Terrace Talk: Alisson arrogance surfaces too quickly for comfort
What a strange old week that was. Mourinho swinging out wildly at Klopp, Ramos checking Salah’s shoulder to see if he’d done the job properly, a European draw that was at least on the outer rings of Hell and a goalkeeper having his hubris moment almost immediately after showing off.
That enough to be going on with? Oh right, the 100% record. I almost forgot. We’ll need that international break to chill a bit.
Liverpool last won the opening four games when they were the reigning champions. Kind of a watershed year that one, not something fans need reminding of.
Easy to say you’re underwhelmed and this is only a trick of the fixture list. We won all of these games last season, too.
Sighs of relief are the order of the day, after people were busy shunting us on top of the chasing pack. Build them up, knock them down, a story as old as time.
We’ve denied them any satisfaction thus far, but it’s not been convincing. A tricky Champions League group, as well as some tasty Prem games, will have the vultures drooling with anticipation. Again.
You can get stuck into the (urrgh) ‘bantz’ or you can just smile sweetly at all the prepared flak and go “doing well, are we?”
Everyone else getting their tights in a twist is a sure sign Liverpool are doing something right. Bizarrely the worst culprits are the chaps who cover Manchester City in their local rag, hell-bent on stoking a rivalry that’s barely even simmering yet.
It was Chelsea in the last decade. Fans on both sides were easily manipulated and the attractions of the actual football were almost trite and boring in comparison. Didn’t get it then, don’t get it now.
I suppose it’s tedious always being told your achievements are worthless… they did cost a billion pounds, after all.
There’s always that assumption the nouveau riche are about to take over and spoil everything, and hysteria takes a tight grip before there’s anything to worry about.
As for us, there’s an awful lot of shoulder-shrugging — “we won that’s the main thing” — going on. Keep telling people we can’t carry on winning like this and that cultish, beatific smile slithers across their faces.
They’re gone, lost to reason, and only a heavy defeat will snap them out of it. They’ll have a slogan ready for that too, no doubt.
What’s irksome is that against Leicester and Brighton we could’ve had the game over in 30 minutes, but there’s always an ill-deserved arrogance which surfaces too quickly for comfort. They’ve been doing it for years. It’s maddening.
None more so than the goalkeeper, obviously. Klopp insisted Alisson has learned his lesson now.
It reminds me of the time I stabbed myself in the face with a rusty pitchfork. The blood, the pain, the gangrene. That too was a harsh lesson but I most definitely learned not to do it again… yes, sarcasm. Join me.
The rest of the team hardly covered itself in glory either.
If your sole job is to run around a lot maybe that’s what you should do but take Wijnaldum outside of L4 and some kind of invisibility spell takes hold.
The forwards haven’t been fantastic yet but they got their job done and all the rest had to do was see out the game without ultra-panic.
Henderson was brought back to teach Keita a lesson; was that lesson “who else have you got?” It’s too early in the season for jubilation anyway. The straw everyone’s clutching at (this is how champions win matches) feels pretty flimsy.
Gomez, Mane and Robertson were the pick of the bunch. There’ll be justification for optimism if Liverpool can get their act together after the break, if this is what they can do at half pelt.
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