A goalless draw at Selhurst Park was – in a approach – reflective of a disjointed, predictable marketing campaign, one which now necessitates a cussed streak.
For Jurgen Klopp and his gamers, the stalemate in opposition to Crystal Palace represented the basic one step to the facet, after victories over Everton and Newcastle had supplied two current steps ahead.
The trick on Saturday night for Liverpool was to push their midweek Champions League torment to the again of the thoughts and to get again to the job of enhancing their home league fortunes. Simpler mentioned than performed although.
Alternatives to attain, none higher than Mohamed Salah rattling the Palace crossbar and possibly Diogo Jota heading in opposition to the publish from an acute angle have been offset by the potential to concede.
This was a sport that would have gone both approach with out ever breaking into something that may imply it lasts lengthy within the reminiscence, throughout a season that stubbornly refuses to interrupt into something that may stay lengthy within the consciousness.
No Wilfried Zaha to trouble us along with his tempo, energy, and direct nature in a stadium during which Klopp had loved seven successive wins, in opposition to a workforce that hasn’t picked up a victory of their very own since New Yr’s Eve, and never one on dwelling soil since October.
Whereas all of the pre-match signposts pointed towards a formulaic three factors for the guests – not less than they’d have performed to a assured Liverpool classic – the result was nonetheless probably the most predictable of the season.
A base to construct from
Eight league video games with out a win for Palace now, but 5 of these have led to attracts, a workforce that harbours a objective distinction that’s bettered by solely two of the eight sides that sit beneath them in twelfth.
Whereas Patrick Viera and his gamers ought to rightly maintain a involved eye on the growing relegation battle that’s effervescent away over their shoulder, in the event that they maintain their heads they need to be capable of show they’ve sufficient about them to remain out of the churn. It’s not at all times simple to show the speculation of a formulaic three factors right into a win in opposition to such opposition.
Two factors dropped or one level gained, this one is simple to class as the previous slightly than the latter, one thing that Klopp mused on in his post-match interviews when studying the eyes of his interrogators and his gamers, that this draw felt like a defeat to them.
To be honest, it’s a completely comprehensible sentiment on a day when Jordan Henderson managed to dam that seemingly goal-bound Trent Alexander-Arnold free kick and we have been additionally denied by the body of the objective.
We have been a sufferer of Palaces’ stubbornness on a night when our hosts acquired bolder as the sport wore on, however we are able to be taught a lesson from it. Take a foul evening within the Champions League out of the equation, and Liverpool have proven fleeting glimpses of a cussed streak of their very own.
On Match of the Day, Danny Murphy contended that regardless of us protecting one at Selhurst Park, he couldn’t see how Liverpool might count on to realize clear sheets, regardless that if he had seemed it up earlier than the BBC’s cameras kicked in, he’d have discovered that this one was our third in succession within the Premier League, our fourth within the final 5 league video games.
Regardless of his clumsiness, I do get the place Murphy was coming from. We glance weak to an ariel ball at instances, we don’t shut rapidly sufficient on the flanks – a side-effect of your full-backs being overtly attacking ones.
We’re additionally nonetheless inclined to creating careless particular person errors, this time Alexander-Arnold laying in Mateta, who fortunately couldn’t take benefit. We do have a base to work from, nonetheless. Chopping out the unforced errors must be our subsequent job.
Which strategy to goal?
By way of placing the ball in Palace’s web, regardless of the expertise we nonetheless had at our disposal, the playing cards we have been dealt by way of line-up choice sure our fingers to a level.
A midfield with each Henderson and James Milner was at all times going to scale back the creativity in central areas, whereas the lack of Darwin Nunez made us much less of a power of nature within the last third, with Jota realistically half a dozen video games away from discovering his full stride.
Into March we now transfer, which is able to hand us a Madrid mission to show a Champions League level to ourselves, however extra importantly 4 league video games that may kill or treatment our hopes of a top-four end and a return to the Champions League for 2023/24.
Wolves will drift into Anfield on Wednesday evening, once more, with additional visits of Man United and Fulham on the agenda, plus an added journey to the south coast to tackle a Bournemouth facet that we put 9 targets previous earlier within the season and who will need to redress some stability.
Stubbornness can be key, as these 4 opponents are break up into two outlined demographics, with Wolves and Bournemouth amid the relegation bun combat, whereas Man United and Fulham – each of whom sit above us – have loftier ambitions.
What they do all have in widespread, nonetheless, is that they every have one thing targeted to combat for, whereas we nonetheless want to present ourselves one thing genuinely tangible to goal for.
An important month lies in wait.
