OPINION
Joel Matip publicly confessed to his mistake that helped West Bromwich Albion eliminate Liverpool from the FA Cup on Saturday, but his teammates shouldn’t let him be a scapegoat.
The 26-year-old defender admitted that after scoring an own goal in Liverpool’s 3-2 defeat to WBA, that these sort of mistakes killed a team’s chances.
“We started in front, our offensive play was okay, but in the defence we had problems,” Matip said, as quoted by the Daily Star.
“Mistakes like my one kill every team, this mistake cannot happen, I have to clear this ball.”
Matip’s public confession will get him all the attention and blame for Liverpool’s surprise exit from the FA Cup, even though he referred to the defence as a whole having problems, and it’s just unfair.
While the defender’s mistake was comically bad, with his performance generally poor, he shouldn’t take the criticism alone.
The Reds had more than enough time and opportunities to come from behind to win the game.
The centre-back scored the Baggies’ third goal of the game at the end of the first half, with the Reds going on to having several shots on goal in the second.
In total, Liverpool ended the game having had 23 attempts at goal, with only eight on target, which is a shockingly bad conversion rate.
The Reds also finished the game having had 69% of the possession, which should have given them enough time on the ball to win the game.
While Matip labelled Liverpool’s offensive play as “okay”, this stats suggest it was anything but.
Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino both scored but the duo should have scored more given the chances that fell at their feet, especially Firmino who missed an opportunity from the penalty spot.
It may be a lot to expect Liverpool to score three goals to get something from a game, but no one can deny their capable of it if they perform to their full potential.
The Reds have scored three or more goals in 15 games this season across all competitions, but the side looked far from clinical in Saturday’s game.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Emre Can and Georginio Wijnaldum could all have made equally as costly mistakes as Matip, with their performances lackluster, but they luckily didn’t.
Then there’s the fact that fellow defenders Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alberto Moreno hardly covered themselves in glory and it could have easily been them scoring an own goal through clumsy play.
While it’s noble that Matip has opted to hold his hands up, his Liverpool teammates shouldn’t let him stand alone as it can be argued every one was at fault for one reason or another during Saturday’s defeat.