After a midweek in which manager Jurgen Klopp criticised his own supporters, Anfield tried to lead Liverpool to a shock win over rivals Arsenal on a chilly Saturday night.
Succumbing to an early goal for the visitors didn’t help, but, once Mohamed Salah equalised, the momentum to be on the side of the hosts.
Time and again Red shirts surged towards the Arsenal goal generating panic among the Gunners backline.
But when the crowd rose to its feet waiting for the ball to go into the net, something went wrong; a heavy throw-in, a loose pass or poor resolution through Liverpool’s forwards.
The longer the game dragged on, the less likely it was that the Reds would score the goal that the home crowd so desperately dreamed of.
If this were an isolated case, perhaps it could be justified based on the strength of the opponent. The problem occurred just a week after the Reds cornered Manchester United for 90 minutes and failed to break through.
Afterwards, Klopp praised the fans and his team’s performance, although he claimed the striker was missing.
“The reaction to the 1-0 was fantastic,” he told the media, “we were super intense, almost too intense; We have tried massively from the outside to insist that we want to calm down sometimes, that we want to combine things a little better. That’s what we did, create some clever moments with that.
“In the second half we started incredibly well. I don’t know if directly from the first moment, but we had them where we wanted them to be, our utmost urgency was surely exceptional, they lost a little bit there. And we deserve to have created bigger chances with the wins we had there, that’s definitely all we deserve if we find ourselves in similar conditions again.
The coach went on to recommend that his team had won based on chances when Trent Alexander-Arnold hit the crossbar and replacement Joe Gomez fired a shot just wide of the post.
However, the fact that two defenders were the closest and Mo Salah the one who scored the goal is perhaps a microcosm of the problem.
When it’s not the Egyptian talisman doing the business, the rest of the cutting edge line tends to falter.
This season the attack at Anfield has been far from its fluid best and a long way from the golden era when Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino partnered Salah upfront.
Although signings such as Diogo Jota, Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez have rightly been hailed as shrewd buys and have played very important supporting roles at other stages, those now invited to the team’s pivot have flattered themselves to cheating.
This year, the forward line at Anfield looks more transitional than at any time under Klopp and there is no sure starter beyond Salah.
“Jurgen Klopp is not sure of the most sensible three, he moves them from one position to another, we don’t know who is going to play every week. It replaces them pretty early,” noted expert Gary Neville on his podcast.
“I had those three strikers [of Firmino, Salah and Mane] who ran like clockwork and played. Now he finds himself in a scenario where he juggles the balls every week and wonders which one he’s going to choose.
“They’re more disheveled. The three that were there before were world-class. Nunez, Gakpo and Diaz are disheveled, Salah evidently not. I think that’s where Liverpool are small. “
Neville is on the show, Reds defender-turned-pundit Jamie Carragher agreed.
“If we look at Liverpool’s three most sensible players, there is nothing wrong,” he added.
“Gakpo has been here for almost 12 months and has had flashes, but nowhere near enough. Diaz no longer looks like a shadow of his former self after his knee injuries last season.
“In fact, I think Diaz wants to have a smart moment during the season, otherwise Liverpool will come into the market this summer on the left side. I feel like with Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino they didn’t. “It replaced them in terms of quality.
“I know Darwin Nunez on the bench and he’s in bad form in terms of goals, but Nunez has to be almost the first call-up on the team’s roster. “
Growing a team from a successful one is one of the hardest things to do in sports.
Even if the succession is well planned, the timing of passing the baton will be challenging.
Given Sadio Mane’s struggles since leaving Liverpool and the low point Fiminio is betting on lately, few would say that keeping the old guard is the answer at Liverpool.
To find the same coherence in their complex positions as in the past, the promises made through the current applicants will have to be more fundamental.
That said, the situation at Anfield is far from terminal. The club remains on course to challenge for the title and is still delivering results.
However, after failing to test Arsenal and United, Reds enthusiasts can be forgiven for wondering what would have produced the more sensible combination of Mane, Firmino and Salah.