{"id":1442,"date":"2019-02-05T16:47:06","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T16:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=1442"},"modified":"2019-02-05T16:47:06","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T16:47:06","slug":"liverpool-are-bottling-it-because-of-our-weak-squad-arent-we","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/liverpool-are-bottling-it-because-of-our-weak-squad-arent-we\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool Are \u2018Bottling It\u2019 Because Of Our \u2018Weak Squad\u2019. Aren\u2019t We?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The problem with being involved in a title race without having won the big prize for nearly thirty years is that none of us know how to react. Go to Anfield for the Bournemouth match and you\u2019ll see that the old heads are just as willing to let nerves affect them as younger ones. The atmosphere for the Leicester match should have been rocking, but instead it was nervy almost from the get-go. We have no idea how to handle being in our best position to win the title since the last time we actually won the top-flight, so heads are going all over the place. The mad thing is, there\u2019s still about a third of the season to go. People referring to this as the \u2018run-in\u2019 are putting more pressure on than there really should be at this stage. Had we won all thirteen of our opening fixtures nobody would be saying that was the title sewn up, so it shouldn\u2019t be lost because we drew our fifteenth and fourteenth remaining games.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Liverpool are just the fifth team in Premier League history to have 62 points or more after 25 games of the season.<\/p>\n<p>All of the previous four have gone on to win the title. &#x1f61c; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yXqUZYul2u\">pic.twitter.com\/yXqUZYul2u<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Squawka Football (@Squawka) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Squawka\/status\/1092546751179960320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 4, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>There are also plenty of people happily ignoring that Manchester City and Tottenham are both going at a pace rarely seen from teams in second and third place in the Premier League. At the same point last season, Manchester City drew with Burnley at Turf Moor but nobody was throwing their toys out of the pram in the City support-base because they were thirteen points clear. Had they been on 62 points at the end of the game, as well are now, they\u2019d still have been six points clear of Manchester United and feeling comfortable. To give it some context, we have more points than the Red Devils did at this points in 1993-1994, when they went on to amass the most points of Alex Ferguson\u2019s career at the club, yet some are reacting like it\u2019s a team that that has lost five on the bounce rather than drawn two. This Liverpool team has set an incredible pace and has been unfortunate that two other sides have kept up with it. There\u2019s still a long way to go, so why are people reacting as they are?<\/p>\n<h2>\u2019Bottling It\u2019? Don\u2019t Be So Ridiculous<\/h2>\n<p>At the time of writing, Liverpool are only behind Manchester City last season and Chelsea in both 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 in terms of starts to a season. We\u2019re better than Manchester United in 2012-2013, when they were nine points clear of City at the same point in the campaign. We\u2019re better than Arsenal\u2019s Invincibles, who had one point less than us and were five points clear of United after twenty-five games. To really drill the point home, we\u2019re two points better off than Chelsea were in 2016-2017 when the eventually won it with 93 points. At the same stage that season, Antonio Conte\u2019s side were eight points clear of Manchester City.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-cards=\"hidden\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">If we use the mean result and drop half the points in half the time (7 in 13), we&#8217;d finish on 94, meaning we either win it with that or everyone uses that points total as an example of &#8220;bottling it&#8221; for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Colin Cockchops MBE (@iamsircolin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/iamsircolin\/status\/1092761700972089344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 5, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The point that I\u2019m trying to make is that we are playing at a level that is close to unprecedented and are seeing our lead slip away at the top not because we\u2019re \u2018bottling it\u2019 but because the chasing pack are going at an insane rate incomparable to pretty much any other season since football was invented in 1992. The idea that we\u2019re \u2018bottling it\u2019 is laughable to say the least. It is entirely possible that we could finish the season with 93 points, which is a tally that would have won the league in pretty much any other season apart from last year, and miss out on the title because of the rate that City and Spurs are going at. You don\u2019t \u2018bottle\u2019 something by doing it better than any other side bar one or two.<\/p>\n<h2>The Squad Is \u2018Weak\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>This is something that I think is an interesting take and is one that I at least have a little bit more sympathy for. The reality is that there are deficiencies in our squad. I do not think, for example, that we should be looking at a bench that contains Divock Origi and Daniel Sturridge any more, nor should we have Adam Lallana in the starting line-up. I\u2019ve got nothing against any of them and I was one of Lallana\u2019s fiercest proponents when J\u00fcrgen Klopp first arrived at the club. I have also always been an advocate of Daniel Sturridge and think the narrative that he is \u2018lazy\u2019 is moronic bordering on racist. Yet it\u2019s also true that they look like yesterday\u2019s men when put into this Liverpool team, with Lallana slowing every attack down and Sturridge\u2019s pace no longer an attribute.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">You don&#8217;t want to be too damning of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> considering they&#8217;ve still got a three-point lead at the top of the league but tonight just showed for me that they don&#8217;t have the squad to win it. Some good fortune required between now and May if they&#8217;re going to do it.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 David Lynch (@LynchStandard) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LynchStandard\/status\/1092541550616285184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 4, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>For me, though, it\u2019s the defence where questions seriously need to be asked. I spent the summer screaming for us to sort our centre-back situation out and I was widely shouted down. \u2018We have four centre-backs, why buy another for them to spend the majority of the season on the bench?\u2019 was one of the replies I received. \u2018Matip\u2019s a perfectly good fourth-choice\u2019 was another. However, the problem as I saw it was that we were heading into a season with a twenty-one-year-old as our part of our first-choice pairing, being backed up by two players in Dejan Lovren and Joel Matip who had what could best be described as \u2018patchy\u2019 injury histories. Add into that the Croatian\u2019s exploits in the World Cup and the serious injury in Gomez\u2019s past and Matip was never likely to be \u2018just\u2019 a fourth-choice centre-back.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_173\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-173\" class=\"size-large wp-image-173\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dejan-Lovren-of-Liverpool_EUO_mooinblack-shutterstock-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dejan-Lovren-of-Liverpool_EUO_mooinblack-shutterstock-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dejan-Lovren-of-Liverpool_EUO_mooinblack-shutterstock-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dejan-Lovren-of-Liverpool_EUO_mooinblack-shutterstock.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-173\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">mooinblack \/ shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I was never advocating for the club to keep all of them and go out and buy a fifth defender. What I was saying was that Gomez has a history of serious injury, has missed numerous games since returning from that injury with other niggles and problems and was essentially supposed to be both one half of our first-choice centre-back pairing <strong>and<\/strong> our right-back cover. We were asking his body to go through immense strain at a still relatively young age and then depending on two injury prone defenders to be available as cover should either he or Virgil van Dijk pick up an injury or a suspension. There would, of course, have been no guarantee that another defender would have been available had they come in in the summer, but one without a history of missing games regularly would have been more likely to be available.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Every team has a bad spell throughout the season and were going through ours now. Look at city without fernandinho, lost two games. We&#8217;ve got several injuries to key players including TAA and Wijnaldum. Biggest loss however, is Gomez and we aren&#8217;t as good defensively without him.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Callum Webster (@Cal190691) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Cal190691\/status\/1092543326304288768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 4, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m also not sure I buy into the narrative that bringing another defender in would have curtailed Gomez\u2019s development. J\u00fcrgen Klopp is a manager who likes a horses for courses approach, so between playing right-back and in the middle of the defence depending on the game, injuries and suspensions, I think the former Charlton man would have got plenty of minutes but without the necessity to push his body too far, too fast. The exact nature of the injuries that have ruled out Matip, Lovren and Gomez at times this season weren\u2019t predictable, but the fact that they would miss chunks of games most certainly was. You can probably add Trent Alexander-Arnold into that, too, because the right-back is also young, with a developing body that is being put under huge amount of stress and strain with the game time that\u2019s being asked of him.<\/p>\n<h2>All Is Doomed. The Title Is City\u2019s To Lose<\/h2>\n<p>There\u2019s one reading of my squad assessment that says that we\u2019re doomed. Some will doubtless read it and think that I\u2019m being unfair on the club, that even Manchester City use centre-backs and midfielders as cover for their fullbacks at times. There\u2019s probably some truth in that, in all honesty. I have no desire whatsoever to sit here and slate the club. There are plenty of mitigating factors for what\u2019s going on at the moment, not least of which is an unfortunate coincidence of timing of injuries and illness hitting the squad. According to reports, James Milner was so unwell yesterday that he travelled separately to the rest of the team but couldn\u2019t miss the game because our options were so limited. I do think that the club should\u2019ve done more to deal with the defence in the summer and I\u2019m also concerned by Klopp\u2019s faith in players that don\u2019t necessarily deserve it, but even with all of that in mind we\u2019re still setting a pace that would have seen us as clear leaders in pretty much any other campaign.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Can\u2019t believe we don\u2019t have a squad of 50 international players so we can cope with multiple injuries like absolutely nobody in world football.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Michael Lennon (@Nick_Vanhelsing) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Nick_Vanhelsing\/status\/1092543405819904000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 4, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an absolute nonsense to suggest that the title race is over. We sit three points clear of Manchester City and even when they beat Everton they\u2019ll only be ahead of us on goal difference whilst we\u2019ll have a game in hand. There are plenty of twists and turns left before the season is over. You\u2019d have thought when Pep Guardiola\u2019s side lost to Crystal Palace that he\u2019d have laid down a marker to say that didn\u2019t happen again, but they lost to Leicester City. Certainly the loss to the Foxes will have seen a line drawn in the sand, only for them to lose to Newcastle United. I am far from convinced that they won\u2019t drop any more points this season, so the idea that the title is theirs to lose isn\u2019t one that I buy in to.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en-gb\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">If <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> don\u2019t win the league this season they are going to have had a brilliant crack at it. That is all anyone can ask. It feels like every single league game is a final right now &#8211; we can\u2019t let the emotion of get in the way &#8211; keep calm, work hard and see where it takes us.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Si Steers (@sisteers) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sisteers\/status\/1092764751803891712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">5 February 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The reality is that most of us spend every season saying that all we\u2019d like is for the club to be involved in a title race at the end of the campaign. Here we are three points clear at the top with thirteen games remaining and loads of the fanbase have decided it\u2019s a time to be miserable. We might not win the league, but it\u2019s looking very likely that this will be the best points tally amassed by any Liverpool team in the Premier League era. Draws with teams like West Ham and Leicester City would be respectable most of the time, but the feeling of desperately needing to win every game means it\u2019s too much for some people to handle. If you\u2019re going to Anfield on Saturday don\u2019t take nerves with you, take a sense of enjoyment. You might be feeling let down, but this is the best team you\u2019ve watched since 1992. Let\u2019s spend the last half a dozen games saying thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The problem with being involved in a title race without having won the big prize for nearly thirty years is that none of us know how to react. Go to Anfield for the Bournemouth match and you\u2019ll see that the old heads are just as willing to let nerves affect them as younger ones. The atmosphere for the Leicester match should have been rocking, but instead it was nervy almost from the get-go. We have no idea how to handle being in our best position to win the title since the last time we actually won the top-flight, so heads [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1443,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442\/revisions\/1443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}