EPL: 0-5 v. City (A)

It was the searing indignity of this result that finally precipitated the creation of this blog so as to vent my frustrations online!

A few things of note.  Let's start with the Mané sending off. While I can see why he's been sent off, it's not necessarily a clear-cut case and I would like to take issue with some of the sentiments expressed about how it was a stone-cold red.

First, to those who say that it's a literal application of the rulebook, it should be noted that refereeing is to a large degree about interpretation and context. A literal application of the rulebook would probably see far more players in the book or sent off. Somebody on Twitter noted how in LFC's last game against Arsenal, Salah scored the third goal after nicking the ball with his head from Bellerin as the latter's foot went high. Should Bellerin have been sent off as well for "endangering" a fellow player? In that case, Bellerin missed and Salah came away with the ball, which leads to the conclusion that, in Mané's case, the circumstances that prompted the red were that he did catch a player in the face with his foot and that player happened to be the keeper. If that's the case, it would seem that he was sent off due to sheer bad luck: he actually hit his opponent (despite not meaning to, just as Bellerin probably had no intention of kicking Salah), and keepers are protected more than outfield players. That's patently unfair then. It's not to say that football isn't unfair at times, but I think it rather undercuts the case for a literal interpretation of the rulebook all the time.

Second, the question of intent. There are some who say that though Mané's eyes were firmly on the ball, he probably could have seen the keeper coming with his peripheral vision. Even if true, one is taking a big leap in implying that the quality of one's peripheral vision is as good as when one is firmly concentrating on looking ahead. In other words, when you are focused on something immediately ahead of you, it's unlikely that you will be able to see as well using your peripheral vision, in terms of judging distance, speed or direction of movement of an oncoming object. In Mané's case, what this means is that even if he did see the keeper coming from the corner of his eyes, he might not have gotten as clear a sense of whether that keeper would reach the ball before he got to it than in a situation where he is looking directly at the keeper.

So this could go some way to explaining why his leg was raised. While he probably saw the keeper coming, he may have thought that he could reach the ball ahead of the keeper if he stretched for it. It turned out to be a tragic mistake, but it does not necessarily fall into the ambit of endangering his opponent.

The Mané issue aside, it was a poor performance from LFC. It has to be said that Klopp may be tactically culpable here, in that he didn't adjust Pool's approach when down to 10-men. That failure greviously negated LFC's pressing and opened up too much space between the lines for City, turning a one-goal contest into a goal-fest. Someone on Twitter said that it's probably because LFC didn't know how else to play or didn't have the personnel for it. If that's the case, then it reflects poorly on Klopp. Over the last two seasons Pool had repeatedly paid the price for not knowing how to close out games, when moving from their fluid, expansive play to a more compact, disciplined shape might help to see out games where they had the lead. The same kind of switch would have come in handy here.

The irony of this result is that, just two weeks earlier, Arsenal were being criticised for many of the same perceived failings as Pool are now: lack of leaders on the pitch when things go south, tactical naiveté in the wake of the opponents playing between the lines and players just lost on the pitch or giving up. Hopefully, it'll serve as a big wake-up call, as the back-to-back defeats to Pool and Arsenal did for Chelsea last season.

The only problem is that it is difficult to see Klopp doing anything but persisting with the same tactics and personnel. Manager and players may be much more inclined to write-off the result as a one-off. One can only hope they are similarly seared by that experience and play with more fire in their belly in the next few months. In the EPL, that's the kind of mentality that intimidates and could prove the edge in tight contests.