Liverpool (a) Back to the Future
7:15pm Everton unchanged, Liverpool resting two of their three most attacking players, it was either a very silly decision by Klopp or he knew what most of us already knew. It was hard to watch, even if Everton had scored four goals, Liverpool would have and should have scored seven or eight. My kopite friends keep talking about ‘levels’ and they aren’t wrong, if the board don’t make the right decision, there could be a division’s difference between these two clubs next season. Liverpool mercifully didn’t get out of second gear in the second half, there is little in life I would be grateful to them for, but sparing a massacre last night is one.
Playing a back 3 with a high line vs Liverpool is suicidal, even with the changes they made. Where was the logical thinking in that? It’s how they play - that wasn’t going to be a surprise. Having your wingbacks so high up that Sidibe was pretty much your furthest forward player as Mane breaks down the left for their first goal - suicidal.
I’m not going to recount all the goals, you don’t deserve to be put through it all again. My key takeaways from our defending last night were -
*Jordan Pickford has caught Claudio Bravo syndrome, every shot on target goes in.
*Players asking each other what they were doing after every goal went in.
*No communication between the back four and midfield.
*Not one player trying to get into any other players to show any sort of leadership.
But most of that you already know.
We score two goals at Anfield, a rarity in itself. The first was a collectors item albeit from a ironic perspective, an Everton defender reacting first to a second ball breaking in the box... The second goal was another glimpse of the capability of this team, just like his goals vs Wolves, Southampton and Leicester, Richarlison can be deadly in the box, and the build up play for all of those goals was excellent. But the mess behind Richarlison undermines most if not all of his hard work and endeavour. That’s 16 goals we a have scored in 15 games. In reality this team is capable of a much higher return, and should be achieving one.
Poor in game management, awful substitutions, stubbornness, and illogical team selections have been the death of Silva’s Everton this season. You can cite VAR and you can blame injuries too, but the team is weak, it looks unfit, they cannot see a game out. Losses vs Brighton and Leicester this season and especially Newcastle last season encapsulate these facts. Whether there is an arrogance with these players that makes them think they can just turn up at the likes of an already relegated Fulham or newly promoted Norwich, Sheff Utd and Villa and think they can get the result is probable, but the manager needed to break this bad attitude, and he hasn’t, and it has cost him his job.
The manger selects the team, the tactics and makes the in game decisions. Regardless of how you feel or what your views are about the off-field ‘issues’ there are at the club, what happens on the pitch is the responsibility of the manager. I have advocated for Silva and and I have supported him, willed it to work, used VAR and injuries to mentally give him more time, but your eyes don’t lie and what you see is a manager not able to turn this around in its current state and it can’t and won’t continue.
So apparently it’s David Moyes and Tim Cahill, the finer details I don’t know as of yet, but that is the very strong rumour. I messaged Alan Myers last night asking if Silva would go Wednesday/Thursday? “ I would say so” was the replyI had back. He’s also wrote a piece on the Sky Sports website about the imminent change that is coming. Also if you haven’t seen the 90 second clip of Andy Gray doing the rounds from Bein sports last night I urge you to watch it. He is completely crest fallen, he is showing the hurt we all are feeling, he can barely look at the camera as he’s talking. For all Moyes’s faults, and I’m not his biggest fan, he will bring what these players need. He will bring organisation, fitness, hard work, and he will shame these players into giving a performance.
It’s the worse situation we could possibly find ourselves in, having to go back six years in order to move forward in the summer. I genuinely hope on a personal level that Silva isn’t in the dugout for the Chelsea game, I hope whatever needs sorting out with Moyes is done today, even if it means Duncan Ferguson or David Unsworth taking the game Saturday. For all Silva’s failings he doesn’t need to be subjected to a mutinous Goodison Park, what’s done is done and we need to move on.
By Matthew Barry
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