I suppose the thing to take from this is that we’re learning to win the difficult games against sides who primarily want to defend against us. This wasn’t pretty and in some ways it was infuriating, but it was a deserved win and the only thing that matters at the moment it picking up points however we can get them. Having dropped eight points out of nine from games we should expect to win, we were in danger or ruining the good start made by Klopp. Having taken six from six over Christmas we’re back on the fringes of where we need to be.
The performance was largely disappointing but there were some encouraging things to take from it. The defence was good, the work rate of the team was impressive and they seem to be so much more well organised now than they were under Rodgers. What that means is that even when the forwards are not delivering (which let’s face it is more often than not) we’ve still got a shot at winning. Two 1-0 wins on the bounce is quite satisfying really. You need to be able to grind out wins, especially when the fixtures begin to pile up, and so far we’ve taken maximum points in the Christmas period when most of those around us haven’t. I’m not confident about beating West Ham on Saturday but maybe that’s a good thing. We’ve seen how this team plays when they get too full of themselves.
I was actually sat in with the Sunderland fans for this one, as we coincided a visit to my wife’s sister’s in Sunderland with the game. My brother in law has a season ticket and because the game was on TV and Sunderland didn’t think they’d sell out, they were letting season ticket holders buy another ticket for a tenner, so that was a nice little result for me. The last time it cost me a tenner to watch the Reds was probably back when Souness was manager.
It was interesting being sat in amongst all the home fans though. The feeling I got was that all the fight has been sucked out of them, they’re just turning up expecting to see their team lose and are resigned to going down. The last time I went to Sunderland was probably back in ’02 and it was like being at Goodison, with their fans all foaming at the mouth and appealing for every decision, no matter how ridiculous. Whether it’s just a sign of the times or it’s due to their constantly poor results, they didn’t get particularly worked out about anything and the only singing came from the away section. Even when Klopp and Allardyce got into it late on there was barely any reaction from those around me, it was just weird.
It was funny too listening to one fella sat behind who spent the whole game telling everyone around him how “that Sakho is shite man”. He went on and on about it, and every time the ball went in Sakho’s direction he’d say “just look at his first touch man. SHITE”. I just sat there chuckling to myself. Appearances can be deceptive and a lot of us took some time to realise that although Sakho doesn’t always look particularly orthodox, he’s not the reincarnation of Djimi Traore some seem to think he is. The idea of someone who watches Wes Brown, John O’Shea and Younes Kaboul on a weekly basis ripping on Sakho is incomprehensible to me.
Sakho had a solid enough game but once again it was Lovren who caught the eye most. The only thing I can remember him doing wrong all night was not getting tight enough to Borini in the first half and allowing him to get a shot away. Fortunately it was only Borini and the shot predictably missed the target, and other than that Lovren was terrific again. The defence as a whole did well, with Clyne particularly impressive. It never really felt like we’d concede but of course you never know and it only takes one mistake or a set-piece, as we know as well as anyone.
That’s why our inadequacies at the other end are so damn frustrating. We’ve just got too many attacking players who can’t score. That’s our biggest problem and everything else is just a side issue. Talk about Mignolet’s weaknesses all you want, or the lack of a dominant leader at the back or genuinely top class midfield player, but all of that fades into the background when you have enough goals in the team. We proved that two years ago and United won numerous titles on that basic principle too.
The bottom line is that none of Coutinho, Lallana, Firmino or Ibe are going to get us 15 goals a season, hell they might not even manage that between all four of them, which puts it all squarely on the shoulders of whoever plays up front, and given how he’s the last man standing that’s usually Benteke. With that in mind I feel a bit sorry for him at the moment as he’s coming in for quite a bit of criticism for his performances. I’ve done it myself and it’s partly justified as he’s not really fitting in, but at least he’s still scoring and it’s a good job too, because without him we’d be screwed at the moment.
He’s missing sitters too of course, but that’s only really a problem because no-one else is scoring. The one at the weekend was horrendous but it was magnified because it was only 1-0 at the time and it could have cost us. He missed another one late in this game but again, it seemed far worse because it was 1-0 and it would have killed the game. He’s an instinctive, explosive striker who seems to be a bit shit when he’s got too much time to think about things. He’s not a killer like Rush, Fowler, Owen, Sturridge etc but right now he’s all we have so we need to be boosting him up and not knocking him down.
Don’t get me wrong, he does my head in at times but we’ve collected six points this week because of his goals, so while it’s fair to have concerns about other aspects of his game, I’d say others deserve to be put under more scrutiny than him. For example, Lallana was invisible for most of this game while Coutinho and Ibe were wasteful. Firmino was unlucky with an effort that was tipped onto the post but he also wasted two great chances. That’s more of a problem right now than Benteke not always being on the same wavelength as everyone else. At least he’s still scoring while he goes through his transition period.
The worrying thing is I don’t think these problems can be fixed. Coutinho is probably always going to be erratic, while we know what Lallana is now and he’s not suddenly going to start banging in goals. He’s just a more pleasing on the eye Stewart Downing. Their styles are vastly different but the end result isn’t. Downing actually did very well for us in his final season here when playing on the right of a front three. He worked hard, helped his full back, kept the ball and gave the team good shape. What he didn’t do was score any goals, and if you’re in a front three (or one of the three behind in a 4-2-3-1) that’s just not going to cut it. Lallana is in danger of becoming Downing, if he isn’t already. Start fucking scoring Adam or you’ll be at West Ham before you know it.
As for the others, well Firmino may still develop into the “15 and 15” player we need as it’s still early days for him, and if Ibe ever learns to finish then he could be anything he wants to be, but it won’t happen overnight. He could - should even - have killed this game for us but completely fluffed his lines. That said, I thought it was baffling how long Klopp waited to bring him on when from about an hour onwards Sunderland were committing men forward and leaving gaps all over the place. Ibe could have had a field day with a bit more time, but he only ended up getting seven minutes or something.
I was fuming at the half time about the performances of all the forward players and also Emre Can, who was mostly fine but has that annoying habit of holding onto the ball for too long and inviting pressure on himself. I thought he was great in the second half though. The forwards were all still infuriating though, especially Coutinho and his wayward shooting. Thankfully we did manage to find the net at least once, although it was somewhat fortuitous.
Clyne’s pass was either intended for Lallana or Firmino, they both went for it and Lallana got a toe on it that sent it through Firmino’s legs and perfectly into the path of Benteke who beat Mannone with a first time shot. It was actually a tidy little finish as he lifted it just enough to get over the keeper’s leg. That should have been the platform for us to go and win two or three nil as Sunderland’s confidence has been shot to pieces recently and they had no belief they would get back into the game. They had to throw people forward the longer it went but we generally didn’t exploit the space well enough and when we did we couldn’t finish. At least we were never in any real danger at the back though.
It’s funny really, a couple of years ago our forwards must have been regularly cursing those behind them because they were often having to score three, four or even five goals to win games because the defence was shipping them in almost as quickly as they could score them. Now it’s the opposite. Poor old Lovren, Sakho, Mignolet & co must have been fuming when the forwards were not taking the chances to make them game safe.
Hendon went off injured having tried to play on through the pain. He was in trouble in the first half but looked to have come through it, but obviously that foot was giving him a lot of pain. It’s a dodgy injury that one, loads of basketball players have had it and it hangs around for months, sometimes even years. He has to be a doubt for the weekend, and with Allen also doubtful through illness and Rossiter injured again, we’re down to the bare bones in the middle of the park. Lucas did well when he came on though.
I’m probably in a minority but I thought the tackle that sparked all the mayhem on the touchline wasn’t THAT bad and a yellow card was probably just about the right decision. The reason I say that is because of the awkward way Sakho went into the challenge. Had he just ran in and cleared the ball normally he may not have even got caught, but he actually steps across the path of Lens and plants his right leg between the ball and the Sunderland player, making contact unavoidable as Lens had already committed to the challenge. It looked far worse than it probably was and I thought Lens was just making a full blooded challenge trying to win the ball.
Of course I didn’t think that at the time because I was too far away from it to have any real opinion, which makes what happened on the touchline even more ridiculous. Neither Klopp nor Fat Sam had a clear view of it as it was on the opposite side of the pitch. I’d love to know what was said between them but I find it funny that Klopp has only been here five minutes yet he already knows exactly who both Tony Pulis and Allardyce are now.
He handled the embarrassing “soft German” comments brilliantly too and hopefully he’ll continue to get under Allardyce’s rolls of skin. The Benitez “all over” gesture if we go a few goals up at Anfield would probably do the trick nicely, someone needs to make Kloppo aware of that I reckon. That mashed potato faced twat is making it impossible for me to want Sunderland to do well now. I always keep an eye out for their results because of my brother in law and because their fans have been so supportive in the fight for justice, but there’s few things I like seeing more than Fat Sam struggling so it’s a quandary.
We’re involved in so many of these close games though aren’t we? So many games are on a knife edge simply because we can only score one goal. The only way out of this is for Sturridge to stay fit, and frankly there’s more chance of Lucas bagging a hat-trick than there is of that. If and when he returns I’d love to see us go with both him and Benteke up front as on paper that should work well. I don;t think we need those three players behind all trying - and usually failing - to do the same thing.
For us to achieve anything this year we obviously need Sturridge back, but for now we just have to keep showing the same work ethic and attitude we’ve seen in the last two games and see where it takes us.
2015 was pretty shit and miserable on the whole but it’s ended on a positive note, first with the arrival of Klopp and then with a couple of wins to end the year. Here’s hoping 2016 sees us turn into Dortmund.
Team: Mignolet; Clyne, Lovren, Sakho, Moreno; Henderson (Lucas), Can; Lallana, Firmino (Toure), Coutinho (Ibe); Benteke:
Recommended Comments