Report by
Dave Usher
It was a game nobody wanted. Having lost 5-0 in the first leg Porto could certainly have done without it, and there was nothing to be gained for us either, although there was certainly plenty to lose (specifically important players ahead of the United game).
It will have been a letdown for the TV companies too, not to mention fans who had paid top prices for what was now effectively a dead rubber. All things considered though, it wasn’t bad was it? As far as 0-0 draws in relatively meaningless games go, it was alright.
I’m not entirely sure what Klopp’s thinking was with his team selection though. Most of it was as I expected. Rest Salah and Van Dijk, keep Karius in goal, rotate the full backs, give Lallana a start… all that was smart. Most of the team (apart from Van Dijk and the front three) are interchangeable so it doesn’t matter who the midfield three are or if it’s Gomez or Trent at full back.
Starting both Mané and Firmino though seemed like an unnecessary risk, and bringing Mo on for the last 20 minutes with the message “if you run enough now you don’t need to train tomorrow” seems, oh I don’t know, BATSHIT FUCKING MENTAL.
Why would you do that? I’m all for respecting the competition and the opponent, but how is putting Salah out there at that point anything other than playing with fire? The only explanation I can think of is that Klopp felt bad for the fans and didn’t want to deny them the chance to see Mo doing his thing.
Our main man should have been sat in the stands watching and those final 20 minutes could have gone to Solanke or Woodburn. As it turned out, thankfully there was no harm done, but I can’t get my head around what Klopp was doing there. Imagine if he’d done a hammy. Fucking hell.
Even starting Firmino seemed somewhat unnecessary, especially when Danny Ings is just itching for a start. Bobby never gets injured and never needs a rest, so the risk was minimal, but it was disappointing that Ings didn’t get a go as he could prove to be important for us down the stretch and getting him minutes and hopefully goals now could prove beneficial down the road.
Momentum is important and even though the tie was dead it was still important not to lose, so I understand it’s difficult getting the balance right. Maybe if he’d made too many changes up front it would have sent the wrong message out to the players and the performance wouldn’t have been as strong as it was.
And it was strong. The scoreline may suggest it was a game where both teams just wanted it over with, but that wasn’t really how the game played out. Porto are a proud club and wanted to give a better account of themselves than they did last time, and if we had let our effort drop off we would have lost. They’ve scored the same number of goals as us this season, in the same number of games too. It’s easy to overlook because of how we dismantled them in the last game, but Porto are decent.
So I thought the performance was pretty good under the circumstances. We weren’t at full throttle but the pressing and work rate when we didn’t have the ball was outstanding and you could see how much the players wanted a clean sheet. It didn’t quite click in attack but it wasn’t terrible either, and we had more than enough chances to have won the game.
The two best opportunities of the first half fell to Mané and he was really unlucky with both. The first one came when he acrobatically managed to get on the end of a brilliant Gomez cross but couldn’t quite keep the ball under the bar. Fine effort though.
The second one was even closer, as his sweetly struck shot hit the inside of the post and rebounded to safety.
What a goal that would have been. There were shades about that great John Aldridge goal against Arsenal about it, with Moreno in the role of Steve McMahon as he raced to keep the ball in, ended up off the pitch, but nipped back on in time to take the ball off the toes of an opponent.
Whereas McMahon found Beardsley, who crossed for Aldo to score, Moreno found Milner, who crossed for Mané to almost score. It wouldn’t have been as good as the 80s vintage (but that sentence could apply to anything really, not just this incident) but it would have been one of my favourite goals of the season if it had gone in.
Karius didn’t have to do anything in the first half and only had to make one relatively routine stop in the second. The most dangerous moment he faced was late on from a set-piece when Lovren had to make a brilliant block.
We were defensively strong all night and created a few good openings at the other end, but unfortunately none of them went in. Firmino failed to convert when put clean through by a wonderful through ball by the outstanding Henderson. That would have been a hell of a goal as it started with Karius and it took three passes to just completely slice through them.
Milner (who was also outstanding) missed two presentable chances after the break too, while Moreno could also have had a couple if he knew how to hit the target (do any of his efforts ever test the keeper?).
Ings came on for the last half an hour and missed the best chance of all when his header was tipped over by Casillas. That was a shame as a goal for Ings would have delighted the fans and topped off a really good showing from the lads over the two games.
He looked lively when he came on, and he’s looked a threat any time he’s been on the pitch these last couple of months. He just needs playing time, but that’s hard to come by when we have the best forward line in world football. That’s why I was disappointed he didn’t get a start in this one. Not as disappointed as Ings himself will have been though.
I’m not sure why Lallana was in the front three and not his usual midfield spot either. Maybe it’s less demanding there and Klopp was being cautious with him. I don’t like him out wide though, he slows the game down too much for me and is often on the periphery of things. As a midfielder there are few bigger Lallana fans than me, but in the front three? No thanks. Hopefully this is the last time we see that.
We deserved to win the game and I thought the attitude and professionalism of the team was beyond reproach. Just the kind of performance you’d want, all that was lacking was one clinical finish and it would have been perfect.
In a way though I feel good about not scoring. If we’d scored four or five again I’d have been worried that we’d used up all of our goals for the weekend. By not scoring, I’m thinking that it would be pretty unusual for us to go two games without a goal so that should stand us in good stead for Old Trafford.
I don’t know what to think about that game. I know we’re better than them and I know if we get it right we could take them apart, but Mourinho is going to just Mourinho the shit out of the game and his record of frustrating us has to be a concern.
The sheer rampant spawn of that club is the other thing that gives me pause. I see only two possible outcomes on Saturday. Either we get on top early and take them to the fucking cleaners as their crowd turns on them spectacularly, or we end up getting turned over in a shit game and lose to the spawniest of goals from some fucking bum like Jones or Lingard.
I’m already dreading it. I hate these games. It’s the least enjoyable experience of any season playing these fuckers, especially at their place. Logically I like our chances but it’s impossible to ever feel really confident about it because it’s THEM. And HIM. I just want it over with so we can get on with the rest of our season.
Star man is Hendo, hopefully that dead leg he suffered has cleared up by the weekend.
Team: Karius; Gomez, Matip, Lovren, Moreno; Henderson, Can (Klavan), Milner; Mané (Salah), Firmino (Ings), Lallana:
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