I'm no fan of people with no local attachment supporting big clubs for glory but Liverpool have loads of fans all over the country. Did I like seeing Zoe ball in a United shirt...no
Greenlizard0 PL & Championship Football Thread ** spoilers ** [19th - 22nd August 2022]
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I checked some of our higher xg games against in the early part of the season (Norwich/Burnley/Leeds/Brentford/Man U/Brighton) compared that with the highlights of the game and the chances were invariably due to the poor play from ourselves when the opposition had the ball in our half or from a set piece. There were a fair few balls over the top trying to split the cb's but they were given offside 99% of the time, maybe you are getting confused with that? The loss to West Ham had what you could consider a goal conceded due to our fullbacks pushing high, but looking back at the highlights I would put the blame moreso onto the cb pairing, it wasn't really until the draw with Spurs in December where we started seeing the ball into the spaces vacated by the fullbacks that's more in common with chances we give up now.
Soldato
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Not enough energy in midfield, it's too easy to catch us on the break. Teams just sit tight and wait for the chance to pick us off. We need fresh blood in midfield and another forward. We sold three forwards and only bought one. Firmino's legs have gone, he's completely anonymous, absolutely no threat whatsoever. Owners need to get the cheque book out asap. Injuries aren't helping, but we've just not done enough in the transfer market.
Would all 9 have started?
Soldato
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Not sure. I think some of the pool fans can share some light into this?
But all I know is that they apparently had 9 first team players out
I'm not confused and I'm not sure what highlights you watched but there was countless games (Chelsea, Palace, Brentford, Brighton, West Ham, Spurs off the top of my head) where we were wide open in midfield and teams were easily able to play straight through our midfield with one pass and break into spaces down the sides of our CB's. There's also no denying that we moved back to our old midfield shape and personnel in 2nd half of last season to counter those issues - particularly in the last few months of the season, it was almost always 3 from Hendo, Fab, Thiago & Keita.
Anyway, I think we're just going round in circles now.
Thaigo for sure, one of Jota/Darwin (admittedly suspended), it was more a bench issue with the lack of Curtis/Naby being injured. Konate and Matip also injured, along with the young RB we signed
Try watching the highlights from the games I listed for a start, they're readily available on YouTube.
You can also check the xg chance and you'll note a lot are either set peices or shots from outside/edge of the area
3 minute highlights won't show you much. Take the Palace game I mentioned as an example - we won 3-0 so you're not going to see many Palace attacks in those 3 minutes but it doesn't change the fact that Palace were causing us lots of problems in that game, even if they weren't able to turn them into clear chances.
Ok, taking the palace game as an example. Over half of their shots were from a set piece, of the chances from open play over half were from outside the area. Palaces 2 best chances were Zaha in the 2nd minute - the chance was created after a corner which wasn't cleared very well, simple ball back into the box gave Zaha the opportunity, and Edouard in the 80th minute which was a long ball straight down the middle in behind the CB (Konate in this instance).
The problems weren't caused by playing balls into channels as we experience currently, as I said the issue we had at the start of last season were either created by ourselves in not dealing with set pieces, or simple balls in behind the cb's. The issues we have now in dealing with balls into the space created by the fb's pushing forward with no cover are the same issues we had to deal with in 2nd half of last season, as I said before mainly after the 2-2 draw with Spurs where they caused us massive problems.
I didn't mention shots. As I said, they were causing us lots of problems without creating clear chances.
And again, we're just going to go around in circles. Nobody is convincing me that we didn't struggle as a result of that tactical shift at the start of last season and the fact that we changed back to our old way of playing in midfield (and our defensive record improved) only backs that up.
So, I hope last nights game can be a turning point for the club. The owners still need to go but that's a more complex situation.
As ETH himself said, it's not so much about tactics, but effort and attitude. You always have to match or exceed your opponents effort, something we haven't done very often. The new players all did very well, which is critical when a manager has signed them. Casemiro will bring a lot to the squad too.
I think it's been made clear to Ronaldo that he will not be a consistent fixture in the team - hopefully somewhere will take him.
Another couple of signings (winger/striker/rightback) and we should be able to push on from here and be in good shape, but of course nothing can be taken for granted...
As ETH himself said, it's not so much about tactics, but effort and attitude. You always have to match or exceed your opponents effort, something we haven't done very often. The new players all did very well, which is critical when a manager has signed them. Casemiro will bring a lot to the squad too.
I think it's been made clear to Ronaldo that he will not be a consistent fixture in the team - hopefully somewhere will take him.
Another couple of signings (winger/striker/rightback) and we should be able to push on from here and be in good shape, but of course nothing can be taken for granted...
Associate
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Listening to talksport build up on my way home and anyone who had the feeling United would win this was getting mocked. When someone said united would get two goals they were mocked for who would score them. The answer was Rashford and Sancho. I bet they didn't back that up with a bet 
Klopps as much of a classless **** as the rest of them when things aren't going his way and the loveable chap disappears.
Next 3 fixtures are interesting for Liverpool. Bournemouth a win, but Newcastle and then Everton.
Klopps as much of a classless **** as the rest of them when things aren't going his way and the loveable chap disappears.
Next 3 fixtures are interesting for Liverpool. Bournemouth a win, but Newcastle and then Everton.
All credit to united. I fear it isn't just as simple as putting the effort in and matching the opponent though. Liverpool were really terrible last night, which made things look better than they were for united.
You can only beat what's in front of you, long long way to go yet for united. as an example that Liverpool midfield last night was that bad they made Mctominay look like Casemiro.
You can only beat what's in front of you, long long way to go yet for united. as an example that Liverpool midfield last night was that bad they made Mctominay look like Casemiro.
It's absolutely not that simple, but that's a basic requirement before tactics and players even come into it.
Liverpool may be struggling but they're still a formidable side, they definitely don't look right though.
Yeah, at least the effort was there. Does anyone have the stats on distance covered etc as opposed to previous games? The value Varane gives you over Maguire as well, positional sense, presence and some actual pace.
I appreciate I'm negative about MUFC (rightly so, IMO) but I don't take much from it. It's great to beat Pool and also for the team to win.
I'm more impressed that Maguire and Ronaldo were dropped. That's a good sign. In the long term, that's better for the club than beating an out of form Liverpool.
I'm more impressed that Maguire and Ronaldo were dropped. That's a good sign. In the long term, that's better for the club than beating an out of form Liverpool.
McTominay still looked crap for most of the game. Still trotted around directly in line with the opposition forwards to completely remove himself from giving them an option. Fernandes wasn't great in general last night and Eriksen struggled at times. Still a lot of work to be done and although Liverpool weren't good, we were still very poor when it came to any sort of quality for large parts of the game.
Casemiro (the real one
) should help and we still need another top quality CM so that the likes of McTominay and Fred are rotation players, not first XI. Fernandes should be competing with Eriksen for that further forward role. Ideally Martial and another new striker are our options in the forward line, Ronaldo goes and then we have Elanga, Rashford, Sancho and Pallestri for the wide positions. Not perfect but good enough for now. A quality RB would go a long way to helping that right side.Yeah, and that was why the fans have been so ****** off. Effort levels are largely removed from tactics etc. Thats where you start. If you don't have that then nothing else matters. Once you have that, tactics become massively important. Theres no point worrying about tactics until you have the fight and application sorted though.
Yeah, Liverpool were out of sorts for sure but we weren't great for a lot of the game from a technical standpoint. Still huge amounts of work to do.
113km for the team and 150 sprints between them. Basically what a team should be running roughly.
Fingers crossed Varane can stay injury free because this is our best CB pairing. Thats a big if though. Ronaldo looked grumpy AF whenever they panned to him on the bench. Hopefully that will make him take the pay cut he needs to in order to move on.
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On a more general note, as long as we have DDG in goal I wonder how much EtH will insist on playing out from the back. He largely abandoned it last night but whether that was due to it being Liverpool or a complete change of tact. Made a big difference. You sacrifice a lot of possession but you don't give away a goal or two a game from mistakes..
At one point they showed a map of DDGs kicks and their outcomes and I don't think a single one of them ended with us in possession. Thats such a lot of pressure to invite but at least it usually starts around the half way line instead of in front of your goal.
Caporegime
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100% DDG has to improve his short game and work on it during training. If not that puzzle will be fixed next summer.