Ken Early: When the Liverpool crowd sound like they’re in Lidl, it’s time to check out

If you want to analyse how things are going at Liverpool, you don’t even need to watch what’s happening out on the field (and don’t worry, you won’t miss much). Just listen to the crowd.

The atmosphere at Anfield was comparable to what you might experience if you spent your Sunday afternoon walking around a Lidl. The booing at the end was the most excited the home crowd had been all day.

It’s clear that people are fed up with Slotball, whatever it is. Arne Slot likes to use words such as “creative” but his team never creates anything. They pass the ball endlessly in the same predictable patterns, always making it very obvious what they want to do next. No wonder there always seems to be a defender in the way.

The only notable chant the Liverpool fans had all day was “Rio, Rio” for the 17-year old winger Rio Ngumoha, whose dribbles from the left provided the only flashes of something that felt like football. The only player whose first automatic thought was not to pass the buck.

Tottenham arrived having lost their last six games in all competitions, a club-record losing streak. They were missing 13 players to injury and suspension, including most of their first-choice XI. In their last match, the struggling interim coach Igor Tudor had upset elements of the dressingroom with his treatment of the young goalkeeper Antonín Kinsky, who was surprisingly picked to make his Champions League debut against Atlético Madrid, then substituted after making two huge mistakes in the first 17 minutes.

[ Champions League: Tottenham goalkeeper substituted after two errors as they are thrashed by AtleticoOpens in new window ]

The club had reportedly spent the previous few days sounding out available coaches in search of a fresh “new manager bounce”, only for everybody to say no. People had started seriously making suggestions like “maybe we need to get Harry Redknapp in to put his arm around the players and tell them they are terrific players”.

So this was the worst Tottenham team to come to Anfield in 50 years, since their last relegation season of 1976-’77. And yet, in a generally appalling game, they had the better of it.

They went behind after 18 minutes but kept chasing and running and eventually got their reward, when Andy Robertson’s failed clearance allowed Kolo Muani to hold off Virgil van Dijk and play in the unmarked Richarlison, who sent Alisson the wrong way with a mis-hit shot.

The nominal right-back, Dominik Szoboszlai, was nowhere to be seen. As everyone knows, Szoboszlai is not a right-back but he has filled in there this season because injuries left Slot with no other options. Yesterday he did have an option – but Szoboszlai played right-back yet again, because the alleged right-back Liverpool bought in the summer, Jeremie Frimpong, is apparently more comfortable on the right wing.

Liverpool have now conceded eight goals in injury time, their most in a single Premier League season even though they’re not quite 80 per cent of the way through this one. The previous record of seven was set in 2010-’11, when Roy Hodgson was sacked as manager midway through and the club nearly went bankrupt.

They have conceded so many injury-time winners that Slot could reflect on the varied ways in which they have buckled late, as though he were a disinterested connoisseur of such matters rather than the actual coach of the team. “Every time when it happens it feels like it’s the biggest blow. When it happens against Wolves it feels oh, it’s the biggest blow of the season. And now it happens again. Although, the way we concede is not always the same in the last minute. You cannot compare the deflected shot against Wolves with the way we conceded today, or the 30-yard shot against Fulham.”

The goal came from Spurs’ seventh shot on target of the game, compared to four for the home side. Proof again that in football, attitude is always more important than talent.

You can criticise many things about Liverpool this season: the planning of the squad, the collapse in form of several key individuals, etc. But above everything else, their attitude is terrible.

As usual, they spent most of the game playing as though they just wanted it to be over. They give no impression of enjoying the games or rising to the challenges. The sense is that they are dreading the inevitable moment when everything goes wrong.

The team’s personality reflects the downbeat, even peevish tone of their manager. Slot’s bleating about opposing teams using low-blocks and set pieces in the first part of the season set a defeatist tone that the team has never shaken off. He seemed to see these tactics as an aesthetic and philosophical affront, rather than a problem it was his job to solve.

Ironically, after all their complaining about set pieces, Liverpool have themselves become more dependent on them as a way to score. The only chances they created against Galatasaray were from scuffles at corners and free-kicks. The goal against Spurs came from a direct free-kick; they created hardly any clear opportunities from open play.

[ Familiar tale for Arne Slot after Lemina gives Galatasaray edge over LiverpoolOpens in new window ]

Slot, like many of the fans, sounds increasingly disillusioned and checked-out about the whole league. A couple of weeks ago he remarked that “most of the games I see in the Premier League are not for me a joy to watch”.

His own team’s games are among the worst but, on the bright side, it’s unlikely he’ll be required to follow any of this stuff beyond the summer.

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