I watched the whole match again on LFCTV the night before last. With the sound on - first, because I like the Bradley/ Gillespie combo, and always watch the live match on mute. My second reason for watching again was the dissonance I experienced reading post after post in the post-match threads.
In Saturday’s post match meltdown there were countless posts using terms like ‘rubbish’, ‘poor’, ‘pathetic’ and ‘awful’.Other posts suggested Everton players wanted it more, or that we failed to create any real chances, particularly compared to Everton.
Well after the match, reading those comments confused me. But watching it again only reinforced my immediate post match view: for much of that match we battered Everton, except yet again we were let down by poor final ball or a poor finish, or on this occasion, many last ditch defensive blocks or an uncharacteristically fine save by Pickford.
Everton defended well, to give them credit, but they had a measure of luck (as have many other teams this season who got a result against us). In tight games the small margins really do matter, and ‘rub of the green’ can be the difference between winning, drawing and losing.
One of my pet bugbears is the propensity of media pundits and fans to create a post match narrative solely focused on the result, whereby the evidence of your eyes is not to be trusted; the result is sacrosanct, and the win is always ‘deserved’. It’s wrong headed, it’s infuriating, and it’s pervasive.
The post match interview with Klopp was informative. He acknowledged that we played very well up until our habitual failure to convert chances created into goals. Gini too was interviewed; he had the same message - both were at pains to stress that although injuries and bad luck exemplify the season, the players and staff cannot, and must not, resort to victim mentality. Self pity is so easy to succumb to, but Klopp’s message to us, and more crucially the players, is to dismiss it from our minds - it’s self defeating, it’s counter productive, it’s pointless.
On a brighter note, Colin Wanker in an interview yesterday, was asked about social media. In his answer, he referred to Twitter LFC ‘supporters’ posting ‘Klopp out’ stuff, and said he was fed up with idiots with no perspective or patience. He pointed out that the best centreback in the world - the organiser of his defence - has been missing, and you cannot underestimate how critical that has been.
He could of course, not that I’m nitpicking, have included our other first choice centrebacks, and so on. He could have highlighted the importance to our attacking that pacey centrebacks, able to carry the ball into opposition territory and forcing an opponent to engage, have in freeing up a forward. He could have noted the long accurate diagonals now missing...
