{"id":2127,"date":"2022-01-03T13:17:40","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T13:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=2127"},"modified":"2022-01-03T13:17:40","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T13:17:40","slug":"is-this-liverpool-team-struggling-with-its-mentality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/is-this-liverpool-team-struggling-with-its-mentality\/","title":{"rendered":"Is This Liverpool Team Struggling With Its Mentality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The match against Chelsea was a ding-dong battle, the sort of thing that people often refer to as being an \u2018excellent example of Premier League football\u2019. Rather than put up with Martin Tyler and Gary Neville, neither of whom should be allowed to commentate on Liverpool matches, I synched my television with BBC Radio 5live\u2019s coverage. Whilst that wasn\u2019t all that much better, given that Karen Carney might as well have been wearing the Chelsea shirt she had during her playing days. The commentators were obsessed with both teams being sloppy in possession, amazed that this could possibly be happening and seemingly unaware of the fact that both sides were suffering thanks to Covid and injuries. It isn\u2019t that they didn\u2019t have a point, but that ignoring mitigating circumstances is a bizarre thing to do if you\u2019re going to make a big fuss about the situation that said mitigating circumstances had caused. Even the players that did make it onto the pitch weren\u2019t right.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Every game where it&#8217;s got a bit hard this season the Reds have just not been able to sort it out and make the result happen.<\/p>\n<p>As good as ever at their very best when battering teams, but as soon as it&#8217;s graft it&#8217;s dropped points now. That&#8217;s the difference from two years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Daniel Austin (@_Dan_Austin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_Dan_Austin\/status\/1477709313858842631?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 2, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>As anyone who <a href=\"www.twitter.com\/andcouldheplay7\">follows me on Twitter<\/a> or reads my pieces on this site will know, I\u2019m a massive Jordan Henderson fan. I think he\u2019s a brilliant player and a phenomenal captain, but he absolutely stunk Stamford Bridge out yesterday. I agree with the people that think that Fabinho Tavares is a superb midfielder, but he wasn\u2019t much better. Both are just getting over illnesses, even if Henderson didn\u2019t test positive for Covid in the end, and I thought it showed. James Milner, meanwhile, has been out injured for a time this season, is only just getting back up to speed and turns thirty-six tomorrow. I thought he did really well to keep N\u2019Golo Kant\u00e9 quiet initially, but once he began to tire, the Frenchman was able to run the game from midfield. Whilst there will be plenty who will disagree, the fact that the manager started a footballing pensioner ahead of Naby Ke\u00efta does not bode well for the Guinean. Having gone 2-0 up, though, Liverpool should have seen the game out, but didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<h2>Too Many Points Dropped From Winning Positions<\/h2>\n<p>In April of 2019, whilst speaking to an American broadcaster, J\u00fcrgen Klopp referred to his Liverpool team as \u2018fucking mentality monsters\u2019. He was referring to the manner in which they kept finding away during their title battle with Manchester City, a battle they would eventually lose. That mentality didn\u2019t stop, however, which was proven when the club came from 3-0 down after the first-leg to beat Barcelona 4-3 on aggregate on their way to winning the Champions League for a sixth time. The mentality carried on the following season too, setting a pace that even Pep Guardiola\u2019s petrostate-fuelled side couldn\u2019t keep up with and finding ways to win time and time again. When football went behind-closed-doors, however, the team began to struggle. After 68 matches unbeaten at Anfield, the team lost 1-0 to Burnley and then kept on losing at home, eventually rallying enough to ensure a top-four finish and Champions League football towards the end of the campaign.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Another 2 dropped from a winning position. Brentford, Brighton, City, Chelsea, Spurs. Level at West Ham and lost as well. The inability to manage game situations have killed Any chance of a title challenge. That is very much that. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Grobbelrevell* (@markbrucerevell) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/markbrucerevell\/status\/1477708027281215503?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 2, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Even the return of crowds doesn\u2019t seem to have sorted out the mentality of this Liverpool team, however. Massive wins against Everton and Manchester United have been great fun to watch and enjoy, but they run the risk of being largely meaningless thanks to points dropped from winning positions on numerous different occasions. We led twice against Brentford but drew with the newly promoted side. We were 2-0 up against Brighton &amp; Hove Albion but ended up having to share the points. We were even ahead twice against Manchester City, only to find ourselves unable to see the game out. Add into that the loss against Leicester City, having battered the Foxes for most of the ninety minutes, and you can see why I\u2019m worried that Liverpool\u2019s mentality has turned from being one of \u2018monsters\u2019 to being one of pussycats. It is perfectly acceptable to lose matches in the Premier League, even when needing to be near-perfect, but draws or losses from winning positions are harder to stomach.<\/p>\n<h2>Something Isn\u2019t Quite Right<\/h2>\n<p>Where I have a degree of sympathy with J\u00fcrgen Klopp and his backroom staff is in the fact that it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where things are going wrong for Liverpool this season. Yes, we\u2019ve only lost two games, but we\u2019ve drawn too many times for a team that has aspirations of winning the Premier League title. Defensively, we\u2019ve looked much more shaky than in our title-winning season, which is odd when you consider that we\u2019ve actually strengthened it. The attack is lacking cohesion in a bizarre manner, partly thanks to the lack of killer instinct of Sadio Man\u00e9 and perhaps because Roberto Firmino is not the force that he once was. Yet it is in the middle of the park where I think the biggest questions need to be asked. I think that the manager is stuck with some players that are getting older and others that he just doesn\u2019t quite trust, as evidence by James Milner starting ahead of Naby Ke\u00efta yesterday. That isn\u2019t a problem that is easily fixed, however.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-cards=\"hidden\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">It feels redundant to talk about Wijnaldum at this stage of the season, but <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> allowed a midfielder who was a retention monster &amp; never injured to leave on a free. Choosing to rely upon aging players who have poor injury histories &amp; piling tonnes more work onto Fabinho. Unwise.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Hari Sethi (@Hari_Sethi) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Hari_Sethi\/status\/1477715314280480773?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 2, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Gini Wijnaldum question will always hover over this current incarnation of a Liverpool squad, largely thanks to the fact that Thiago Alcantara\u2019s fitness problems mean that he isn\u2019t available as much as we need him. I\u2019m sure that the manager would point to the unexpected injuries and absences of Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott as another reason why the midfield isn\u2019t functioning as well as it should, but ultimately we can\u2019t be so dependent on young players if we want to win the league. The struggles of the midfield have permeated throughout the team, which I\u2019m slightly concerned is yet another example of a weak mentality. In the Champions League and title-winning seasons, the team as a whole adapted to whatever challenges it faced and knuckled down to do what was necessary. Now it seems as though we\u2019re too easily beaten, allowing setbacks like Mohamed Salah\u2019s penalty miss against Leicester to define us rather than fortify us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The match against Chelsea was a ding-dong battle, the sort of thing that people often refer to as being an \u2018excellent example of Premier League football\u2019. Rather than put up with Martin Tyler and Gary Neville, neither of whom should be allowed to commentate on Liverpool matches, I synched my television with BBC Radio 5live\u2019s coverage. Whilst that wasn\u2019t all that much better, given that Karen Carney might as well have been wearing the Chelsea shirt she had during her playing days. The commentators were obsessed with both teams being sloppy in possession, amazed that this could possibly be happening [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127"}],"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=2127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2128,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127\/revisions\/2128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}