Another day, another goalless stalemate between Liverpool and Chelsea.
Yet, the circumstances surrounding the latest sharing of the points could not be more different to those of the prior campaign in which the Reds secured both domestic cups as part of a quadruple charge that will go down long in the memories of the Anfield faithful.
The drop-off since then has been nothing short of abysmal, though it seems Jurgen Klopp hasn’t been helping himself of late with several early substitutions for Darwin Nunez in recent times – the latest of which had both James Pearce and David Lynch scratching their heads on Twitter.
Taking off Nunez and leaving Jota out there was a strange one.
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) April 4, 2023
It could be concerns over fitness driving it, but find it difficult to understand Darwin Nuñez getting hooked early. Liverpool desperately need him to find consistency before next season if they are to get back to where they want to be and limiting his minutes won’t help.
— David Lynch (@dmlynch) April 4, 2023
One could hardly blame the manager for wanting to shake things up in a game we were ultimately quite fortunate to still have a say in following a couple of disallowed efforts for the hosts.
READ MORE: Carragher’s brutal reaction to Chelsea game likely to be mirrored by Liverpool fans
Still, taking off our most threatening forward player didn’t seem to make a great deal of sense whilst Diogo Jota proved comparatively ineffectual on the pitch.
Whilst it made a certain amount of sense to play our Uruguayan international on the left flank when Cody Gakpo was in the starting-XI, it’s perhaps time for a change of tack to solve our persistent lack of goal threat.
Ultimately, it’s rather telling that we’ve only managed to find the back of the net once (at the Etihad) since the 7-0 thrashing of Manchester United at Anfield.
Perhaps L4 will inspire a similar level of incisiveness in the final third come the weekend, though it’s clear we desperately need a working solution for out trips on the road.