Wolves 2 Liverpool 1
What a disastrous night for Liverpool. I don’t like starting with the team that lost but Liverpool simply had to win tonight to continue the push for Champions League football next season, the first half was played at an exhibition pace as Liverpool couldn’t break Wolves down creating next to nothing in one of the worst first halves I’ve watched all season. The second half was more of the same as Liverpool tried and failed to break Wolves down time and time again. Then everything changed when Rob Edwards introduced Tolu Orokodare in the 60th minute and Wolves finally had someone who could hold up the ball, finally we got a goal in the 78th minute were Orokodare held off Van Dijk and played a brilliant pass through to Rodrigo Gomes who finished over Alisson with Wolves’ first shot of the game. The lead didn’t last long however as Bellegarde gave the ball straight to Salah who raced through and finished past Jose Sa at the near post in the 83rd minute, as Liverpool were pushing for the winner Alisson gave the ball straight to Andre who’s deflected effort sailed past the Liverpool keeper in the 94th minute to give Wolves an unlikely win in a pretty dire game of football up to that first goal.
Boring boring Liverpool. I’ve got to admit I nearly fell asleep in that first half as Liverpool passed the ball side to side the whole time with their being absolutely no initiative from any Liverpool player to actually inject a bit of pace into the game, if you still think that Florian Wirtz is a flop after these past 3 games were Liverpool have played some horrific football I’m afraid you’re wrong. When the creativity baton is handed to Dominic Szoboszlai who has been Liverpool’s best player this season but simply isn’t good enough on the ball to be the teams sole creator you’re in big trouble and it showed big time today. The fall-off from Mohamed Salah this season in performance levels has been scary but surely someone else has to step up to carry the team like Salah did for the entire season last year, guys like Gakpo, Ekitike, Mac Allister etc have to stand up and be counted in these games against 20th in the league but they failed to lay a glove on Wolves tonight, so so poor.
Wolves going down with their head held high. Wolves did not look like a team in 20th place and already down tonight giving Liverpool very little to go at other than a terrible pass from Bellegarde to give Salah his goal, these past two games from Wolves against Villa and Liverpool have been terrific limiting both sides to half-chances for the most part. Joao Gomes yet again was the standout in Wolves midfield and will no doubt be getting a big move in the summer as he’s far too good to be playing in the Championship, Rob Edwards seems to have found the defensive solution for this Wolves side in that flat back 5 which Liverpool got nowhere near breaking down tonight without a Wolves mistake. Unfortunately it’s too little too late to stay in the Premier League as they are 11 points from safety with 8 games left to play but they can certainly go out fighting in these next few months.
Questions have to be asked of Arne Slot. At what point do we start questioning the Liverpool manager as to why they are playing such putrid football over the last few game? I get that Wirtz is injured but is he that important to Liverpool that when he’s not their the team simply can’t even create one clear chance against some of the worst teams in the league, they scored 5 against West Ham on Saturday but most of them goals were set-pieces and deflections with the score line in my opinion flattering Liverpool on the day. They got away with murder against Nottingham Forest last week scoring in the last minute whilst Forest dominated the game missing a plethora of chances, then tonight they were awful yet again up against the worst team in the league creating nothing when it’s a must-win game for Liverpool to try and get into the Champions League next season. I wouldn’t be surprised if Arne Slot is giving his marching orders if Liverpool don’t finish in the top 4/5 seeing as they won the league the year before, a big few months ahead for Arne Slot if he wants to keep his job.
Ground lost in the battle for Champions League football. Liverpool had the opportunity to go level on points with Aston Villa and Man United along with going 6 points clear of Chelsea all of which would have had a game in hand but those game in hands being Aston Villa vs Chelsea and Newcastle vs Man United so there’s a real chance at least two of those teams drop points tomorrow which is why Liverpool had to win tonight, they can’t afford to drop points in games like these when they still have to play Villa, Chelsea and United towards the end of the season. I still maintain that Liverpool will finish in the top 4/5 but they are making hard work of it at the minute, some massive games tomorrow that will have direct impact on Liverpool so we’ll see how badly this game will impact Slot’s side then, what a result for Wolves at the Molineux.