LIVERPOOL IN DANGER OF GOING 'EASY-OSEY' WITH TITLE IN THEIR GRASP
JÜRGEN Klopp’s side showed signs of slackening in their defeat at Watford and it could cost them their European crown
THERE’S a phrase Joe Fagan was fond of, one he used repeatedly in his diary detailing the 1983-84 season as Liverpool completed a hattrick of league titles: “easy-osey.”
It could happen in victory and it could happen in defeat, but it meant the sense he had that the team weren’t quite at it, that confidence was in danger of tipping into complacency, that the edge and the intensity that were so characteristic of that Liverpool side weren’t quite there.
Defeats rarely have a single origin, but there’s little doubt what Fagan would have been saying about Liverpool after they lost at Watford on Saturday.
Of course there were other factors. Watford were excellent, for one, well-organised and rejuvenated by the return of Kiko Femenia and Ismaïla Sarr.
It’s no coincidence that their recent downturn in form has coincided with the absence of their right flank. And Sarr, with his intelligence of movement and pace drifting in from the right, was the perfect weapon for exposing Liverpool as
Troy Deeney dominated Dejan Lovren.
The way the full-backs attack and the space behind them will always be a potential vulnerability for Liverpool, but that was exacerbated by the way Virgil van Dijk found himself caught between covering behind Andy Robertson to his left, and trying to help out Lovren to his right.
He ended up having one of his poorest games in a Liverpool shirt, by the end seemingly so rattled and troubled by the possibility of being by Sarr that he was giving him a couple of yards, letting him have time to turn.
Would it have been different had Joe Gomez been fit enough to start? Perhaps. Might Jürgen Klopp, in hindsight, have been better off selecting Joel Matip to replace Gomez rather than Lovren? Possibly.
It’s not the first time Lovren has been bullied by an opponent: there’s a reason Dejan Vu became a cliche. But while Lovren was outmuscled by Deeney, he was far from the only issue.
And perhaps it might have been different had Jordan Henderson been there in midfield, cajoling, shouting, driving everybody to maintain their standards. Or perhaps not. Liverpool have not quite been at their best since the winter break, and arguably since their exceptional performance in beating Leicester City4-0 on Boxing Day. Such things are relative, of course, and Liverpool did win nine in a row in the league before Saturday. Nobody’s talking about crisis or panic or serious slumps, rather a marginal tightening; Liverpool have still been by far the best side in the country in that time, just not quite as good as they had been. The break, though, perhaps compounded whatever downturn there had been.
Last season, Liverpool suffered their critical stutter (four draws in six league games) after a 10-day break, the result of their not being involved in the FA Cup fourth round.
This season, since the 14-day winter break – during which they fielded what was essentially a youth team against Shrewsbury in the FA Cup – they’ve scraped wins over Norwich and West Ham and lost at Atlético Madrid and Watford. Rhythm, perhaps, is more important to Klopp’s sides than some others.
But there was also at Vicarage Road that sense of easy-oseyness. It’s the blight of all successful sides. When you get used to victory, when you’ve won 18 league games in a row, how do you persuade yourself that you have to keep fighting, that maintaining full intensity is essential?
When the league title is as good as won and all that remains are records, it’s only natural there should be some ebbing of the fury. Or perhaps, as Klopp suggested the pressure of remaining unbeaten has itself been an inhibitor.
And so the chance to be only the third Invincibles side in English history is gone – a reminder of just how extraordinary Arsenal’s achievement in 2003-04 was.
But in a sense invincibility is a quirk, a curio: too much can happen over 38 games, even in the super club era, for any side realistically to set out to be unbeaten. Liverpool will win the league.
Seven wins from their final 10 games will make them only the second side ever to amass 100 points. Seven wins and a draw will give them the points record. But those are details. The trophy and the end of a 30-year wait are what is important.
As is the Champions League – and in that regard, the defeat by Atlético is potentially far more important than the one at Watford.
In December, Liverpool looked by some distance the best side in the world; retaining the Champions League, far more than Premier League points records, would be the way to prove it.
Attached as Arsenal fans are to invincibility, and absurd as counter-factuals can feel, there is an argument that a better season would have been to switch one of their 2-1 league wins over Chelsea with their 2-1 home defeat by them in the Champions League.
That would have put them into a semi-final against Monaco, with José Mourinho’s Porto to come in the final. Win that, and not only would Arsenal have had a Champions League, but the whole Mourinho at Chelsea nightmare (it was 14 games before Arsène Wenger managed to beat him) might never have happened.
Records are all very well, but trophies are probably a truer gauge of greatness. All sides are allowed their dips, but if Liverpool are to cap this season with glory in Istanbul, if they are to match the achievement of 1984 by adding European success to the league title, the easy-oseyness has to stop.