Liverpool only on their perch for one season... and other talking points from the weekend
Liverpool’s reign as champions is over
THERE was a lack of the trademark verve about Jurgen Klopp’s side at Anfield yesterday as if the fountain of life had finally run dry.
Liverpool reached the Champions League final in 2018, lifted the trophy in 2019 and romped to the Premier League title in 2020 but the lethargy that has plagued too
many of their appearances this season was apparent again as Manchester City ran riot against the champions.
Coupled with Manchester United’s slip and their game in hand, it is difficult to envisage any other outcome than another City title win – their third under Guardiola – by the time May comes around.
Certainly, they will not slip enough to allow Liverpool – now 10 points adrift – back into the race. Klopp admitted as much straight after the game by saying his target was now securing Champions League football for next season.
As brilliant as City were, plenty of their success in their 4-1 victory came from Liverpool’s self-inflicted blows. Those punching themselves in the face most were the goalkeeper Alisson and
his Brazilian counterpart, Fabinho, the stand-in centreback. There is an argument that says the absence of Virgil van Dijk and the assorted defensive problems incurred have created problems further up the park causing their normally vice-like press to suffer due to Jordan Henderson and Fabinho’s redeployment in the back line.
Liverpool were flat in attack and, while Fabinho might have looked like a Rolls-Royce in defence at times this season, he was found out here by quick feet and players running in behind. His foul on Raheem Sterling led to the first-half penalty that City missed and his concession of a free-kick for a foul on Phil Foden in the second with the scores at 1-1 seemed to provoke an outbreak of panic in the rearguard.
John Stones had a goal
disallowed for a marginal offside from that set-piece but the damage had been done. The jitters spread to Alisson who lost the plot for the second and third goals, gift-wrapping them for Gundogan and Sterling.
It’s not just Bruno Fernandes who goes down too easily
Harry Maguire tumbled twice during Manchester United’s 3-3 draw with Everton, falling like a rotten oak after the gentlest of nudges. The ease with which the United captain was toppled would have led one to conclude that he had some sort of inner ear problem.
Instead, the 6ft 4in central defender – who weighs 15-anda-half stone – looked at the referee plaintively appealing for free-kicks on each occasion. Once, near the corner flag, Jon Moss bought it, but next time the ref allowed play to continue,
a development which almost led to an Everton equaliser.
The former tactic seems to have become the norm: centrebacks regularly crash through the backs of smaller opponents without much in the way of censure yet seem to win free-kicks all too frequently when going down under minimal contact.
Maguire is not alone in this tactic. Defenders are employing it everywhere, not least because referees appear to measure challenges differently depending on whether an attacker or a defender has committed it. Unless it’s Bruno, of course.
Fulham deserve better
Fulham’s position in the relegation zone
has looked out of kilter to their level of performances. The same could be said about Brighton until recent wins over Liverpool and Tottenham painted a more accurate picture of their relative strengths. Scott Parker’s side dominated against in-form West Ham and deserved more than the point they earned. That has been reflective of a pattern but to say that Fulham are guilty of ignoring Einstein’s maxim on the definition of insanity, is to miss the mark. Their eight draws in 11 games have come because of the dynamic way in which they have played not in spite of
their tactics. With a bit more good fortune some of those results would have been wins – certainly against Liverpool at Craven Cottage earlier in the season and West Ham at the weekend. As Brighton have demonstrated, sometimes sticking to your principles is the only option.
The standard of top-flight refereeing in England is abysmal
Regular watchers of the SPFL tend to think that the quality of officiating is poor but the men in the middle up here aren’t in full-time positions nor are they earning anything like the £200,000-a-year that Mike Dean is reputed to be on.
If it’s not Dean ignoring video technology or incorrectly interpreting what’s staring him in the face, it’s Stuart Attwell and his failure to
comprehend the nature and feel of the game.
Dean’s decision to send off Southampton’s Jan Bednarek in midweek against Manchester United was subsequently overturned by the FA and he’s likely to face the same scenario following the red card shown to West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek against Fulham.
Dean strikes you as the kind of man who was the perennial last pick in the playground, a misanthrope who has spent the rest of his life plotting revenge. His decision to dismiss Soucek for his elbow brushing Aleksandar Mitrovic’s cheek was not even in breach of the law: there was no excessive force and it wasn’t a deliberate attempt to injure an opponent.
Meanwhile, Attwell’s general handling of Spurs v West Brom betrayed his lack of knowledge of the laws of physics and a
lack of appreciation for how the game is actually played.
Same old Arsenal
It’s not that long ago that Arsenal fans were crowing about a mini-revival under Mikel Arteta but their latest defeat – this time by Aston Villa – just goes to show that there is still work to be done.
It has been a season for taking two steps forward and many more back. Such inconsistency has been experienced by almost every club outside of Manchester City but Arsenal have felt it more acutely than others.
What will have perturbed Arteta was the kind of miscommunication in defence that has cost his side once too often but also the deficiencies in attack, where the Gunners were lacking a decent final ball and clever movement.