Liverpool’s current form is, to use a technical term, a bit shit. There’s no phase of play or department on the pitch that feels like they’ve got it together. And on Saturday, it showed.
I usually empathize with the members of the team that have to step in front of media and take questions after tough results. But, if we’re being honest, having to endure that match (and then write articles about it) kinda made me a little less able to extend that grace.
Reviewing Arne Slot’s post-match comments, though,
it seems the squad has some sense of just how dire that performance really was. Positives were hard to come by and when asked about it, the manager didn’t mince words.
“Like you said, disappointing, again. You are always hoping if you win a game of football during the week, although it is only two days’ rest when you come over here, of course you are hoping for a better result, but I was also hoping and expecting a better performance, because the performance was far from what we are used to. Even if we are losing, our performances have been better than tonight.”
That’s pretty accurate in terms of my experience of the match itself. I found myself struggling to describe how disconnected the play felt as well as how disappointing it felt to feel like Liverpool could have still walked away with something from that match. Perhaps most frustrating is just how to reconcile those seemingly disparate threads.
Slot himself seemed to be caught in a similar mental space, moving between strong critiques of the overall performance while noting that there were contributing factors to the outcome that weren’t down necessarily just to Liverpool’s execution on the day. His longest response, in fact, seemed to tread that space specifically.
“Yes, I think it’s up there in my time here in terms of losing a game of football because normally when we are 2-1, 3-1 or 1-0 down… by the way, after we went 1-0 down, that was the only 20 or 25 minutes I really liked from our game today. Unfortunately, we had a great moment with Florian that didn’t lead to a goal because you need to then have a little bit of luck and those moments can bring you back into the game and can give us the energy. But, after 30 minutes, I think they took the game again with long throw-ins, set-pieces and other moments where they were just really good. Again, please don’t focus on what I’ve just said because they did many things well.
Then, I think it is a crucial moment when just before they scored the 2-0, there was a moment where Cody dribbled inside the box and they didn’t play the ball. I think if you would show both situations – the penalty we conceded and that moment – to every referee in the world, they would tell you maybe both were nothing but if I had to give one of the two then I definitely would give the one to Cody. The bad luck for us was that I don’t think the referee was intending to give a penalty for that but he thought he’d give them a free-kick, then the VAR said it was inside so then if you think it’s a free-kick then it’s a penalty. That bad luck maybe comes if you play a game of football like we did today.“
Ultimately, it was a shocking display and a brutal result. There’s lots of grace to extend around: injuries, integrating new faces, and the giant target on their back as the reigning champions. To be clear, the team fielded no less than 4 starters that weren’t here last season. And if you include Curtis Jones and Conor Bradley, over half of today’s starting XI were comprised of either new incomings or players outside of our strongest XI. There is also the long-term piece of most of the players still likely dealing with grief after losing Diogo Jota.
All of these things are meant to contextualize the fact that Liverpool are in one of the most difficult moments I can personally remember in the approximately 15 years I’ve been a fan. Not as bleak as the Hodgepocalypse because I don’t feel the recruitment was bad and so the team don’t appear to be in a position for a years-long struggle.
It is, though, a moment that will require digging deep and finding new solutions during this rough patch. It will require holding the paradoxical realities of a poor performance and still feeling like we might have walked away with something. The path through being, perhaps, that while there’s loads to improve we don’t feel quite so far adrift that even on our worst days, we can still find reasons to justify disappointment in coming up empty.
It is a bit of a minor comfort during this moment, but it’s what I can find. I know this group is capable of more and that’s expressed by the angst I feel when reviewing the performances over this period. Here’s hoping we finally get to see the full complement of this group’s talent.
The task of untangling that knot falls squarely on the shoulders of Arne Slot. No one’s suggesting he’s on the hot seat – winning Liverpool’s 20th top flight title in your opening season buys you a lot of rope. But you can’t help but sense that finding a way out of periods like this where managers earn their keep.
One foot in front of the other, then, Reds. We’ve got a mountain to climb. Let’s get to it.
