An away win in the group stages! How about that? It's been a while. Two years and a week apparently. We can play better than this, a lot better, but why waste a top quality performance on a fixture where it isn’t needed? This was a game we should have been able to win comfortably in third gear, and that’s what we did.
Klopp made five changes to the side that drew at Old Trafford. Two of them were enforced but he may have made those anyway for rotational purposes. Trent and Matip were replaced by Milner and Lovren. Somewhat surprising that Gomez didn’t get the nod for either of those roles, but playing Milner at full back made sense because it was a game in which we’d be doing most of the attacking and Milner is much better at that than Joe.
Why he didn’t play at centre back is not as simple to explain, but it might have been due to Genk having a giant striker. Or it could just have been that Lovren performed better in his last game than Gomez did in his. Either way, the selection didn’t bother me as much as it seemed to bother LFC Twitter. It bothered them a lot more when Big Dejan got caught out late on to allow Genk to nab a consolation. More about that later.
The other changes to the side went well. Ox came in and scored two, Mo returned and had a goal and an assist while Keita was energetic and efficient and touched the ball more than anyone else on the field.
The overall performance was patchy though. We made the perfect start but then didn’t capitalise on it and let the game drift until half time, but the second half was much more like it and the scoreline was just about right on the balance of play. Defensively we had more trouble than Klopp would have liked, but most of that was a result of things going awry further up the field.
We gave the ball away too much, especially in the first half. It ws better after the break and we could have scored more than three. All the goals we scored were quality though. Ox took his first very well with an accurate low shot into the corner from 20 yards. He seems to be the only midfielder we have who is any sort of threat from outside the box, and than it itself gives him a strong case for regular selection.
We had chances to build on that early goal, the best of which fell to Mané following a glorious rabona pass from Bobby. I’m annoyed at Sadio for not finishing that because Bobby deserved that to end in a goal. It would have eclipsed the brilliant back heel assist he had for Mo against Newcastle.
Firmino was just brilliant in this game. His touch, movement and vision stood out like a beacon all night. Salah was ineffective for long spells and Sadio was little better, but Bobby was just good from start to finish, which makes it all the more galling how shite he was at Old Trafford. He always is though, like most of his team-mates.
Gene had a couple of good chances to equalise and even had the ball in the net at one point, only for it to be ruled out by VAR for the narrowest of offsides. Correct decision, but it was close. The BT commentators had no idea what was going on and thought the ref had disallowed it for a foul on Milner, even though it clearly wasn’t.
Easy to see why they were confused though because that ref had given some completely baffling decisions prior to that. He was useless, he was getting virtually everything wrong in the opening 15 minutes or so. He settled down after that and wasn’t as bad, but the way he started the game looked like he was auditioning for a job in the Premier League.
Genk had shown they were no pushovers and Klopp probably tore a strip off the lads at half time because if they’d continued like that there was every chance they wouldn’t have held onto the lead. The second half was much better and the three goals were all special in their own right.
Ox’s finish for number two was gorgeous. He said he wanted to rep the number 15 shirt for his mate Studge, and that was a goal right out of the Sturridge collection. Glorious stuff.
I think I preferred our third though. There was a simplicity about it that just showed the front three at their best. Nothing about that goal was easy even though they made it look so. Bobby’s reverse no look pass to Salah was class. Mo’s perfectly timed and weighted ball to Mané was also top notch, and the first time finish from Sadio over the keeper was quality.
Brilliant goal and it was good to see Salah and Mané combining. They did so again for the fourth goal, which was brilliantly finished off by Mo. What a slippery, wriggly, strong little fucker he is when he gets in those situations. The touch to nip between the two defenders was sensational.
We could have had more but four was just about right I’d say, and besides, we want to keep some back for this weekend. We’ll need to play better than this on Sunday, because for all their recent problems Spurs always give us a game and there’s not usually much between the two sides.
We need to tighten up at the back but it isn’t just a defensive thing. The nature of how we play means we can be got at if we give the ball away cheaply as the two centre backs are usually left on their own in those situations. I believe Klopp refers to it as “protecting our own attacks” but when the ball is lost unexpectedly it’s harder to do that.
United scored at the weekend from a situation like that. Origi was fouled, causing an unexpected loss of possession that stranded the full backs up the pitch and left us two v two at the back. Genk had a couple of those situations too but their finishing let them down.
They did manage one goal and that was definitely a result of bad defending. Dejan needs to just put that ball out instead of trying to play it. He’d done well to win it and was holding off the player he had dispossessed, but he wasn’t aware of a second player closing him down and he was mugged, eventually resulting in a deserved consolation goal for the home side and no clean sheet for us.
Lovren was trending on Twitter afterwards, and not in a good way. I don’t really get how people can get so worked up about this stuff. If it’s not Lovren it’s Henderson or Milner. We’re six points clear in the league, we’re the reigning European Champions and we won this game 4-1. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t have it in me to be kicking off like some spoilt rich kid because one of the players made a mistake.
Have a fucking day off. There may well be an occasion this season when laying into Lovren is justified, but a 4-1 away win in Europe really wasn’t that time. I actually thought Alisson was just as culpable for that goal (no idea what he was doing there), but it wouldn’t really matter if he’d picked it up and thrown it into his own net, Lovren was always getting 100% of the blame there because he doesn’t have the credit in the bank that other players do.
I think some perspective is needed though. Yes, he was selected ahead of Gomez for this particular game, but in reality he’s our fourth centre half and would have been allowed to leave in the summer had a suitable offer come in. That offer didn’t come in and he was kept to provide depth, for games exactly like this one.
And guess what, he’s better than any other fourth choice centre back in the league. In fact, he’s better than most first choice ones, including many of those at our so called rivals. I think that’s the reason it’s winding me up. If we were still bumming around in 5th or 6th and trying to get in the top four, I’d understand the frustration at individual players. I just feel that when the team is this good it’s a bit twattish to be spending more time singling out unpopular players for criticism rather than just chilling out and enjoying what Klopp is giving us.
But whatever, nothing I say is going to make a difference as Lovren haters gonna hate. At least it’s understandable to a degree, not like the fucking weirdos out there bashing Henderson all the time. They’ll be smelling themselves after this one, as Ox came in and scored a couple and Naby had a busy, productive night too. A wet dream for the Hendo haters.
That midfield three of Fabinho, Keita and Ox is the one that LFC Twitter has been longing for. They finally got it and while some will hail it as a roaring success, personally I’d suggest that we saw exactly why Klopp hasn’t gone with it before, and probably won’t do too often again either. Not against anyone good anyway.
It’s nothing against Ox or Naby, and it’s not even a vote for Hendo or Gini over them. It’s simply about balance and about what Klopp wants from his midfield. What he wants from his midfield is different to what most of you probably want. It’s different to what I wanted too, but I’ve mostly come around to his way of thinking (97 points and a European Cup will do that).
The “three grafters” approach isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but there’s a good reason that Klopp likes it. Whereas most teams will look for their midfield to provide creativity, ours generally comes from the full backs, so the midfield is selected with that in mind.
Milner, Hendo and Gini all cover the full backs and “protect our attacks” brilliantly. Naby and (especially) Ox aren’t as adept at doing that. Genk were able to exploit that a few times, and better sides than them would punish us for it.
That being said, Klopp surely knows that having one of Ox or Naby (or Lallana for that matter) in there gives his midfield a much more balanced look and makes us more of an attacking threat, especially on those days when the front three aren’t getting it done. That’s why I wanted us to bring Coutinho back. Sometimes you need that little bit of something different. Ox isn’t Coutinho but he brings the threat of goals and of running in behind, and we can’t really afford to ignore that as it might be the one thing that allows us to improve on what we did last year.
He should start on Sunday but I won’t be the least bit surprised if he doesn’t. It’s a big game against a good side so I fully expect Hendo and Gini to be back in there, but we’ll see. The great thing is that Klopp has so many options now to mix and match depending on the opposition.
Ox was brought off early so maybe that’s an indication that he’ll feature at the weekend? Robbo was given a rest too, while Bobby made way for Origi late on. Nice touch that, letting Divock have a run out at the club he spent most of his younger years. He got a hero’s welcome too, they were even chanting his name. Nice for him.
Better than what he got from some dickheads in our end anyway. That banner. Fucking hell. As well as being racially offensive, it’s also just not even funny. We ripped United fans over that Lukaku shit. Were these knob heads not paying attention then? How can anyone think that is acceptable in this current climate? Did they think it wasn't going to be taken down and land them in a whole pile of hot water? Presumably they must have. They might even get a ban for it. So stupid. I genuinely couldn’t believe it when I saw it.
The club handled it as best they could, but it just reflects badly on us all as it’s another stick to beat us with in a week when the Suarez / Evra thing was dragged up again. Honestly, I’m fucking fuming at that banner. What the hell is wrong with some people?
There’ll be others saying “what’s the problem, I’d be made up if people said I had a giant cock”. Yeah, not going to happen. If it makes you feel better you can settle for people saying that “you are a massive cock” though.
Star man is Ox because of the goals but Firmino was probably the best player on the pitch. Honourable mention to Fabinho too who had a strong performance.
Team: Alisson; Milner, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson (Gomez); Fabinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Wijnaldum), Keita; Salah, Firmino (Origi), Mané:
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