Eliott on Liverpool Loss: “It Wasn’t Our Best, We All Knew That”
Few of Liverpool’s senior players involved in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at Plymouth Argyle deserve to escape criticism for their performances.
It’s a truism in football, and in sport generally, that you’re never as good as you think you are after your best performance or as bad as you might think you are after your worst defeat.
Which is probably a good thing for quite a few of the Liverpool players who were involved in Sunday’s shock 1-0 defeat to last in the Championship Plymouth Argyle on the back of a quite atrocious performance at the team and individual levels.
“It wasn’t our best game at all, we all knew that on the pitch,” reflected midfielder Harvey Elliott after the match. But I think one thing about the team today, we fought to the end, we kept trying, we kept pushing.
“But sometimes this is what happens in football—today we weren’t good enough. I’d say it was harsh to lose the way we did but where we don’t play as well as we should it can go either way and today it didn’t go our way.”
In the aftermath, many will be quick to single out Elliott for conceding the handball penalty that gave the game its decisive margin, but that wouldn’t be entirely fair.
Less because Elliott, who even before the penalty was mostly noticeable for his heavy touches and misplaced passes, played well than because he wasn’t the only senior player involved in Sunday’s defeat who played noticeably poorly.
Meant to provide width and thrust on the left flank, Kostas Tsimikas at times appeared the worst player on the pitch for similar reasons, while leading the line Diogo Jota appeared somewhere between hesitant and disinterested.
The kindest reading in his case might have been that as an injury-prone player he was holding himself back. Though another injury-prone Red, Federico Chiesa, at least looked as though he was interested if not effective.
Similar could be said of Luis Diaz on the left: interested but not effective. Meanwhile, with the first team stars not providing much, the kids sprinkled into the mix can hardly be faulted for not carrying the side.
“It’s a learning curve again,” Elliott added. “There were a few learning curves from today—youngsters making their debuts and the younger lads playing, so it’s always nice to see that. But we just have to rest up and go again on Wednesday now.”
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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