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Watford (A) Premier League 29/02/2020 - 17:30


Bjornebye
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27 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

To be honest beating Bournemouth on Saturday is the priority otherwise the nerves inside Anfield will be palpable.

The nerves have been due to the winning run. That’s gone now. The leagues won, let’s go back to blitzkrieg and clean up 

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Last week verses West Ham I was thinking for the first time ever, that we were missing Henderson. It’s significant because apart from him not really being out of the team this season, I can’t remember missing him when he previously was.

 

No engine room today. No midfield hijinx. VVD played good long balls but he’s not the main feeder of the front three, and Trent and Robbo were very quiet in the first half. I think Klopp was right to play the Ox - I thought he had an impact against West Ham, with good energy when coming on. Also, if Lalana’s shot had gone in, it would have been a very different game. That shot was a pivotal moment.

 

There’s a pattern developing (a definite tactic? Not sure) of strolling the first half and upping the tempo in the second only as required, and today it came unstuck. The team looks tired, and having lost to Athletico, a small percentile of mojo is clearly missing. It’s life and it’s football.

 

I’m not sure Watford would have had that much control with Milner and/ or Henderson on the pitch, but there you go. Injuries. Shit happens.

 

It’s taught me that we continually have to look at weaknesses and combinations. Are we still weak in midfield or are the boys just getting tired and or complacent?

 

we’ll bounce back and Klopp will now earn his money doing the hard motivational yards.

 

Well done Watford, but you caught us with our pants down.

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3 hours ago, viRdjil said:

Cowardly post. Lucky I’m out of neg. 

What's cowardly about it? If you trace my post history on Lovren my view has been pretty much the same on him whether it's before games or after games. He's shit, and what's worse, he makes everyone around him play bad as well. I'd rather both Fabinho and Hoever played instead of him, nevermind Matip. 

 

Imo, he's the only big blind spot in Klopp's otherwise perfect player vision since he arrived. He never deserved or should have gotten his last big contract, neither should he be kept on beyond this summer. I just can't understand what the management sees in him. Someone likened him to Skrtel a few pages back, being the player the oppositon forwards WANTS to have it out with. That's not really a good sign for a CB.

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3 hours ago, viRdjil said:

So many people are afraid to just say it like it is. I don’t understand why. Virgil had his worst game for us. Trent was awful. Mane was horrendous. Against West Ham we conceded two stupid goals too without Lovren on the pitch. Lovren wasn’t great but to blame that on him is just cowardly and a bit pathetic if I’m honest.

There were poor/shocking performances all over the pitch, no doubt about that. We've been riding our luck for too long, no doubt about that either. It's just that Lovren entering the fray makes everyone look a little bit worse. He's not covering properly for Trent. He's often left stranded upfield. He has zero recovery pace, and is nearly always flustered. He spreads the same kind of panic Mignolet used to do. Luckily VVD and Allison are normally the anti-Lovren and anti-Mignolet. I'm sure Dejan does his best, and his heart is in the right place, but the way we set up our team these days, he's a complete and utter liability, and should not play for us again.

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I think it's clear we missed Hendo, we all know he's not Steven Gerrard but he organizes the team on set pieces, is always cutting off passing lanes and harrying the opposition when we don't have the ball, is efficient at keeping the ball with the team in the midfield, and for whatever reason picks up his teammates massively when he's on the pitch. I don't know if we'd have won with him on the pitch but I don't think we'd have shipped 3 goals all of which came from a lack of focus in the moment.

Lovren was bad but I don't think he was as bad as others are making out, certainly not the only reason we lost and for me not even the main reason*. VVD had his worst game for us, Trent had a horrible game, Robbo wasn't much better. After that defensive performance I find it hard to judge Alisson but even he got himself caught in no-man's land by rushing to sweep the ball before deciding to try to retreat back to goal at the last minute which almost never ends well for the goalkeeper or his team.

The midfield had no adventure, too many sideways and backwards passes, no one really willing to run at them with the ball. You could say the same for Trent and Robbo when they got forward as well. I was actually ecstatic when Lallana decided to have a shot from range but unfortunately he was the only one with any balls to have a go until Virgil tried just before, or maybe it was during, stoppage time. Even then Lallana only tried it the once.

Our front 3 had no consistent service and when they did get the ball they either couldn't get it to stick with them or would play a shit pass instead of having a shot.

Honestly at times I thought we looked like a team doing a shit job of emulating Barcelona rather than a team playing Liverpool's brand of football. That's not our game, it never has been, and I don't really want it to be either. I do understand the "game management" aspect of things but ideally you get a fucking lead before you start worrying about managing the game and resting whilst in possession.

* - I do agree with others who've mentioned how Lovren seems to fuck with the confidence of our defense. That's one thing I don't think he'll ever shake whilst he's still here and it happens even in games where he personally plays well.

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3 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

We lost 3-0. We had an xG of 0.2. Don't quote me on that, but that might be the lowest in any game in the history of the club since people came up with that stat. Not every criticism of an individual player needs to be primed with "everybody else was bad as well" when we've so obviously been shite as a team.

 

People are just sick of Lovren, that's all. And he was very bad today. He couldn't handle Deeney, he had his hands all over him, he couldn't run, he was giving the ball away. It was just glaring how much he was struggling. 

Yet he was only partially at fault for one goal! I agree he was shite, but he was not any worse than the rest of the team.

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We really have had a defeat coming. I'm not sure how many of our past eight or so games have been convincing. We got results but they could easily have been draws or worse. Somehow managing to turn (all but Atletico) into wins has taken the spotlight away from numerous poor performances across most of the team. Central to winning has been consistent solidity between Allison, Virge, Hendo and, in a different way, Bobby. One or two of those having an off-day and another entirely absent, no surprises what can happen. 

 

And I'm not buying a "tiredness" narrative. The whole squad had the best part of a couple or three weeks off. We weren't great before that break and we've arguably been worse since. Coincidentally, I'm pretty sure Dejan played in none of those games. 

 

Job now is to focus on winning every game by playing properly - in both halves of each match - with the attractive, incisive, convincing football that will bring so much more our way. 

 

And I'm bordering on pleased that United won't be revelling in being the only team to have taken points off us. 

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As shit as it is to lose and as shit as the performance was im hoping this could be a blessing in disguise as a loss in the league has been coming for a while and hopefully now its came it gives everyone a collective kick up the arse.

 

Hopefully this is just a temporary dip in form but I do think we've been coasting through games for while now and up to now weve gotten away with it but it wasn't going to last forever.

 

I think all the talk of of this and that record has been a massive distraction for players and fans alike. Winning the league is priority number 1 and irrespective of common consensus it isnt won until its won. Hopefully a 3-0 tonking refocusses some minds to the job at hand.

 

We've still got an outside chance of winning 3 trophies and every one of them is a damn sight more important than any unbeaten record, as nice as they are to have.

 

I think from here on in the team needs to get playing back with a high tempo and intensity instead of this 2nd gear stuff we've been playing in for a while. It negates our attacking qualities and allows inferior opponents a way into the game.

 

Still 4 more wins needed, look and play like Champions in waiting and go and get them. No more passiveness.

 

 

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11 minutes ago, derykw said:

As shit as it is to lose and as shit as the performance was im hoping this could be a blessing in disguise as a loss in the league has been coming for a while and hopefully now its came it gives everyone a collective kick up the arse.

 

Hopefully this is just a temporary dip in form but I do think we've been coasting through games for while now and up to now weve gotten away with it but it wasn't going to last forever.

 

I think all the talk of of this and that record has been a massive distraction for players and fans alike. Winning the league is priority number 1 and irrespective of common consensus it isnt won until its won. Hopefully a 3-0 tonking refocusses some minds to the job at hand. 

 

We've still got an outside chance of winning 3 trophies and every one of them is a damn sight more important than any unbeaten record, as nice as they are to have.

 

I think from here on in the team needs to get playing back with a high tempo and intensity instead of this 2nd gear stuff we've been playing in for a while. It negates our attacking qualities and allows inferior opponents a way into the game.

 

Still 4 more wins needed, look and play like Champions in waiting and go and get them. No more passiveness.

 

 


Agree in full, especially with the bolded bit. Even during the end of the game the commentators on NBCSN said "Liverpool will still win the league" to which I said "we haven't won a fucking thing yet" whilst another fella in our supporters group yelled "we haven't won shit yet" pretty much simultaneously. I've had enough of this foregone conclusion bullshit. Statistically it might seem certain but it's not certain until we pick up 12 more points so I really hope this was the kick in the balls the team needed to remind themselves they actually have to play the games rather than just turn up for them.

Klopp's essentially said that the prospect of going unbeaten has lead to us being more defensive than usual, of course one could argue that he should've drummed that out of the team himself but I'm not about to start attacking the man after one loss. Let's just do what we do best and put everyone to the sword as swiftly and efficiently as possible from here on out.

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4 hours ago, ZonkoVille77 said:

Can anyone verify this?

 

 

Every defeat since 2018...https://thefootballfaithful.com/every-liverpool-defeat-since-2018-19/

 

Swansea 1-0, Premier League - January 2018

West Brom 2-3; FA Cup - January 2018

 

Manchester United 2-1, Premier League  - March 18

 

Roma 4-2, Champions League - May 2018

 

Chelsea 1-0, Premier League - May 2018

 

Real Madrid 3-1, Champions League - May 2018

 

Chelsea 2-1, EFL Cup – September 2018

Napoli 1-0, Champions League group stage – October 2018

Red Star Belgrade 2-0, Champions League group stage – November 2018

Paris Saint-Germain 2-1, Champions League – November 2018

 

Man City 2-1, Premier League – January 2019

 

Wolves 2-1, FA Cup – January 2019

 

Barcelona 3-0, Champions League semi-final – April 2019

 

Man City 1-1 (5-4 pens), Community Shield – August 2019

 

Napoli 2-0, Champions League group stage – September 2019

 

Aston Villa 5-0, EFL Cup – December 2019

 

Atletico 1-0, Champions League – February 2020

 

Watford 3-0, Premier League - January 2020

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7 hours ago, 1892-LFCWasBorn said:

E6ZtHkJ.png

 

Arsenal and Gary Neville are small time cunts...

If you look at the tweets I posted earlier Arsenal’s very next tweet was to congratulate us on a the run of form we’ve had so they’re not really small time.

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56 minutes ago, Anubis said:

If you look at the tweets I posted earlier Arsenal’s very next tweet was to congratulate us on a the run of form we’ve had so they’re not really small time.

Yeah I get Arsenal’s concern over their invincibles trophy. Everyone knows Neville is a twat.
 

We need twelve points now, less if city screw up. 

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