Serious question guys, does anyone think that this current period sits by itself as a period of shit, or does this go all the way back to the Villa game and something that hasn’t been right for a longer period?
Pretty much everything has gone against us this year, and we simply can't catch a break (except the injury kind). Our form after restart wasn't great, but our form to begin this season was terrific. 3 wins out of 3 against Leeds, Chelsea, and Arsenal.
The Villa game was crazy, but it came after a freak training collision, players with COVID, etc. Kind of a shock to the system type game.
But we were good after that. Even with the disgraceful decisions and the injuries in the first derby, we were still a good side during those games up until December. But the toll of the injuries, the lack of fans in the stadium, and the loss of the fear factor really did us in. There were warning signs too, with some fairly dodgy performances at places like Brighton and Fulham. We got screwed over at Brighton with the late VAR decision, but we were extremely fortunate that Brighton missed a penalty earlier, and Connolly bottled a 1 on 1. At Fulham, we actually got good decisions from Mariner (refusing to listen to the VAR and not giving a penalty to Fulham and then giving us one on the handball), but we could've been 2 or 3-0 down in the first half with how poor we were.
Everything just came to a head in December. We were clinical against Palace, but things fell off a cliff. The injuries took their toll. In the Newcastle match, Trent was basically playing alongside Phillips when building up, and Newcastle basically let Nat have the ball. The play was so slow, and everything was just a bit off. And when we did create chances, it was like Kenny's last year where nothing would go in. From there on, it's completely spiraled. I can't see how we can hit a high level with 3 CBs injured, Jota injured, Thiago still trying to adapt, Fab now out, etc. And when we do get decisions, like the penalty against City or Leicester's penalty being reversed (both good decisions so not like the refs really gave us that much), we collapsed immediately after anyway due to a combination of bad luck and individual errors. We've conceded so many penalties this year, and while we've received 6 ourselves, we've been hard done by decisions overall, and we can't seem to catch a break whatsoever. And on the off chance we do, we fall apart anyway.
We racked up the wins last few years, but we were especially good at grinding out ugly wins (all the 2-1s and 1-0s the last two years attest to that). It's fine margins football. When you can't get the rub of the decisions, your team is decimated by injuries, and there's no Anfield crowd to give the players a yard, it quickly turns into draws and defeats.
The final kick in the teeth is the fact that we haven't been able to celebrate our title, and the players haven't gotten the appreciation with a full crowd as league champions. The team has been on an incredible trajectory since Klopp took over, and it's probably time to transition some players on as we evolve, but we've never even had a chance to celebrate with everyone. Gini Wijnaldum is one of Klopp's first signings and has been instrumental in our success, and he might end up leaving this club without a chance for a deserved ovation.
It's also hard to contemplate how the future team might look given how awful things have spiraled. We had risen to the top of the footballing pyramid with an amazing team. We were in the best financial shape we'd been in decades. We had improved facilities and even the stadium. Everything was set for a long run of success. Even with the team taking a step back, we were easily in the running for pretty much any top player that can be part of KloppLFC 2.0. Instead, we're likely to be a shit financial situation, compounded by the very real possibility of no European football. It puts a complete damper on how the team can improve and evolve going forward.
The hope for us to enjoy the remainder of this season is the CL and this team hopefully improving in key aspects. There's a lot of playing time to be won over, and players ranging from Curtis Jones to Ozan Kabak to Diogo Jota can look to this as opportunities to establish themselves as key players at this club going forward. Under Klopp, we've always been good at getting the good players that have world class potential, so if we begin to right the ship, players fight for their places, and we get a few new faces in, I'm sure we'll be more optimistic this summer and beyond.
But it's hard to enjoy it at the moment. The CL may be a long shot but you never know...
