Wijnaldum says Liverpool can't 'feel sorry for themselves'

Liverpool ‘cannot play the victims’ and ‘feel sorry’ for themselves over their injury crisis, insists midfielder Gini Wijnaldum after champions fell to their FOURTH straight home league defeat in 2-0 loss to rivals Everton

  • Liverpool fell to their fourth straight defeat at Anfield in a rare defeat to Everton 
  • Jurgen Klopp’s side had held a 68-game unbeaten run at Anfield before this
  • It leaves them sixth in the table and three points behind Chelsea in fourth
  • Jordan Henderson is the latest in a line of injuries to Liverpool centre-backs
  • Gini Wijnaldum however says that Liverpool can’t ‘feel sorry for themselves’ 

Gini Wijnaldum says Liverpool can’t feel sorry for themselves after they fell to their fourth straight home league defeat.

Everton took their first victory at Anfield since 1999 after a 2-0 victory, with goals from Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson. 

The victory leaves Liverpool sixth in the Premier League, though Everton, Aston Villa and Tottenham could all go ahead of the Reds if they win their respective games in hand.

Liverpool fell to their fourth straight home league defeat with a 2-0 loss to their bitter rivals

Everton’s victory at Anfield against Liverpool was the first for the Toffees since 1999

Liverpool suffered the latest in a season riddled with injuries on Saturday, with captain Jordan Henderson forced off with a groin problem.

He joins Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Joel Matip, Fabinho and Diogo Jota on the sidelines. 

After the match Wijnaldum said that the players can’t feel sorry for themselves after their fall from grace after winning the Premier League title last season.

The Dutchman said: ‘Losing players during the season upset us a lot. We cannot play the victims, we have to deal with the situation and not feel sorry for ourselves.’

Wijnaldum’s time at the club looks to be heading to its final stages, with the Dutchman’s contract set to expire at the end of the season.

His comments were echoed by Liverpool great Jamie Carragher during commentary for the match.

Jordan Henderson is the latest Liverpool player set to face a spell on the sidelines with injury

Gini Wijnaldum says Liverpool can’t ‘feel sorry for themselves’ through their run of bad form

Towards the end of the game, Carragher said: ‘Liverpool have been so poor, they have got everything deserved.

‘They can’t keep saying “Virgil van Dijk is out”. I’m sick of saying it myself.’

Another former Red, Graeme Souness, said that the champions were now an ‘easy touch’.

After the game on Sky Sports he said: ‘Fair play to Everton, thoroughly deserved, they set out to be hard to play against. Liverpool had 71 per cent of the ball but it was tippy tappy most of the time. Everton did the business. Their goalkeeper made a couple of good saves. 

Jamie Carragher, who was on co-commentary, said Liverpool ‘got everything they deserved’

‘But as a Liverpool supporter, deeply disappointed. There was no fight about them, and the best team got the points. No Liverpool player can think “I’ve had a good game” tonight.

 ‘Liverpool were a team no one wanted to play against. Now everyone wants to play against them. They’re an easy touch.’

Their fourth straight home league loss means Liverpool are going through their worst run of form at Anfield in almost a century.   

It is also the worst home record by any defending top-flight champion since 1929, with sixth-placed Liverpool now three points behind fourth-placed Chelsea and level on points with Carlo Ancelotti’s Toffees.

Asked how much he was hurting, downbeat Reds boss Klopp said: ‘A lot, a lot. I don’t like to talk about the good parts of the game because we lost the game and we lost the derby.

Liverpool sit sixth in the Premier League standings and three points off the top four places

‘In decisive moments, we have to improve, that’s clear.’

Klopp, though, dismissed the suggestion his side are struggling to cope with losing because they have become so used to success over the last three years – insisting they still have the ‘desire’ to finish in the top four.

The German said: ‘If you saw an attitude problem on the pitch, you have to write it, but if you didn’t see that, you cannot write it. 

‘I don’t see any relation to the last three years. We were champions last year, and then it was already a month after we were champions that it didn’t feel like it was a month ago.

‘It has nothing to do with that. The boys are still full of desire. I see that.

‘But to change the football game and to get a result, you have to be decisive in the right moments – offensively and defensively – and that is what we are lacking.

‘We cannot change the situation by playing bad. The only way I know is to try again and again and again.




Share this article

Source: Read Full Article