Daniel’s Debrief: Aston Villa 3-3 Liverpool

Funny.

Hysterical. How can it matter so little and yet irk so hard that Liverpool do the most Liverpool thing they can do?

Competitively, there’s nothing on these games and there’ll be no-one who’s genuinely sad about Liverpool not winning tonight, but there will be - and should be - plenty that are concerned at some of what they have seen.

And that’s what it’s about here. The results don’t matter, but what we can take from them does, and I actually think there’s a fair bit to take.

This game is the season in a microcosm, for me.

Always look in threatening going forward, but not having the killer instinct to put a game to bed, and never looking secure enough at the back for those of us watching along to feel comfortable.

There’s also Simon Hooper and VAR, which humiliates itself yet again. Liverpool get the run of things with decisions tonight, but so much of Hooper is just guesswork that it’s hard to apportion any accusation of bias.

Entire galaxies have formed and died in the time it took VAR to allow the fucking-obviously-onside Cody Gakpo goal. 

It’s a game that illustrates nicely both why Jurgen Klopp is the best thing to happen to Liverpool in the last forty years, and also why it’s now the right time for him to leave.

Let’s start with the positives.

We’re the third best team in the league. In the midst of all the frustrations around Liverpool lately, it feels like that may have been forgotten.

We’re not some mess, we’re not a team that’s got an endless list of problems, we’re not a poor side.

We’re a good one, and there’s only two better in the country than us.

To me, it feels a bit like 2005/06 or 2006/07 where we finish a very comfortable third - a little way off the top two, but quite a distance in front of fourth.

This isn’t third-placed Chelsea in 2018/19, who were a million miles off City and Liverpool. 

We’re closer to the top two than we are to fourth and below and that’s shown tonight. For much of it, Liverpool are better and crisper than a really, really good Villa side.

Unai Emery. Manager of the season in my eyes. Leon Bailey. Some winger, him. Ollie Watkins. Marksman. Emiliano Martinez. A world-class keeper (usually). Pau Torres. Fantastic defender. 

This is a good team but for a reasonable portion of proceedings, it looks like Liverpool very much tell them that this is just not your business, boys.

And one of Klopp’s biggest achievements at the club is the high standards he has set across the board.

For all of my lifetime, you could never trust Liverpool away from home. Palace in 2005. Charlton in 2006. Reading in 2007. Birmingham in 2010. Fulham in 2011. QPR in 2012. Hull in 2013. Stoke in 2015.

Liverpool were always prone to ‘throwing one in’ and slipping on every banana skin on their path away from home.

Every away win felt like a triumph because they were hoped for, rather than expected. 

Under Klopp, we’ve become a team that is solid on the road and has been involved in four title races in the last six seasons - whilst our Anfield record is almost impeccable under him, he’s addressed an issue that plagued the club for more than twenty years - away form.

Going away to 4th in the league would’ve felt terrifying pre-Klopp. Even in the title race seasons of 2013/14 and 2008/09, where we finish 2nd, we fail to win at the 4th-placed team.

He made us reliable on the road and so when something like tonight happens, it feels like a surprise because it’s not what we’ve associated with his era.

We’ve associated goals, stellar football and beast-like mentality with Klopp’s team. 

There’s a few hints of that tonight - Harvey Elliott has another good game and is involved in two goals, it’s another strong showing from Gakpo, and Alisson Becker is very good in goal.

However, these hallmarks of Klopp’s teams are no longer isolated - there’s a fair bit of shite thrown in there too, and tonight shows that, and shows why it’s the right decision for him to go.

The attack needs a fresh pair of eyes on it, and a reset. Luis Diaz is absolutely running on empty and has nothing left to give, Mohamed Salah just cuts a frustrated figure, and Gakpo doesn’t do it for 90. Darwin Nunez comes on and spends more time offside than onside. 

No-one looks clinical in the attack and on transition, they are killing themselves. Diaz has the most simple of tasks to play Salah in at 1-2 on the counter and gets it dreadfully wrong.

The manager’s subs have been strange for a number of weeks now - lest we forget Joe Gomez and Kostas Tsimikas when 2-0 down at Goodison - and the theme continues tonight.

Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones and Nunez.

Do I think any of them were incorrect choices? No.

My issue is that we’re 3-1 up with fifteen minutes to go, cruising and in control, and Klopp’s changed more than a third of the team in one go.

They lose momentum, rhythm, shape and structure and most importantly, control.

Why does he do this? He’s got three windows he can make changes in. Why not go two-two-one? 

Changes for changes’ sake are never useful.

Wataru Endo has a good night. He’s not an elite DM but he’s a decent one and he’s perfectly serviceable this evening. It’s the second game in a row that Liverpool concede two goals just after he comes off.

We love Alexis Mac Allister there and he struggles badly with a role he’s not really played since February. 

Why take Endo off? What is he being rested for? The Euros? 

Now, Endo isn’t the long-term answer and Liverpool may look to buy a DM in the market but it’s about more than personnel.

We are ludicrously open and porous all over the pitch. This has been happening all season. There’s gaps everywhere.

Eight days ago, we’re 4-1 up against Spurs and I’m worrying. Tonight, it’s 3-1 and I’m nervy.

We’re an immature, frantic side who are always searching for more goals even when control is the order of the day. See Brighton at home in March for the ultimate example.

Liverpool in 2018/19 and 2019/20 and even 2021/22 weren’t as entertaining as this side, but part of that was because they didn’t spend large parts of every fucking game playing basketball. 

Jarell Quansah should do better for the first. Mac Allister is poor for the second. Trent Alexander-Arnold has an iffy night defensively and Joel Gomez isn’t his usual self.

But, this is not personal and it’s not personnel either.

It’s a structural issue that’s existed and rotted within this team for years. The one thing Klopp has never properly got a grip of is the defensive structure of his team.

He relies on star individuals. Alisson and Virgil Van Dijk were his most important signings because they were his structure.

To me, it feels like this has been the worst season for defensive structure in the Klopp era.

When you’ve got Alisson and Van Dijk - the often-proclaimed best goalkeeper and defender in the world, supplemented by the likes of Alexander-Arnold, Ibrahima Konate, Gomez and Andy Robertson, has anyone bothered to ask why we have so much trouble defensively?

We concede 3.6 xG tonight. If Watkins and Bailey had bought their shooting boots, we’d have been looking at another 7-2 on that ground here.

The defence isn’t the problem. The defending is. And defending isn’t just the responsibility of the defenders - it’s everyone’s.

Sadio Mane used to be a master of this. Pressing and cutting off passing lanes from the front. Salah has that initiative too but I’m not sure any of the other current forwards do.

The front six should be protecting the back five. This is something Arsenal and Man City have got down to a tee. Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta understand this concept so fundamentally and granularly. 

Klopp’s team are more entertaining to watch but that’s largely because they cannot shut down a game.

I reckon we’ve won six games comfortably all season.

For all this has been a really enjoyable season, part of what’s made it enjoyable has been riding the constant feeling of ‘we shouldn’t be doing this’ and ‘this isn’t our business’.

Well, we were right.

The way we’ve defended this season just isn’t good enough to be a title-winning team. And that’s with Van Dijk, who might make team of the season. Alisson and Gomez have been excellent too.

In 2018/19, we concede 22 goals all season. It’s 32 in 2019/20 and 26 in 2021/22. Last season, the disaster season, we concede 47.

We’re at 41 this season. So, for all the progress in the league table and the rightful positivity generally this season, it’s important to note that our defensive numbers are much closer to last season than any of Klopp’s other title-challenging seasons.

It’s time to call this a day. If you watched United against Arsenal at the weekend, you’ll have seen Casemiro, one of the best midfielders of the last ten years, look like he’d struggle to get a game for the Wheatsheaf Inn.

Steven Gerrard was a shadow of his former self in his final two seasons at Liverpool. He was shite. Jordan Henderson and Roberto Firmino were useless by the time they left.

Klopp hasn’t done that. He’s leaving at a point where it’s clear his powers are fading, but is still a strong enough force that he’s pulled one last something out of somewhere.

There’s one more to go, then, before we wave goodbye to one of our greatest ever servants. 

He’s a smart man. I’ve always trusted him on team selections, transfers, tactics, decisions. It’s important to trust him on this one too.

He knows it’s time. I do too. 

I can’t begin to describe my respect and gratitude for the man that brought the two biggest trophies back to Liverpool, as well as six others.

Klopp took us to three Champions League finals in four years. Manchester United have been to four in their history.

Klopp has got 90+ points three times with Liverpool. The club had never once got that before him.

But arguably his greatest legacy will be doing what so many sportsmen don’t - and leaving at the right time.

He is leaving as a deified man, a cherished friend, a revered entity.

490 games and now that the story is nearly told, it’s time to have a think about what’s next.

This book has been the most exhilarating, magical and beautiful story and while its main protagonist isn’t perfect, he is someone whose imperfections are forgiven because of the overwhelming positivity he has brought to this club and the lives of those who love it.

So, Sunday. We read the final page. We say thank you. We go our separate ways. We have a chat and a laugh and a reminisce. We all compare our favourite Klopp player, moment, goal. And then we go home, and we get ready to start the next book.

One more page. 

Daniel