I’m going to ignore the huge elephant in the room and just focus on the game. I wouldn’t even know where to begin in addressing the other thing and once I had begun it would be difficult to stop. So I’ll just say that I hate the idea and that I’m massively concerned about the implications of it and I’ll leave it at that for now.
I’ll write something when I’ve been able to process it all and get my head around it. Probably in the diary this week. I’ll keep this as just a match report. Not that anyone is particularly arsed about the match because none of these games mean anything now do they? Klopp and the players are trying to get into the top four but for what? The owners don’t want to be in the Champions League so it’s all moot.
I was worried about how the players would come out for this game given all that had gone on. I say worried, but that would imply that I cared when the truth is I wouldn’t have blamed the lads if they were in no frame of mind to play the game. So I half expected us to be completely flat and dispirited but that wasn’t the case. The lads looked up for it and Klopp certainly was in his pre-match interview. You can tell he was fuming about what has gone on but he was also irked by the t-shirts worn by the Leeds players in the warm up and left in the visitors dressing room.
He was livid about the “Earn It” slogan on the t-shirts because he and his players have fought and scrapped for everything they’ve achieved to date. Nothing has been handed to them. I understand why that annoyed him but the point was valid. It was about future qualification, not past achievements. Still, he did everything but go into Wealdstone Raider mode and giving it the “you want some?”. He was ready to fight someone that’s for sure.
The players seemed similarly determined to make a point too and we started the game really well. Of course we were shite in the final third but that goes with the territory now. Doesn’t even matter which of the forwards play and which one is left out. It’s the same old toothless crap regardless.
This time it was Mo on the bench, so the threat of a goal from us was even less than usual. Sadio’s raw deal from refs continued as he was blatantly hauled down on the edge of the box early on and got nothing. I would give the ref the benefit of the doubt and say he played the advantage because Jota picked up the loose ball, but the ref was Anthony Taylor so no benefit is being given to that baldy Manc turd.
The keeper wasn’t being tested enough but we were in total control and Leeds offered nothing in the first half other than one opening we created for them when a terrible pass by Fabinho went straight to a Leeds player and my boy Bamford was sent clear. He took a touch too many and Alisson was out quickly to smother the danger.
We had so many good situations where we took too long to shoot or the pass was delayed a fraction too long and allowed defenders to block, but eventually we managed to put together one quality, incisive move and we scored from it. Jota’’s lovely ball got Trent in behind Harrison, the keeper came rushing out but Trent got there first and squared for Mané who just about found the empty net. He so nearly missed that.
Surprisingly we looked quite dangerous from corners. Jota headed over from one and then completely missed another one that looked to be dropping to him. Leeds must be awful on set-pieces if we were posing a threat from them. We haven’t looked dangerous from corners since we lost Van Dijk (and to a lesser extent Matip).
All good at half time then but the second half started and it was completely different. We didn’t look in much trouble initially even if we weren’t doing much ourselves. As the half went on though Leeds just got more and more on top and they had much more of the ball than we did.
There was a VAR check when the ball brushed Trent’s hand in the box. Mike Dean had a look and said no pen, which frankly staggered me. Not because it was a pen, but because it was us. And because it was him. And because of all the negative publicity we’ve had (rightly so). Anyway, Dean correctly ruled that Trent was pulling his arm away and could not nothing about it.
We had more let offs than just that though. Leeds outran us and had more possession. That’s telling I think. They looked like they wanted it more but I’m sure that’s more about them being fitter than we are at the moment. By fitter I mean less jaded I guess. We’ve played so many games while short handed that there just isn’t that much left in the tank. The second half was proper fucking shit.
Leeds had us under the cosh for most of it and could have scored two or three easily. Alisson made a great save with his left boot to deny Harrison. Bamford then hit the bar before Alisson denied Roberts. These were three gilt edged chances. It wasn’t good at all from us, they were all over us. Sadio made way for Salah and that was an obvious decision as he was crap again even though he scored.
We just needed one clinical counter attack to make the game safe and we did have opportunities to do it. We should have finished them off with a trademark Red Arrows charge from a Leeds corner but it was Robbo leading the break and - much as I love him - he’s probably one of the last players you’d want in that situation. He had Salah to the right and Jota to the left and he completely fluffed the pass to Jota. It’s not a position he often finds himself in and it showed. He’d usually be the one on the overlap, not the man charging through the centre needing to play the right pass.
Mo then wasted a good chance when the keeper kicked it straight to him. His first touch wasn’t great and then he just telegraphed what he was going to do (cut in and shoot, surprise surprise) and it was blocked. He had another chance to wrap it up but he dragged his shot wide after a nice ball over the top by Thiago. He may have been offside anyway though.
We did have one or two nice combinations in the second half and Jota had some exciting runs but mostly it was flat and timid. Milner said that we were a bit tired and therefore needed to keep the ball better. He’s right. We didn’t keep it at all. There was no possession, any time we got the ball we just tried to counter attack and invariably gave it straight back to them.
Jota was replaced by Ox and I’m not gonna lie, my reaction was “why the fuck are you doing that?” Ox for Milner or Thiago, sure I can get on board with that as it’s fresh legs in the middle of the park. Sticking him in the front three though, nah. As it turns out he was on the right of a 4-4-1-1 which is at least a bit more understandable as it’s extra cover for Trent, but it didn’t help us much though.
Leeds kept creating chances and winning corners and eventually they made it count when Llorente headed in. I don’t even think that was about particularly bad defending. It’s just something that happens when you have a good ball in and three big lads attacking it. We had Kabak and Firmino trying to deal with it, neither of whom are giants. The ball dropped over Firmino as he challenged Bamford, and Llorente was there behind them to head it in.
Our defending wasn’t the problem. It rarely is. Sure, we’ve conceded a late goal but if we could actually attack to a half decent level we could afford the occasional goal against us. Our problem is even when we concede only one it invariably costs us either a draw or a loss now because we’re fucking shit at the other end.
I’m sick of watching performances like this. It’s virtually the same kind of performance game after game. The only real variant is the scoreline. It feels like we’ve seen the same performance in almost every game for about five months now. It’s definitely an empty stadium thing. It isn’t just that and we’d still be dropping plenty of points even in full stadiums but the energy levels and concentration would be much better.
Star man is Milner who was decent enough and I can’t think of anyone else who was better. Fair play to Thiago as well for somehow managing to concede around thirty fouls without picking up a yellow. Usually he gets booked for his first one.
So now what? It feels pointless talking about how these results impact the ‘race for the top four’ when as things stand fourth place isn’t going to mean shit anymore. It probably doesn’t mean shit now. Not that we’re going to get it anyway. Other teams will drop points but we’ll probably drop more. Does it even matter now? Everything is completely fucked and this season has just been a living nightmare that gets worse by the day.
Where’s it all going to end? Either with another grovelling FSG climb down or with Klopp walking and us having to rally the troops to go on a fucking rampage against another set of greedy American owners.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Kabak, Robertson; Wijnaldum, Thiago, Milner; Jota (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Firmino, Mané (Salah):
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