Ninth-placed Liverpool ‘halt embarrassing mid-table slide’ as Dortmund finally speak about Bellingham

Liverpool beating 18th-placed Everton at home could be ‘transformative’ as a team in ninth aims to avoid mid-table. But what about that Jude Bellingham?

Slip and slide
Writes Charlie Wyett of The Sun:

‘While it helped their Merseyside rivals delivered an unbelievably-lame performance in their match under Sean Dyche, Liverpool could not have hoped for an easier game to halt their embarrassing slide towards mid table.’

Weird hyphen, that. And does jumping from 10th to 9th really constitute ‘halting their embarrassing slide towards mid-table’? Their embarrassing slide into mid-table was already complete. They remain embarrassingly mid-table despite winning.

Formality wear
The theme of Liverpool winning at home against the team in 18th, who had picked up eight points from a possible 30 beforehand, and thus obviously turning a corner is pretty common. Strange, but common.

Oliver Holt of the Daily Mail reckons the result ‘felt so transformative’ and ‘maybe Liverpool’s season is just beginning,’ all because Everton can’t defend counter-attacks.

But Holt equally exaggerates just how bad things were for the Reds.

‘A few days ago, no one would have given Liverpool a sniff of beating Real Madrid in the Champions League second round tie that is fast approaching,’ he writes.

‘Ever since the draw was made, it has been assumed it is a formality that Liverpool’s hope of trophies this season will end at the conclusion of the second leg in the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on the evening of Wednesday March 15,’ he adds.

Real Madrid are favourites for that tie but they have lost to Rayo Vallecano, Villarreal and Mallorca since November. They have 14 points from their last eight La Liga games; before beating Everton, Liverpool had 13 points from their last eight Premier League games.

Anyone who deemed that tie a ‘formality’ at any point is as much of a fool as those who reckon beating Everton shifts the momentum in any sort of meaningful way.

Hey Jude
Now Liverpool are brilliant again and no longer mired in a mid-table mess, the Liverpool Echo are free to fall back on their favourite post-match trope.

”Wishful thinking’ – Dortmund break silence with update on Liverpool target Jude Bellingham’ reads a headline which immediately prompts a raised eyebrow. The one thing Dortmund have done consistently when it comes to Jude Bellingham is speak quite openly about his situation and future. This is a ‘silence’ that is…