Hungry Wolves devour a defenceless Reds
Wolves 3 Liverpool 0, 4th February 2023.
Wolves 3 Liverpool 0, 4th February 2023.
WOLVES 3 (Matip OG 5, Dawson 12, Neves 71)
LIVERPOOL 0
“The first 12 minutes, 2–0 down, is absolutely never helpful, but especially in our situation. It is absolutely not allowed to happen”. So lamented Reds manager Jurgen Klopp immediately after another game and another nadir in this Sword of Damocles season. From a great height the Mighty Reds have fallen and not just today, and not just within the first 12 ghastly and grisly minutes in England’s “Black Country” this afternoon. In truth, the first 45 minutes today was unacceptable and this in no way reflects negatively against the deserved winners today, and a home team Wolves who have now leapfrogged Everton and out of the relegation zone. Wolves, led magnificently as always by their Portuguese talismanic captain Ruben Neves, were more than worthy winners and their front attacking three, before injury and substitutions, of Hwang Hee-Chan, Pablo Sarabia and Matheus Cunha, were a constant threat and exploitative of the pockets of space in front of, in between and indeed behind a nervous, brittle Liverpool rear-guard. Comfortably 2–0 in front at half-time, the home team survived a 15 minute spell of intense pressure from the Reds before brilliantly counter-attacking and sweeping two thirds of the length of the field, from substitute to substitute, Joao Moutinho to the pacey Adama Traore, before his perfectly weighted square pass found his marauding captain who coolly slotted home a deserved third and game defining goal.
Although 2–0 down after 12 minutes, it wasn’t just these 12 awful footballing minutes but a longer first half of 45 whereby Liverpool only registered one shot on target, a stinging effort from Darwin Nunez that Jose Sa spectacularly palmed away to safety. Half chances came and went in a first half where Reds goalkeeper Alisson Becker was far busier, especially so when he bailed out Joel Matip on 25 minutes with a brilliant save to deny the nagging persistence of Matheus Cunha. The Reds were a force for the opening 15 minutes of the second half with Naby Keita denied by a goal line clearance after a messy bout of ping pong in the Wolves penalty area and after a mistake from Wolves debut goal scoring hero Craig Dawson, Mo Salah screwed a shot wide on 62 minutes. But Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui immediately changed the dominance of the game with his introduction of Raul Jimenez and particularly Joao Moutinho. His team grabbed both the ball and the balance of the game before deservedly racing away on the break on 71 minutes to seal a comprehensive victory.
I’m as distrustful of statistics as I am of the dreaded joy killing suck that is VAR, and today is no different. According to those other eyes in a footballing sky, the Reds had 22 shots compared to Wolves 12 (but the home team had 6 on target compared to their visitors 4) and the Reds had nearly 60% possession, almost double the amount of passes and 7 corners compared to just 2. Naturally the only statistic that counts is the score line but that’s not the argument being made here, simply that the statistics would seem to imply that Liverpool were in this game, competing, attacking and raining in shots from a position of possessional dominance and corner after corner of pressure. This wasn’t the case.
But then again, I’m as distrustful of statistics as I am of the dreaded joy killing suck that is VAR.
I’m a deflated man this evening (though not as deflated as that Chinese balloon currently flying across the central belt of the USA! Politics Editor) and this is yet another horrible nadir in a season that could only disappoint after last year’s heroics. But the current fall is a spectacular one and after a game whereby a win would’ve seen the Reds climb to 6th place in the Premier League, the defeat has instead relegated them to a lowly, midway 10th. The beautiful man with the beautiful beard has a HUGE job on his hands, and hands that are largely tied behind his back due to injuries, form, interest and a lack of backing from seemingly now hesitant, wantaway owners. Someone who follows me in the wild world of the Twitter internet stated post game he’ll never watch a Liverpool game again. Others are more rational and grown up, citing their experiences of the fallow years under Shankly. I grew up with the final trophy laden years of Paisley, idolised The King and his team’s knack of winning trophies whilst also “blowing doubles”. I was an ever present under Graeme Souness’ tarnished years, went all around the country again (and Europe) during Roy Evans near miss before bathing in the glory of the Gerard Houllier years before the emergence of the beloved “Rafatollah”. Then came the desperate mistake of Roy Hodgson, the club being minutes from administration (lest we all forget) before the return of The King and the man with the widest smile in football hoisting a trophy aloft at Wembley once more.
I’m a season ticket holding lapsed match going fan these days, watching from afar whilst I yearn to be at Molineux today or Anfield next Monday, St James’ Park four days later or the Santiago Bernabeu four days later still. I try to look more objectively than I did as an excited teenager on the train to Southampton or the long haired twenty something changing a flat tyre outside of The City Ground in Nottingham, or fearing my windscreen wipers would fail again in the rain of a traffic jammed London as we made our way to Loftus Road for yet another night game with the “Hoops” of Queens Park Rangers.
My objectivity prism shows me a completely disinterested Mo Salah (and it breaks my heart to keep writing that sentence), Naby Keita shouldn’t be anywhere near the starting XI (that he is speaks volumes), as does the lack of depth on a substitutes bench shorn of half a team due to injuries but also a disinterested lack of investment from the owners. Screaming for new owners shows a lack of respect for the incredible triumphs of very recent history and you should always be careful what you wish for. Chelsea spent a stupendous amount of money in the January transfer window and currently sit one place higher than the Reds in the Premier League whilst, because they’re Chelsea, manager Graham Potter has his own Sword of Damocles hanging over him that will never, ever, go away.
Calling for the tainted, filthy lucre from an oil salesman is all well and good, as is the faintest challenging of the manager’s position. That’s called free speech, however misguided, and a perfect reflection of the internet age.
One day, one sad, gloomy day, Jurgen Klopp will naturally leave Liverpool Football Club and when he does, he’ll join Shankly, Paisley, Dalglish, Houllier and Benitez on the honours roll of all time.
I just hope that day is in a faraway footballing future.
Afterword from The Boss
“You can criticise, you can judge us, you can say whatever want and you are probably right — I have nothing to say against that because these 12 minutes are not allowed. Coming here with all the things we did in the last few days — and during the whole season so far — with what we want, then you arrive here and this is the outcome, that’s really hard to take, I have to say. We had other games with conceding early goals, we had that since the last season so it was now not that much anymore, but we didn’t win games so then it’s pretty likely when you lose games that you concede the first one. Again, these 12 minutes we were the worst for a while”.
“The team is not full of confidence, you can see that — the first 12 minutes were obvious, but it was about defending, being compact, being active. Do you need a lot of confidence for that? I am not so sure. Put your body between the ball and the opponent, block the ball and these kind of things, avoid the cross. You saw Stefan Bajcetic full of confidence, he plays football for as long as we kept him on the pitch. All the others, started a bit different, but second half, with low-confidence levels, playing this kind of game, I think nobody would have been surprised if we scored here, that we could have scored once and twice and then let’s have a look at the game. I know it is hypothetical, 100 per cent, but that was possible. We caused the problems ourselves, how can that happen? I cannot always cover things, it was obvious — we do it in public, that’s why everyone can see it”.
Quotes taken from www.liverpoolfc.com
Thanks for reading. There is a wealth of past and present articles on Liverpool FC within my archival lists here or alternatively, here are my three most recently published articles from this season:
Holders out as the Sword of Damocles edges nearer for an unlucky Liverpool
Brighton 2 Liverpool 1, 29th January 2023.medium.com
Mid-table bore draw helps neither Chelsea Blue nor Liverpool Red
Liverpool 0 Chelsea 0, 21st January 2023.medium.com
Elliott wonder strike keeps the holders in the FA Cup
Wolves 0 Liverpool 1, 17th January 2023.medium.com