Nothing amused me like Gary Neville’s response to Jurgen Klopp’s outburst, after the former criticised Liverpool’s German goalkeeper Loris Karius.
Cop manager Klopp had belittled Neville by suggesting that his comments were worthless because he failed as a coach of Valencia. Neville retorted that he did not have to be a good chef to tell a good steak. That I found as interesting as Klopp’s suggestion that the Neville brothers – former Man United players – simply hate Liverpool.
Should we also say that because Paul Scholes harshly criticizes Manchester United, he hates the club?
Of course Klopp is right when he says that Neville, having been a player, must be more sensitive about his unreserved criticism towards a player trying to find their feet. Neville should criticize constructively, rather than making a player feel useless and incompetent.
That can destroy a young player. Neville should put himself in the shoes of someone being criticized, and assess how he would feel if he were the recipient of such verbal bombardment.
Yet even the darkest of clouds holds a silver lining. For me, the obvious point from the Neville attack is that Karius is not yet good enough to be Liverpool’s number one.
Even Klopp knows that; otherwise, he would not have picked Simon Mignolet ahead of him for the Wednesday night game at Middlesbrough. It is insulting to Mignolet, even with all his flaws, to be Karius’ substitute.
And that fact is one I took with great interest to keep tabs on when Karius arrived from Germany, only for Klopp to hand him the number one jersey. Coaches normally insist that you cannot keep a top player down, when you want to win games. That is a fallacy.
The truth in football ,actually, is that coaches have sentimental preferences regardless of how good or bad they may be. Think of Jose Mourinho picking Marouane Fellaini ahead of Bastian Schweinsteiger – as if there is even a contest between them.
Or imagine how long it took Mourinho to listen to critics who insisted that he had to play Michael Carrick for Paul Pogba to thrive! Klopp is showing the same weakness in the matter of Karius and Mignolet.
Karius may be a top custodian in the future – he is only 23 – but he is no match for Mignolet today. As you read this, ask yourself these questions: Is Karius a good shot-stopper? Does he inspire the four defenders ahead of him? Has he pulled off a save, where you sit back and say, ‘wow, that was supposed to be a goal?’ Has he even won Liverpool a single match?
The answer is a resounding No! Yet, seeing events at the Riverside, I have no doubt that Liverpool and Klopp owe Mignolet a great amount of gratitude for leaving there with a full three points, but also a clean sheet. Leave Mignolet between the sticks, you Klopp, will you!
ARSENE WENGER’S SELECTIVE AMNESIA
Meanwhile, Everton’s league win over Arsenal on Tuesday night left Arsene Wenger grumbling over referee Mark Clattenburg. The ref’s decision to award Everton a corner-kick and not an Arsenal goal-kick proved to be the mother of all trouble.
Arsenal conceded a goal from it on 88 minutes, and a winner at that. However, although Wenger had a case, he has benefited from worse in recent times. Back in October, when a clear use of the hand by Laurent Koscielny helped Arsenal edge Burnley 1-0 in the last minute, Wenger could not bring himself to admit that they had robbed their hosts at Turf Moor.
Yet, it would have been magnanimous of Wenger if he had actually come out to highlight how referee Craig Pawson had erred in letting Arsenal’s goal stand. Just imagine how gutted Claude Puel was when Southampton visited The Emirates in September, with that dubious penalty referee Robert Madley awarded to Arsenal in the ninety-fourth minute.
But as it is, Wenger suffers from convenient amnesia – forgetting the bits of history he deems ugly. This brings into question his objectivity; the kind which is needed to evaluate situations and their outcomes more sensibly.
For example, corner-kick or not, Arsenal did not defend that late set-piece against Everton well. Their marking and general positioning was suspect.
jovi@observer.ug