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Liverpool 4 Salzburg 3 (Oct 2 2019)


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Dave Usher

 

What is it with us and the Champions League Group Stages? Why do we make it so difficult for ourselves? This was ridiculous. We were 3-0 up and playing some spectacular football, and then suddenly in the blink of an eye it’s 3-3 and we’re having to go out and win the game all over again. 

 

Thankfully this team doesn’t panic and they know how to win tight games, but there are some things that need cleaning up because we’re not putting together 90 minute performances so far. We play in spells and those spells are usually enough because we’re so good. But in virtually every game we’re giving up clear chances. We’ve gotten away with it for the most part as until now no-one had been as clinical as Salzburg, but we don’t look as secure as we did this time last year.

 

Salzburg are better than people realise though. They’re lively, they’ve got a positive way of playing and they’ve clearly got some good players. I thought we’d roll them over easily and for a while we did. At our best no-one can live with us and even when our level drops most still can’t compete. Salzburg did though. As soon as we took our foot off their throats, they came up swinging.

 

I was really impressed with them but it’s beginning to feel like a recurring thing now. I've found myself praising our opponents quite a bit this season. Norwich, Chelsea, Sheffield United, Salzburg…. I’ve spoken about how well all of these played against us but now I’m wondering if it says more about us than them?

 

I liked it better when we made good teams look bad. Now we’re making average teams look good. I do suspect that Salzburg are actually quite handy though, and I fancy them to turn Napoli over. Maybe they'll even qualify from the group. They certainly gave us all we could handle in that second half and they had their moments in the first half too.

 

For half an hour though we were fucking brilliant. Some of the football was ridiculously good and two of the goals we scored were sublime. Salzburg got it wrong tactically and we made them pay. There was just so much space in wide areas that Mané, Trent and Robbo just ran riot in the opening half hour or so.

 

Sadio looked in great nick. They couldn’t get near him early on. The opening goal looked so easy but it was brilliantly executed. The ease with which he went past two players, the timing of the run, the weight of return pass from Bobby, the finish… all just perfect.

 

 

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  • dave u pinned this topic

Gomez was rusty, but the midfield was really poor once we got 3-0 up - the changes that were made gave us back control of the ball, closed down the yawning gaps in midfield, and calmed the nerves.  For all the faults in the team, though, it was a great game - and another win.

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When Adrian was slowing things down late on with the ball at his feet, their manager, several times, threw his arms out in exasperation - not sure whether he was appealing to the ref for time-wasting (which of course was ridiculous) or at his players for not closing him down. Either way, it made him look a bigger dick than he already did.

I thought the ref was an utter tosser as well.

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20 minutes ago, DaveT said:

When Adrian was slowing things down late on with the ball at his feet, their manager, several times, threw his arms out in exasperation - not sure whether he was appealing to the ref for time-wasting (which of course was ridiculous) or at his players for not closing him down. Either way, it made him look a bigger dick than he already did.

I thought the ref was an utter tosser as well.

I thought the ref was really bad as well. There was an incident just before halftime that really irritated me. We won the ball back in their half and at first he seemed happy for play to go on despite their player going down, but then he suddenly seemed to change his mind when he realised how exposed it had left them. Just seemed like he panicked and went against his own conviction because he was worried how it might look for him if it led to a goal and replays showed there had been any contact on their player. There was no contact at all on their player. It seemed fairly inconsequential at the time, but a fourth goal at that point probably would have led to a completely different second half. Some of his other decisions were pretty bizarre and inconsistent as well (rightly booked Fabinho for a cynical challenge late on to stop a dangerous looking counter attack but had failed to book one of their players for doing virtually the same thing not long before).

 

I actually quite liked their manager. He just seemed passionate and got a bit carried away at times because of it.

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The quick free kick leading to their 2nd annoyed me. Time and again when we got free kicks Hwang or Minamino stood in front of it and stopped us playing them quickly or even hitting it forward at all. The ref (who was one of those who wanted to be the players' mate) let them get away with it as most of them do. Time to kick it off them and get them booked for not retreating 10 yards. Then they get a free kick, took it really quickly and we were totally unprepared. 

They had some excellent players, pace and technique, must have a brilliant scouting system. No doubt at least 3 of them will be off by next summer but they certainly look like a team that will cause problems, not least in the return fixture. Hopefully things are sorted by then.

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3 hours ago, redinthehead said:

Dave, I appreciate you not being harsh on Gomez, but he was nowhere near his best, and several times he was so out of position that not even his excellent pace could bail him out.

 

I think Matip would have made all the difference here. 

Matip would have been just as exposed as Gomez was, but being sharper through regular playing time he may have coped better.  Klopp wasn't happy with the midfield, and when he changed it we got control again.  The latter part being what champions should be doing, solving their problems in-game.

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Salzburg look a good side and I expect them to take points off Napoli and maybe even qualify. We had to play at full steam to keep on top of them so when we eased off the effort and started to showboat a bit and got sloppy they made us look stupid.  I thought we did well to refocus and take charge again after their third. Once we got the lead again we were comfortable. 

 

It it was a bit like the Norwich game but against a better side. Hopefully we learn the lesson that when you've got the other side by the balls you don't slacken your grip. 

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Guest Pistonbroke
4 hours ago, redinthehead said:

Dave, I appreciate you not being harsh on Gomez, but he was nowhere near his best, and several times he was so out of position that not even his excellent pace could bail him out.

 

I think Matip would have made all the difference here. 

 

Gomez was always going to be rusty and he did a few good things and one or two tackles which might have saved a goal, unfortunately his positioning is a massive worry. He either backs off and has to make those great tackles as otherwise the opposition are in acres of space, or he marks space and lets attacking players have free runs into danger areas. 

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  • dave u changed the title to Liverpool 4 Salzburg 3 (Oct 2 2019)
Guest Pistonbroke
1 hour ago, dylstar said:

If Gomez had that bad of a game; surely Klopp would've taken him off wouldn't he ???  Especially with having such an experienced CB on the bench in Lovren . 

 

24 minutes ago, aws said:

Gomez was rusty and nervous and made a few mistakes but got better the longer the game went on.  Matip is obviously first choice at the moment but Gomez is doing fantastically well for a CB his age. 

 

He had a mixed bag of a performance and TBF even VVD looked out of his comfort zone during that mad 20 minutes where our full backs get bombing forward and nobody was covering and leaving us exposed to pace when we lost the ball. No way was Klopp going to pull him off and destroy his confidence when we were looking poor and vulnerable all over the pitch.

 I still think it is fair to pull Gomez up on his positional naivety, he was also guilty of this whilst in the hot form he was before his injury, he obviously relies on his pace to get him out of certain situations and being rusty and lacking match fitness is causing him and us problems. Still has a lot to learn imo but he has the game to get back to the form he had pre injury.   

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Maybe it's just me, but that talk didn't seem anything out of the ordinary to me. Any one of us on here could do that. Other than the fact the players can actually hear him, it's no different to me yelling from my seat in the Main Stand "Straight into these, Reds. They're shite"

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