Drab, dull, and frankly, dreadful: Liverpool played out a 0-0 bore draw as a volley of boos greeted the final whistle. Against a Leeds team that could even afford to rest Calvert-Lewin for much of the game, Liverpool created very little. New Year, same old, same old.
Liverpool barely showed an appetite on a freezing cold night on Merseyside to take the chance to go five points clear in fourth place. Instead, they played as if petrified of taking the game to a Leeds side who surely couldn’t have anticipated such an easy night. Too slow, too many touches, lacking intensity, repeated square passing, no midfield players running behind a disciplined defensive line—there was little to get excited about. It was a familiar script this season on rinse and repeat.
In fairness, Leeds did little to break the pattern of an insipid game, though Alisson nearly handed them the lead on the half-hour mark. He carelessly passed the ball to a white shirt in the middle of the pitch, only to be thankful it came straight back to him as he scrambled back to his line. Perhaps had Ekitike gone down when clearly fouled by Bijol inside the penalty box, they may have taken the lead from the spot. However, he unwisely stayed on his feet and no VAR review was signaled, demonstrating once again that there is no incentive for players to stay on their feet in the box.
Kicking towards the Kop in the second half, Liverpool would have expected to have the Leeds net under siege. Yet, Slot’s men registered just one shot on target in the second 45 minutes as they plodded laboriously around the pitch, lacking both energy and invention. Substitutions did nothing to change the pattern; in removing Frimpong, Slot took off the one player in red who looked like they might just make something happen.
It’s not just the paucity of Liverpool’s football that’s the issue; it’s a chronic lack of intelligence. They are constantly dawdling when given a throw-in, playing on top of each other rather than creating width, and taking short corners that merely recycle the ball without purpose, while committing lazy fouls when attempting to hem in the opposition. It’s painful to watch at times and offers next to nothing to get the Anfield faithful off their feet.
The best that can be said of the 0-0 draw is that it maintains an unbeaten run and comes with a clean sheet. But by God, it’s almost exclusively drab watching Liverpool at the moment. While January signings are unlikely to offer a long-term solution, Slot needs to find an answer, and soon.
