EACH and every week we wait for a reaction from Liverpool, for the muscle memory to kick in and for wounded pride to recharge the legs and have them tear into beleaguered opponents once more. Not giving them a second to settle. Harrying and scavenging for every ball, and when possession is won having the wherewithal to inflict devastating and swift damage.
At their best, Jurgen Klopp’s creation was a carnival of organized chaos, as thrilling as they were feared. And, give or take a temporary dip, they were at their best for several seasons.
So each and every week we anticipate this monster awakening if we’ve backed them, or brace ourselves for the prospect if we haven’t, only then Fun Bobby from Friends walks through the door, once a party animal, now merely a husk of a human being.
Liverpool have conceded 28 league goals this term, which is two more than the entirety of last season. They have gone behind on 12 occasions, which equals last season’s tally. Up front, Mo Salah has not had a shot on target for four consecutive games while Darwin Nunez has failed to score post-Qatar. Cody Gakpo meanwhile has been airdropped into proceedings, entrusted to find his feet while team-mates are losing their heads. He deserves sympathy for that.
The midfield is the worst of it, so recently a mighty industrial heart of a great team it has become an empty belly in need of nourishment. It gets by-passed too easily. It has become ordinary.
While in defence spaces open up akin to chasms and individual gaffes are almost expected. It’s been like a horror-show back there at times, though the possible return of Virgil Van Dijk this week is encouraging news in that regard.
Yet, from all of Liverpool’s startling failings it is their propensity to fall behind that details where they’re at presently, with slow starts previously anathema to them. Ten times this term in the league alone they have been breached inside 20 minutes and this suggests a dispirited side, shot of endeavour and fight, who can’t even fake it before they break it.
Surely we can expect more intensity this Monday evening, under the Anfield lights in a frenetic Merseyside derby? If not a return to the Liverpool of old, at the very least we can envisage players going with runners and challenges having sufficient bite but then again, wasn’t the same said of their trip to Molineux last weekend? After losing their last two away games, both times to three goals, the expectation was that the Reds would be suitably riled, putting in a wholly committed performance regardless of the result.
In the event they were listless and lost, barely reaching double-figures in the tackle-count and once again conceding three, this time to a team that had found the net every 150 minutes to that point.
Maybe then, this is who Liverpool are now? Maybe this is the new norm? If so, it’s both unimaginable and occurring before our very eyes.
Understandably, the velocity of the decline has been a very bitter pill for Liverpool fans to swallow, and should it be further proven against Everton of all teams, that presumably would be unbearable.
The Reds have lost just once in their last 27 meetings with a neighbour they’ve delighted in outclassing in recent years, regularly so, but it’s hard to see them doing likewise this time out, as the Toffees look to shake off a torrid campaign and start anew.
What can be anticipated from the visitors on Monday is the same Everton that rattled Arsenal’s gilded cage last week – assuming Dominic Calvert-Lewin is available and currently he’s 50/50 – but bolstered by a further seven days of being Sean Dyched in training.
They will be compact, resilient, and a genuine threat at set-pieces, which incidentally is an area in which Liverpool have notably struggled with this season. In fact, they will likely display every quality that starkly contrasts with their lowly league placing and form that amounts to nine league defeats in their last 12.
As possible derby heroes go, another assist for Dwight McNeil cannot be ruled out, the winger set to thrive after being reunited with Dyche, while a broader consideration concerns their vastly improved midfield trio of Gueye, Onana and Doucoure. They have it in them to be the mighty industrial heart behind a famous result here.
BET OF THE DAY
A bet of the day is to back the draw. Remarkably, 41.3% of Merseyside derbies since 2000 have ended in stalemate. A sharing of the points seems to be real value.
STE’S SIXFOLD
A Merseyside Derby is not one for the fainthearted, with fortune often favoring the brave. Why not combine Ste’s tips into a tailor-made Bet Builder?
A £10 stake potentially returns £1,110 – fancy it?
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