Liverpool are still a work-in-progress
Liverpool’s team is young, attacking and exciting but with that youth comes inconsistency and a lack of big game experience.
Despite our wonderful form for much of the season, big losses away to Tottenham, Manchester City and Manchester United point to one thing. It pays to buy experience and trophy winners. Something this Liverpool team has very few of.
For all of Manchester United’s pessimism and unattractive football, they have players who know how to grind out a result and players who just last season won the double we failed to the season prior.
The fighting talk curse. In the build up to the weekends’ clash at Old Trafford, bravado and swagger was in the air. The more pessimistic fan could see it coming from a mile away. Let your results speak for themselves. Interviews from Dejan Lovren, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, the latter stating in the Telegraph: “I would rather play the Liverpool way than in a defensive team.” were being quoted and retweeted by gloating Mancunians as they savoured a victory as sweet to them as a traditional Manchester tart.
It would be very easy to pick the usual scapegoat of Lovren, twice overpowered by Romelu Lukaku in the build up to both goals, but in truthm we were short across the board.
Our front three remained quiet, our midfield consistently lacking in fight and composure, with stray passes and knowhow missing all over the field. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain being a key culprit, losing the ball eighteen times before being taken off. Trent Alexander-Arnold had perhaps his worst performance in Liverpool shirt, however, this will be a match and experience he will learn from and one his team will learn from.
Did this game keep us from winning the title? no. Manchester City have had that sewn up for some time. Did it knock us out of a cup, Champions League or remove us from the top four? It didn’t. All that was on the line in this game was pride and bragging rights, which following the final whistle on Sunday, are sadly in short supply, until next Saturday against Watford at Anfield and latterly, until our next game against Mourinho’s men.
Perhaps some of us got carried away with our recent form and forgot that this team is a work in progress. The addition of Naby Keita and a little more class could really go a long way to making this team great.
The much maligned ‘next year will be our year’, a phrase which ironically is only ever said mockingly by opposition fans just might be a phrase many Liverpool fans are tentatively thinking.
One thing is for sure, however, the United result has made me hungrier than ever to succeed in the Champions League and finish the season with a flourish.
Fridays’ draw awaits.
Unlucky Jose.