Editor’s Column: It’s not just the bad finishing, you know…

The 2-2 draw at Old Trafford was beyond frustrating. The 3-0 loss to Atalanta was numbing. The 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace felt final.

Thankfully, Arsenal went and lost to Aston Villa, which is good news, even though it almost adds to the exasperation of our missed opportunity.

Liverpool are still in the title race, although Manchester City are heavy, heavy favourites. They’ll probably win their remaining six...

But what’s happened to Liverpool?

Against United and Palace, the Reds racked up over 6xG, but only scored two goals, both of which were from set-pieces last weekend. They haven’t scored a single goal from open play despite a plethora of chances and a handful of sitters.

Liverpool’s 2.87xG was the most xG without scoring by any side in the competition since Brighton v Norwich in April 2022. 

Obviously, the finishing recently has been a massive issue. We’ve lacked a little luck, but a lot of composure. There has been no clinical element to it. Nobody has stepped up when it really mattered in front of goal.

Dom Szoboszlai missed two at Old Trafford. Darwin Nunez, Mo Salah and Luis Diaz were also guilty of missing the target when they should have at the very least tested Andre Onana.

Against Palace though, it was farcical. Luis Diaz, Wataru Endo, Nunez, Diogo Jota and Salah all missed from inside eight yards. Curtis Jones also missed a sitter of a one-on-one when the keeper had already sat down and simply presented him a free net.

If we’d have taken our chances, or even half of them, in both matches, we’d be top of the Premier League by three points with six to play. That hurts.

But it’s not just the finishing that’s been off.

It’s the intensity, especially at Anfield against Atalanta in the midweek horror-show and Palace on Sunday.  Why do we let our opponents take the lead so easily? We do it again and again and again.

The best iteration of Klopp’s Liverpool teams used to make the first 20 minutes for opponents complete hell. They outfought them everywhere – to a man. Now, the lackadaisical start to matches allows our opponents chances, often goals and leaves Liverpool chasing the game. You can’t get away with that for an entire season. The most insane stat that proves as much is that Liverpool have conceded the first goal in 21 of our 32 Premier League matches so far. Yes, we’ve done well to win most of these, but it’s not sustainable. And the past week has proven as much.

Alexis Mac Allister was absolutely flying, but has had two poor games. Wataru Endo looks like he did away to Newcastle United earlier in the season. Darwin Nunez has been atrocious since his goals dried up. He hasn’t scored in three games and has just one in our past six. Jota, who to be fair hasn’t found the net since his return either, should probably come in for the Uruguayan based on recent form.

Salah is another player who has not been very good. He’s played nine matches since his return from injury. You’d have hoped he back up and running. But he looks tired, slow and like he’s out of ideas. The Egyptian finishes seasons worse than he starts them, usually. But we need our world-class players to step up in big moments. And he couldn’t have complained if he was subbed yesterday.

It’s funny. We’ve finally got an almost full squad with an elite bench, but the players look more tired than ever. Perhaps the effort of carrying on and winning throughout January and February with a threadbare squad is now taking its toll.

Liverpool are giving up way too many big chances to opponents. You can’t expect the attack to bail out the rest of the side in every match when even very average sides get lots of good sights of our goal.

It feels like it’s done, but football changes quickly. Maybe we’ll pull off a miracle in Bergamo on Thursday and the vibes around the run-in will change.

Let’s hope so. We’re the underdogs now in both competitions. Maybe that’ll help. But quite a lot needs to change, now.