a month without a league win for the men in red

the hit

“Men In Black,” Will Smith (1997)

(Woo!)
Here come the Men In Red
Premier League defenders
Here come the Men In Red
We used to win, remember?

10/22 | UEFA champions league || eintracht frankfurt 1, liverpool 5
10/25 | premier league | brentford 3, liverpool 2

Like all Liverpool fans, I was hopeful the result and performance in Frankfurt would serve as the reset we needed to get our season back on track — a Tums to quell the burn of four straight defeats. We were treated to five goals from five different goal scorers, Wirtz’s first two goal involvements in a Liverpool shirt, two thunderous headers from corners, and, most importantly, a dominant 90-minute display, during which we forced our opponent to play our brand of football.

And like all Liverpool fans, I could tell within the first few passages of play at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium that the Frankfurt game probably wasn’t that reset. When our players walked off the Gtech pitch at full-time, I concluded that Frankfurt must just not be very good.

I’m tired. We all are. Tired of conceding from the other team’s first or second shot and being forced to play from behind. Of looking physically outmatched. Of losing second balls, watching every clearance fall to them and not us. Of looking vulnerable from set plays. Tired of the ball being out of bounds for half the game, waiting for the other team’s left back to towel it off and launch it back in our box. Tired of wondering what our best 11 is. Tired of watching us play like less then the sum of our world-class parts, against opposition who plays like more than the sum of theirs. In the harshest possible terms, Brentford is a team of Liverpool rejects: Jordan Henderson, Sepp van den Berg, and Caoimhin Kelleher in the starting 11; Fabio Carvalho among the subs. Their coach is a set piece coach.

There are countless places you can point to try and explain the rapidly unravelling season. The shocking form of Salah, Konate, Mac Allister, and Kerkez. Major missing pieces in Alisson Becker and Ryan Gravenberch. A “period of transition” that comes with all the new personnel. Being on the wrong end of some appalling referees’ decisions — from Macca’s ignored head injury in the buildup to Mbeumo’s finish, to whatever the hell that “penalty” call was on Virgil. I’m tired of pointing to those places. The truth is every team in the Premier League deals with transitions and injuries and horrible refereeing. You can lose a game here or draw a game there because of those factors, but you don’t lose four league games in a row because of them — not when you consider yourself a title contender. We don’t look like a team constructed or coached to succeed in this league, which is as physical and direct as it’s been in years.

You can’t look down on teams that use long balls and set plays to gain an edge over you if you can’t defend long balls and set plays. You can’t play a beautiful, clean style if you can’t compete when the game gets ugly. Frankfurt played into our hands. That’s not going to happen domestically.

The prospect of back-to-back titles looks grim at this point, but the season isn’t beyond saving. We look better suited to a run in Europe than a run at a PL repeat, so it may be a matter of shifting our expectations as we shoot for top 4.

I want to see what we look like when we don’t concede early. Then I want to see if we can keep a clean sheet. Then I want to see if we can build from there and gain back some confidence.

I’d be a hypocrite if I asked the players to deal with the ugliness and I couldn’t deal with it myself. You can’t take credit for the ups if you don’t support the team during the downs. Let’s get into Crystal Palace and hope for the best.