Liverpool v Wolverhampton Wanderers A Liverpool Perspective
A very strange game, Liverpool barely got out of first gear to stroll through the first half, but then struggled to get going in the second when Wolves upped their game and ended up hanging on for the three points. Tension had clearly crept in at Anfield, both on the pitch and in the stands, with both players and fans clearly feeling the pressure of the title race right now. Arsene Wenger did say, during his appearance on TV after the game, that this is the time during a title battle when the pressure does build up most, and it was clear to see in this performance.
I have to say that the game was not helped by the officials, who were incredibly poor. Hooper is simply the worst of a very bad bunch, he is weak and half the time has no idea what has happened and waits to see the reaction of the players before deciding what to give. It must be said that he was not helped by the players at all. Wolves have good cause to complain about the officials, but they made it more difficult for him by throwing themselves to the ground at every contact. When you have such a poor official being faced with players looking for non-existent fouls, then you really cannot complain when poor decisions are made against you when there is a foul. It is the case of the, oddly apt, boy who cried wolf. After a while a referee as weak, indecisive and downright awful as Hooper is will only give you decisions when there is no doubt about them if he feels you are trying to con him.
There is no excuse for some of his bizarre decisions though, particularly not booking Konate for a second time or Jota for his pathetic dive. Liverpool can also feel hard done by as the Salah goal ruled out for offside could not possibly have been checked and it was very tight. There was nowhere near enough time for them to draw lines and there is supposed to be doubt applied in the attacker’s favour in these situations. Why was it ruled out so quickly when, to the naked eye, it was impossible to tell if he was offside or not? In the Crystal Palace-Everton game, they spent 4 minutes trying to rule out a goal for Palace that was clearly onside, because it took that long to get the lines sorted out. Are we meant to believe that it only took them seconds on this occasion?
So yes, Wolves have every right to feel hard done by with some of the decisions, but it was not all one way and certainly not a referee just being against them. By the end of the second half, their players were winning a free kick every time Endo got within 5 yards of one of them, simply by falling over. This was just another embarrassingly bad performance by the most incompetent referee ever to work in the Premier League. It is incredible to watch him and think this man is extremely well paid and considered one of the best in the country. If this is the level the PGMOL thinks acceptable and is producing, then we would be as well scrapping even having them. We would get fairer and better refereeing from someone who had never even seen a game of football in their life before.
To go back to the performance, it was very disappointing, with the team clearly sent out to avoid fatigue issues in this run of games by not pressing high or aggressively. Instead, they were very gently just sitting off and attempting to conserve energy as much as possible. That did allow Wolves a lot more of the ball, but will hopefully pay dividends later, when the players are not struggling for energy in the final couple of matches of this 5 games in 15 days period. The key thing was that Liverpool got the three points, which they did, so the tactics worked and were enough to see them through. It may not have been a convincing win, but at this point in the season that does not matter. Grinding out wins is key when the pressure is on.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
In the first half they were poor, offered little to no threat at all, with Liverpool able to stroll through the first half and lead without playing even close to well. The changes at half-time made a huge difference and they were the better side from the moment the game restarted, though only took full control of the game after Alexander-Arnold went off and they were able to really push onto Liverpool. After that they were dominant and would have fully deserved to get at least a draw on the balance of play, but they just lack a cutting edge.
It is clear they are in a false league position right now and should gradually move away from the drop zone before the season ends. If they continue to put in performances like this, they could very well pick up a few places in the table before the end of the season. They do need to improve up front, Cunha is quality but the rest around him are nowhere near his level. Munetsi is intriguing, but very raw and extremely clumsy with his touch of the ball.
Liverpool
Alisson – pulled off one great save but other than that was not really tested, despite Wolves’ dominance in the second half, which tells you a lot about why Wolves failed to get a result.
Alexander-Arnold – defended solidly, though Ait-Nouri showed some tricks, he made very little headway in reality, creating little against Alexander-Arnold. On the ball, he did give away some loose passes, but also played some excellent one, particularly the beautiful ball which sent Salah away for his goal that was ruled offside. Overall, a decent game.
Konate – a mindless performance from the big French centre-back and he was incredibly lucky to benefit from weak refereeing, as he should have been sent off. His head was not right at all.
van Dijk – a mixed game, showed good leadership but struggled at times defensively, being caught out more often than I can remember seeing happen to him at Liverpool. Though that was still a lot less than either Konate or Quansah were in just 45 minutes, which shows what a high bar he has set. In fact, if I was talking about just about anyone else I would be saying what a good job he did!
Robertson – another poor game. Once again he was constantly dropping yards deeper than the rest, putting pressure on the defence by creating gaps for Wolves to exploit in behind them. Made a bad error in the first half and was lucky that Wolves were caught offside. He is so far off the pace right now, it is scary.
Gravenberch – really struggled to make any impression on the game as Wolves crowded him out of the match. With them double and sometimes triple-teaming him, that did create space for others to work in. His defending on the Wolves goal was weak, at best.
Szoboszlai – In the first half he had a good game, but spent the second half mainly running back towards his own goal to help defend due to the way the game was going. However, he was everywhere, worked so hard and was probably Liverpool’s best player of the starters.
Mac Allister – had a very good first half, was heavily involved at both ends of the pitch. In the second half, he was pushed back and did produce some good moments defensively, like in the first, but he was consistently poor on the ball. His corners were well delivered.
Salah – not his best game, in the first half he struggled to get at Wolves, who doubled up well against him. In the second half, the only sniff he got was ruled out for offside after he netted. He did take his penalty very well.
Diaz – awful game, other than his goal and winning the penalty. His delivery from wide areas was one of the reasons the performance was so poor, as he messed up almost every single ball in. He was also as guilty as anyone for throwing himself to the floor, once again, and should have been booked for a clear dive towards the end of the first half.
Jota – the most frustrating player I can think of. For every good thing he does, there are multiple times when he messes up the attack or does something stupid. On form, he does provide goals, which is why it is so frustrating as he should be invaluable, but his inability to link play and poor touch, even on those occasions when he can stay fit, mean he is often as much of a hindrance as he is a help. The idiotic dive for the penalty which ended up being correctly overturned is a case in point. He did brilliantly well to block off Doherty to allow the ball to be played through into the space, but then has to ruin the good work with that embarrassing swan dive. I have no idea how he escaped a booking for that pathetic moment. Personally, I would like to see players sent off for that kind of blatant dive.
Quansah – replaced Konate before he got himself sent off at half-time. I know people are raving about his ‘goal-saving tackle’ but he was, once again, awful. His positional sense is non-existent, he was caught time and time again, including that challenge, where he was caught the wrong side and was lucky that the ball was poor and played behind the Wolves forward, to allow him to intercept it. It is arguable that it was not really saving a goal, as it would have been difficult for the forward to get onto a ball in behind him. He did show good pace and strength, but his positioning and awareness are abysmal.
Bradley – came on for Alexander-Arnold in the 63rd minute. While he is a very good player and did very well defensively, the moment he came on it allowed Wolves to push right up on top of Liverpool and apply more pressure. Without the threat of Alexander-Arnold’s balls in behind, Wolves were comfortable from then on in. The whole Liverpool style of play will need to alter if he is to become the long term right-back, as it is not suited to him.
Nunez – was brought on in the stead of Jota in the 63rd minute. A really odd performance from Nunez. At first he came on and chased everywhere, then it was like he gave up after a few minutes of that, before picking up his work rate again after a word from Slot. I know he had absolutely no service, but he could still do more, much more.
Endo – took Diaz’s place in the 71st minute. He was understandably given the man of the match award by Liverpool as he constantly broke up play. There were a few fouls given against him, but some of them were as much of a foul as the one on Jota for the penalty that was rightly chalked off. It does seem his combative nature makes it easy for players to just throw themselves to the floor and get given free kicks for nothing.
Written by Tris Burke February 18 2025 07:08:05
