The only player who can perhaps be forgiven for his mistakes on Tuesday night is Stefan Bajcetic. The Spaniard is 18 years old and was playing in his first Champions League game against arguably the best midfielder of his generation, Luka Modric.
Bajcetic had a good time but in the end he forced things too much in the excitement of the match. Still, the way he kept wanting the ball after his mistake that led to Real Madrid’s second goal (although ultimately Alisson’s fault, of course) was very impressive. If there’s one positive to take away from the humiliation, it’s the performance of our latest Academy graduate.
The other could simply be the way that Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez clearly enjoy bonding. He’s not as productive as Salah once was with the top version of Sadio Mane, but the Uruguayan is getting there and the relationship is blossoming. He’s not polished, he’s not perfect, but Nunez’s pace and movement are exceptional and if he can combine it with the kind of finishing we saw in the opener in midweek, he’ll score a goal.
That’s the nice thing about getting out of the way.
It doesn’t matter who you play, going 2-0 up and conceding the next five goals in your own stadium against any opponent is completely chaotic.
Liverpool is so fragile; defensively, in midfield and most importantly, mentally. More minded dwarves than monsters. Let’s look at the goal that, in my opinion, ruined the game the most: Real Madrid’s third. Not a single Liverpool player took it upon himself to clear the free kick, allowing Eder Militao a free run and a header from twenty feet. We had eleven players in the box. They had five. Yet he ran, unmarked and unchallenged, to score the easiest goal of his career.
Liverpool left Militao alone to score Real Madrid’s winning goal ???? pic.twitter.com/6uOJtvntpD
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) February 21, 2023
It was simply a collective refusal to take responsibility. No one willing to leave their defensive zone and attack the ball. Everyone waiting for someone else to do it. This does not happen because they are bad footballers, none of them are. But because they are mentally fried from what happened in the first half and had effectively lost faith. And that’s at 2-2. You can’t lose faith in 2-2… We were at the game. There are not even away goals this season. Real Madrid trailed 2-0 and didn’t seem the least bit nervous.
The difference in confidence, optimism and mutual trust between Los Blancos and Reds was genuinely astounding.
And we’ve seen it in recent weeks, too. Every time there’s a problem or a bug, or something that doesn’t go as planned, the whole team falls apart. Jurgen Klopp’s team of former European Cup and Premier League champions falls like a house of cards.
When we let Wolves in early in a 3-0 loss, that was it. Game over. Same against Brighton. Enter the first goal and we are ready.
We beat Everton, but only because they were really too lousy to put a glove on us, and you can guarantee that if Newcastle had scored one of the multiple chances they created, the emotional effect of that would have rendered Liverpool useless.
I wonder what a sports psychologist would say about that, given that, barring a few players here and there, the Liverpool team simply never gives up. The team that came back from 3-0 down to beat Barcelona 4-3 on aggregate and later win the Champions League. The team that knew they would never be beaten and would score late goals almost as an inevitability.
“When people say ‘lucky’ and my son and daughter say ‘lucky’, I say ‘not lucky.’ It’s lucky when it happens once or twice, but when last season it happened six or seven times in the last few minutes, to come back and win the game, and then this season, it’s a special quality,” Pep Guardiola said of Klopp. Ruthless Reds in 2019.
“The mentality and the talent to learn that, I don’t believe in football about luck when it happens many, many times, it’s because they have talent.”
What would Pep say now, behind closed doors? What does Klop say?
Should he take some of the blame for the tactical collapse? In retrospect, it’s easy to say ‘Yes’. If Klopp were allowed to repeat the match from the moment we were 2-0 up, I’m sure he would sit deep and counterattack. In all honesty, given our defense and midfield, maybe I should do that every week, but that’s another article…
But for Vinicius Junior’s first goal, there were plenty of players in the box to defend it, and the second was just a howl from Alisson. There is an element of luck in football, but not in the second half goals, which were due to the fact that Liverpool were too shaken up to act like adults and stabilize themselves. There was probably some loud talk in the dressing room at half-time and then Eder Militao’s goal ruined everything. What a horrible night, huh?
The question now, of course, is whether the pain from Tuesday will stay with the Premier League players. We’re out of the cups and almost certainly out of the Champions League too, so our best bet is to have a real top-four run so we can fund a summer rebuild. I’d love to believe that they can do it, but first, they need to believe in themselves.
