Fulham in an away game, I don’t know if you can expect then us creating chance after chance. Overall, I think we’ve created enough chances to win the game and we did very well by limiting them to maybe one, one-and-a-half chances, but the end result is still 2-2 and that’s what it is about in football.”
Unfortunately, the struggles were not helped by the late scratch of striker Hugo Ekitike. One of the bright spots in this murky water season, Ekitike traveled with the squad to London but an MRI scan revealed a minor muscle issue and he was set to sit this one out. Wirtz suffered from a similar condition last week and had his minutes managed this week, and Slot confirmed it appears to just be a price to joining the highly physical Premier League.
“Yes, [Hugo] travelled because he felt something during the training session, so he went for an MRI scan and we got the result when we were flying,” the Dutchman continued.
“We were hoping it was just a bit of DOMS [delayed onset muscle soreness], which he also had. Why? Because Alex [Isak] has been out and since Alex is out [Hugo] doesn’t play 70 minutes or 60 minutes or sometimes gets a bit of rest. He has to play 80 or 90 minutes every single game for the first time in his life at Premier League level, for the first time in his life without a winter break, for the first time in his life at Champions League level. So not a surprise he then gets a bit tired and gets DOMS.
“We were hoping it was only DOMS and then we could have used him maybe as a sub, but unfortunately, we saw a little bit more and then you cannot take a risk. Florian had the same last week when we put him in an MRI scan and there was only DOMS, so he didn’t have anything. But he is also experiencing this programme for the first time and if I don’t have that many players, I would like the ones I do have available and playing as many minutes as possible, but realistically. That’s what I tried to do today.“
Liverpool have another test next week when they stay in London, this time to face Arsenal at their home turf. Ekitike will hopefully be available and the rest of the squad will hopefully be up for a fight.
