Brighton & Hove Albion v Liverpool - A Quick Liverpool Perspective
Brighton & Hove Albion v Liverpool A Liverpool Perspective
It is the hope that kills you.
Thankfully then, Slot has managed to kill any hope I had of a decent result every time Liverpool play. Each time you start to think he has managed to hit rock bottom, Arne Slot proves you wrong by making things worse. I did think the performance against Spurs on the previous weekend had to be rock bottom, as it was simply the worst performance I can remember by Liverpool since the Hodgson days. And Hodgson was hampered by being in charge when the club was on the verge of a financial meltdown, stuck with dross players bought on the cheap, rather than top class signings made for huge fees and on massive wages. At least Hodgson's team had a plan, a very defensive plan, but he attempted to organise them defensively and played a low block looking to draw or, with a bit of luck, sneak a win. It was boring, but Slot is managing to make those days seem entertaining!
The defending is a shambolic mess, mostly consisting of Konate running all over the place and being anywhere but where he should be and failing miserably to actually pick up anyone in a dangerous area. If they are not in a dangerous area, such as the halfway line, he spends his time trying to get into their kit alongside them, he is that close. Put them in the penalty box and he suddenly is no longer even aware they exist! Van Dijk is not much better this season, constantly passing a man off to no one and running away from any possibility of having to make any kind of challenge. It is hard to tell if his legs are going or if he is simply suffering due to the lack of fitness the whole team have developed under Slot.
If the defending is bad, then what can I describe the tactics as, without swearing? It is hard to understand how the coaching staff have still not realised that playing the ball slowly around at the back does not work. But then, they also have yet to spot how useless Mac Allister has been all season, so maybe it is not so surprising! Or that giving Gravenberch freedom to get forward is not suiting the strengths of his game and he is playing poorly as well as a result. Or that Konate is a liability. Or that a natural right-back is on the bench to use. They cannot even see that pace and power is incredibly important in the Premier League, particularly in midfield.
The list of problems and things going wrong are enormous right now, while the list of things going right is really down to just 2 things - LFC are still in the FA Cup and UEFA Champions League. There is nothing about the style of play, tactics, player performances etc to get excited about and a battle for top 5 in the Premier League is nothing short of embarrassing after the investment made into a squad that won the league last year. The fact that the manager misses every opportunity to get some decent work in on the training ground, as he instead jets off back to Holland every chance he gets and gives the players some time off, probably goes a long way to explaining a huge part of the problem.
How can you expect to motivate players when you have made no effort to understand the club, develop a relationship with the fans or get to know the city the club is based in? When you are effectively only doing the job on a part-time basis, what chance can you have of gaining an understanding of what the players need to get the best out of them? It should never have been allowed to come to this, that has to placed at the feet of Laurel and Hardy above Slot, who must see that it is not working but do nothing about it. Edwards has absolutely nothing to do with FSG failing to complete the purchase of a second football club, surely he could have put in a bit of time to have a look at what is going wrong and dealing with it? But he has all the decisiveness of my dad trying to choose something in the supermarket (which always ends up in a row if my mother is with him as she gets fed up with his total inability to make a decision of any kind), constantly dithering and doing nothing. The club desperately needs a clearout. Edwards, Hughes and Slot, they all need to be replaced.
Sorry, that ended up in just an anti-Slot rant, apologies. I will stop now, as that is not the intent of this review!
Brighton & Hove Albion
They never had to be that good to win. It was a decent performance by them, but nothing outstanding and still they were the better team by a wide margin. They were fitter, faster, stronger and simply wanted it more. There was no low block either, they came to play football and played it better than Liverpool. Milner in their midfield stood out, according to the stats I have read, actually covered more ground than Liverpool's three in midfield on his own. Not difficult to believe after watching the effort he put in compared to anyone in red.
Liverpool
Mamardashvili - I do not understand why he was bought, there is nothing about the signing that makes sense. He is woefully unsuited to any kind of playing around the ball at the back and is far too slow to come off his line, as well as offering little command of the area. He looks so nervous, which transmits to an already nervy backline and makes it look even more porous. Put him in a team that defends deep and he would be fine, but he is just not suited to being the keeper Liverpool need.
Frimpong - he tried, but he was struggling up against Minteh's pace. He does not have the skill to get past a player and lacked the pace and strength to match up physically with Minteh when defending. He is not an out-and-out right-back anyway, he was always more of a wing-back and this was a time when his lack of defensive nous was shown up.
Konate - there is little wonder he was taken off, he is absolutely abysmal this season, running around like a headless chicken with no communication with anyone. He has no defensive awareness either, he lives in a bubble and has been an absolute disgrace this season. Dog muck would be being kind when talking about this performance. It is like he is 7 years old and has no idea about tactics or positional play. If anyone signs him on a free, they will be massively overpaying for him.
van Dijk - you only really know how good someone is at something when they are going through adversity. What we have found out of van Dijk this season is that he is an abysmal leader. Strutting around the pitch, running away from opponents to avoid having to make a tackle, bollocking other players when you are the one who has made the mistake and standing watching while the keeper is under pressure on the ball is not what is needed. Is it really that difficult to break into a run and make an angle to receive a pass? He seems to think he is too important to break sweat nowadays as I see plenty of other centre-backs sprinting to make a passing angle for their keeper when their team is playing out from the back, just never Virgil. His aura has gone and his attitude has been found wanting too.
Kerkez - very clever bit of work, as well as a lovely finish, to get the goal and was generally playing fairly well. Like his compatriot Szoboszlai, he has been one of a very small number of players whose effort and work rate has been good enough. He did take a while to get going, but he has grown into one of the first names on the team sheet since then, in my opinion. Not perfect by any means, but looks an excellent long term replacement for Robertson.
Mac Allister - how on earth does he not just get a starting berth in the team, but completes 90 minutes almost every week? Is it because he is so anonymous Slot has forgotten he was on the pitch? It is hard to believe Real Madrid have maintained a longstanding interest in such a badly limited player.
Gravenberch - when he sat deep and covered in front of the defence, for most of last season, he was outstanding. Since he has been given more freedom to roam forward, he has looked a very average player, which makes it strange that he was given a big new contract recently. I know his dad told him he should score more goals, but the lad should stop listening to his dad and go back and look at what made him look like a special player. It was not goals! With his passing being so poor, the last thing you want is him to be the player up and around the edge of the opposing box. He needs to be deeper, feeding the better passers.
Gakpo - like Gravenberch, he has been poor this season after a good season last time out. In his case, to me I think he is suffering from the same issue as Salah, no not age but tactics. The tactics are hindering them badly. They want the ball early, so they can attack a defence still trying to get into shape and falling back, rather than set and prepared with cover. That is the main difference with Ngumoha, he gets the ball delivered early, as soon as it is possible to hit him and is able to run at a disorganised defence. Gakpo is a limited player, but give him the ball early and he can get goals and assists.
Wirtz - he needs to have more confidence in his own ability to shoot and not look to pass when he gets in good positions, well not always look to pass anyway. A lot of the time, it does look like he is playing a different game from his team-mates. He is looking for a run, but Liverpool players rarely make them, which makes it difficult for him to do much.
Szoboszlai - probably his worst game of the season, but still arguably the best Liverpool player in the game. Nothing even he could do to cover for so many players playing so badly.
Ekitike - barely got started before picking up an injury and having to be taken off. Bizarre to watch Slot telling him to just get up when he went down, showing absolutely no empathy or fear for his only actual striker.
Jones - replaced the injured Ekitike in a bizarre substitution choice in the 8th minute. A very strange choice to replace the one and only actual striker on the pitch. You would have thought Chiesa was the choice, but for some reason only Slot knows Jones came on instead. It did not seem like the players understood the system afterwards, there was no structure or shape to the team, which allowed Brighton to run through it, almost at will. Even more odd was the decision to move him to right-back when Frimpong came off, to play against a player whose pace and power had been giving Frimpong so many problems. I simply cannot believe that a better option would not have been Ramsay, there is just no way that a midfielder playing out of position is a better right-back than a natural right-back. I am not convinced that Ramsay is particularly good, but I am 100% convinced that he is a better right-back than Jones. I am also sure he would not have been so lazy as to be strolling about fetching the ball for a throw in while the clock is ticking away and the team was losing 2-1. Show some bloody urgency!
Ngumoha - was brought on in the stead of Frimpong in the 63rd minute. His arrival caused a reshuffle and he played on the left, leaving the team lopsided. He did benefit from the team looking to hit him immediately on receiving the ball but, for all his talent, he created almost nothing. The potential is there but the actual is not yet, but then the lad is just 17 and he has plenty of time yet. I do worry about him being overhyped and not realising how much he still needs to learn, so far he has shown nothing like the level of Fowler or Owen at his age, but in a season with so little hope, having a player who actually attacks is refreshing.
Robertson - took the place of the also injured Kerkez in the 76th minute. Looks absolutely finished at this level and his main contribution was to hoof the ball into the stands when presented with a good chance to put in a cross.
Chiesa - came on for Konate in the 76th minute. I have seen people saying he is not good enough, but I have no idea how they can know that when he has never been given a real chance, a run of games to bed in and get his game going. His treatment by Slot has been appalling. The complete mismanagement of the only genuine ready attacking option is astonishing. He should have been on when EKitike got injured but he plays with intensity and attacking intent, rather than passing sideways and backwards like Slot wants, so he will continue to be ignored. No doubt even if Ekitike is still injured after the international break, Chiesa will still be sat on the bench alongside Ramsay.
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