I'm struggling to remember a Liverpool player that was afforded more time and patience while producing so little and being unavailable for so long. He is not a scapegoat, he just isn't the player we hyped him up to be.
Arguably not his fault, though - he was a bit of a 'hipsters' player' back in that 2016-'18 period, which allowed some hype to build, and (I think I'm right in saying) he was playing a different role in that RBL side...? From what I've seen he appeared to have a lot more attacking freedom, whereas our midfielders are expected to have a lot more functional responsibility.
Availability issues are of course a concern, but I don't recall many occasions where he's stood out as poor (I know that's not the level we're looking for) in our team. People have pointed at him a common presence in first-halves against both Villa & Real this season, but much of the season overall has been a shit-show and I think that two game sample is too small from which to decide that he was a causal factor in those performances.
Personally, I think that the substitution on Tuesday was one where excessive reading into it is just an inevitable & unfortunately side-effect, and I hope to see him back on the pitch in the next couple of games - possibly a start against Newcastle next weekend.
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Caveats about small samples apply here, too, but this cropped up a few weeks ago*:
https://twitter.com/topimpacat/status/1375847469968461824*Edited this to be separate to the prior comments. I should have posted as two separate ones really - the last line and graphic were very specifically a response to "producing so little". It's
some, limited evidence that seems to support the idea that it's his availability rather than his ability that is holding him back and is why patience is wearing thin.