It’s like watching a different sport isn’t it? These games are like night and day compared to Premier League games. The way we play. The way the opposition plays. The way the game is officiated. Just completely different.
We’ve been mostly shite for months but we have looked like ourselves in both games against Leipzig. This performance was better than the first leg but we played well in both games. It seems bizarre that we can completely outplay the second best team in Germany but continually lose to the worst teams in England, but styles make fights as they say.
Leipzig’s approach suits us. What we’ve seen this season is that we really don’t have the creativity to break down teams defending the edge of their own box. I don’t even just mean the Burnleys and West Broms of this world either. Even teams like Chelsea who weren’t ‘defensive’ against us still defended in a specific way that we find hard to overcome.
Leipzig were the opposite of that. They play from the back, they commit players forward, they leave gaps fucking everywhere! Our forwards just don't get to play like this of a weekend.
We could have had a hatful. In the first half Jota had three good chances and Salah had two. Some of the football played to create the chances was lovely, some of it was route one. We had very little trouble getting in great positions though. Thiago also had a good opportunity but he opted to play a difficult pass instead of taking an easier shot. That was probably the only thing he did wrong all night though, he oozed quality. His best performance so far.
It was from a brilliantly improvised pass from Thiago that Salah could have broken the deadlock with one of our trademark "Red Arrows" attacks. A Leipzig set piece was cleared, Thiago picked it up and saw that an early ball would release Mo. Rather than wait for the bouncing ball to drop and risk the window closing on Mo's run, he acrobatically jumped up and volleyed it over the top for Salah to run onto.
Mo did everything right. Every touch he took was precise and the shot wasn’t bad. It was just too close to Gulacsi, but that’s a miss I can live with. Sadio’s follow up effort though was woeful. That was some Milan Jovanovic style misjudgement of a header! Even after that the chance was still there if Mo had swung his right peg at it. He tried to get it on his left and end up kicking a defender in the head and conceding a foul.
Mo had another chance soon after when Mané played in Trent. He should have just taken a touch and leathered it into the far corner as we’ve seen him do before, but the team just isn’t doing things on instinct when they get in the final third anymore. Trent took a touch but then hesitated before cutting it back to Salah. In fairness to Trent the cutback was fine but it wasn’t an easy finish for Mo on his right foot with the ball coming at him quickly. It went over the bar but somehow we got a corner for that.
Jota had been denied by a great save from Gulacsi early on when he rose highest to head a corner goalwards. The keeper thwarted him again when he dribbled through the middle and found himself free on the edge of the box. It wasn’t a bad effort but it was close enough to the keeper that he was able to throw out a hand and save it.
All of these chances were ones where you wouldn’t necessarily expect to score. They were good chances but you’re not going to convert all of them. The one just before half time though, fucking hell. That’s got to be a goal.
It was just a long punt upfield that Salah made something of by showing incredible strength and control of his body. I don’t know how he was able to bring that ball down on his chest with a defender all over him like that. It did get away from him before he could shoot but Jota was following up and had an open goal from only a few yards out. The angle wasn’t great but he had enough of the goal to aim at that this was a bad miss.
Had we not been leading 2-0 from the first leg I’d have been massively concerned at half time as when you have so many chances and don’t score it usually doesn’t end well.
Leipzig had a coupe of chances too. Alisson made a good save at the feet of an attacker and then he made a routine stop from a 25 yard curler. You could see they had a goal in them so at 0-0 it wasn’t entirely comfortable, but I thought we were defending superbly and had them at arm’s length all night.
It’s easy to point to the two or three chances they had and say that it could have been different if they’d scored but some perspective is needed here. They’re a fucking good team. Since we beat them last time they’ve won every game and they’ve scored at least two in all of them. You’re not going to play the second best team in Germany and keep them well away from your goal for an entire game. They’ll have some moments, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t defending well.
I thought we defended brilliantly and a huge part of that was the work Fabinho was doing, breaking up play and just getting in the way of things. We’ve all missed him in midfield, but Thiago especially is probably made up to have Fabinho in there with him. He looked so much more comfortable and between the two of them it felt like someone was always getting a toe in to win back possession or to just stop their flow. Gini was excellent too.
It felt to me like everyone just got a little bit better from having Fabinho in there. The defenders obviously benefited a lot too as it meant they had less to do. What they did have to do they both did with assurance and confidence. That’s two games as a pair for Kabak and Phillips and two clean sheets.
Fitness permitting we need to just ride this out now with those two unless their form drops off a cliff. With this level of performance from them we can win games. They aren’t the problem. If we aren’t winning games it will be because the forwards aren’t firing. But with Jota back now I’m hoping that will kick start things again at that end of the pitch.
The opening goal was a glimpse of what is possible with those three. It was a fucking brilliant goal. It started in our own defensive third but the way we moved the ball up the pitch was sensational. Trent’s ball down the line found Jota. He did well to hold it up and find Thiago who in turn moved it swiftly on to Mané.
Jota had continued his run forward and arced it to stay onside. Sadio’s little ball with the outside of the boot was class, as were the two quick touches from Jota to draw in a defender and then reverse it to Mo, who sent Upamecano for the Echo before rolling it into the corner.
You see them do that and wonder “how the fuck did you not score against some of the shite you’ve lost to recently?”. It’s just fucking weird. The change of competition seems to just rejuvenate them and put all the shite out of their heads. As soon as they get back to league action I worry they’ll go back to not even testing the keeper. We’ll see though.
Prior to that goal we'd continued to miss clear chances. Jota went through one v one and hit the keeper again and Mo put the rebound high over the bar. Offside was given there but I'm not sure it was and VAR may have over-ruled the linesman there.
We didn't see VAR all night though, not least because it wasn't needed due there being a competent referee on the pitch. You may not have noticed that but there was. We barely saw him but he was out there. Any time you see an official like this it just shows how fucking woeful and arrogant the PL refs are. The 'best league in the world' needs to start importing some better officials from around the globe.
Mo’s goal technically didn’t alter Leipzig’s task as they still needed three to win, but it basically killed the game as there was never any chance of that happening. At 2-0 they might have scored one and then it would have been panic stations in case they forced extra time, but they were never getting three.
They did go close to a goal before Mo scored but even that didn’t really feel like much of a moment of danger. They hit the bar but it kind took everyone by surprise that it was that close as it was a loopey sort of header that initially didn’t look threatening until it dropped and hot the top of the bar. Not unlike Sadio’s one at the weekend. It never felt like it was going in.
Speaking of Sadio, it’s a relief for him to be back on the scoresheet. I didn’t think he was playing very well in this game. He wasn’t bad but he wasn’t anywhere near his best. He’s in a slump but hopefully this will help him get out of it.
Decent finish but it was all about the brilliant first time ball by Origi, who’d come on for Jota shortly before. He’s got that kind of cross in him as we’ve seen him do it several times before. Which makes it strange how he’s always used on the left where he can’t do that. He’s far more comfortable running at people on the outside and crossing with his right foot. When he plays left he’s far too easy to stop.
So anyway, job done and unlike the first leg we created our own goals and didn’t need them to do it for us. All in all a lot to like about this performance. Fabinho dominated the game and I lost count of how many times Big Nat headed the ball away from danger. Absolutely buzzing for him.
He’s been way better than anybody could have expected him to be. He’s always going to have a problem if anybody with pace can get him turned, but it hasn’t happened too often because his positioning has been sound and he’s marked people really closely to prevent them being able to turn him.
It’s going to happen eventually though and when it does I just hope people don’t start criticising him. He wasn’t supposed to be in this situation but he’s stepped in when we needed him and he’s been pretty fucking heroic all things considered.
I love how he plays. I love his concentration levels and his focus. He knows how difficult this is for him to be stepping up to this level and therefore he knows he can’t afford to switch off for a second. I love his aggression, how he tries to burst the ball whenever he heads it. I love that he knows who he is and who is he not and he plays within that.
I’m not going to tell you he should have a future here but I do know that for as long as he is here he’s going to give us everything he has. If that persuades Klopp that he’s good enough to be a part of the squad next season then I’ll be delighted as he’s such an easy lad to root for.
Not gonna lie though, I wouldn’t fancy him against Mbappe or Haaland in the next round. Same with Kabak too. He’s come into the team under the most difficult circumstances imaginable and he’s not been entirely convincing, but again, in context I’d say he’s done really fucking well all things considered.
What does this win mean for the rest of the season? In terms of the league, absolutely nothing. Just like the first leg win meant nothing. We hadn’t won since that game so any thought that the players would take confidence from it and build on it was obviously misplaced then and it would be now too.
You also can’t overstate the difference between playing Leipzig and playing Premier League opposition. They’re a good side and they’re pushing Bayern for the title, but fuck me they’re wide open and they leave spaces everywhere. The forwards had so much room to run in behind it’s almost like they were playing a different sport to what we see domestically.
Even teams who don’t just sit back against us (the likes of Chelsea and Fulham recently for example) don’t leave this kind of room. We were regularly getting in behind Leipzig with one pass. So although it looked like players were back in form and the performance was more like what we want to see, I’m taking very little from it in the sense of what it means for Wolves next week.
The result means we still have something to play for though and it keeps things interesting for a while longer. But that’s it. It doesn’t mean we can win it but it keeps us in with a shout at least. A lot of things would need to go our way for us to even reach the final, let alone win the thing. We need a favourable draw. We’d need a big improvement in form. We’d need some players back.
We could get the first two but the cavalry are unlikely to be riding over the hill in time. Maybe Hendo could get back to play a part but we’d surely be looking at the final as the earliest any of the centre backs could return, and even then it seems unlikely.
So that means we go with what we have. Rio Ferdinand said that we can’t win the competition with Kabak and Phillips at the back and he’s taking some heat for that. That’s not an unreasonable take though. Be honest, prior to this game if you were asked if we could win the thing with that defensive pairing what would you have said? So does this one game really change that view?
Not for me. I wouldn’t say it’s impossible for us to win it with those two but it’s unlikely. Would you really fancy them against Mbappe and Neymar for example? So I’m not even really thinking that far ahead. Let’s see who we get next and take it from there.
Star man is Fabinho with honourable mentions to the two lads at the back, as well as Thiago in midfield and to Mo who I thought was a menace all night and never stopped chasing. Everyone did their bit though and it was a good all around display.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Phillips, Kabak, Robertson (Tsimikas); Fabinho, Wijnaldum (Milner), Thiago (Keita); Salah, Jota (Origi), Mané (Oxlade-Chamberlain):
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