Report by
Dave Usher
Ridiculous. Will they ever learn? Probably not. No lead is safe with this team because as soon as they let one in you expect more to follow. This game was all but won but somehow they found a way to balls it up.
The first half performance was everything you’d have wanted it to be. Ok, two of the goals were from corners, but it felt like we’d score with every attack and Sevilla had completely gone at 3-0. They were passing the ball straight of play and their defence were shitting themselves any time they were put under pressure.
Half time gave them a chance to clear their heads and regroup, but it doesn’t excuse what happened. It was obvious they’d come out in the first few minutes with fire in their bellies and try to get back into the game but the meek response from our players was embarrassing.
It was hard to believe it was the same team, but then you think back to other capitulations against the likes of Bournemouth, Watford, Norwich and others (including Sevilla two years ago) and it's less surprising.
When this team does what they’re supposed to they can beat anyone. That’s the most frustrating part of all this. The first half showed why nobody in this competition will want to draw us in the knock out stages (assuming we get there, and with this lot that’s no longer a certainty). Hell, we’re even scoring from corners now, which should really put the fear of God into our opponents.
Firmino gave us the perfect start with a goal after 88 seconds. Nice finish, well worked corner. Incredibly, we then did the exact same thing again, only with different players. This time it was Firmino flicking the ball on and Mané arriving round the back to finish. Great header that was.
Sevilla had twice almost equalised minutes before that goal. Our shape wasn’t great and they sliced through us far too easily. The first time saw Karius make a great save to turn the ball onto the post, and the second time the striker dragged his shot just wide. I’m pretty sure those chances came within the same minute, and for the rest of the half we were in complete control.
The third goal came when Mané raced clear and should have scored himself, but luckily Firmino was on hand to tap in the rebound from close range. He was taking the piss by looking the other way when he put the ball in the net, and at the time it was dead funny and I was loving it. The fun was about to end soon enough though.
The first half actually went how I expected. I’d even posted on the forum beforehand that we’d score six and I wasn’t kidding. So three inside half an hour had me feeling pretty pleased with myself and even more pleased with the team. By full time I was just disgusted.
All the great work from the first half was undone by a passive, timid, naive second half showing. It’s not just that they conceded three goals, it’s the way they allowed the game to completely get away from them. Blame Moreno all you want, but the slide had started before he dived in to concede a stupid free-kick that led to the first goal and then followed that up by conceding the penalty for the second.
We were just asking for trouble from the moment the second half started. We were sloppy in possession and the zip to the play we had in the first half was gone. Half the team were asleep to start that second half and tactically it was a mess. Not changing things quickly enough is on Klopp, but the lack of intensity and game management is on the players.
The optimistic outlook is that a draw in Seville is a decent result and we should still qualify for the knock out stages providing we don’t blow it against Moscow. I could probably get on board with that if we hadn’t blown a 3-0 lead. We did blow a 3-0 lead though and it’s fucking infuriating. It might not cost us qualification from the group, but it means we now have to field our best team against Spartak a few days before the derby game.
We should have been using that game to give Solanke, Woodburn, Robertson, Ings, Sturridge, Oxlade-Chamberlain and the rest some playing time while allowing Mo, Sadio, Phil & co to put their feet up in preparation for the Blues. Now we can’t do that, just because these knob heads couldn’t hold on to a fucking three goal lead.
Klopp says it is “100% not a mentality problem”. Sorry, I beg to differ. That’s five times now that his team has failed to win games in which they’ve led by at least two goals and countless others where they've dropped points from a winning position. We’ve seen them fold like a house of cards on loads of occasions because they just don’t know how to see games out when the going gets a little hairy. Maybe it’s a lack of bottle, or a lack of know how. Maybe it’s both.
I interviewed Steve McMahon last week and he went off on one about how today’s players can’t think for themselves. There will have been people reading that thinking “typical old player talking about how it was better in his day”, but as I watched that second half I kept thinking about what he said and how right he was. They don’t think for themselves. They need to be told what to do all the time and can’t solve problems themselves.
Why was nobody sitting on Ever Banega and stopping him from running the game? Steve McManaman kept pointing that out on commentary, it was obvious. Why did nobody get a grip of Moreno and calm him down, or give him more cover when it was obvious they were attacking almost exclusively down his side of the field? Why was nobody telling Karius to take his time when he had the ball? Why did nobody hit the deck with an ‘injury’ to take the sting out of the game?
The captain is responsible for a lot of that but it shouldn’t just be him. It improved when Milner was brought on to finally put Moreno out of his misery, but why is Milner the only player in the entire squad who knows how to act like a professional footballer rather than a naive school kid? The lack of leadership isn’t a problem every week, only when things start to go wrong.
As for Moreno, I suppose I jinxed him by the vote of confidence I gave him after Southampton. “He’s won me over” I said. Has that changed now after this? No, not really because I knew it was coming eventually and I’ve been predicting it for weeks. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about it though. How will he react? We’ll find out, I guess.
I said that when the dynamite goes off I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt rather than say “same old Albert the Moron”, so I have to stand by that and I’m not calling for him to be shitcanned off the back of this one game. He has been better this season, no question about it, but this was the old Moreno. He now needs to show it was just an off night and not a relapse into his old ways.
I feel like there are a couple of reasons for him reverting to factory settings. The first is that it was against Sevilla. His head goes when he plays them and in hindsight it would have made sense to leave him out. He tries too hard to impress them. Some of the mistakes he made were a result him getting too excited. Not the penalty, that was just a mistake, but in general he was all over the place in this game and didn’t play with the composure he’s shown for most of the season.
The other problem he had was that we were under the cosh and Sevilla kept attacking his side of the field over and over. He buckled under that pressure because he is not a ‘backs to the wall’ defender and we’re not a ‘backs to the wall’ team. We’re not built like that. Moreno is like the team as a whole, he’s generally fine when games are going according to plan and we’re in control. When it all goes haywire though he can’t be trusted. He’s not the only one, in fairness.
The whole team carry the can for this as far as I’m concerned, and Klopp too for that matter. They allow themselves to get involved in too many of these fucking wild, frenetic games. Just chill the fuck out, put your foot on the ball and take the sting out of it, and if you can’t do that then someone needs to hit the deck with an ‘injury’ and get the physio on to break up the game and stop the opposition’s momentum. Shit, we have it done to us often enough.
The players need to be more streetwise in these situations, but so does Klopp. I don’t want to see us go “the full Mourinho” but there are occasions when some shithousing is required. Go down, tell the ref you’re hurt and take the sting out of the game. And then there’s the keeper, running around like his fucking hair is on fire trying to start quick counter attacks. Just fucking hold onto the ball and slow things down, numbnuts.
Karius played well and made a couple of brilliant saves, but you have to recognise the situation and react accordingly. I mean fucking hell, my daughter plays in an under 10 side coached by Chris Kirkland. His daughter is the keeper and whenever they’re under pressure and she has the ball, it’s been drummed into her to hold onto it and take her time. It’s just basics. Like taking goal kicks from the opposite side to where the ball went out. Little things like that, it makes a difference. Our players should know this because every cunt that comes to Anfield does it to us.
It feels as though Klopp just wants it to be fucking manic all the time, which I’m sure isn’t the case, but he needs to do more to drill his players in how to deal with these in game situations. I almost referred to it as the ‘dark arts’, but I wouldn’t even go that far. It’s just basic common sense and professionalism. When you’re under pressure and the other team has built up a head of steam, you do whatever it takes to slow them down and break up the game. We never do it.
I’m annoyed that we let them off the hook because I fucking hate Sevilla. They’re bad snide bastards and that right back with the big fat head is a proper cunt. We had the chance to wipe the floor with them and we failed yet again. I’m sick of it. I want revenge and each time it looks like we’ll get it, we let them back into the game because of a lack of nous.
You’d think after what happened in the Europa final that Klopp and the players would be desperate to make them pay, but I just don’t see it. The passive way they played in the second half was so disappointing. The thing is, we’re great when we play our football. No-one can live with it. No-one. As soon as we drop the intensity though we’re easy to play against.
After half time the intensity dropped, we didn’t keep the ball, we didn’t pressure them when they had the ball and that allowed them to then expose the weakness of Moreno. Blame him all you like for the goals, but that only happens because the team stopped playing and handed the initiative back to Sevilla.
I’d like to say this is something they can learn from, but how many times does it have to happen before they do? It’s not just about the defence, it’s about mentality and managing games properly. The defence take the flak for it when this happens but it’s just not that simple.
No matter how good you are or how in control you are, there will always be a spell when you come under pressure. If that pressure begins to get too intense, you do whatever is necessary to relieve it. That’s what I want Klopp to be drumming into the players this week.
Ultimately, I’m pissed off but still generally pleased about the direction we’re going in and how we've been playing. If this was going to happen, better it happen in a game like this than in the league when it will cost us two points. Beat Moscow and we can brush this one off.
I have no idea what to expect when we play Chelsea on Saturday, I just hope they’ve got the collective brainfart out of their system with this one. They usually respond well to a bad result so we'll see.
Star man is Firmino for what he did in the first half. He was shite in the second but then so were most of the others.
Team: Karius; Gomez, Lovren, Klagan, Moreno (Milner); Henderson, Wijnaldum; Salah (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Coutinho (Can), Mané; Firmino:
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