Liverpool goalkeeper Harvey Davies unfortunately endured a tough outing at the weekend and was even booed by some of his own team’s supporters.
The 20-year-old is on loan at Crewe Alexandra and was culpable of two costly errors in their 3-3 draw against Accrington Stanley in League Two on Saturday, being beaten by a long-distance effort and spilling a cross-shot which was turned in by the visitors at Gresty Road, both of those occurring in the 87th minute or later.
Those mistakes saw him heckled by a section of the home support, with the boo-boys duly slammed by the club’s manager Lee Bell, who said of the Reds youngster (via beIN SPORTS): “Our ‘keeper has had a tough afternoon but I was really disappointed with the reaction and what happened afterwards.
“He is working so hard to improve and he is a smashing fellow. It shouldn’t happen at any stadium, that reaction to any of your own players.
“I would say the fans should back their players when they make mistakes, and if they want to vent their feelings, they can come to me afterwards – I thought the reaction was poor.”
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It’s natural that football fans will be frustrated with players if they make mistakes which lead to goals for the opposition, with goalkeepers in particular having nowhere to hide as their team’s last line of defence.
However, it’s still unwelcome to see Davies – who, it mustn’t be forgotten, is still only 20 – being audibly jeered by supporters of the club he’s currently representing, and fair play to Bell for calling out such behaviour afterwards.
The youngster’s confidence must’ve already been affected by the errors against Accrington without some Crewe fans piling in by booing him, but hopefully he can show the resilience to put that off-day aside and win back the doubters with a strong performance in his next outing.
Neil Mellor has previously dubbed him an ‘outstanding‘ young goalkeeper, and Jurgen Klopp wouldn’t have brought him on the first team’s pre-season tour to Asia in 2022 if he didn’t think the 20-year-old had the requisite quality in him.
It was only four months ago that Davies was Crewe’s hero as they knocked Championship side Sunderland out of the Carabao Cup on penalties, and it’d be great to see him creating such positive headlines again after a difficult weekend for him.
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Please don’t blame all Crewe fans. It was disgusting to hear and I hope it won’t happen again.