Liverpool rested a load of players on Monday night but so did Wolves
Matt Doherty was given a break, so was Costa, Cavaleiro and Rui Patricio. They still had Raul Jimenez, Neves and Moutinho but this wasn’t exactly Nuno Esprito Santo’s full deck.
On top of that, Liverpool are the Premier League leaders, they were Champions League finalists last season and it’s fair to say that they’re never usually short on confidence.
So in that case, no excuse should really wash or should really be expected for them losing to Wolves in the third round of the FA Cup on Monday night apart from the fact that they didn’t show up and were punished by a better team.
But after a listless 2-1 defeat, Liverpool supporters, former players and managers were scratching the surface for other reasons for the loss.
The general consensus on social media was that they didn’t care about the FA Cup and that the League is their only priority this season. Former player and respected analyst Jamie Carragher was singing off the same hymn sheet, claiming that the fewer games Liverpool have to distract them from the holy grail in May the better.
https://twitter.com/Carra23/status/1082401278884499458
That’s all well and good, but what about momentum? The team have lost two games on the bounce now and when you consider that they haven’t won a trophy in the Klopp era and are going on seven years without a cup in general, the oldest trophy in the history of football should hardly be swatted away like a fly on a table.
In his post-match press conference, Jurgen Klopp claimed that a few of his players were ill after the City game and that Wolves were basically at full strength. Then went out and cursed the weather at Molineux.
“The wind didn’t help, players struggled to control the ball,” Klopp said after the game. “The game looked a little different when we brought Mo (Salah) and Bobby (Firmino) on but we couldn’t start them.”
Maybe Liverpool’s players aren’t used to breezy conditions but surely Naby Keita, Fabinho and co. should be able to adapt.
