There were, however, a couple of newsworthy stories that developed concerning the Reds.
First was Thursday’s announcement by England manager Gareth Southgate that he was omitting Trent Alexander Arnold for England’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers against San Marino, Albania and Poland, citing a recent drop off in form from the Liverpool right-back. Ahead of Alexander Arnold, Southgate chose Manchester City’s Kyle Walker, Chelsea’s Reece James and Atletico Madrid’s Kieran Trippier.
Many expressed shock, surprise, even anger that the England supremo had decided to overlook the Liverpool star; but there is no doubt that one of the reasons for the Reds’ disastrous Premier League form in 2021 has been Alexander Arnold’s failure to improve his defensive play in the absence of Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez, who in the past have all been able to cover for Alexander Arnold’s license to play adventurously and defensive inadequacies.
Now, given that Southgate’s England do not play Liverpool-style rock and roll football and their centre halves – Harry Maguire, Conor Coady, John Stones and Tyrone Mings – are nowhere near in the same class as Liverpool’s and nowhere near good enough to protect their right-back when he goes wandering or doesn’t fulfil his defensive responsibilities, then Southgate’s decision looks quite rational.
On Friday, the draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League was made and Liverpool came out with a good tie against Real Madrid, with the away game to be played on 6 April and the return leg on 14 April.
Most of the talk after the draw was of Liverpool being given the opportunity to redeem themselves against the Spanish giants for the humiliating defeat they handed the Reds in the final of the competition in 2018, and in particular the chance for Mohammed Salah to exact revenge on Sergio Ramos for the challenge that ended the Egyptian’s game early and set the tone for the calamities that were to come for Liverpool that fateful night.
The truth is, however, that Ramos’ grappling move wasn’t as diabolical as some made out and Salah was just unlucky in the way he fell on his shoulder. The loss to Madrid was a consequence of perhaps the worst goalkeeping display in modern football. Loris Karius was at fault for all three Real goals, including Gareth Bale’s overhead kick, which was in the centre of the goal and, inexplicably, Karius decided to watch into the net, as if mesmerised by Bale’s athleticism and audacity, rather than making the decision to make a straightforward save.
Real Madrid are the last team from Spain left in the competition, giving an indication of the decline in quality of La Liga and, if this were the Liverpool of the last two years, you’d have to have the Reds as strong favourites to go through to the semi finals, where they would meet either Chelsea or Porto.
However, Liverpool have been atrocious these last three months and even their victories in this period have not suggested that the old Liverpool is back. Indeed, how confident can anyone be that Liverpool will progress with their fifth and sixth choice centre backs – Ozan Kabak and Nat Philipps – likely to come up against Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior? But better Real Madrid at this stage than Bayern Munich, PSG, Man City or Chelsea.
