THERE is a myth that football is entertainment, or that it was once entertaining. We can wear rose-tinted specs when we look at the past — spectacles that are so often false.
When I was about 22, Liverpool played Vitesse Arnhem in two games of football that baffled belief.
Football has never been as dull. Never as artisan. As unartistic.
I was a young man and the football was anything but. But it was football, as much football as anything else can be. Football is the act of 22 players kicking it around a pitch. It cannot always be touched by magic.
Zero is the most important number. Awful football matches are the most important football matches. They remind you of what magic is meant to be.
Football isn’t meant to be this whereas football sometimes just is. It always has had the ability to just be this thing where lads run around and very little happens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxTWZGwsRsI
We need to talk about Jordan Henderson. Is this fair on him or us?
It is clear how he isn’t right; the footballer even whose critics had to acknowledge had the ability to spring around the pitch now lacks that. Everything is laboured.
Henderson was — and is — a better player than his critics ever acknowledged but struggling to turn effectively destroys almost every player.
And yet there he is, toiling away while wearing red, undermining a captaincy in its infancy, a captaincy that isn’t as important as many say it is but which becomes another stick to beat him with. It’s painful viewing at times.
Also painful is Emre Can knocking off and not having enough of the game. The game so quickly becomes one not for him. It’s such a strange thing. He’s too good a player in flashes. He can be a joy along with a puzzle.
Regardless, Liverpool now just need to win one game next Thursday and they progress however dull this was.
Every generation of Liverpool supporter has had to put up with dull but ultimately successful. It will have been the case when Alex Raisbeck was captain.
It was the case when Bob Paisley came to the fore, when Kenny Dalglish was the talisman, when Gerard Houllier ruled the roost.
Lads don’t play spellbinding football every game. It has never been thus, however much we tell ourselves stories.
The key thing was the end justified the means. I’m all for ends. I’m all for means. I’m not for halfway houses. Be victorious. Be glorious. Be both. Never be neither though. That way only sadness lies.
Box it next Thursday. And then no one cares.
Up the boring Reds.
Everyone has to have one mind numbingly unmemorable game which ends up remembering them from time to time. No idea on these Vitesse Arnhem ones thankfully.
There’s a Steve Bruce at home draw (one of the many) when Torres was shit hot but wasn’t playing for whatever reason where Voronin and Dirk play upfront instead. I didn’t truly know the meaning of the words ‘lack of pace’ until then. Yeah… That’s my forgettable game that refuses to forget me.
This Henderson talk going round is beginning to scare me. He’s a good footballer but stripped of his mobility you can’t expect him to be Alonso great to make up for it. Comes into his own and then gets struck down early on in his first season as captain because why wouldn’t he? We’re definitely cursed.
A match of 2 different halves in terms of performance.
1st half Reds played like a team of 40 year olds, uninterested or nervous bunch, and yes, that “lack of pace” thing start to mean more and more. Maybe no experience playing in stadium full of non-stop singing and flag waving fans? Maybe players were confused between Ausberg and Exeter?
2nd half Reds at least played with intent, connection, as a team. Lack of pace was covered with a quicker movement of the ball forward at least.
The only consistency for both halves: German International Can’s ability to do nothing other than just passing back to CBs. Then I looked at our captain Hendo, and he was consistent in being no influence whatsoever too.
It scared me when I was hoping our DM Lucas comes on mid way through first half, at least he makes direct forward passes from his DM position since Klopp came in.
This was identical to a lot of European away games in the 70s and 80s, were we would take a dull 0-0 away and then “do them back at Anfield”. Unfortunately we tend not to “do” teams at Anfield much anymore. I did a long blink in the second half, and missed about 15 minutes. Come on reds, we’re better than this. Aren’t we?
Dire.
I thought Phil and Clyne played well. They had a spark.
I thought the value of having a manager like Klopp was that he would make the players a greater sum of the individual parts – into a team if you will.
I am a believer but a small part of my brain nags and compares Klopp to Rodgers last days. I don’t accept the comment that they are not his players. Leicester did not buy Ranieri “his players” and all that.
A better team would have battered us last night.
Bob’s reluctance to play in Sturridge for that early chance was a critical error.
Moreno thinks he is Gareth Bale. Rodgers was absolutely right to ditch him as left back. Simone made an error that could have been punished. Sturridge looked slow and un interested.
Hendo and Can seem to always pass back or to the side.
Ibe comes on and always gives the ball away – every time. His decision making is poor. I counted four reds in the penalty area one time and Ibe just ducked and dived in and out and gave the ball away.
I think JK should have given some of the younger players a go. The plan to field a strong team with an eye to rest some of them in the second leg backfired. An away goal and we could be out.
At least Klopp in ensuring the current squad get a good chance and at the end of the season every fan can decide for themselves whether the current players are good enough got top four or title.