MILNER HAS A SPOT OF BOTHER AS REDS BLOW IT AT ANFIELD AGAIN
WHEREVER Liverpool finish at the end of this strange Premier League season, Jurgen Klopp already knows he has a problem to fix. As peculiar as it sounds, this season they have made it far too comfortable for opponents at Anfield.
The days of early season — when they scored 15 goals in defeating Leicester, Hull and Watford — seem long ago. In recent times, Liverpool’s performances at home have been characterised not by goals but by difficulty in finding a way past blanket defences fielded by unambitious visitors.
Yesterday was one for those who like statistics. The first penalty miss by James Milner for seven-and-a-half years. Liverpool’s fourth game — including a two-legged EFL Cup semi-final — against Southampton this season without scoring a goal.
More pertinent, though, is that since the middle of January, Liverpool have taken just two points from home games against Swansea, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Southampton. If they do not qualify for the Champions League, that will be why. There is nothing sophisticated about what the more modest teams do when they come to Anfield. They just defend. When Liverpool play teams trying to win, they do very well. On those days there are spaces to exploit.
It is the teams with limited ambition who trouble them. Klopp’s attacking football relies on his players finding space in the final third. When they cannot do so, Liverpool struggle to find another way and that leads to afternoons like this, games with hardly any chances, games that see Liverpool blunted in a way that did not seem possible in August and September. Next season, Klopp must find a cure, whether they are playing in the Champions League or not.
The Liverpool manager must get more pace into his team and he must buy a centre forward who gives his team a focal point.
Few sides in the country are more impotent than Liverpool at set-pieces and corners, for example, and Klopp must realise how important those situations can be in English football if you have the right players.
And so to yesterday’s big talking point: Milner’s missed penalty. As he left the field at the end, Milner raised his hand to the Kop by way of an apology. The Liverpool left back knew the enormity of his error, if that is what it was. It was not a bad penalty and Milner last missed one playing for Aston Villa in 2009, so he knows what he is doing from 12 yards.
Equally, it was not a perfect kick — maybe a foot inside where he would have wished — and this is what allowed Southampton goalkeeper Fraser Forster to dive low to his right and turn the ball away with a firm hand. It was a very good save to cap what was a very good, efficient and organised display from the big goalkeeper. He looks to have everything he needs.
Forster may also feel he won an important psychological battle with Milner in the build-up to the kick, awarded for what seemed a pretty inadvertent handball by Jack Stephens.
As the arguments about Bobby Madley’s decision subsided and Milner waited to take his kick, Forster twice approached him to stand almost forehead to forehead, disturbing the turf on the penalty spot on both occasions.
It was a strange, unnecessary thing to do. Had Madley seen it, Forster would probably have been booked. But Madley did not see it because he was too busy cautioning Portuguese defender Cedric for dissent and James Ward-Prowse for delaying the penalty by messing about on the goalline.
So Forster got away with it and made a good save. It was not a good look, however, and maybe it is something referees will be wise to watch for the next time he faces a penalty.
Some supporters are oblivious to gamesmanship in the modern game,
but on the whole we shouldn’t be. Some things cross the line and this certainly did.
It was not the reason Liverpool failed to win, however. They failed to win because they failed to create proper chances. The penalty itself came out of nothing in the 63rd minute and before that Liverpool had hardly threatened Forster’s goal at all.
They managed only three longrange shots in the first half — two from Emre Can and one from Philippe Coutinho — and only after Klopp changed formation and threw on Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana and 6ft 3in Marko Grujic late in the game did they look remotely dangerous.
Sturridge was particularly sharp and brought Liverpool an edge they had lacked. One turn away from defenders on the edge of the penalty area with 12 minutes left opened up space and his toe-poke may have found the net had it not been straight at the goalkeeper.
Grujic also came close, two minutes into added time. A cross from the left found the Serbian arriving from deep and his header was powerful enough to bring an athletic save from Forster under the bar.
At the end there were boos and whistles for the referee, but he did not deserve them. This was not Madley’s fault, nor Milner’s fault, nor even Forster’s fault.
This was Liverpool’s fault, a collective failure. The problem is Klopp’s to solve this summer.