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Liverpool 1 Chelsea 1 (Jan 31 2017)

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Dave Usher at Anfield
 
 
 

Well at least we’ve stopped the bleeding. I didn’t think it was a great performance by any means, but it was a courageous, gutsy one and with a bit of luck we might have won. That said, we needed a late penalty save to avoid defeat so we can’t feel too hard done by. 

 

It was vital we didn’t lose and while a draw doesn’t do us any good in terms of keeping alive any desperate, lingering hopes of catching Chelsea, it’s a point gained on Arsenal and we didn’t lose any ground to Spurs, so there is that at least. 

 

Klopp is understandably emphasising the positives and talking of how well his players did. Under the circumstances they did do ok, but it's hard to take too much from it because we’re a million miles off the team we were back in the Autumn. I didn’t think we created enough against Chelsea and I also thought we looked ropey as fuck at the back any time they bothered their arses to try and counter attack, which thankfully wasn’t too often. It was certainly a step in the right direction but where has that free scoring, exciting team gone? 

 

In fairness, creating chances against Chelsea isn’t easy so maybe I’m expecting too much, especially when we didn’t have Mané until the closing stages. I thought the front three were all well shackled and got virtually nothing out of Chelsea’s well drilled defensive seven, and our midfielders posed more of a threat to Chelsea than the forwards did. 

 

The second half was better and had Firmino been more clinical in front of goal we’d have pulled off an unlikely victory, but at the moment it feels like every chance we get is forced rather than created, if that makes sense. It’s not flowing but there’s plenty of effort going into it. 

 

We started the game quite well and Chelsea, unsurprisingly, seemed content to just sit back and frustrate us. Their wing backs weren’t anything of the sort, they were out and out full backs meaning they were playing a back five with two defensive midfielders shielding them. It’s hard breaking that down, especially when you play the way we have been of late. 

 

It also doesn’t help when one of those two shielding midfielders is so good it’s like they’ve got an extra man on the pitch. Kante was everywhere, getting in the way, making tackles and just being a fucking nuisance. He clogged up the areas in which we like to play and any time it looked like we might be able to launch a counter attack, he just appeared from nowhere. He’s the closest thing you’ll see to Mascherano. 

 

There’s nothing particularly scary about Chelsea but they’re clearly the best team in the country right now because they’re well organised, resolute, good on the break and more than anything, just really streetwise and they know how to win. Little things like tactical fouls to stop counter attacks, players feigning injury to break up the play and kill any momentum the opponent might be building, and most of all, diving all over the place to win free kicks. 

 

Take the opening goal as a prime example. That was such a kick in the nuts on so many levels. Firstly, it was never a free-kick in a million years. Hazard is a vile, disgusting, cheating little cunt. I hate him far more than I hate Costa, because there’s a pantomime villain aspect to Costa that, if I’m completely honest, has kind of won me over a bit. I don’t hate Costa at all now, but Hazard has no redeeming qualities at all, he’s just one horrible little bastard. 

 

He had over ran the ball and was about to be dispossessed by Lallana so he stepped across and initiated contact. Aside from the fact Lallana won the ball anyway, everybody in the ground could see that Hazard was playing for it, because both him and Costa had been doing it from the first whistle. Hell, they’ve probably been doing it since birth. Yet Clattenberg, our best referee, fell for it every fucking time. 

 

He gave the free-kick, he booked Lallana, and he also blew the whistle for them to take it while Mignolet was still forming his wall. You can criticise Mignolet and the wall for taking too long to get organised, but is this actually normal? I’m going to watch every free-kick closely from now on, because I was under the impression that referees don’t normally blow until everybody is set. Maybe I’m wrong, we’ll see. 

 

I hammered Karius for letting in Payet’s free kick the other week, so it might seem hypocritical of me that I’m not going to do the same to Mignolet, but the big difference is I could see from a mile off what was happening with Karius and I knew it was a goal before Payet even took it. This time I was as surprised as anybody when Luiz ran up and struck it as I was waiting for Willian to take it. 

 

You’ve got to give Chelsea credit because it was clever what they did. Willian took a couple of steps back like he was preparing to take it, and as he was doing that Luiz started his run up and before anyone knew what was happening it was in the net. Mignolet wasn’t even looking, and he was left looking pretty foolish. 

 

Had that ball been a yard or two inside the post then I’d be blaming him for it, but looking at how well that ball was struck and the fact it went in off the post, I don’t think he’d have got near it even if he had been paying attention. I blame Clattenberg more than anybody for that goal. 

 

It was the last thing we needed in our current state though. It felt as though we needed to score first to have a chance, and having fallen behind to Chelsea it was going to be a huge test of character. Every shot on target seems to go in against us, and now that the goals have dried up at the other end every goal conceded feels huge. This one even more so because of how good Chelsea are at the back. 

 

Aside from a decent effort from Wijnaldum that was comfortably saved by Courtois, we barely laid a glove on them in the first half and it was difficult to see a way back for us. A set-piece seemed like our best hope as we almost forced something from a corner but the ball just didn’t fall kindly for us, as seems to be the way recently. There was nothing in that first half to suggest we had it in us to get come back and draw, let alone win. 

 

It was just more of the same that we’d seen against Swansea (aside from the brief flurry of excitement when we scored twice), Southampton and Wolves. Sterile, safe, shite. Everything was in front of Chelsea, the full backs couldn’t get to the byline and kept having to pass it back inside and we just kept going east to west when we really need to be going north to south. So easy to defend against, but if you don’t put the ball in the box how can you expect to score? 

 

While the atmosphere was good and the crowd did their best to get behind the players, understandably there were moments when frustration boiled over, especially just after we’d fallen behind. In regards to Klopp getting into it with the fan, I see both sides of it. Some might just want to castigate the fan for moaning, but maybe there’s a bit to it than that? Yeah, he might just be one of those annoying moaning bastards who nobody wants to sit by, but what if he’s just a frustrated fan sick to death of seeing us pass pass pass pass in front of teams to absolutely zero effect? 

 

His ‘crime’ was wanting the ball played forward and not back to Mignolet, apparently. Klopp’s beef was that he thinks more patience is needed, and while in general that’s usually true, this case isn’t so straightforward and the fan probably had a point. He might not have expressed that point particularly constructively (I don’t know as I don’t sit close enough to have heard him), and he might have chosen the wrong situation to get angry about (again, I don’t know what specific incident caused him to react), but I do know that all the patience in the world wouldn’t have helped this team score a goal playing the way they were. 

 

We’d seen three games in a week where the players (and fans) were patient and all they did was pass themselves to death while the opposition just sat behind the ball laughing at them. Expecting us to just sit there and go “ok lads, as long as we’ve got the ball thats sound, don’t worry about getting it in the box” is just unrealistic. 

 

You can’t treat us to that “Heavy Metal Football” and then expect people to just sit there and meekly accept something more akin to “Rodgeball 2.0”. Somewhere along the line we forgot about trying to attack and decided that just passing it around without threatening the opposition is the way to go, and the fan who got on Klopp’s bad side clearly had a point because we were unquestionably more direct and purposeful in the second half, and it was clearly tactical. There’s a time for patience and a time to force this issue. At half time Klopp forced the issue. 

 

Players began making runs into the box and instead of the midfield three just passing it square 35 yards from goal, Hendo started whipping first time crosses in to get Chelsea turned around and facing their own goal. The equaliser came from that and we had a few other promising situations from it too. That wasn’t happening in the first half or indeed for the last three games, and it’s obvious that Klopp changed that at half time. 

 

So that fan who was pissed off about the constant sideways and backwards shite he was seeing had a point. It’s too easy to just side with Klopp and hammer the “fan in the blue jacket”, but it’s not a black and white issue for me. 

 

Klopp is frustrated because he feels like the fans are losing their nerve, which is probably true. We want it so badly and having for a time looked like we were on the verge of getting it, we’ve not reacted particularly well. Neither have the players though. It’s not the fans fault we drew at Sunderland, blew a 3-1 lead at Bournemouth, lost to Swansea and got knocked out of two cups in four days. No, all of that is on the players and Klopp. 

 

Instead of worrying about what the crowd are doing, maybe Kloppo should concentrate on the things that he can control and the thing that matters most. Like his team. He obviously did that at half time because the change in approach worked. How many times did Hendo whip a ball into the box in the first half? I don’t remember one, but it wouldn’t have made a difference even if he had because there were only one or two players in the box most of the time anyway. That all changed at half time. 

 

Can made more forward runs and we used his height a few times for flick ons and crosses. Wijnaldum too. He revealed afterwards that Klopp told him at half time he’d not gotten in the box once and he needed to start getting forward. Too often recently we’ve had all three midfielders playing square passes to each other 35 yards from goal, but in the second half that didn’t happen anywhere near as much as we looked more dangerous because of it. 

 

Firmino missed a glorious chance to equalise from a rare counter attack. Coutinho - invisible for much of the game - did brilliantly to work his way out of a tight spot and get the ball to Wijnaldum. He fed Lallana who back heeled to the marauding Clyne. He was tackled but the ball broke perfectly to Firmino who got himself into a right mess and skied his shot into orbit. It was almost identical to the chance Sigurdsson buried against us last week. Of course it goes in when it’s agains us, that’s just how shit has gone in 2017. 

 

Thankfully we equalised soon after Firming’s miss and the goal was clearly a result of Klopp’s change in style. Henderson whipped in an early ball to the back post where Milner stole in and nodded it back across. Lallana challenged with a defender and the ball broke to Wijnaldum who nodded it in. Good finish as he had to generate his own power and also direct it wide of the keeper. There are lessons to be learned from that goal I think. 

 

Teams are all going to try and play like this against us now, but none of them have the quality of Chelsea. If we can break Chelsea down there’s nothing to fear from anyone else now. When teams play deep and pack the defence, you have to get them turned around or get in behind them. We’ve been completely unable to get behind anybody, but you can at least turn them around by whipping in crosses and flooding the box for knock downs. 

 

If you have enough players in there the odds of something falling to you are greatly increased. We had four players in the box when Hendo put the cross in. The only time I saw that many in the box in the first half was from set-pieces. Those early whipped crosses from Hendo unsettled Chelsea and gave them something new to worry about. 

 

It shouldn’t be our main attacking ploy, but it should at least be in the playbook. Having Mané back will negate the need to mix it up too much because we can hopefully just get back to doing what we were doing so successfully before, but when Plan A isn’t working, you need to find something that does and in the second half of the game we showed some signs of finally doing that. 

 

The goal changed everything because it was just a massive weight off everyone’s shoulders. The crowd were right into it and suddenly anything seemed possible. If we could have found a winner it could have transformed the entire season, but maybe the draw will have the same effect considering how close we came to losing it? 

 

We seemed to tire in the closing stages and Chelsea grew stronger, not least because they were able to introduce quality from the bench in the shape of Pedro and Fabregas. Hazard had done fuck all and was well shackled by Clyne, and Willian had been anonymous too. As we pushed forward looking for a winner though, the spectre of a counter attack loomed large and it didn’t help that Lovren and Matip were both looking dodgy (especially Lovren who was terrible 2nd half). 

 

The penalty was down to both centre halves. Lovren thought he could nip in front of Costa to win the ball but he was eased out of it and Costa was suddenly through on goal. It might have been a foul by him on Lovren, I’m not sure, but Clattenberg was never going to give us anything so it wasn’t a surprise. Neither was him pointing to the spot when Costa tumbled over Matip’s leg. 

 

From my vantage point I thought Matip got a slight touch on the ball and that Costa was looking for it, much like Woodburn did against Wolves, but he dangled out a leg and Costa was always going to go over it. It probably was a pen but it’s easy to feel aggrieved when Clattenberg gave us nothing all night and seemed to fall for every bit of Chelsea gamesmanship. 

 

It would have just summed up how things have gone for us lately if they’d scored and won the game, but maybe Mignolet’s save is a sign that thing are about to get better for us now? He’s saved five of the last ten he’s faced now, which is a brilliant record. Whatever you think of the role he played in the first goal, that penalty save surely makes up for it because it was fucking huge. I don’t know whether they showed it on TV or not, but after we cleared the resulting corner, Costa actually went over to him and congratulated him on the save. 

 

He just seems like a different fella this season. Previously he just wanted to fight with everyone, but now he’s a big old pussy cat. When I saw him go up and congratulate Mignolet, I immediately thought of Pedro Cerrano in Major League 2, the big bad voodoo fella who becomes a Buddhist and wants to be everyone’s best mate. It just doesn’t seem right somehow. 

 

That penalty incident sparked a bizarre situation on the touchline that might yet land Klopp in a bit of bother, as the way he yelled at the 4th official had a lot of people talking afterwards. Some reckon he should be charged, but based on his version of events I’m not sure what he could be charged with. He reckons he screamed “NO ONE CAN BEAT US” into the face of the 4th official, but since when have the FA charged people for delusion? 

 

Klopp’s outburst is somewhat embarrassing as it’s so factually incorrect, but let’s be honest here, it’s also one of the greatest things to happen all season. I mean how can you not love that? It’s funny as fuck and it portrays Klopp more as a passionate eccentric than anything else. The 4th official took no offence to it. Klopp apologised to him more or less straight away and was told “don’t worry about it, I like your passion!”. That should be the end of it, but you know that cunt Mourinho will probably have something to say the first chance he gets. 

 

Anyway, both teams had chances to win it after that as Pedro shot just wide and Hendo then needed to make a brilliant last ditch challenge to deny the Chelsea substitute. That’s what you want from your captain, and he led the way all night I thought. The last chance of the game went our way when Firmino headed straight at Courtois after being picked out by a Mané cross. Imagine if that had gone in. 

 

The draw was the right result though all things considered, but it’s a better outcome for Chelsea than it is for us as it keeps them ten points ahead of us. It’s going to take a miracle for us to catch them because they’re not the type of team who will collapse and drop a load of points when you least expect it, and because… well… we are. 

 

Only time will tell how significant the result is for our season but hopefully we can use it as a springboard to put a run of results together to pick up as many points as possible, irrespective of whether it sees us close the gap on Chelsea or not. We can’t control what anyone else does, we just have to stop letting ourselves down in games we ought to win. 

 

Klopp is right when he says we need to forget what has happened prior to now, and it’s all about putting everything into these remaining 15 games. With Mané back we now have our best four attacking players available for the first time since November, so with just one game a week maybe we can get that “Heavy Metal footy” back for the run in? 

 

Star man is Hendo, who I thought was impressive throughout but was especially good in the second half. Can did alright too, he put himself about and although he still has those moments when you want to strangle him, he did more good than bad and seems to perform better in the big games than he does when he’s up against shite. Much like the team as a whole actually. 

 

Team: Mignolet; Clyne, Matip, Lovren, Milner; Henderson, Can, Wijnaldum; Lallana (Origi), Firmino, Coutinho (Mané):


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There were definite signs, so I'm in the 'glass half full' camp at the mo, until Hull at least. And - hey! - it could worse. Gentlemen, I give you Arsenal Fan TV...it's the gift that just keeps giving!

 

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I couldn't watch the game at all I only saw the highlights on match of the day, I didn't know Klopp got into it with a fan that's surprising.... although thinking about it maybe it isn't he has so much passion it's bound to boil over sometimes. I did hear that one of their scumbag fans threw a larger bottle at wijnaldum that wasn't too far away from hitting him, that's much worse behaviour.

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I did hear that one of their scumbag fans threw a LARGER bottle at wijnaldum that wasn't too far away from hitting him, that's much worse behaviour.

How did he miss if it was a large bottle ?

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That should be the end of it, but you know that cunt Mourinho will probably have something to say the first chance he gets.

 

 

He's been crying about it in his post-match press conference tonight. One manager gets told it's amusing. He gets sent to the stand. Whining little shit.

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He's been crying about it in his post-match press conference tonight. One manager gets told it's amusing. He gets sent to the stand. Whining little shit.

 

He was always going to do it. Little weirdo is obsessed with Klopp.

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There were definite signs, so I'm in the 'glass half full' camp at the mo, until Hull at least. And - hey! - it could worse. Gentlemen, I give you Arsenal Fan TV...it's the gift that just keeps giving!

Is he calling that big fat happy looking guy Blood? all the time as well

as referring to himself in the 3rd person? 

'DTA got no agenda blood'

hahah George is not happy!

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DTA? Really? D. T. A. Deeply Troubled Arsehole? What a fucking gobshite prick. Mind, I can agree with him (is it a him?) with regards to their manager. Wenger's a horrible shit cunt of a wig wearing forced-french-accented cheese eating surrender monkey. He's been how long in this country and his absurd garlic gallic accent gets stronger by the fucking minute. Christ I'd almost prefer Woy Hodg.. Nah scratch that.   
 
Anyway, back to DTA. There is almost nothing worse than this preposterous jockney accent - cockney interspersed with jamaican. Add irritating and numerous "blud"s and you've a prime twat. 
 
The only fans more arrogant than Chelsea's are Arsenal's. And no prizes for guessing which team's fans out-arrogant both of them.

 

Arrogant twats

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He was always going to do it. Little weirdo is obsessed with Klopp.

 

Mystic Dave.

 

I think the little shit bird craves the same kind of love the Fans and Media have for Klopp. What the deluded twat will never get is that a woodlouse has more personality, so its never going to happen.

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Mystic Dave.

 

I think the little shit bird craves the same kind of love the Fans and Media have for Klopp. What the deluded twat will never get is that a woodlouse has more personality, so its never going to happen.

Yes, witness his going on the pitch and hugging his players after some games this season. Done with all the enthusiasm of Dave U shaving his head bald

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It shouldn’t be our main attacking ploy, but it should at least be in the playbook. Having Mané back will negate the need to mix it up too much because we can hopefully just get back to doing what we were doing so successfully before, but when Plan A isn’t working, you need to find something that does and in the second half of the game we showed some signs of finally doing that. 

 

I really don’t get it. If you’d defend as deep as they’ve learned to do with us, but you were actually playing a Pulis team, you’d be slaughtered. And Pulis’ style of football, if you can call it style or indeed football, isn’t difficult. Just kick the bloody round thing as hard as you can into the box and have everyone fighting for it will result in goals quite frequently.

 

So if the next opponent defends just as deep,  take a Pulis. If they continue to sit deep they’ll be slaughtered. If they the decide to come out of their cave it’s back to Kloppo Hard Rock style.

 

Problem solved.

 

One more thing: We have one of the fastest men in football in our team. Let him stay up close to the midfield line when defending corners! I hate this nonsense everyone back in the box to defend corners.

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Is he calling that big fat happy looking guy Blood? all the time as well

as referring to himself in the 3rd person? 

'DTA got no agenda blood'

hahah George is not happy!

 

He's not referring to himself in the 3rd person, he's talking about "DT", another one of the Arsenal Fan TV crew who takes pride in his hate of Wenger and his fellow Arsenal fans who don't feel the same way.

 

The guy in the video you're referring to calls himself "Troopz".

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Mystic Dave.

 

I think the little shit bird craves the same kind of love the Fans and Media have for Klopp. What the deluded twat will never get is that a woodlouse has more personality, so its never going to happen.

 

He also forgets how he himself lapped up the arse licking from said fans and media which put him on his creaking pedestal, his fall from grace has only just started in the big scheme of things, he's going to end up a broken man before long, he doesn't react well to criticism, the cunt. 

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Those Arsenal fans do seem like a gang of utter cunts.

Is right fam. Ya get me blud. A right gang of bad whoppers fam, really bad whoppers fam - ahh blud seriously fam they are bad shithosue AIDS blud, mongs fam.

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Is right fam. Ya get me blud. A right gang of bad whoppers fam, really bad whoppers fam - ahh blud seriously fam they are bad shithosue AIDS blud, mongs fam.

 

Satire is dead.

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