Liverpool 4 Cardiff City 1 (Oct 27 2018)

[tlw content]

 

 

 

Report by

Dave Usher

 

It got a little bit nervier than it needed to be for a short while, but overall this was a job well done and the ball is now in Manchester City's court to see if they can match the result we got earlier in the season and win at Spurs.

 

We've won eight of ten and the only points dropped have been draws with City and Chelsea, so we couldn't have asked for more than that. It's a little annoying that we aren't clear at the top after a start like that but this is how it is now. It's harder to win the title than it has ever been.

 

At least we look as though we can make City work a hell of a lot harder than they had to last year. All we can do is take care of our own business and so far we've done that, even when it hasn't always been totally convincing. This one was routine enough in the end though and there have been encouraging signs this week that we're coming into form again.

 

Klopp continued with the 4-2-3-1 formation even though Shaqiri was left out, which blew my ‘changing the system to accommodate Shaq’ theory out of the water. Seeing the starting line up beforehand I expected Lallana in midfield and the usual roles for the front three. Instead we had Lallana out wide (eurgh), Bobby as a number ten and Salah centre forward again.

 

It suits Mo at least, he seems happy enough playing through the middle, but Lallana on the wing is never good and Bobby has been unconvincing as a number ten. Still, this was a difficult game to judge anybody due to how unambitious Cardiff were. Not that I blame them, they’d be stupid to be anything else.

 

I’ve seen loads of people ripping Cardiff for being one of the worst sides to play at Anfield in years. That may well be true, but to me it merely confirms what a miraculous job Neil Warnock did in getting them promoted. By rights they shouldn’t be here, they aren’t very good, but Warnock is the king of the lower leagues and he somehow he took them up. 

 

Now that they are in the Premier League what are people expecting from them? If they’d tried to come to Anfield and play they’d have got murdered. Look what happened when they got back to 2-1 and then had to try and come out and look for an equaliser. Bang bang, two goals in a minute and game over. Warnock knows what would happen if they tried to play, so they came here hoping to just keep the score down.

 

Much better teams than Cardiff have done it but we seem to be getting better at overcoming it. An early goal often helps but in this case I’m not sure it did. We started the game looking sharp and when Mo opened the scoring it felt like it might be the first of many on the day.

 

As the half went on though we seemed to get lulled into a false sense of security. It was just too easy. We were passing the ball around at will, under no pressure at all, and Cardiff couldn’t get out of their own half. We were in such complete and total control it was easy to forget that we were actually only one goal up.

 

The urgency wasn’t there in our play and we weren’t moving the ball quickly enough. On the odd occasion we did it usually resulted in good situations, like when Lallana had a header cleared off the line right at the end of the half. Van Dijk had earlier hit the post with a header from a terrific cross by Salah.

 

Considering all the play we had though, the Cardiff keeper didn’t have to do much. He made a good interception to deny Salah as he ran clear and we should have had a pen in the aftermath when Morrison dragged Mo to the ground. I’d say there are a couple of reasons we didn’t get that. Firstly, Stuart Atwell is rubbish. Secondly, Mo’s fall looked a tad dramatic, as he’s had a few of those since he’s been here and refs are maybe dubious about giving him anything. Where that argument falls down is that Zaha is getting pens every other week.

 

 

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[Anubis]

I wouldn't expect anything from Spurs if last season is anything to go by. They lubed up and bent over like good little boys.

[Trumo]

I bet your dad does the Shaq pointing routine in front of the mirror too.

 

[DaveT]

Good stuff, as ever.

The offside thing is just a joke. There was an identical situation at Old Trafford yesterday - through ball, Lukaku miles offside (of course), but Gomes I think, gets a toe on the ball but not enough for it to stop Lukaku getting onto the through ball. Offside given. No idea what the difference between that and Cardiff's goal was. 

[moof]

Laughed my cock off at the bit about yer arl fella and shaq man. Great stuff 

[Jurgens Red Army]

Great report as always Dave.  My thoughts exactly when they were chanting the  England stuff, we don’t give a fuck.

[The Guest]

2 hours ago, DaveT said:

Good stuff, as ever.

The offside thing is just a joke. There was an identical situation at Old Trafford yesterday - through ball, Lukaku miles offside (of course), but Gomes I think, gets a toe on the ball but not enough for it to stop Lukaku getting onto the through ball. Offside given. No idea what the difference between that and Cardiff's goal was. 

Came down to the comments to literally post this as I seen that in the United game myself.  The refs have been too busy covering up their fuck ups that they’ve created this unmanageable rule that nobody ever seems to pull them up on.  They flag for shit all the time when the player hasn’t touched it but every so often it happens and they don’t flag and come out with this nonsense about him not being active or touching it until the defender did.  The Kane incident last year was a disgrace and it should have been dealt with then.

[aws]

The rule says a player is not offside if a defender "plays" the ball so it all turns on what the lino sees as playing the ball.  An unintended defection doesn't count but it seems that any kind of mishit does. I assume that the lino thought that VVD tried to backheel it.  Stupid rule change. 

[dylstar]

.@BonJovi will play Anfield in June 2019.

Tickets will go on general sale at 9am GMT on Friday 2nd November: https://t.co/bbbRnCiJoO.

Hospitality packages for the event are on sale now. Visit the link below or call 0151 264 2222. 

........are you going Dave ????

 

[Barnesey]

A retort for away fans baiting us:

 

"Your support is Championship..."

[StevieMax]

18 hours ago, aws said:

The rule says a player is not offside if a defender "plays" the ball so it all turns on what the lino sees as playing the ball.  An unintended defection doesn't count but it seems that any kind of mishit does. I assume that the lino thought that VVD tried to backheel it.  Stupid rule change. 

But you have to remember that this is the same lino who did not think it was a Cardiff pass back to the keeper in the 1st half!