Liverpool should only look at themselves after meek defeat to Manchester City. There can be no excuses after similar losses this season…
IN THE EARLY 1990s I worked for a publishing house, selling exhibition space. Every Monday, just before lunch, the Sales Director would come to the sales floor and do a bit of training. It was the usual fayre. Objection handling, closing, call structure etc. I sat through it once a week for two years.
One thing that struck me most was his aversion to the term ‘Yes, but …’
‘Yes, but …’ weakens any argument as you’re accepting a premise before you dispel it. ‘I’ve got no money to buy whatever you’re selling, Karl.’ ‘Yes, but it’s really good.’ That doesn’t take away the significance of the larger issue.
Manchester City battered Liverpool yesterday. Absolutely destroyed them. It might be the easiest game they’ll play this season as the Reds offered the square root of sod all in any area of the pitch. The defence was often flat-footed, the midfield overrun and the forward line more of an idea than a threat.
‘Yes, but the offside goal?’
Of course, it’s a goal. Of course, Chris Kavanagh was weak enough to do what his VAR mates told him to do. Of course, it’s the same cabal of officials who accepted lucrative games in the UAE by Manchester City’s owners and of course, the PGMOL run the game more on narrative than actual rules these days, but …
But…
Liverpool were abject again and deserved a bigger beating. The keeper saves a pen and only Conor Bradley and Dominik Szoboszlai can hold their heads up, but the rest were rotten. Again. Konate, the forward line …
I thought Brentford was the nadir. I was tempted to cut and paste my email after that dog of a performance, change the team names and send it in as we learned nothing from that dismal night. No fight, no heart, no second-ball wins, no press. The Villa and Madrid games all but undone thanks to a Liverpool side keen to go out and just do nothing to a side who wanted the win.
Manchester City played Liverpool the way Liverpool played Real Madrid. Reputations meant nothing. A straight showdown. Them and us. ‘Us’ didn’t want to know.
And the PGMOL disgrace meant nothing. Not really. Yes, it could have lifted us and forced a different outcome, but the saved penalty didn’t do that when it should, so I’m not convinced. Did Liverpool come out roaring after the goal was disallowed? No. Liverpool were still mouse-meek.
You can’t always run to ‘Yes, but.’ You’ve got to stand up and fight harder — something we’ve steadfastly refused to do over the past few away games.
This is not to say that the standard of refereeing doesn’t need addressing. It really does, particularly as the whole thing is open to criticism about ‘vested interests’ whether that’s the case or not. Even the fact that it looks dodgy should be cause for concern to the PGMOL, but it’s hard to scale an ivory tower and have them discuss it.
No, it’s just that I want Liverpool to play an aggressive, focused game regardless of having hard lines. I’ve said this so often this season. I want us to stop feeling sorry for ourselves when we concede. We sulk more than Veruca Salt.
I hate ‘Yes, but.’ When Liverpool had Igor Biscan sent-off against Marseille in 2004, the Liverpool manager spent half-time analysing the footage to see if it were a red card. To what end I’ll never know. The subsequent pen made it 1-1. We lost 2-1. ‘Yes, but …’
We should be better than this. We should earn the right to play. City and Brentford were awful.
You can’t play two good games (one genuinely brilliant) and then knock off for the third game.
It’s not just the PGMOL that should be addressing issues.
