Phil Thompson was infuriated by something which had one player ‘laughing’ in Liverpool defeat
Phil Thompson had a particular bone to pick after what he witnessed in Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat to Wolves on Tuesday night.
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‘Ragged’, ‘brittle’ and ‘shambolic’ were some of the unforgiving adjectives used by James Pearce to describe the Reds’ performance at Molineux, with Arne Slot’s side once again undone by a stoppage-time goal, the seventh such result-altering occurrence this season from 29 Premier League games.
Thompson annoyed by treatment of Gomez from corner kicks
Aside from LFC’s insipid display, our former captain was angered by one incident from a corner kick which saw Joe Gomez being pushed behind the goalline by an opponent who appeared to be laughing as he manhandled our number 2.
Speaking on The Official Liverpool FC Podcast after the game, Thompson fumed: “I’ve seen something happen there tonight that a guy just held on. I think it was to Joe Gomez, and he was laughing. That cannot happen in professional football.
“Nobody seems to say anything to the referee or captain. Nobody is going to the referee. This cannot happen in the game of professional football. Their player was laughing and he was looking the other way. I’m sure it was Joe Gomez [being manhandled].”
An unedifying spectacle, but it shouldn’t detract from Liverpool’s deeper problems
If someone were asked in years to come to describe the 2025/26 Premier League season in two words, there’s a good chance they’ll say ‘set pieces’.
For better or for worse, that has been a prevalent topic throughout the campaign, and it’s been thrust into the spotlight again after the recent Everton v Manchester United and Arsenal v Chelsea games were riddled with impromptu WWE in the penalty area as corner kicks were about to be taken.
That spectre reared its ugly head again at Molineux last night, with Gomez being unceremoniously shoved into the Wolves goalmouth at one point, and it was in the press conference ahead of Tuesday’s match that Slot bemoaned the perceived lack of excitement in the English top flight this term.
The absence of any punishment for blatant grapping and jostling from corners can be infuriating, but it shouldn’t detract from what was an abysmally poor performance from Liverpool in a fixture that, with the greatest of respect to the deserving victors, the Reds ought to be winning with conviction.
It seems surprising that no LFC player appeared to take it up with the officials when Gomez was being pushed – it’s hard to imagine Thompson turning a blind eye to something like that if it were one of his teammates from the sides in which he played at Anfield.
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