It’s Time To Wake Up Liverpool!

31 Dec 16

Liverpool defeats Man City with a narrow 1–0 margin, giving the reds a perfect end to the year.

Things were looking good for the reds — second place in the Premier League, EFL cup semi-finals and FA Cup fourth round- all in hand.

…Fast forward 28 Jan 17

Full time. Liverpool 1–2 Wolves. Anfield crumbles. Again.

Liverpool have now lost three games in a week at Anfield. At Anfield! The same place where they were unbeaten for one year. From one year unbeaten to three defeats in a week, Liverpool had a week to forget.

What a difference a month makes !

Klopp knew he was heading into a demanding month ahead- A jampacked january. What made it worse was they will be missing their key man- Sadio Mane. January was always going to be a make it or break it month for the reds. Perhaps, it proved to be the latter one.

Liverpool in January

2 Jan (Premier League) — Sunderland 2–2 Liverpool

8 Jan ( FA Cup) — Liverpool 0–0 Plymouth

12 Jan (EFL Cup) — Southampton 1–0 Liverpool

15 Jan (Premier League) — Manchester United 1–1 Liverpool

18 Jan ( FA Cup) — Plymouth 0–1 Liverpool

21 Jan (Premier League) — Liverpool 2–3 Swansea

26 Jan (EFL Cup) — Liverpool 0–1 Southampton

28 Jan ( FA Cup) — Liverpool 1–2 Wolves

8 games — 1 win, 3 draws, 4 defeats.

The Merseyside club has been off colour since the first match of the year. Some people from the football fraternity blame Klopp for his training methods, others criticize his team management ( which was evidently poor). But the story is much more than that.

Liverpool’s Achilles heel is quite peculiar- they struggle against the small teams.

There is no genuine depth in the Liverpool squad. Origi is still young with a lot of potential, however, there is a lot for him to learn. The talented striker Daniel Sturridge hasn’t been in best of his form his November while Emre Can is just a shadow of last season.

Also, the reds have been hit hard by injuries in recent months. Their star man Philippe Coutinho sustained an injury against Sunderland in November, which left him sidelined for two months.

Luck has been another factor which was never on Liverpool side. While FIFA let down Liverpool with a late decision on Matip, which saw miss crucial matches against Manchester United and Southampton (first leg), poor refereeing from the linesman gifted United a equalizer, which eventually saw Klopp’s man dropping two crucial points.

“It was a very bad performance. Started bad, didn’t really get better. There’s not a lot of good things to say about this game. Difficult. We were obviously not ready in this moment. We had the ball, gave it away, made a foul, free kick. The goal happened. We tried, but not good enough in the first half. Second half was better, but should be better. Not a lot more to say. Sorry. I’m responsible for the line-up. It’s not allowed as I understand it to blame the players. You learn a lot about players in these situations, but it’s my responsibility. I’m responsible for it, 100%. I can’t say nothing happened, because the opposite is the truth. We caused our problems by ourselves, and we shouldn’t forget to say Wolverhampton did really well. They scored first, they had a good plan, I can see this. We should have played better, 100%, but we didn’t, so it’s a fair result” — Jurgen Klopp.

Klopp holds up his hand after the defeat against Wolves which saw the reds crashing out of the FA Cup.

That being said, it is Liverpool, playing at the highest level of football. Five-times European champions, 18 times premier league winners. Anything reason given will be an excuse, especially after the kind of start Liverpool had to the campaign. However, what is incomprehensible is people suddenly don’t trust Klopp. The German has been the best thing that has happened to Liverpool in the last few years. The team is going through a bad patch and the title race is far from over. Ten points off Chelsea with 16 games to go in Premier League, writing off Liverpool would be simply vacuous. Added to that, Liverpool only have to play three games in February. Perfect time for Klopp to recharge team’s battery and go again.

Liverpool now face Chelsea at Anfield, a must win for the reds. The famous kops need to get behind the team and be the 12th man they are known for.

Come on you redmen, let’s win this!

YNWA