Liverpool had to settle for a 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace in a match bereft of quality at Selhurst Park. Liverpool through Diogo Jota and Mohammed Salah struck the crossbar twice while Crystal Palace’s striker, Jean Phillipe-Mateta also had his effort hit the woodwork. Liverpool are now up to 7th on the table six points adrift of 4th placed Tottenham Hotspur.
While senior players like Trent Alexander Arnold and Joel Matip had a poor game, particularly in the first half, Jurgen Klopp should not be exonerated from the poor performance of his boys. Here is why.
Liverpool started in their usual 4-3-3 formation with James Milner and Naby Keita starting in place of Fabinho and Stefan Bajcetic, both of whom started against Real Madrid. Keita got a yellow card in the 23rd minute and was lucky to escape a red card by the end of the first half. So, this necessitated a change from Klopp but guess what he did?
Klopp brought on Harvey Elliot to replace Keita and preserve his 4-3-3 formation. It was at that point it dawned on me that Klopp was about to cost Liverpool for the umpteenth time this season. Elliot has struggled in the midfield all season and it bemuses me that Klopp and his crew is blind to that fact up till now.
With Keita on the verge of being sent off, this is what Klopp should have done. He should have brought on Firmino and changed to a 4-2-3-1 formation. This will allow Liverpool to have bodies in attack, allow Firmino to drop into the spaces in the midfield and afford Gakpo to cause more headaches for Palace’s centre-back.
As if that wasn’t enough, Klopp decided to make the wrong substitutions. He brought on a struggling Fabinho instead of a more-in-form Stefan Bajcetic and hooked off Diogo Jota. While Jota’s substitution is understandable, I find it ridiculous that Klopp would go ahead to substitute another attacker, Cody Gakpo for a midfielder when Liverpool needed goals.
If Liverpool are to rescue anything from this miserable season of theirs, Klopp has to put on the right-thinking cap as soon as possible. His bad decision-making has hurt Liverpool so much this season and he needs to start making the right decisions if Liverpool are to finish in the top four
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