MILNER LANDS A CRUSHING BLOW
Late Liverpool winner lifts Klopp and may bury under-fire Swansea boss
ON such moments, the fate of a manager turns. Francesco Guidolin’s future at Swansea City hung by the thinnest of threads.
Before kick-off, his team had lost four of the past five Premier League games. They haven’t won in the Premier League since the opening day of the day season.
Before kick-off, he already appeared to be a man preparing for extended gardening leave or, a long cycling tour, which he might prefer. The fact that American owners Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien were in town for what was described as a routine visit will not have reassured the Italian.
Yet up until the 84th minute, Guidolin might have been satisfied with proceedings. His team had performed well and looked far from a group of players disillusioned with their manager. The crowd had chanted his name supportively. He seemed to have done enough to earn a stay of execution, at least.
Then came the loose clearance, as Modou Barrow hooked the ball high into the air. It looped up and bounced down, almost at the spot from which he had launched it, in front of Roberto Firmino. Angel Rangel panicked, gave the Brazilian a gentle push and down he went. Referee Michael Oliver thought for a second, pointed to the spot and James Milner coolly chipped the ball in — 2-1.
Even then there might have been late salvation, when with the clock about to turn to 93 minutes, a sweeping cross from Rangel was met by Mike van der Hoorn, sliding in at close range, with Loris Karius as good as beaten. But he could only direct the ball tamely wide. It was, as Guidolin would later concede, ‘a very big situation to score’. He added: ‘This is the moment.’
Indeed. Instead, there will now be a crisis meeting between the owners and chairman Huw Jenkins. Results will be considered, agents will be called, and quite possibly Guidolin will be summoned to learn his fate.
‘I am worried not for my position but for our position in the table,’ he claimed. ‘It is not good. We deserve some more points. This is the situation and I’m worried just for this — not for my position. This is not my problem. My problem and my job is to work with the players and to get them to play like the first half, to play well. I don’t know in the next days whether there will be a meeting. The right result would have been a draw. But I am confident as I saw my team play 95 minutes with character and good quality and if we play in this way we can turn the situation.
‘I’m sure the relationship between my players and me is perfect. I am sure they have good character and good relationships. This is our job. I don’t know what happens tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday.’
It could, of course, be the end. Yet this was not really a performance deserving of the sack. Liverpool, on the back of impressive wins against Hull, Chelsea and Leicester, were expected to start with energy and tempo. Conversely, Swansea ought to have been tentative. And yet the reverse was true and Liverpool’s start was decidedly slow.
‘Slow is a nice word for it, I think,’ said Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp, who was angry at half-time. ‘It was bad. We were not ready for this game. It’s my responsibility. The body language was not good, the build-up was too static. Swansea did well, which we should say first, but it’s not allowed that it’s that easy to disturb our build-ups, because we had no movements. We knew where the spaces were but we didn’t do well.
‘We were never compact enough for counter-pressing, which makes no sense; we lost a lot of balls. That was the start of the game.’
When Wayne Routledge crossed on five minutes, Borja Baston, making his first Premier League start, should have scored but guided his header over the bar. No matter; on eight minutes Gylfi Sigurdsson’s corner was met by Borja, who headed it across goal. Van der Hoorn helped it on and Leroy Fer was on hand to force it over the line.
Liverpool looked a tepid version of the bubbling side that had thrashed sides. Adam Lallana limped off on 23 minutes with a groin injury, Daniel Sturridge replacing him. Swansea were in control. Sigurdsson played a lovely ball over the top of Joel Matip and Dejan Lovren but Jack Cork just failed to make the necessary connection. Sigurdsson, once more, on 26 minutes landed a free-kick on the forehead of Borja, but again he headed over.
Slowly, though, Liverpool gathered some authority. Sturridge provided another outlet, though he got himself booked for diving when sandwiched between Routledge and Van der Hoorn, unfairly in the view of Klopp. Sadio Mane, out wide, began to tease defenders. It took a superb block by Jordi Amat on 40 minutes to deny him as he shaped to shoot
There was a momentum shift but Swansea were hanging on. It took Klopp’s angry intervention to restore the old Liverpool. On 54 minutes Swansea failed to clear a free-kick allowing Milner to hook a ball into the box and Firmino applied a deft header from six yards.
‘The second half was maybe not brilliant but better,’ said Klopp.
Philippe Coutinho shot just wide on 58 minutes but Swansea rallied, Karius flapping at a Sigurdsson corner. They looked good for a draw if the could avoid an error. They couldn’t. On such human fallibility does the fate of their manager rest.