As people know I tend to try to be moderate on here and I have been one of Xhaka's biggest supporters.
But I was disappointed with that result/performance yesterday and I still am now. We were absolutely in control at 0-2 up and we had Liverpool on the ropes. What did we do? - We showed that we lack the maturity to play our game and ignore the shit-housery and absolutely played into their hands. I would have thought that the game last season showed exactly what you don't do at Anfield. You don't give them and their crowd anything to lift their game. What does Xhaka do? He riles the crowd up - for nothing - and the result was their first goal, just before half time.
The second half was a disaster class from our team and manager. All composure went and we simply invited them onto our shaky defence. I'm not going to single Holding out, but he is our 4th choice CB for a reason and was playing with a LB who can't defend and a RB who was giving us a Manure style performance after (an admittedly soft) yellow card. I felt their second goal was inevitable, and they should have beaten us by 2 goals but for a world class keeper performance from Ramsdale.
We had little or no outlet - I can't remember so many attacking pases going astray - and we lacked the composure to profit from 2 or 3 gilt-edged chances to score another. Our mindset was negative, and we switched to survival mode - something epitomosed by Arteta's decision to put on that Herman Munster looking guy in place of Odegard - one of our best ball retainers - at a time when our MF seemed as though it had disappeared anyway. Zin should have been subbed long before he gifted them their second.
I get that Anfield is a difficult place to go to, but we were in total control FFS and we fucked it up. This was not a performance (for 50 minutes) that suggests we have what it takes to prevent Citeh from winning the title, and the doubts about our team's ability to cope with real pressure loom large. If ever a point felt like a loss it was this game, for me. I have lost faith that we will take the title and that feels depressing this morning.
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