Terrible performance but a huge three points. If Huddersfield didn’t have a useless attack led by the worst centre forward in the history of football we probably wouldn’t have gotten anything from this game, but thankfully we managed to take one chance and that was enough for the win.
The goal was one of only a handful of moments of quality we produced. Mo took it extremely well with his weaker foot, but it was lazy of BT Sport’s Chris Sutton to give him man of the match, as other than the goal I thought he was well off it once again. Thankfully we aren’t conceding any, because the goals have dried up big time.
As pleasing as the three points are, this performance worries me more than anything else we’ve seen this season. The Napoli game was hideous and we never even had a shot, but they’re a decent side and it’s known as not being the easiest place to play. There were other factors that went into that too, things that I’m not sure Klopp went public with but privately he was pissed off about.
The grass was too long on the pitch and we weren’t allowed to train on it beforehand. It doesn’t excuse how shite we were, but it makes it easier to dismiss it as nothing to be too concerned about.
City wasn’t good either. I think we had one shot on target and barely threatened them at all. But it’s City, they’re the best team in the country and given how poor we were in attack (and that they missed a late pen) that was a great point and again, quite easy to dismiss.
We’ve had a brutal run of games recently and come through it relatively unscathed. Huddersfield are terrible though, we should be looking good against them, surely? Ok, the international break muddies the water a little and it’s never easy playing an away fixture off the back of it, but I don’t think that fully explains how poor we were and I don’t think Klopp sees it that way either given how pissed off he clearly was during the game.
This was the start of a pretty easy run that should see us again begin to resemble the runaway attacking juggernaut we were last season. Ok, two thirds of the front three were missing and we had Lallana making his his first start since I don’t even know when. I know he’s had at least three bad hairstyles in that period though. At least he’s ditched the gremlin look now.
I don’t even know what formation we were playing as Shaqiri and Salah were both playing on the same side of the pitch. I’d say it was more of a 4-4-2 than anything, with Salah in a front two with Sturridge. That’s not a system we’re used to be playing and it wasn’t exactly fluid.
So yeah, there were mitigating circumstances. The thing is though, it wasn’t really the first hour or so that concerned me. It wasn’t good, but as I said, with the amount of changes in attack and midfield it was perhaps to be expected. Overall it wasn’t that bad. Mo scored one and wasted a great chance for a second. If he’d taken that (which he should) then we might be talking about a much different performance as the floodgates could have opened.
What really left me feeling disheartened was how wasteful we were after Bobby came on. There were three or four great chances to kill them off on the break but . Thats our thing, it’s what we do. At least it’s what we did. Those counter attacks in the last ten or fifteen minutes were a disgrace. Pitiful. The final ball wasn’t even pub standard. Huddersfield were wide open and we had several three v one and three v two situations that didn’t even result in a shot.
The worst was when Firmino ignored a completely free Shaqiri and tried to play it to Salah. If he’d played a decent pass it might have still worked out (although chances are Mo would have fluffed his lines anyway) but the ball he played was just staggeringly shit. I have no words for how bad it was.
There were other examples too, like when Salah cut inside and passed the ball straight to a defender when trying to find Sturridge. It was almost as though he didn’t see him, but he was stood right there in front of him. How are top players doing things this shit?
What’s going on? These are basic things that even players in League Two can do without thinking. Yet we keep seeing these superstar players making a complete Jon Walters of it time and time again. I can’t explain it. Maybe it’s fatigue due to the World Cup and a long season last year. Maybe it’s a lack of confidence. Maybe there is no explanation and it’s just one of those mad things that can happen. I don’t know what it is, but I’m worried now.
Of course there is another way of looking at it. Despite not hitting any kind of form we’re level on points with City who have been flying and just blowing teams away. How pissed off would you be if you were City right now? This time last year they were running away with it. They’re playing at an even higher level now but they can’t shake us off even though we’re well below par and just scraping out wins.
The reason we’re matching them point for point is because we don’t let goals in. Three in nine, with six clean sheets. We’re defending at an incredibly high level now, but we’ve also had a fair bit of luck too, which helps. We don’t give up many chances but we’ve been fortunate that most of the ones we have allowed have been squandered.
Whether it’s Spurs being denied a blatant pen in stoppage time, Mahrez sending a spot kick into orbit or Steve Mouniet failing to capitalise on a rare Van Dijk mistake in this game, we’ve been getting the rub of the green a bit lately, which makes a welcome change.
It can’t go on like this indefinitely though. Eventually our luck will run out and City will pull away if we don’t get our act together in attack. I don’t expect next week against Cardiff to be much different to this either, as they aren’t going to let us play and even if they go behind they won’t change how they play.
A few weeks ago I was thinking that it would just take one game for everything to click and us to get back to last season’s blistering form. I no longer think that’s the case. The problem runs deeper than that and it’s going to be a process. It might not click until the new year so it’s vital that we keep grinding it out like we have been.
You’d have to think that eventually it will come together again because these players are too good to keep playing like this. Last year wasn’t a fluke and it’s only a matter of time before the goals are raining in again. How much time is the big question though, especially with City not looking like they’re going to drop hardly any points.
They have some tougher fixtures coming up and we have to hope that the likes of Spurs and United can do something to slow them down. I’d feel a lot more relaxed about the situation if we were playing the way we were last spring, but until that happens we’re going to have to keep leaning on Virgil and the defence.
Star man is a tough one. Shaqiri was good when he had the ball but he didn’t have it enough. He needs to stay in the team though, he’s the brightest, most creative spark we have right now.
Sturridge did alright too. He didn’t have any chances himself but he kept possession (especially in the closing stages when his experience came to the fore and he slowed things down and helped take the sting out of the game) and he put one on a plate for Salah with a lovely ball over the top. He got through the full game too, which is encouraging.
Gomez was solid, the two centre backs were mostly fine (barring one mistake each that they got away with) and I thought Gini was top drawer after coming on at half time. I’ll go with Robbo though I think. Honourable mention to Milner as well for somehow getting out there and playing despite a bad hamstring. What a guy.
Team: Alisson; Gomez, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson; Shaqiri, Henderson (Wijnaldum), Milner (Firmino), Lallana (Fabinho); Sturridge, Salah:
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