That’s the reason people love football, it’s the reason so much money goes into the sport, for nights like that, for games like that. Even Martin Tyler was getting excited about Liverpool scoring.
Ahead of the game I have to say I was confident we could roll them over, especially considering their midweek exploits and our new-found solidity at the back.
I began questioning my prediction when news broke that Loris Karius would start in goal and later that our record signing Virgil van Dijk would miss the game due to a tight hamstring.
I guess it was never going to be about whether we could defend but whether we could score more than City. I began to receive congratulatory messages at 3-1 but knowing better, I warned people to hold off.
You may say I was being overly negative and sceptical but those last few minutes after Gundogan reduced it to 4-3 were some of the longest in my life!
In those 90 minutes we saw the very best of Liverpool – free flowing attack, high press, cool-as-you-like finishing, hungry to win the ball back, winning fifty-fifties. But we also saw the very worst of Liverpool – poor goalkeeping, rash defending, ball watching and the inability to kill a game off.
Some may argue that if you try to fix one, i.e. making the team more solid at the back, you’ll break the other; maybe the free-flowing attack will be hindered by a more reserved approach.
Fixing the issue between the sticks though should remain a priority and if Man City’s first goal wasn’t proof of that then Klopp has got his blinkers on too tight.
And yes, we should trust the manager, especially after last night’s result, but his argument yesterday after the match when he was quizzed about Karius’ mistake for Sane’s goal was slightly questionable.
“People always find the hair in the soup.” Personally, I don’t remember finding a hair in my soup recently and if I did I would definitely ask for my money back.
The first sign that Klopp didn’t trust Simon Mignolet was when he was dropped for Brad Jones. The second was when Karius was signed. To be fair to him the Belgian keeper has fought off the competition he’s had to face, although not exactly stellar competition.
It now looks as though he has lost his place again, this time to Karius although for me after that first goal, the German shouldn’t be starting.
How long will Klopp wait before he finally addresses the issue? Reports are that we’re not looking to sign a goalkeeper in this window. The question I want answered is why haven’t we been looking to sign a goalkeeper from before this window?
Pundits have pointed to what Pep Guardiola has done at Man City. He brought in Claudio Bravo because he didn’t fancy Joe Hart. He gave him one season and when it was blatantly obvious he wasn’t good enough he brought in Ederson in the summer.
You can say the City keeper was at fault for two of our four goals last night and that it’s proof you can’t fix a problem by just throwing money at it.
If you’re being harsh then you could blame Ederson for City’s defeat yesterday but you’d be hard pressed to find him costing them any other points this season. In fact his point blank save from Romelu Lukaku at Old Trafford earlier this season saw them beat Jose Mourinho’s side.
It’s certainly admirable for a coach to back his players but as with Lovren (I’m still trying to figure out what he was doing for City’s third goal) and with our keepers, you need to wonder how much faith a coach can keep giving his players when they concede needless goals.
I could be accused of focusing on the negatives after an amazing win last night in a hugely entertaining game, and I’m sure there will be some readers who will accuse me of that. I would definitely be writing a different column if it had stayed at 4-1 but almost giving up that lead took some of the gloss off of it for me.
No-one doubts that we are one of the most entertaining teams to watch in the world but that’s down to the team’s deficiencies as well as its attacking flair. Many fans will be happy to be entertained but the majority want silverware. Without addressing the goalkeeping issue, it could be a while before we see any.
For now let’s just enjoy the week ahead and watch the highlights of the game as many times as possible. And I’ll try to stop being so negative.
