Crisis is the latest flavour of the month for Liverpool, but let’s not be quick to judge Kabak too – opinion

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We should be talking about a very different game right now.

It was a fixture that had all the hallmarks of a Liverpool resurgence, and having arguably been the better side in the meeting with Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester, to come up short once more was no less painful than our prior defeat to Manchester City.

Seven minutes was all it took for the facade to crumble, and spectacularly so, as the Foxes capitalised on a contentious VAR call, and a moment of miscommunication between Alisson Becker and Ozan Kabak, to put the Reds to the sword.

Leicester will get the plaudits, and deservedly so for their comeback, but it was our name near fully carved out on those three points, before such a brutally sudden turnaround of fortunes.

‘Crisis’ is the latest flavour of the month, as far as Liverpool’s circumstances are currently being considered by those with an eye for the game.

By this point, at least for those of us who are taking into account the bigger picture beyond the points and the facile comparisons with our title-winning season of 2019/20, the source of the club’s continuing struggles couldn’t be more clear.

But let’s not let those wandering, critical eyes fall upon our newest loan signing, Kabak, who for all intents and purposes had a mostly decent, if unspectacular, debut.

The wince-inducing collision to hand Jamie Vardy an open goal on a silver platter will undoubtedly dominate headlines, alongside our well-documented collapse of late.

But can we single out the 20-year-old for being swept up along with his teammates in the calamitous tide that saw Liverpool concede three goals in the space of seven minutes?

It was an immature performance beyond the 78th minute – is this all that surprising, though?

Should we not be considering the defender’s relative youth (Kabak was the youngest man on the pitch for us, by a couple of months behind Curtis Jones, but still!) and the blaring fact – which, apparently, many were willingly oblivious to – that this was not the outing of a defender long-since used to the habits of his teammates and the inner workings of Liverpool’s style of play.

We were not dealing with a 27-year-old, Premier League veteran who had been around the squad for four or five years and should really be doing better – it was a 20-year-old, with Jordan Henderson as his centre-back partner, in his first-ever Liverpool and Premier League game, against top four competition.

If Manchester City are to be considered the veritable deep end of the league, then Leicester City must still be considered far from the shallows.

Admittedly, if the VAR call to award James Maddison his equaliser for Leicester hadn’t stood and if Alisson had made his centre-half aware that he was running out to clear the ball (indeed, Jurgen Klopp admitted that he didn’t hear the Brazilian shout to warn the defender of his impending approach), we’d be talking about a very different game right now.

Why shouldn’t that also apply to Kabak too, who, much like his fellow teammates, was mostly reliable until the latter stages of the tie?

At worst, should we choose to don our critical caps, we can only really fault the Turk for failing to keep a close enough eye on Harvey Barnes and effectively track the 23-year-old’s run.

Of course, one might be inclined to argue that had the Turkey international been partnered with the likes of Virgil van Dijk he might have already been made aware of the Foxes’ man lurking behind his turned back – it is what it is, however, and the wide midfielder was ultimately Kabak’s responsibility.

It was a promising debut nonetheless from the on loan Schalke defender, if not quite as world-beating as some of us may have hoped for in light of the absences of Fabinho and our entire host of senior centre-backs.

Despite the corrupting swell of negativity surrounding the club at this moment in time, however, let’s not be hasty to toss aside one of our newest, and most highly-rated, signings.

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