Report by
Dave Usher
I’m not going to talk about that Burnley game anymore. Fair's fair, the lads have won at Arsenal and Chelsea, drew at Spurs (and were the better side) and battered Leicester. So despite the loss at Turf Moor I’d say they’re now ahead of the curve in terms of how many points we had a right to expect them to get. They’ve redeemed themselves... for now.
While it’s perfectly natural to ruefully look back and think “imagine where we’d be if we’d beaten fucking Burnley”, I’m not going to do it anymore. Not now anyway, if we miss out on the title by a point or two I can’t promise anything, but for the time being I’m going to shut up about it. If they do something similar against some other bum team, then it’s fair to bring it up again, but for now it’s best forgotten.
When you drop a bollock like we did in that game it puts pressure on you to then go and get those points back by winning one you’re not necessarily supposed to. By going to Chelsea and winning they’ve done that and all credit to them, especially as they did it without the man who had been the catalyst for taking Leicester apart last week.
The news that Firmino wouldn’t play was disappointing and knocked some of the confidence I’d been feeling before the game (I’m always confident when we’re playing good teams), but it spared Klopp from having to make a difficult decision. Would he have gone with Coutinho or Sturridge? All week I’d been expecting him to go with Coutinho, but on the day of the game I had a sneaky feeling he’d stick with what worked against Leicester. We’ll probably never know what he would have done now, but it’s irrelevant anyway.
The players were right at this one from the very start. Confidence is obviously high and so it should be given how they played last week. We got on top of Chelsea straight away and it was encouraging to see. Maybe that was partly on how Chelsea approached the game, I’ve seen it suggested that they sat off and let us have it, and perhaps they did. It’s a tactic that often works as it’s usually only a matter of time before we make a daft mistake.
So it’s certainly possible that Chelsea deliberately played like that, or perhaps we were just much better than them? It’s becoming a recurring theme now, any time we make good teams look bad the focus is as much on what they’re doing wrong as it is on how impressive we’ve been. It can’t always be them though, surely? We’re just not that lucky to keep walking into teams on their off days. It’s happened too often to be a co-incidence.
So I don’t think that first half was about them, it was all us. We’re a good team’s worst nightmare but unfortunately we’re also a bottom half jabroni’s wet dream, but I promised not to talk about that any more, not until we lose to Hull next week anyway!
It was good to see us start quickly for a change. We were knocking it around nicely and had a bit of a swagger to our play, but it’s also fair to say that Courtois wasn’t being worked too much. Sturridge tested him with a stinging shot that went straight at him, but the Postman Pat looking fuck almost spilled it into his own net and was lucky the ball stopped on the goal-line.
It wasn’t long before he was picking it out of his net though, but it took me a few seconds to celebrate it as I thought it was going to be flagged offside. The replay showed Lovren did well to get himself onside and sneak around the back, but there were a couple of others in the middle who were off and that won’t always be given. Thankfully it was, although Mané (who was well off) put it at risk by initially looking like he was going for it before leaving it to Lovren. It was a great cross by Coutinho and a cool finish from Lovren, and it was just what we needed.
Chelsea were rattled and their fans just watched in stunned silence. Ok I’ll rephrase that, they watched in even more silence than usual. It was strange really, they were only a goal down but it was like they’d completely given up. All you could hear were the chants from the away end. Then Hendo hit that incredible second and we were cruising. If we’d added a third before half time it could have been a stroll for the rest of the game but at 2-0 you’re always vulnerable. Hell, at 3-0 we’re often vulnerable, so we certainly can’t relax when it’s only two.
That strike from henderson though, it was absolute perfection. If I was late celebrating Lovren’s goal I certainly wasn’t with this one. As soon as he hit it I shouted “YES!” before it even hit the net. Sometimes you just know. The funny thing is he’d put one over the bar earlier in the game and my arl fella fumed “I knew who that was without even looking. Any time he shoots he balloons it over the bar, he shouldn’t be allowed to shoot”.
It’s usually me who says stuff like that (generally about Coutinho) and ends up looking stupid, so I enjoyed that one. The only thing that comes close to the goal is the reaction of Grujic. I could watch that all day, it’s fucking hilarious.
That whole first half was great and the only thing to complain about is the leniency shown towards Ivanovic. That captain caveman cunt stamped on Lallana’s foot twice in a few seconds and basically just ran around fouling people for most of the half. In fairness I thought Martin Atkinson had a very good game overall (there were loads of times we muscled Chelsea players off the ball and he ignored their appeals when other refs would have caved under the complaints), but he let that neanderthal looking fucker get away with murder. Where’s Luis and his gnashers when you need them?
Things were looking great at half time and I felt the key to winning the game was just seeing out the first ten or 15 minutes and then taking advantage of the counter attacking opportunities we had. If we could do that we could score four or five. Chelsea were always going to show a reaction immediately after half time though, and they did, but we looked to be handling it fine until we suddenly conceded out of nowhere.
The goal wasn’t great from our perspective, but I do feel like we can over analyse these things at times. Souness made some valid points on it, specifically on Lallana’s culpability, but when you play on the front foot as we do there has to be some kind of trade off, and you know, it’s not like we’re playing a bunch of Sunday league lads.
Yes, Lallana over commits himself in trying to win the ball, but how many of our players were behind him when he did it? Most of the team from what I can remember. Not only that, but it’s his job to press and try to nick the ball. If he’d succeeded we’d have had a two v two situation, and with the pace of the likes of Mane and Wijnaldum who are always looking to break in those situations, it could quickly have turned into a great chance.
It didn’t happen because Matic is a top player and was able to skip around Lallana’s challenge. After that, Lallana didn’t track the run as well as he should and Henderson went to cover someone he didn’t need to when he could have followed Matic. These are relatively small errors though and more often than not you’d get away with it. We’re only noticing them because Chelsea scored.
Matip could have done better with his challenge and Lallana also dived in, desperately trying to retrieve a situation he probably felt he caused. What seems to have been overlooked is that Matic deliberately lifted the ball over Lallana’s challenge and it was a great bit of play. Most players just roll that on the floor and Lallana cuts it out, so sometimes you have to give credit to the opponent rather than blame for your own.
You’re never going to play a perfect game and of all the goals we’ve conceded this season I’d say this was probably the least avoidable. It was very good play from Matic and Costa, the goal wasn’t just gifted to them as so many others has been and you can live with that as long as it’s an isolated incident, which it was.
The important thing is that overall we kept Costa & co ridiculously quiet for most of the game. He was hardly in it, and neither were Hazard or Oscar (who for the record I’ve always said is shit and he’s never done anything to convince me otherwise). Willian didn’t do anything either for that matter, although at least he wasn’t invisible like the others.
Not keeping a clean sheet again is incredibly frustrating but it doesn’t mean we didn’t defend well. The back four were superb and Mignolet only had to make one save all night. Speaking of Mignolet, I suspect it’s the last time we’ll see him for a while as surely Karius will play at Derby and as long as he doesn’t throw up all over himself he’ll probably stay in while we see what he can do. Mignolet did nothing wrong in this game though it should be said.
Having let Chelsea back into it I was convinced we’d blow it and either draw or even lose. We’ve seen it happen so often that it’s only natural now to expect the worst. Had Costa’s effort soon after been a couple of years either side of Mignolet then we probably would have lost, but after that minor scare I can’t remember them threatening despite having a lot of the ball.
We could have made it much easier for ourselves by keeping the ball better or showing more on the counter, but at least the players kept a good shape and defended the box very well when they had to. I was disappointed at our attacking play in the second half though.
Mané and Coutinho were great defensively and were very disciplined, but they didn’t do much at the other end. Sturridge looked goosed in the second half and it was no surprise he was hooked after an hour. That was an obvious call, but once again Origi made us worse rather than better. He just doesn’t look the same player at the moment, but hopefully a run out against Derby will help him find a bit of rhythm. If not, I’d rather see Danny Ings on the bench next week.
He had a great chance to make the game safe but put his header in an area where Courtois was able to save. One of the biggest myths in football is that you should always head the ball down. I’ve heard that since I was kid, it’s probably in every coaching manual too. But it’s bollocks. Time and again I see players trying so hard to head the ball down that they don’t get the necessary power in it, or they put it too close to the keeper. Just burst the net with it like Lovren did against Dortmund. That’s how you score a header, and it’s what Divock should have done. Heading it down brought the keeper into play, it should have gone in the top corner or back across goal to completely take Courtois out of it.
There’s no harm done though as we held on easily enough in the end. Chelsea threw men forward and got into some good situations out wide, but whenever the ball came in it was usually one of our lads on the end of it. Matip, Lovren, Hendo, Lucas after he came on, they seemed to clear everything.
Lucas did give away a free-kick on the edge of the box and everyone predictably went mad about it. “Typical Lucas” etc. I felt for him on this occasion though as he didn’t even make a challenge, he just happened to be in Hazard’s vicinity and the little shit kicked him and threw himself to the floor. How could Lucas have even avoided that?
The funny thing was at full time Klopp went over to him and was pointing and gesticulating. It was all done in jest but I reckon he’d told him beforehand not to foul anyone, because when he went over Lucas was immediately defending himself and saying “Noooooo! It was a dive” and wagging his finger.
Everyone got a massive hug from Klopp it seemed, and they all deserved it. The whole team did exactly what was asked of them and tactically this was excellent. The midfield did a great job closing passing lanes and stopping Chelsea getting the ball to their danger men, and this was Wijnaldum’s best game so far. I thought he played well in the first half but was a bit wasteful with his final pass on a few promising counter attack situations. He was superb in the second half though, very neat and tidy and accomplished on the ball, and he put in a hell of a shift.
The full backs were great too, especially Milner who in the interests of fairness it must be said is completely vindicating Klopp’s decision to make him first choice left back. He’s just such a great pro and knows what he’s doing. Lovren was terrific again (here’s a question for you, how many centre backs at the other top clubs would you take over him?), Matip very good, but the best player on the pitch was Henderson. He did everything well and put in a real captain’s performance.
He’s bounced back well after stinking it up against Burnley and he seems to becoming more and more comfortable in the holding role he’s been asked to fill in the absence of Can. It’s going to be interesting to see how the midfield shapes up over the next couple of months, because right now Henderson and Lallana simply have to play, and Wijnaldum is beginning to show what he can do too. So who makes way for Can? Right now, no-one should.
Ten points from the opening five games is a good return based on the difficulty of those fixtures. It’s a platform to build on, so now we’ve got those tough ones out of the way let’s see if we can do to Hull and Swansea what good sides are supposed to do to the likes of Hull and Swansea.
Team: Mignolet; Clyne, Matip, Lovren, Milner; Henderson, Lallana, Wijnaldum (Stewart); Mané, Sturridge (Origi), Coutinho (Lucas):
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