As the week has developed, Liverpool fans have been trying to push Sunday’s defeat against Manchester United from their collective mind.
It’s always painful to lose against United, but the manner of last weekend’s loss was especially painful.
Having been so in control of the game, Liverpool let it slip from their grasp. Despite some good individual performances, the Reds were sloppy in the final third and didn’t put their dominance to good use. In the end, a United turnaround started to feel inevitable, and that’s exactly what happened.
Unfortunately for those trying to move on from the pain of defeat, it’s the international break and there’s no more football to analyse. As a result, last weekend’s game continues to be poured over by pundits.
Ian Wright makes ‘very strange’ Liverpool claim
As you might expect with United legends Gary Neville and Roy Keane on the panel, United’s 4-3 win over Liverpool was a big topic of discussion on this week’s Stick To Football podcast.
But it was Ian Wright who made the most salient point about the Reds, questioning their mentality at 2-1 up.
“It was very strange at this stage of the season mentality wise,” mused Wright. “You’d have thought that it would have been at this stage of the season, let’s finish this off.”
“Do you think making the subs, he thought it was [over]. Just because of the Carabao Cup final?” Neville bizarrely asked. “Why wouldn’t you think that? The way it’s been going for United and Liverpool.”
Kean also weighed in. “I think Klopp he has had a lot of plaudits with the subs coming on and making a difference but did they make a difference? No,” said the former United captain.
“I think United surprised them with that,” Wright concluded.
Liverpool moving on from Manchester
It’s important that Liverpool put this loss out of their minds as quickly as they possibly can. Obviously, the international break can’t help them put things quickly right, but it can put some distance between the result.
A few players were really poor, including Darwin Nunez, but it needn’t be more damaging than necessary.
In terms of mentality, we suspect that Liverpool will be absolutely fine. In fact, they’ve shown more than enough steel and grit this season to be beyond reproach in this area.
Sometimes these things happen against big rivals in big games. It isn’t necessarily that the Reds were complacent or slack, they just couldn’t score the third goal they needed in normal time.
Had they finished the job, the pundits would be sitting there slamming United for another poor performance and praising Liverpool’s ruthlessness.
On another day, that would have been the way it panned out. That won’t ease supporter’s disappointment, but it at least means that the future is probably still bright for the Reds.