Three points, but it still feels fragile

Take the three points, yes. But it’s hard to feel any real comfort when you’re watching Liverpool struggle to manage a game against nine men without turning it into a mad scramble. That’s the worry for me: not the result on the day, but how flimsy we still look when the match should be put to bed.

There are moments when you can almost see the panic spread. One loose touch, one half-clearance, one second ball that doesn’t get claimed, and suddenly it’s all a bit frantic. We end up swiping at thin air, overcommitting, and making things feel far more dramatic than they need to be. That shouldn’t be happening when you’ve got the advantage, and especially not when you’ve had control of the game.

First and second balls: the basics still feel messy

The Spurs goal, as described, pretty much captured the bigger issue: we’re not consistently winning that first duel, and we’re even worse at reacting to the second ball. It’s not always about fancy tactics. Sometimes it’s just about being sharper to the drop, stronger in the contact, and calmer with the next action.

And the pace thing is real as well. Too often we look like we’re chasing rather than dictating. When Liverpool sides are at their best, we make the other team feel rushed and boxed in. Here, it’s the other way round for spells, and it makes us look unfit even if it’s more about concentration and spacing than pure fitness.

Game management in the last 15: why are we inviting it?

The last 15 minutes should have been routine. Keep the ball, slow the tempo, get bodies in sensible positions, make the pitch big when we’ve got it and small when we haven’t. Instead, the defending turns “emergency”, like we’re trying to survive something we’ve created ourselves.

That’s where the “made of paper” feeling comes from. You can be on top, you can even be a man or two up, and still look one moment away from conceding a soft chance because the shape goes, the clearance goes anywhere, and nobody takes ownership. Some players, frankly, look like passengers when the pressure hits.

Results can hide problems, until they don’t

I get the point about recent results papering over cracks. Even in games we’ve won, the performance level hasn’t always matched what you’d want from a side aiming to win things. It’s not about demanding perfection every week, it’s about seeing signs of a team moving forward, becoming harder to play against, learning how to close matches out properly.

There’s also the bigger anxiety about goals if key forwards are missing. If you’re already not looking solid, you can’t really afford to become blunt as well. That’s when decent wins turn into draws, and draws turn into those ugly defeats that leave you scrambling later in the season.

So yes, three points. But it still feels like something has to give, because this level of shakiness can’t be the weekly norm if Liverpool want this season to mean anything.

Written by NOTSOZIPPY: 21 December 2025