‘This means more’ reads Anfield’s marketing blurb.
It didn’t at Molineux. Not by a long way. That pithy epithet rang hollow in the Black Country as Wolves gorged themselves on red meat that waited gormlessly in the winter air to be picked apart.
Liverpool may be suffering a mini-slump. That’s one thing. What happened on Saturday afternoon was something else altogether. This wasn’t humbling. It fell into the category of humiliating against a team that scored three goals for the first time this season.
Wolves have been battling with the dead men throughout this campaign. They looked every inch like world-beaters against the Reds, whose colour drained out of them from almost the first whistle.
Liverpool were too compliant, too disorganised, too lethargic. Honestly, the list could just go on. 10minutes before the pain was halted, Jurgen Klopp was reduced to sitting in his dugout as Julen Lopetegui’s side just ran over them.
He held a 1,000-yard stare. Sat with his hands clasped together. Silent. Motionless. If he was looking for answers, he wasn’t going to find them out on the pitch. That battle had long been lost.
And if there were those who thought it couldn’t get much worse after an injury-time FA Cup defeat at Brighton and the manager questioning his players’ body language afterwards, well, I’ve got news for you.
It could. And did. And it might well get worse sooner, rather than later. The Merseyside derby against an Everton side being fed the same diet as Lopetegui’s men, an away-day at Newcastle, Real Madrid, another trip to Crystal Palace and then Manchester United.
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The reasons behind Liverpool’s decline in form in the new year were being debated long before the final blast of referee Paul Tierney’s whistle. Was it the failure to truly strengthen during the January window? Is the club carrying too many injuries? Is this an ageing squad?
Has the hangover from Sadio Mane’s defection ever been cured? Is Jurgen Klopp’s seventh-season syndrome kicking into play? Heck, there might be a smidgen of truth in all of those theories.
But, on a more basic level, any football team has to do two things well if they are to succeed: defend well and look like they care. For 45 minutes, those two essentials were missing, and by the time they were in evidence, the deficit was too big to claw back.
Klopp had a point after the final whistle. Had the visitors scored early in the second half when they enjoyed 15 minutes’ dominance, then it could have been different. But, it wasn’t. The scoreline didn’t really lie, either.
With the final whistle, few would have begrudged Wolves a margin of victory that they have not enjoyed against the Reds for over 40 years. The visitors’ failings were plain to see.
But, coming as they do - as the Reds scratch around for form after a wholly unsatisfying window - alarm bells should be primed. Particularly in defence, where Joel Matip and Joe Gomez appeared to be featuring in a film entitled ‘How not to be a top-class centre-half’.
Matip was shoved off the ball time and again. He put through his own-goal. Gomez’s passing went awry. He looked cumbersome. They might complain they had been given precious little protection from a midfield where Ruben Neves reigned supreme.
The Portuguese had an absolute field day. The Reds’ midfield looked off the pace. It was a similar story throughout, from front to back. Alisson might have had cause to sleep easy, but he was in the minority.
At the end, Molineux boomed to the sound of ‘being sacked in the morning’ and ‘Ole’ to every extended spell of possession the home side produced. The hosts lapped up every second. After a successful window, their season is on an upwards trajectory.
Where Liverpool’s is headed is anyone’s guess.
