That failure more or less took place last week in a pretty woeful performance against Manchester United. Crystal Palace were today merely issuing the death certificate, confirming what fans deep down already knew. Champions get up when they know they can't. The losers of Liverpool stayed on the canvas and heard themselves counted out.
This is a dead team and there is no point in trying to give the kiss of life to a corpse.
Today, having conceded the obligatory early goal they were too jaded to make one of their much vaunted recoveries. While disappointed, I am not going to feign surprise. I felt a defeat would be the outcome, even having suggested as much to my friend Paddy during the Drogheda United game on Friday evening. This Anfield side had simply run out of puff, lacking the stamina to sustain a successful run in all four competitions they were reckoned by some pundits to be in with a chance of winning.
What makes it all the more galling is that they wore the black armband in memory of those who died at Hillsborough in April 1989. The 35th anniversary of that mass unlawful killing by South Yorkshire Police occurs tomorrow. We might be forgiven for thinking that those who turned out in the armbands would at least have put in a serious performance in sombre tribute to the dead fans alone. Not a bit of it. They played dead for the occasion. We were served up a mishap and misfire in front of goal. Even Andy Robertson's great goal-line intervention to prevent Palace going a further goal ahead did nothing to inspire this most uninspiring lot.
I have no intention of watching them again this season. There is no joy to be derived from their underwhelming performances. It merely puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the day and irritability hangs around for days after. Not worth it. I don't have a gluttonous appetite for for the punishment meted out by this pack of underachievers.
Mo Salah should pack his bags. Why Nunez should be taken off but not Salah was confirmation that Klopp had given up the ghost, a feeling reinforced when Gakpo came on. I simply fail to see what the Dutch international does for this Liverpool side. When he was in the starting line up against Atalanta on Thursday evening, I winced. It seemed such a clear statement of intent by Klopp that he was not serious about winning the Europa league.
Not that Nunez, who was substituted today, has been great either. An exciting player, he misses far too many chances, exuding the appearance of the busy fool. As Michael Owen suggests he needs to be able to go around players, rather than simply blast everything off the keeper or the woodwork.
This year's EPL champions will, I think, be Manchester City. They are better finishers than Arsenal whose unfamiliarity with being so close to the title last year created the jitters that would eventually deprive them of the crown.
The one good thing about today's result is that it puts the fans out of their misery. This side was never going to win the title. Had they not blown it by now they would most certainly have done so by the last game of the season against Wolves. No point in prolonging the agony. It ended today. The Wolvers fixture was a game I had intended going to the pub for with my son, and some of our friends. Not now. Better to go to the pub and watch glasses being washed than view mediocrity from the Mersey.
Tomorrow I will remember those killed at Hillsborough while trying best to forget this inept title-losing side.
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Lack of atmosphere caused by fan protests over a modest two per cent increase in ticket prices didn't help matters . That said - Diaz , Nunez , Salah , I K , Virg , Dom , Gravenberch , Jones should all be moved on this summer . Reds always imploded during squeaky bum time in the # Evans era # Deja vu
ReplyDeleteGiven the money these millionaires suck out of the club and do not do what they are paid to do, I am not surprised at the fans protesting about increased ticket prices. If they donate their ill gotten gains to charity I would be more charitable towards them.
DeleteI would not like to see Konate go. Dominic S has been a huge disappointment but like Gravenberch might need more time. The forward line is not delivering.
I think Jones should stay. A terrible miss yesterday but as Klopp said he was the only one doing the press.
I think Klopp has made the right decision. At this point he is unlikely to turn this lot into an EPL winning side.