Crystal Palace Beat Liverpool In Community Shield – What Did We Learn From The Defeat? | OneFootball

Every season, the Community Shield pitches the Premier League winners against the FA Cup winners, apart from if they are the same team. It is easy to view the match as a pre-season opener that means a lot, but the reality is that it doesn’t really indicate anything.

Assuming that Crystal Palace are not going to win the title this season, which doesn’t seem outrageous, it will mean that only one of the past 15 winners of the trophy have gone on to be crowned champions. In other words, it doesn’t mean a lot, yet there is still plenty that Liverpool can take from their defeat.

We Look Short Defensively

There was a moment in the first-half when Ibrahima Konaté went over his ankle. The Travelling Kop held its collective breath, aware as everyone was that the Reds do not have a huge heap of depth at centre-back. Whilst Joe Gomez is loved by many, his injury record is suggestive of a player who simply can’t be relied upon to be fit when needed. Konaté himself hasn’t exactly been fit and firing throughout his time at Anfield, with Virgil van Dijk now a 34-year-old and Jarell Quansah a Bayer Leverkusen player. The situation is not ideal for a team that wants to compete on all fronts.

There have been numerous rumours linking us with a move for Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehí, which many supporters feel uncomfortable over because of the club captain’s previous stance that his own father confirmed was homophobic. Even if we sign him, which would be disappointing considering how much good work the club has done with the LGBTQ+ community, there would still be a sense that we needed another to come in. It isn’t hard to envision a future in which Liverpool’s season comes unravelled because of a lack of options at centre-back, given how fresh in the memory the 2020–21 campaign still is.

The Attack Will Be a Lot of Fun

Pyaet, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Whilst the defensive options are thin on the ground, there is no question that we will be a lot of fun going forwards. Florian Wirtz was a thrill to watch yesterday, with his ability to pick a pass and the weight he puts on every ball he plays meaning that his teammates don’t even need to break stride. Once everyone gets onto the same wavelength as him, it will be difficult for opposition defences to know what to do. Hugo Ekitike already looks settled and is significantly more comfortable with his back to goal than Darwin Núñez ever was. Add in the fact that he scored and it was a decent game for him.

Not that the attack is entirely without issues. Mo Salah was simply never part of the match and even when he had a chance he fluffed it in an unusual fashion. Then there’s the fact that he has now missed two penalties in a row and it isn’t outrageous to be mildly concerned about him. In this game, he didn’t seem to have worked out his working relationship with Jeremie Frimpong, which will hopefully come the more that they work together so they don’t play in each other’s space. The manner in which we had no real idea once Ekitike went off is also precisely why we’re still looking to sign Alexander Isak.

Room for Improvement

The overall feeling in the wake of the match yesterday was that Liverpool still have plenty of room for improvement. That should be a scary proposition for the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City, who want to challenge us for the title in the coming months. Obviously, working on penalties wouldn’t be a bad thing for the manager to do, considering the disappointment in the last two shootouts that we’ve taken part in, but more than that, it is difficult to imagine a world in which Richard Hughes has a quiet few weeks leading up to the closing of the transfer window at the end of the month.

Realistically, we could do with two more attackers and two more defenders, with one of each being a younger prospect with decent experience. If we assume for a moment that Hughes is going to ignore the concerns of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies and sign Guehí, we would still benefit from someone else coming in and learning the ropes. Similarly, the links to Alexander Isak refuse to die, so it feels likely that we will get that over the line before the end of the month, but with Mo Salah missing for the Africa Cup of Nations in December and January, one signing might not be enough.