Report by
Dave Usher
David Moyes said beforehand he was bringing his double decker bus and he didn’t disappoint. Klopp said Sunderland were the most defensive team he’s ever come up against, but were they really that bad? For me they were no worse than United a few weeks ago, but in fairness to Moyes he didn’t have the likes of Ibrahimovic, Pogba, Rashford and Herrera to call upon.
Sunderland only did what most other teams are going to do when they play us. It’s a tactic that has worked well in the past, but whereas previously teams have come up against us with a confident strategy of keeping it tight and waiting for set-pieces or a mistake, I think that’s changed recently.
Teams are not adopting a defensive approach because they think they can beat us like that, they’re doing it because they’re petrified and think it's the only shot they've got at not getting spanked. I feel as though some of this rampant negativity is not entirely through choice either; it's being influenced by how we’re playing.
Southampton last week was a perfect example of this, and I don't even think Moyes set out to be as completely negative as they ended up playing. Victor Anichebe didn’t start the game playing left back, he just got pushed back and pushed back by the way we were playing.
Teams aren’t even counter attacking against us at the moment but I can’t believe that’s because they don’t want to. I’m sure it’s because we’re smothering them to such an extent they can’t get out of their own half. Sunderland actually had two good chances in the game, which isn’t bad going as it’s one more than Southampton and United had against us.
The first half was a bit of a struggle as we just didn’t reach the kind of high tempo that we see when we're at our best. It was still complete dominance of the ball and we passed it around well enough but chances were hard to come by. Part of that was Mané not really being at the races and of course because we lost Coutinho with what looked a bad injury.
Not having Sturridge available didn’t help either, as for all we know he may have even started the game to allow Coutinho to play in the midfield three. We didn’t really need Can and Wijnaldum in there with Hendo as one would have sufficed in a game like this. The sooner Lallana is back the better as he’s a big part of what we do well and when he isn’t there it shows, as there’s no-one else who can do what he does.
Coutinho was being man to man marked which is something you rarely see these days. Ironically the one time he managed to lose his marker he ended up getting injured by someone else. Typical. There didn’t look to be much in the challenge at all but Coutinho was in agony and seeing him leave on a stretcher with his leg in a split was pretty sickening.
Maybe that effected the players too. There was a lengthy delay and the game just didn’t really get going properly until the second half. We’d created a few half decent chances before half time but nothing really clear cut. Mané inexplicably missed his kick after running through the heart of the defence and Lovren went close with a diving header. Firmino, Mané and Wijnaldum all hit shots straight at the keeper too, but the chances didn’t reflect the possession, which was around 80% I think.
The second half was better as there was a little more urgency and pressure eventually began to build on them as we turned the screw. Their keeper didn’t have to do much in the way of saves but that doesn’t tell the whole story as there were so many situations where balls were coming across the box and we just couldn’t get on the end of them. It felt like the goal was coming but then you also can’t help but have that “it’s one of those days” feelings.
It was just complete and utter domination but it’s not always easy converting that into goals. When you get one early it opens things up and takes the pressure off. We’ve seen that loads of times this season already, but when the goal doesn’t come it just becomes a slog and the longer it goes the more fraught it gets.
The opponent digs in even more as they can see the end in sight, the fans start to get edgy and when that happens players can often lose patience and start making bad decisions. That was threatening to happen here until Klopp intervened.
We had just had a scare when Karius needed to be alert to save at the feet of Watmore as Sunderland managed a rare sortie out of their own final third to create a great opportunity. That put the shits up the fans and when Henderson overhit a pass when trying to release Mané soon after, it drew groans as the crowd's growing frustration spilled over. Kloppo went fucking apeshit.
It’s generally been interpreted as him whipping the crowd up to get behind the team for the closing stages and that’s certainly the effect it had. His initial response wasn’t about that though, it was just a furious reaction to the crowd's impatience that he felt was not helping the players. He was right, but it’s only natural that fans will react that way.
People get edgy when they can see points slipping away, and not winning games like this are the difference between winning titles and missing out on them. There’s a lot at stake and the fans reacting the way they did may not be helpful but it is understandable. What Klopp did though might hopefully change that for the next time it happens. And it will happen.
We better get used to this because teams are so scared of us now that this kind of approach will become the norm if it hasn’t already. Sometimes it won’t matter because we’ll score early and run away with it as we did against the likes of Leicester and Watford, but there’ll be other times when it’s a grind like this and we need to keep our heads until the last whistle. Players and fans. It’s the price of being good, something we don't have too much experience of recently. Fortunately Klopp does.
To be fair to the players they did just keep playing their football and eventually got their reward and to be fair to the fans they reacted perfectly to Klopp’s admonishment. The noise levels increased significantly and the fans were urging the team on rather than sitting back and just impatiently waiting for them to score.
Origi finally broke the deadlock with a strange goal. Moyes reckoned it was a cross, Origi says it was a shot. I can see where Moyes is coming from because you don’t usually see players shoot from there, but it was clearly intentional from Origi. He scored one very similar last season which I thought may have been a cross, but this one was a shot all the way.
This is the kind of situation you will often find yourself in when you’re a successful club. The way we’ve been for most of the last six or seven years, this wouldn’t have been that tense because there’d not be much riding on it. Of course we’d want to win, but the repercussions for not winning were rarely that significant because we were also rans. "Oh shit, we dropped two points at home to Newcastle, we might finish seventh instead of sixth."
This year we’ve got a genuinely good chance of winning the title so every game matters now and that means we’re going to be in far more high pressure situations than we’re used to. So I have to say that all things considered, the players came through this well. They didn’t panic, they kept playing their football and waiting for the breakthrough to come and eventually it did.
Whatsmore, having taken the lead they never looked like they’d give it up and then made the game safe late on with a classic counter attack that ended with Mané being upended and Milner converting the pen. This is the kind of thing successful teams do, and we’re getting the hang of it now it seems.
We just need to keep going and picking up points in these games when teams are just hoping they can keep us at bay and sneak a point. There’ll be more of the same of this over the coming weeks, so much so that when we eventually play City on New Years Eve it will be a refreshing change to actually have some space to play in.
I can’t decide if the highlight of the game was Karius kicking a goal kick straight out for a corner (imagine the reaction if poor old Migs had done that!) or Lovren’s brilliant back heel that set up a chance for Mané. That was fucking quality that, worthy of Coutinho or Firmino even.
Lovren was terrific all day actually, as was Matip. They’ve got something going there and are as good a pair as there is in the league at the moment. The two Belgians at Spurs have a good partnership, but I wouldn’t swap our two for theirs.
Lovren shades the star man from Matip, with honourable mentions to Firmino who did as much as anyone to keep us going, and to Origi who looked sharp and ultimately won the game for us with a moment of quality.
Nice to see Ben Woodburn get on for the closing seconds too. Klopp likes sending the kids on when he can just to get them their appearance bonuses! Woodburn might even start in the cup now on Tuesday because we’re running out of forward players and need to keep those we do have fit for Bournemouth next weekend.
Team: Karius; Clyne, Matip, Lovren, Milner; Henderson, Can, Wijnaldum (Woodburn); Mané, Firmino (Lucas), Coutinho (Origi):
Recommended Comments