Anthony McIntyre ⚽ Arne Slot's Anfield honeymoon lasted three games before his side reverted to late Klopp era form and played shit in their home defeat to Nottingham Forest.
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| Stuck In Nottingham Forest |
The visitors were worthy of their win but it would be unfair to say they came out from the woods of Nottingham and robbed the rich millionaires of Liverpool before bringing the booty back for redistribution among the poor of their own city. They robbed nothing. It was handed to them on a plate.
I headed up from the Gaza vigil in town to watch the game, having rushed to make the bus, missing out on some of the shopping my wife had asked me to pick up for the evening meal as a result of my haste. I was fortunate enough that the bus driver let me on when I told him I couldn't find my free travel pass. As it turned out I hadn't brought it, eventually finding it on the desk when I returned home. Drivers sometimes think the bus is their own property and in their eagerness to assert their busly authority like to tell customers they can't board. It's the rules you know, more than my job's worth. This driver was sound.
I'm at the age where every two years the HSE invites me to provide a stool sample as part of its public health monitoring policy aimed at creating an early warning system against bowel cancer. Next time I'll just return a photo of the Liverpool team from yesterday's game.
I attend all Drogheda United home games, plus the away fixtures if I can. There is more satisfaction to be gained from watching a team that at least can execute the most elementary of soccer moves - a simple, short pass. Yesterday, Slot's side were hopelessly inefficient, as pass after pass either went wayward or was intercepted by Forest. The thwarting tactics to win the ball were not of particularly high quality from Forest, just efficient enough to take candy from a child. It was the poor quality from the Reds that made interceptions so easy,
I cursed myself for allowing enough annoyance to take a hold that I cursed at Liverpool's performance. That irritation doesn't happen at Drogheda games. Perhaps I should give up watching the same Klopp Clowns who failed the fans so badly last season. It would be better for my moods and those in close proximity to me. Nobody wants to sit beside a grumpy scowling curmudgeon.
It would not be so galling were this lot to visit homeless shelters and food kitchens, donating a weeks wages to worthy causes. To pocket pay after a performance like yesterday's seems so much like swindling. English courts send people to jail for benefit fraud when the sums are considerably much less than what this Liverpool team takes for not working.
Slot might have felt his half time talk combined with early second half substitutions would produce a winning formula. It seemed to work at Ipswich in the season's opener. Against Forest it flopped. The subs contributed even less to the game than the players they replaced.
Team captain Virgil Van Djjk said the performance was totally unacceptable and should serve as a reality check. Bollix. How many reality checks do they need? Were last year's two inexplicable defeats to Manchester United when more was at stake, first in the FA Cup and then in the title run-in, not the reality check? There will be more pay checks than reality checks for this lot. It is not a wake up call they need but a pack up call.
Klopp couldn't rouse this same pool of players out of their mediocrity last season. Einstein might have something to say about insanity when observing those anticipating that Slot can do it. It looks pretty much a certainty come next May that the city of Liverpool will be a trophy free zone unless Everton work a miracle. Then I'll give up a deeply ingrained trait, now almost a half century old, and revert back to believing in god. At least I'll be spoiled for choice. Gods, there are thousands of them.
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' 03 season , the Reds were the only side who didn't beat 15 point Sunderland # 0 -0 , 2 - 1 . How many teams over the past 3 decades have teams come to Anfield , played 9 behind the ball & grabbed a point or 3 ?
ReplyDeleteNot buying a badly needed # 6 during the Summer was criminal from tight fisted F S G . Nunez & Endo are surplus to requirements , the midfield will be gassed within six weeks . Few ( if any ) game changers on the bench . Don't fancy seeing Jones , Harv etc deputising when the first choice midfield trio are absent . Playing for fourth # Deja Vu
I won't be surprised if they don't make fourth. This team last season was seriously deficient. How is it going to compete when it has not been replenished?
ReplyDeleteThink I will stick to the Drogs and hope they make it to the final in November.