I didn’t particularly want to write a report on this. Partly because it was shite, but mainly because it’s not like a regular Charity Shield game which in itself is only a glorified friendly. This wasn't even that.
It didn’t come at the end of a full pre-season when players are finely tuned and ready to go. It’s in the middle of a shortened pre-season and we’ve only had two friendlies to prepare.
It’s the same for Arsenal and I’m not using that as an excuse, but I feel it has taken away what little prestige and value this game has in a normal season, especially as it was played in an empty stadium. I don’t think it should have even been played this year under the circumstances.
All that probably sounds like sour grapes because we didn’t win. I’d be saying it even if we had won though. This game was an inconvenience and we could certainly have done without it, but because it’s relatively high profile it’s hard not to draw conclusions from the performance and judge it like a proper game, when really it’s just a friendly between two teams who are nowhere near peak sharpness.
I don’t think the result or performance means anything. We didn’t even lose, we drew. What happens after that with the pens determines the outcome but it doesn’t change what happened in the actual game. It was a draw and it was probably fair as neither team deserved to win.
So we drew with Arsenal. Not the end of the world and if this game had been labelled “The California Cup” or “The Sydney Shield” and had been played overseas no-one would give a fuck. Because it’s the Charity Shield it has a little bit more prestige, but this year especially it’s no different to any of those pre-season tournaments big clubs play in every summer. It means nothing.
We didn’t win a pre-season friendly. That’s the upshot of all this, and it’s therefore not worth reading too much into it. That’s why I didn’t want to write a report but I assumed you’d be expecting one so here it is.
Despite everything I’ve just said, I am still a little pissed off because it genuinely offends me that once again we didn’t beat Arsenal. They’re fucking shite and this is the second time in as many months that we’ve allowed them to think they can hang with us. Friendly or not, that bothers me a little and I can’t pretend it doesn’t.
I have nothing but contempt for modern day Arsenal and everything they represent. Anything other than a convincing spanking of them is just unacceptable in my eyes, and friendly or not, our players should be pissed off with themselves for allowing this to happen.
Arsenal are fucking shit. They’ve only got one player who is on the same level as our team. ONE!! The rest wouldn’t get anywhere near our first eleven and most wouldn’t get a sniff of the bench either.
Not that this was our first eleven. We were missing Trent and Hendo and their importance can’t be over-stated. We’re not the same team without either of them. Neco is a great kid and full of promise. He’s good enough to play if he has to, but Trent is the best attacking right back in the world and the most creative player in our team. Take him out and we lose something. Any team would.
Hendo too. The sample size is big enough now to be able to say that we’re nowhere near as good a team when he’s not in it. We should still be good enough to take care of Arsenal without either of them though.
I thought the starting line up was a little odd if I’m honest. Ten of the side picks itself but we knew exactly what Arsenal were going to do and against that kind of deep lying, defensive opponent, I don’t understand why you’d go with Milner and Wijnaldum rather than just one of them alongside Keita.
Keita has been in great form since lockdown and he brings the kind of drive, creativity and penetration from midfield that you need against park the bus teams. So yeah, I don’t understand the thinking behind leaving him on the bench.
Still, we started quite well and Virgil had a goal correctly ruled out for offside. Milner missed a great chance too when he put a header over the bar. Seconds later we fell behind completely against the run of play.
Yeah, great goal from Aubameyeng but we need to deal with that better than we did. We let them play through us too easily and Neco has to know that the only thing on Aubameyeng’s mind was to cut in and shoot on his right foot.
In fairness, stopping him doing it is easier said than done and as Klopp said afterwards, one v one against a player like that you don’t really have much of a chance of stopping him getting a shot in. Generally you have to just hope he doesn’t find the corner, but unfortunately this time he did.
What made Williams’ job even more difficult was Tierney overlapping outside him. You could see Neco backing off as he tried to process it all and decide what to do. It was only a brief moment’s hesitation but that’s all the top forwards need. Neco should know that as he faces Mané all the time in training.
Arsenal worked that very well as it started from their keeper and they just played through us without about three passes. They are capable of that and generally I don’t have any complaint when Arsenal score against us because they can score against anyone. What pisses me off is when we don’t put a bagful past their shitty defence. Making Holding and Luiz look competent again, that’s the real crime there.
For a good while after that this was a terrible watch. Just massively frustrating and it felt like we’d never score. Alisson needed to make a smart save to deny Nketia after we’d given it away cheaply and it was beginning to feel exactly like that horrible 2-1 defeat at the Emirates.
The gameplan seemed to just be get it to Robbo and et him cross it. That was pretty much all we did for the entire first half. Not that it’s a bad policy, but not having Trent on the opposite flank really seemed to restrict us.
The second half was better but it was still massively frustrating. Sadio went clean through but was denied by the keeper. Fine save but he should score.
Just before the hour mark Klopp sent on Keita and Minamino for Williams and Milner. No arguments about that decision, especially as Milner had just been booked. Gomez went to right back with Fabinho dropping in at centre half but I’m not sure what was happening in front of them.
It looked loosely like 4-2-3-1 with Salah up front and Minamino on the left, but it was so fluid it was difficult to tell. Keita was in the middle with Wijaldum though, that much I can say.
We looked a bit less predictable and pedestrian after the changes. Keita was always looking to pick the ball up and carry it forward while Minamino takes up some good positions and seems to be able to find space easily. He had a decent shot from distance comfortably saved by the keeper and was involved in most things after he came on and he got us level with 20 minutes to go with a clam finish after the ball broke to him in the box.
Arsenal wanted handball but it was their player who handled. Not that a little thing like that would stop David Luiz from complaining. Crying cunt.
Made up for Minamino as he needed that. Let’s hope it’s the first of many, as we really need him to be contributing. This should do him the world of good as he’s been steadily improving and all that was really lacking was a goal.
We looked to have Arsenal on the ropes after the goal and they were often at full stretch to keep us at bay. Our whole team other than Alisson were camped wet inside their half and Arsenal couldn’t get out. As I said, it was like that game at the Emirates all over again.
Sadio missed another one v one with the keeper. His first touch on the chest was brilliant. His second off the thigh wasn’t. By the time he got his shot away the keeper was right on him and smothered it.
Curtis was brought on for the ineffective Firmino for the final ten minutes, and possibly with the shoot out in mind too.
So then it goes to pens and I fully expected us to lose. Why? Because honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Alisson save one. Best keeper in the world but he’s shite on pens. Of the five he faced, he only got near one of them.
As for ours, they were all great apart from one. It was sod’s law that Brewster would miss as he was only brought on to take a pen. I agreed with the decision as he’s probably the best penalty taker we have. It’s not like it was a high pressure situation either as the stadium was empty.
If he’d been on the pitch for half an hour or so I reckon he’d have scored, but when you are sent on cold just to take a pen it brings a different sort of pressure. His pen wasn’t even that bad but it was risky going for the roof of the net. He was a bit too high and hit the bar. That was decisive because Alisson was never going to be bailing him out. The only hope we had was an Arsenal player missing the target, but sadly they didn’t.
The highlight of the shoot out was Jones once again insisting on taking the fifth pen and once again slotting it superbly. He then had a few words for their keeper who was being a right mouthy twat during the shoot out. I love this lad’s confidence. His efforts were all in vain as Aubameyeng converted Arsenal’s final pen to win it.
I switched off immediately because no way was I was watching those fucking bums celebrating like they’d won a World Cup. Until they went completely shite, these cunts were taking victory photos for finishing fourth so I dread to think how much they were smelling themselves after this. Fuck Arsenal. Fuck Arteta. And fuck us for not being able to beat the massive shitbirds. Again.
We play them again soon and if we don’t win that I don’t know how I’m going to react to it, but it’s not going to be rational or pleasant, I know that much.
Not winning the Charity Shield is no big deal. I remember last year I couldn’t less about the trophy but I badly wanted to beat City and I was gutted we didn’t. This wasn’t the same. Again, the trophy means nothing but I’m not gutted about failing to win the game. I’m mildly pissed off and disappointed that once again we didn’t beat these fucking losers, but it will quickly be forgotten.
There wasn’t really too much to take positives from though was there? I suppose Minamino was bright when he came on and he deserved his goal, so there is that. He’s probably as close to a new signing as we’re likely to get so we need him to hit the ground running this season.
I still don’t know exactly where he fits in to our starting formation but he’s a nice little footballer. Maybe we need to change that ‘tried and trusted’ formation? Not specifically to accommodate Minamino (he’d need to do a hell of a lot more before that was justified), I just mean maybe we need to do something to mix it up a bit?
Generally I’m an advocate of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. We’re not broke (unless you’re talking financially but that’s another story) but maybe we are becoming, dare I say, predictable? We’re still a hell of a team, but it feels as though it’s becoming harder and harder for us to win games. After that incredible run we had to start last season, it hasn’t been all puppy dogs and ice cream.
In fact, let me check….
Ok, so up until Atletico away everything was historically good. We’d never seen results like that before. From that point onwards though this our record (not counting the FA Cup or Charity Shield): Won 7, Lost 5, Drawn 2.
There are mitigating circumstances for some of that, but however you want to dress it up there has been a big drop off since February. Whether it means anything moving forward or not I have no idea, but there is surely some cause for a little concern that maybe teams are finally figuring out how to play against us?
If you don’t freshen the team up it eventually gets stale. History has shown that countless times. Another way of putting it is that if you stand still you go backwards, because others around you are moving forward. It’s completely fair and reasonable for fans to be a little concerned that we may be going into this season with the same squad as the last two seasons.
In fact, it’s actually weaker because Lovren and Lallana have gone and Shaq serves little purpose these days other than as a training doll for the medical staff to hone their skills on.
We’ll still compete and we might still end up on top again. I’m not writing these lads off because they’re an incredible group of players with an unmatched mental capacity to get the job done. They’ll be right up there again, I’m sure of that.
I’ll tell you what else I’m sure of though. We won’t get 97 or 99 points this season and we won’t shoot out of the blocks by winning basically every game up until February. That was never going to happen anyway, but without freshening up the team with at least one more top class player there’s no chance of it happening again. Zero. Hell, we might not even get out of the first month unscathed (especially as we play Arsenal!).
Teams have had plenty of time to figure out what we do and how to stop it. Most will still be unable to do it because we’re really fucking good. But some opponents will have more joy against us than they’ve had previously because they’ve had time to figure it out. It’s going to get harder for us, especially if we don’t adapt or evolve.
Man City were virtually unstoppable a few years ago but they still play the same way and over time opposing coaches have found a way to hurt them. Not all the time and City still have dozens of those games when they steamroller the opposition, but when they don’t steamroller teams they often don’t win at all. They lost nine times in the league and were beaten in the CL by a bang average Lyon. In a sense, they’ve been found out.
The same will happen to us if we don’t evolve. I find it baffling that the only player we’re being seriously linked with is Thiago when surely the most obvious, glaring need we have is for another forward. I’ve written this a few times but it’s worth repeating. The production of the front three has steadily declined over the last three years. It’s generally been dismissed because the team as a whole has improved year on year, but it nags away at me. I think it’s an issue. Only a minor one currently, but it could escalate with a few more disappointing results like we’ve had since that first Atletico defeat.
It needs freshening up. Not by selling one of the existing three, but by adding someone who provides a genuine threat to their place and forces everybody to raise their game. It would also allow Klopp to rotate and avoid the risk of burnout, which is going to be more of a problem this season than ever before as the games come thick and fast.
And just as importantly, it would give the opposition something else to think about. They’ve seen enough of how we play to be able to figure out ways of stopping it now. Shit, if Arsenal can do it with their collection of clowns at the back then that gives hope to everyone, surely?
You add a fourth top drawer attacker into the mix though, either playing instead of one of the existing three or sometimes even alongside them, and it changes everything. Existing gameplans have to be thrown out of the window and rival managers would need to find another way to defend against us.
Klopp says that to break down tactics like those employed by Arsenal we need everyone fully fit. He’s right, but we need more than that. We need variety. There are days when you just know that Salah isn’t at it or that Firmino is never going to score in a month of Sundays. You can usually tell from early on too. Currently there’s no viable alternative.
Maybe the thinking is that having Thiago pulling strings behind them will make life easier for the front three. I can sort of see the logic in that but even if that works it only solves part of the issue. Besides, it seems fairly clear that we aren’t going to pay what Bayern want (unless Gini is sold) so this might drag on for weeks yet.
I always said that if we ever win the league then I won’t care what happens the following season as that’s a trade off I’m willing to make. Just winning it was the only thing that mattered. I still feel like that to some degree which is why I’m not throwing toys out of the pram about the lack of spending.
As things stand I’m expecting us to come back to the pack this year. By how much I’m not sure, but we’re not going to be running away with it again if we retain the status quo. If that happens and we don’t have a successful season, I’ll try not to be too upset about it because that’s the deal I made with myself.
Not everyone made that deal though so I can understand the growing sense of unease when rival clubs are spending like drunken sailors while we look like we might make a profit on transfers again. Since the window when we signed Alisson, Fabinho and Keita we’ve basically done fuck all other than take advantage of a clause in Minamino’s deal that allowed him to leave for peanuts.
Make no mistake, we signed Taki because the value of the deal was too good to ignore rather than because he was a player we desperately wanted. Put it this way, if his price tag had been £20m plus then we wouldn’t have signed him.
Yet these last three years we’ve made more money than ever before. We’ve made a fortune in Champions League prize money, we’ve won the Premier League and cashed in on that, while also signing massive sponsorship deals including a lucrative deal with Nike.
I hear people saying “if we can’t spend when we’ve got all this going on, there’s something seriously wrong”. It seems a valid point and I shudder to think what would be happening if we hadn’t been so successful. Probably Sadio or Mo being sold to the highest bidder, as would have happened previously.
So how come there’s no money? Covid had an effect but how much did we really lose? I’ve seen some estimates of £75m or so, but i that’s true surely that’s the same for all the other top clubs as we’re all in the same boat?
We’ve got the additional cost of the new training ground and I assume we’re still paying back the FSG loan for the new Main Stand. Does that really explain how a club that is raking it in doesn’t seem to have a pot to piss in? I don’t know, I’m just asking the question.
I can only assume it’s the increase in wages that’s eating into the profits. Prioritising looking after the players we have has been a point of emphasis (except with poor old Gini who is still on the contract he signed when he joined from relegated Newcastle) and it hasn’t come cheap.
It’s important to do that though. These players have brought success and should be rewarded (including Gini, in my view). Klopp always talks of how he wants to make Liverpool the destination rather than a stepping stone and he’s done that. It might be at the cost of being able to compete in the transfer market, but it seems to be a situation he’s happy with.
And if he’s happy with it then I can only assume that the money being generated is being made available to him. How he spends it (e.g. wages, new training ground) is up to him. It is frustrating though as it shouldn’t be too much to ask to make one top quality addition every summer.
That’s how we were successful for so long in the past. We didn’t overhaul the team every year or make six or seven signings. We had a great team and we added to it with one (or at most) two players each year. We’re in the strongest position we’ve been in since those halcyon days of the seventies and eighties, but I can’t help but feel we’re letting an opportunity slip away by not capitalising on it.
A club with the global fanbase we have, with the sponsorship deals we have and with the recent success we’ve had should be able to go out and buy, say, Jadon Sancho for example, especially when we could sell the likes of Origi, Shaqiri, Wilson, Grujic etc to cover most of the outlay. Maybe I’m being too simplistic, but that’s how I feel.
The only legitimate reason I can think of for that not happening is that Klopp has something planned for next summer and is keeping his powder dry. He’s shown before that he’s prepared to wait for the right player while the rest of us are losing our shit and demanding he compromise and settle for a secondary target (like with Van Dijk), so I’m clinging to that for now.
Star man is Robbo because who else was there even in contention? No-one. It was just varying degrees of mediocrity all around with only Robbo doing anything.
Team: Alisson; Williams (Keita), Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Wijnaldum (Brewster), Milner (Minamino); Salah, Firmino (Jones), Mané:
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