Premier League: Blip or blunder for Liverpool?

It is fair to say, what looked like Liverpool’s seemingly unperturbed march to the Premier League title back at Christmas is starting to look a little more complicated after Tuesday’s draw with Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.

The background dread that haunts all Liverpool fans, that the whole wonderful title run could somehow come unstuck in a horrible late season bottling, may now have some validity, in the wake of two uncharacteristically average drawn matches against Man United and Forest, as well as an ugly first leg 1-0 defeat to Spurs in the Carabao Cup. Liverpool’s only win in the last four games coming in the pyrrhic 4-0 win over Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup last Saturday.

No side has a perfect season and most of Liverpool’s opponents will have little sympathy for their fans ‘meltdown’ after just two draws. But one must appreciate that after the extraordinary run of mostly emphatic wins, the fans will feel uncomfortable after a couple of matches where they’ve had to fight tooth and nail to come from behind to just draw.

Positives and negatives

On the positive side for Liverpool, are the stats from those matches. In most categories the Merseysiders were well over their oppositions. They dominated possession in all the games, they created most chances, and typically were on top in each positions’ head-to-heads. And the side has shown mettle and courage for the comebacks.

The negative are also those stats. That with all their advantages and strengths they have not been able to see their way to victory. And of even more concern is that the once water-tight defence is definitely showing signs of leakage, while Mo Salah on Tuesday had his worst night of the season in attack.

The question for fans and opponents alike is whether this is a genuine glimpse of a coming collapse or just a regular blip in the season that every team, no matter how good they are will have?

Circumstances

There were circumstances in these recent runs of matches that mitigate against feelings of doom. Starting with the United match, this column warned against the consensus that Liverpool only had to turn up to claim the points. And that was that a wounded United side could always pull out a result, especially against their most hated of rivals. The Carabao Cup result could have gone either way and a late goal swung it the way of home side Spurs. But it’s still all to play for, and it’s not a massive lead to bring back to Anfield for the return leg. Still the first defeat in any competition since mid-September stung more than it should.

The Forest result may be more telling, as Nuno Espirito Santo’s side were the only team to beat Liverpool, up till that last Spurs' game, with Liverpool and boss Arne Slot no doubt eager to dole out some retribution for that defeat in Anfield. But they just couldn’t do it at the City Ground. Liverpool looked lethargic in the first half, raising another concern over exhaustion. This has affected them in previous seasons, not least last season, where Jurgen Klopp’s farewell tour to a the ‘quadruple’ came up well short , with only a Carabao Cup title been added, as the team quickly ran out of energy after fighting on so many fronts.

Forest keeper, Matz Sels had a dream performance in goal, while his teammates played deep and counterattacked hard against a Liverpool side that struggled to control their breaks. Still, Liverpool did dominate the last half hour thanks to Slot’s inspired substitutions, that saw Diogo Jota come on and get the equaliser. Yet, there will be a concern that the Reds couldn’t get the win over the line and more worryingly, get Salah into a position where he could put away one of his chances late in the game.

The race is on

After the game, Slot rightly told the media that he was impressed with the effort of his players to get back in the tie. And he will have given fans some solace about his thinking on the results. The Dutchman pointed out that the second half of the season will be harder than the glorious start they enjoyed in the first half. He noted that opposing sides now know what to expect from Liverpool. They know his systems and tactics and what to do to counter them. The advantage, is that everyone also knows about the contenders around them too. And it was telling, that except for Arsenal, most of the teams around Liverpool on the table dropped points too.

It won’t be getting easier for Liverpool any time soon either. Their match today against Brentford will be a pretty tough task too. The west London side under Thomas Frank have become notoriously difficult to beat at home, as displayed in their fighting comeback against Man City midweek.

Will Liverpool ride this stumble, or is it the start of a terrific collapse? The next few matches will tell a lot.