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Fulham 2 Liverpool 2 (Aug 6 2022)

     

     
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    Dave Usher

Oooof! Didn’t see that coming. Fucking hell. It’s ok for the likes of me to think we’d go to Fulham and just roll over them, but it’s not good when the players go there with the same attitude. Other than a couple of good spells in which we scored, this was appalling.

 

Complacency is not something we can often accuse these lads of and I’m usually reluctant to do that. I probably wouldn’t be doing it now if Klopp himself hadn’t come out afterwards and said we started the game with the wrong attitude. Usually they get the benefit of the doubt on that and the rare poor performances can be attributed to just a bad day at the office. This wasn’t that though, we didn’t look ready for the game and seemed flustered by the intensity of Fulham. 

 

In the first half we were outworked, outfought and for once didn’t seem to relish the hectic nature of the game. Usually we thrive when the game is fast paced and an opponent tries to go toe to toe with us. Fulham pushed up high and tried to play the game in our half. That’s normally suicide but in the first half it worked because we didn't match them.

 

The thing is though, there was nothing Fulham did that we haven’t faced before, and faced from much better opponents. Let’s not dress it up as something it isn't. Fulham are still shit. Just because we made them look good in this game doesn’t suddenly make them anything other than strong relegation candidates. 

 

Credit to them for how well they played but this result was almost entirely down to us being shit. And as shit as we were we still had enough chances to still win the game. Had it not been for Klopp’s comments I’d probably have put this down to us being undercooked because of the shortened pre-season, but then if that was the case how could we look so sharp last week against City?

 

The first 15 minutes of this game were genuinely awful. We kept getting caught in possession and couldn’t get out of our own half. You just never see that, even against good teams. To see it against a newly promoted team was mad and unsettling.

 

We were lucky to come through that spell unscathed and then we started to play a little bit. Not much, but on the odd occasion when we did put a few passes together we’d end up in their box in promising situations. It wasn’t enough though and it wasn’t a shock when we fell behind. 

 

There’s plenty of blame to go around on their opening goal, including some for the ref and VAR who missed a clear foul on Hendo in the build up, but the bulk of it for me is with Trent who was too passive on the back post. I know it’s tough being left to deal with the powerful Mitrovic, but this was avoidable it Trent had attacked the ball instead of waiting for it. 

 

By waiting for it to come to him he brought Mitrovic into play and as soon as that happened there was only going to be one winner. In that position you have to go and meet the ball at the highest point you can reach it and glance it away from danger. Trent is usually good at that but on this occasion he was too passive and it cost us.

 

It was symptomatic of his and the team's performance though. I was just shocked at how bad the whole team were to that point. Matip aside, no-one was doing anything. It was woeful all over the park. Klopp said the problem was we kept playing into their press and because the pitch was dry that made it easy for Fulham to nip in and win it back. That’s predictably been interpreted by outsiders as Klopp blaming a dry pitch for our performance when that is nothing like what he said or meant.

 

He was criticising his own team, not the fucking pitch! His point was that on a wet, zippy pitch you can knock the ball around quickly but when the ball is rolling more slowly then you have to be smarter and we weren’t. Even I could see that what we were doing was fucking stupid. Not so much the whole ‘don’t play it into midfield on a dry pitch’ thing, that isn’t what I was thinking. My problem was that everything we were doing was in front of Fulham and we were not turning them around and getting behind them. It amounts to the same thing really though.

 

Tim Ream is one of the worst defenders I’ve ever seen and the last couple of times Fulham were in the top flight he was getting ruined every fucking week. He’s shite and he can’t run. Mo should be having him on toast, but in that first half Mo was facing his own goal virtually every time the ball was played to him, and Ream was able to just get as tight to him as he wanted, especially knowing the left back was there as extra cover.

 

We needed to get Mo running at them but we were not able to do that at all until after Nunez (and Harvey) came on in the second half. Bobby made zero impact on this game but he’s only partly to blame for that. He wasn’t good and he lost the ball a fucking shitload (including there times in 10 seconds at one point), but the wider issue for me isn’t his actual performances, it’s more about the role he fills and how I wonder if it’s now redundant because opponents seem to have figured it out.

 

With Bobby on the pitch the idea is that he comes short, hopefully dragging a centre back with him and leaving space behind for the two wide forwards to run into. You also have the added bonus of him pressing, picking up loose balls and generally knitting things together and giving us an extra body in the middle of the park. It worked brilliantly for a few years but his impact has been on the wane for some time.

 

Much of the focus for that has been on Bobby’s own form and how it’s not what it was. That’s definitely a factor as it feels like he gives the ball away much more frequently and needlessly than he used to. But I think the bigger reason for his diminishing effectiveness is how opponents have adapted to deal with him.

 

Fulham let him drop deep and the centre backs didn’t concern themselves with him. Why would they? He isn’t causing any damage when he’s got the ball on halfway, especially as too often these days a midfielder is able to just nick it from him anyway. Without a number nine to worry about, Ream was up Mo’s arse the entire first half. 

 

When Nunez came on and was running in behind and generally bustling about being a nuisance in the box, Ream had to play as an actual centre back instead of just following Salah everywhere. As a result Mo was then able to get the ball in space and get running at them more. Harvey helped with that too, I’ll get to that in a bit.

 

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not blaming Bobby for the team’s poor performance as he was only a part of the problem. It’s an undeniable fact though that in the last two games we’ve looked massively more threatening when Nunez has been on the pitch. As I say, that’s as much down to the role Bobby plays as it is to do with his own form and I have some sympathy for him as in some respects there’s not much he can do about it, especially when the team play as fucking horribly as this. 

 

Bottom line though, my feeling now is that Bobby is generally only going to look like Bobby in games where the opponent is a bit clueless and aren’t well set up tactically (so Everton and United for example). Against everyone else we need Nunez (or even Jota).

 

As I say though, when the rest of the team plays they way they did Bobby had no chance to really do anything. It’s easier for Darwin to make an impact because his role is different. He is expected to run behind, offer an outlet ball over the top and generally make sure he’s in the box causing havoc. Bobby isn’t asked to do any of that, he’s there to do the dirty stuff. The question I’d have is what do we need more against shite like Fulham? It’s fairly obvious isn’t it?

 

I thought the change should have been made at half time, but I could also have made a strong argument for Elliott coming on for any of the three midfielders, who were all poor. Thiago was marginally the least shit of the three but he wasn’t doing much. Hendo was poor and Fabinho just wasn’t really in it.

 

As bad as we’d played in that half though we did have good moments and could easily have scored when Diaz hit the post with a brilliant strike. We had other situations too when Robbo was able to get behind them. He hit a weak shot straight at the keeper (he was miles offside anyway) and then he blasted one across the face when it just needed some composure to pick out a team-mate. Not sure if that was a cross or shot, but it was shite either way.

 

At least he was doing something though. Trent was really out of form on the other flank. Very sloppy. He tends to have four or five of these games every season, and then the rest of the time he’s sensational. I expect he’ll run the show against Palace next week.

 

So there were no changes at half time but five minutes into the second half we saw a double change. Thiago pulled up lame (see you in January then I guess, if your previous history is anything to go by) so on came Harvey. But Darwin also got the nod as Bobby was hooked too. What’s the point in giving Bobby five minutes? Either make that change at half time or on the hour.

 

I can only assume it’s because of the rule that says you can use five subs but can only stop the game three times to do it. There’s no other explanation that makes any real sense. 

 

The changes didn’t pay off instantly as I can remember thinking at one point (probably around the hour mark) that the second half was somehow even worse than the first. Fulham were now playing on the break rather than pressing us high, but they still posed a threat and they hit the inside of the post with Alisson well beaten. 

 

Slowly but surely we started to claw our way back though and Elliott’s presence on the right and his ability to find little pockets of space that allow him to link up with Trent and Mo really gave us another dimension. It helped that Ream was now having to help out his partner in the middle against the bustling Nunez. Now Mo was mostly up against the left back rather than having two of them following him everywhere.

 

His influence grew and he once again showed that string he’s added to his bow with a couple of quality right footed crosses. Last week he put one on Darwin’s head that led to a penalty. This time he whipped across two perfect balls in as many minutes to pick out near post runs from the new boy.

 

The first time Darwin met it with a clever flick that the keeper saved with his foot. Terrific effort, really unlucky. The second one was a carbon copy, only this time the defender challenged as Nunez flicked the ball and there was a double ricochet that sent the ball flying into the top corner.

 

I love that. Trademark Usher finishes those were. Darwin reminds me of me, only he’s a little bit quicker, with slightly inferior hair and has more toned abs than I had in my prime. By that I mean he actually has abs. Those flicked finishes though, like looking in a mirror for me that.

 

Having got back on level terms we were well on top now and the sense of panic I’d been feeling dissipated. It was only a matter of time now before we went ahead. And then out of fucking nowhere Virgil dangled out a leg and Mitrovic went tumbling. Blatant dive, he was only ever playing for a penalty and if anything he initiated what contact there was. If you're the ref though, you see Virgil dangling out a leg and not getting the ball so it's going to look like a foul. 

 

Virgil was clumsy and fell into the trap. I’ve never seen him do that before. Ever. Had the ref not given it there’s no way VAR would have overturned and said it was a pen, because the contact was absolutely minimal and initiated by the forward. But the ref did give it and because there was contact and because Virgil did dangle out a leg, that’s never getting overturned because the bar is set ridiculously high on overturns now. I just can’t believe Virgil did it. It was so needless too as Trent had got back around on the cover and was dealing with the situation.

 

Mitrovic picked himself up and buried the pen. Now we were back to square one again. Unbelievable. 

 

We drew level again when Darwin caused mayhem in the box and although he mis-controlled with the goal gaping, Mo was on hand to finish it off. Nunez is still a bit unpolished but he’s a handful and we wouldn’t have scored that goal if Bobby was on the pitch because he wouldn’t have been in that position. That’s not a criticism of Bobby, it’s just a fact. They play the position differently.

 

In the time Darwin was on the pitch he had the two flicked efforts (one of which went in), he had another cleared off the line after he outmuscled a defender when challenging for a nothing high ball, he shot wide after running in behind in the inside right channel, put one on a place for Diaz with a lovely knock down at the back post and his presence in the box resulted in the second goal. In the 55 minutes Bobby was on the pitch he offered zero goal threat whatsoever. You can come up with whatever explanation you like for that and I'm open to them, but nothing can change the fact that in the last two games we've been massively more threatening when Nunez was there instead of Bobby. 

 

I think what followed that goal was perhaps the most disappointing part about the whole game for me though. We’ve had games before when we’ve stunk the place out but as soon as we got back in it we’d find a way to win. There was enough time left after we equalised but we were unable to get a head of steam up and other than a wonder strike from Hendo that hit the bar, we rarely threatened.

 

Fulham were able to break the game up with a lot of diving. They were at it all day but in the first half the ref wasn’t having it. The crowd were getting pissed off with him as were the Fulham players, and it just felt like the longer it went the more he just decided he couldn’t be arsed dealing with them and he just started blowing for fouls all the time. 

 

That isn't an excuse though as I’m much more disappointed with our performance than I am with the antics of Fulham’s players or the decisions made by the ref. We’ve just got to do better. We shouldn’t need Milner to come on and show everyone how it’s done. Good for him that he can still do it, but it’s a damning indictment on how the others played that we were miles better after he came on. Elliott as well to some extent. 

 

Our first choice line up was shite and this result is genuinely dreadful and and a massive shock to the system. This is the kind of thing 90s Liverpool did all the time and it never gets any less infuriating. Dropping points to newly promoted / soon to be relegated sides isn’t a winning habit. We did it at Brentford last season and one shit result like that can be the difference between first and second. 

 

You just can’t have results like this if you want to win the league. Anything less than maximum points against the dregs of the league is potentially catastrophic because there are games where dropping points is much more likely. It's like playing Jumanji. You've got your three lives, and if you lose one by being thrown off a bridge by crazed monkeys then fair enough, you'll accept that and move on as there's not much you could do about it. If you explode after eating cake though, you can't help but think it's a stupid waste of a life and that you may come to regret it.

 

The season we won it I think we took maximum points against the bottom ten, or at least something really close to it. That’s how you win titles. I guarantee City won’t drop any points to Fulham or anyone like them so we've basically lost a life here by stuffing ourselves with cake. If you haven't seen Jumanji none of this will make sense, so just ignore it and move on.

 

I’m not going down the road of saying this result will cost us the title because we’re only one game into the season and there’s so much football to be played. It would be fucking stupid and incredibly defeatist taking that stance after one game. At the same time though you can't dismiss this as nothing.

 

We’ve had four title battles with City (three under Klopp and one under Rodgers) and we’ve lost three of them by a combined total of four points. So every fucking stupid result like this really matters. We can’t do anything about it now of course, the points are gone and they aren’t coming back.

 

What it does mean is that we now have to make those points up elsewhere. So if we take last season as an example, a shitty result like this means that six draws out of six with City, Chelsea and Spurs is just not good enough this time (it wasn't good enough last time either because of the silly points dropped elsewhere). We have to be winning some of those games because the margin for error is so small and we’ve already fucked up once.

 

The days when you could shrug off a result like this as “one of those games” and not worry because “the title race doesn’t start until Easter” are long fucking gone. Klopp knows this more than anyone. That’s why he was so pissed off. The plan was to get off to a flying start and ride that momentum until the break for the world cup comes. That plan has already gone up in smoke because we couldn’t beat FUCKING FULHAM.

 

I’m fuming to be honest. Having to play catch up already despite playing a newly promoted side? It’s just incredibly frustrating. We’ve recently developed a really bad habit of starting slow and conceding first in games. Go back to the back end of last season and it happened a lot. And here we go again. It’s the exact opposite of what Klopp has been drumming into them in pre-season. Start fast, get the game won, then we can make the subs and rest those who need it. 

 

Instead we started slow, had to chase the game and the subs were being brought on to try and salvage something. That shit needs to stop here and now because City will just carry on doing what they do and we need to stop giving ourselves mountains to climb in games. We've got a great record of coming back to win from being a goal down but you don't want to keep having to do it because it will catch up with you, like it did here. 

 

Next week against Palace I want to see us fucking fly out of the traps and get a couple of early goals. Stop making things needlessly difficult for ourselves.

 

Star man is Nunez, with honourable mentions to Matip, Milner and Elliott. Mo was good in the last half an hour or so too.

 

 

Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho (Milner), Henderson, Thiago (Elliott); Salah, Firmino (Nunez), Diaz (Carvalho):

 

 


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1 hour ago, alles ist gut said:

Top, top abdominal definition analysis there, Dave.

Preferred the top, top Nunez has slightly inferior hair analysis myself

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We were abysmal the last 15 mn, we kept launching king balls we immediately lost. Appalling. We did not deserve better, really check for the team and for Bobby who’s been poor for years now. 

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If you think I'm dissing my boy Joel then you haven't been paying attention!

 

 

 

(seriously, I didn't even notice, I'll watch it back now and report my findings!)

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Ok not great but...

 

1) he plays so many progressive forward passes that this is an occupational hazard. Mostly he was very good and had some nice Joel forays forward.

 

2) it still should never have led to a goal when its a forward as slow and limited (at dribbling) as Mitrovic running at Virgil.

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2 minutes ago, dave u said:

Ok not great but...

 

1) he plays so many progressive forward passes that this is an occupational hazard. Mostly he was very good and had some nice Joel forays forward.

 

2) it still should never have led to a goal when its a forward as slow and limited (at dribbling) as Mitrovic running at Virgil.

Agreed  Plus it happened (from memory) fairly high up the field too?

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Great report. To be fair to Matip, he wasnt the only one having a poor game. I think that's the worst Ive seen us play in a long time. Dont get why Jurgen didnt start Darwin if Im honest except through loyalty tohis experienced players, in this case Bobby.

 

Had to laugh in the match thread when someone said Harvey isnt good enough minutes after coming on!

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1 hour ago, Jose Jones said:

Yeah Matip was absolutely terrible. Gave the ball away every single time. Probably his worst game ever for us.


Not entirely true.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Jose Jones said:

Yeah Matip was absolutely terrible. Gave the ball away every single time. Probably his worst game ever for us.


And this was his average last season.

 

 

 

 

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Bobby is playing because Klopp is loyal to players (eg Moreno) but I believe he will play Nunez from the start next Monday. 
 

Bob had to tell rushy to be more greedy when he arrived from Chester. A confidence thing I suspect, wanting to fit into a squad full of great players. Jurgen needs to have the same conversation with Darwin. In the limited time ive watched him there have been several opportunities to shoot eschewed for an attempted pass. Just put the ball into the back of the net lad. 

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1 hour ago, Barnesey said:

Bobby is playing because Klopp is loyal to players (eg Moreno) but I believe he will play Nunez from the start next Monday. 
 

Bob had to tell rushy to be more greedy when he arrived from Chester. A confidence thing I suspect, wanting to fit into a squad full of great players. Jurgen needs to have the same conversation with Darwin. In the limited time ive watched him there have been several opportunities to shoot eschewed for an attempted pass. Just put the ball into the back of the net lad. 

He’s made two - count ‘em!!! - appearances, both off the bench, scoring and assisting in each and you’re criticising him? Tough crowd. 

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One thing that crossed my mind was that Klopp and team had been out thought by Marco Silva. 

Silva has a reputation for creating footballing teams and this was certainly the case earlier in his career and at the blue shite they were easy to play against. I dont watch the championship but my guess would be wth the amount of goals scored then Fulham were decent compared to the rest.

 

What we saw on Saturday was a front foot agressiveteam ot one at all who were passive. May be Klopp and the team were suckereed by that and once you start with a certain mindset and plan it can be hard to change. 

 

Additionally Fulham played a blinder in terms of managing the referee...they were aggressive in tackle right up to the point ofbeing pver agressive and if they got theeir opprtunity to leaveone on a player then they did it. The other side of teh coin was that they fell to ground with increasing ease throiugh the game and the ref bought it which was disappointing.

 

Roll on Palace!

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23 hours ago, Paul said:

He’s made two - count ‘em!!! - appearances, both off the bench, scoring and assisting in each and you’re criticising him? Tough crowd. 

Apologies, I just see the potential for him to get better

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Well, yeah. You’d hope he does what virtually everyone does under Klopp and improve exponentially. However he’s had an absolutely brilliant first couple of appearances. 

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