Putting aside the frustrations of us need a million chances to score one goal, there was so much to feel good about from this performance. It’s probably the best we’ve played all season and the only thing lacking was the bucketload of goals we should have had. The fact that this game was still somewhat in the balance until Mo’s late penalty is infuriating, particularly in light of other recent games in which we’ve had thirty odd shots and still struggled to convert them.
Statistically there are probably quite a few similarities with the United game. Certainly we had a similar number of shots against the mancs, albeit nowhere near as many on target and the XG won’t be remotely comparable. The wider point though is that too often we need to create a lot of chances to score the goals that we should be scoring, but this felt different to me. I don’t think the finishing was too bad for the most part. We didn’t do much wrong and a lot of the time the keeper was making terrific saves. He had the game of his life and he’s the reason we didn’t get double figures. It’s partly down to below par finishing, but mostly it’s just one of those nights when too many shots are within the keeper’s reach and he gets to show off by making a load of saves.
We were great though. In fairness, I think Newcastle showed in limited opportunities that they were in decent shape themselves. I thought they played quite well when they were allowed to. They weren’t really allowed to very often though, because we absolutely smothered them. The tempo, intensity and pressing was great for pretty much the entire game, aside from a 10 minute lull before half time which I blame entirely on that twat Anthony Taylor. I’ll get to him in due course.
You can tell when we’ve played really well by how animated and excited Klopp is in his post match interviews, and he was fucking beaming after this. He said afterwards something along the lines of “some people say I’m not a good example for grass roots football but maybe they can show the video of this game to grass roots to show them how to counter-press”. I didn’t get onto it immediately, but it was that snivelling little Saudi shill Howe who said Klopp wasn’t setting a good example. He’s defo having a little jibe at Beheddie there. Love that.
When we counter press like that we’re a nightmare to play against. That was our identity, it’s why everyone hated playing against us. We lost it for various reasons but it’s back now. Not every game, we’re still a work in progress and besides, it’s impossible to play with that kind of maniacal intensity in every match. What we need is for it to be there when we need it.
I’ll tell you something. If we’d played like this against the mancs the other week then another 7-0 wouldn’t have been out of the question. Newcastle are in a terrible run and they’ve got a lot of problems currently, but this performance was way better than what we saw from Ten Jarg and his band of fucking losers. It’s just a shame we didn’t perform like this against them.
Right from the start we were on top of Newcastle. That first half was brilliant, the only thing missing was a goal but it wasn’t for the lack of trying.
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