Liverpool 1 West Brom 1 (Dec 27 2020)

[tlw content]

 

 

 

Report by

Dave Usher

 

Well that was shit. It’s hard to comprehend how a team can go from a performance like we had last week at Palace, to the one we saw here. Well, the second half anyway. I actually thought we were pretty good in the first half and there was nothing to suggest what was to follow after half time.

 

I think West Brom just bored us to sleep. They sat back in their own half and didn’t even try to put pressure on the ball until we got into the box. They just let us have the ball and do whatever we wanted. Until we reached the box and then they actually defended. I don’t think our centre backs or midfielders were closed down even once all day.

 

What that sometimes does is lull you into a false sense of security. Players take an extra touch because they can. They relax a little too much. And before you know it, you’re not creating any chances because the ‘zip’ isn’t there. That’s why Thiago was brought in. Games like this one. We started brilliantly and just got worse and worse the longer the game went on. I can’t even say West Brom didn’t deserve a point because based on the second half they probably did.

 

Their performance levels were as contrasting as ours. From the beginning of the second half they clearly had much more intent to break when they could. In the first half there was zero intent. In fact, there was one breakaway when Grant chased a ball with Matip and when he reached it he was surrounded by six of our players and not one of his team-mates had even bothered crossing halfway.

 

That changed at half time and although they were still playing with everyone behind the ball, they did look to counter when the chance was there to do so. And the chance was there because we were sloppy as fuck and gave the ball away far too often.

 

It shouldn’t have been like this though. We scored early and if we could have added a second the game was done. West Brom always had one goal in them because they did the same thing at City. Went behind, scored with one of only a handful of attacks and then held on for a point. 

 

The second goal kills teams like West Brom because at 1-0 they will just stick to their gameplan and won’t change until the last few minutes. At 2-0 they either have to try to keep the score down or open up. 1-0 changes nothing. 2-0 changes everything in games like this.

 

 

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[rb14]

Top, top utterly depressing mashed potato faced analysis there, Dave. 

[ralph]

Fat Sam bored us to death, well put but it's what he does and that's why he a survival specialist. Poor reffing didn't help us at all, no wonder Jurgen was going mad. Didn't deserve more than what we got. Move on and get 3 points at the barcodes. 

[Remmie]

Also should have had a penalty for their defender grabbing Mane. Furlong I think it might have been was getting away with shirt pulls all fucking night on Mane. 

 

I watched an Asian stream with some nobody and Jim Beglin on commentary. Pretty bareable to be honest and they mentioned Fabinho being impeded for their goal but still thought it should stand. VAR apparently took a 3 second look as well. It feels like if it had been us they would have had 30 angles and taken 5 minutes before ruling it out. 

[Butch]

Had a feeling when we were on top and not adding a second goal that would bite us on the ass and it did. If Williams plays at the back against Newcastle that maxis of whatever he's calling himself with his pace will be a worry. 

Williams seems to deal with anything coming into the box in the air but he's very slow running. 

[dockers_strike]

Hmmm, apart from the opening 15 minutes, I didnt think we played quickly enough and Imsorry, I cant agree with anyone who says west brom deserved a point for that show of pure negativity.

 

Im all for keeping possession but we fell into the trap of keeping it too much, playing at a walking pace and not bombing a few shots in. In a crowded box, there's a good chance you'll get all sorts of deflections and maybe even an OG or two.

 

Fully agree about 2-0 makes the oppos have to come out. They can play all 11 behind the ball for 70 minutes or so than try and snatch a point or 3 when there's only a goal in it but at 2, they have to come looking earlier.

 

The point was made on the forum we dont look good when we have a long lay off. Is this due to the player being trained too intensely when we have these long breaks to make up for a lackof games or, is it because our training regime to govern to deliver high intensity every 3 days or so?

 

Klopp got booked for shouting 'Why are you laughing at me?' to friend.

[Davelfc]

It doesn't take skill to ruin a football game, just a little disciplined defending. The equivalent of just wandering in and tossing the tables over in a chess tournament and declaring yourself unbeaten. I'd rather us have a league of ten teams, watch us play city, Utd and Chelsea 4 times than have to watch us play the shit anti football teams twice. 

 

But we have what we have, always the way after a large scoreline we then go on to draw or struggle for goals in the next game. Don't fact check me on that, it's probably not correct. 

[dockers_strike]

10 minutes ago, T T O said:

It doesn't take skill to ruin a football game, just a little disciplined defending. The equivalent of just wandering in and tossing the tables over in a chess tournament and declaring yourself unbeaten. I'd rather us have a league of ten teams, watch us play city, Utd and Chelsea 4 times than have to watch us play the shit anti football teams twice. 

 

But we have what we have, always the way after a large scoreline we then go on to draw or struggle for goals in the next game. Don't fact check me on that, it's probably not correct. 

I agree with you about the struggle to score after scoring a hatful in the previous game. Agree with you about ditching the anti football shit clubs as well. That's why i considered that Project New Start or whatever it was called was a good move.

[mike23]

I thought it was a foul for their goal as well. When you consider how long they looked at our winner against Spurs for and that penalty incident against Fulham the other week, it's pretty galling that it either wasn't even looked at at all or wasn't reviewed with anything like the same degree of scrutiny. It was the same with the foul on Mane. It at least warranted a proper review. I hate to be one of those people who moans about refereeing conspiracies against us, but it certainly feels like we have to win every game by at least 2 goals at the moment, because if there's a decision to be made in a close game then it goes against us every single time.  

 

But mostly we just have ourselves to blame for a very under par performance yesterday. Hopefully we get a big response at Newcastle on Wednesday. And then a tough game at Southampton, but maybe playing against a team who will actually attempt to play football may suit us more. It does feel like it's the anti football teams that we always seem to have the most trouble against.

[sir roger]

Good report Dave

 

Two quick things, it was AOC who crossed excellently for Bobby and if Matip has an injury to the groin / abductor area he will be out for a minimum 3/4 weeks.

 

 

[goose]

Bringing Origi on in the 90th minute took me back about 10 years to the days when N’Gog was the only forward on the subs bench. Horrible feeling. 

[sir roger]

2 minutes ago, goose said:

Bringing Origi on in the 90th minute took me back about 10 years to the days when N’Gog was the only forward on the subs bench. Horrible feeling. 

Was behind the Kop goal for his Arsenal and Man Utd effortx and still wonder if I imagined them to this day.

[Guest]

The 'Inside Anfield' video should be a bundle of laughs.

[rb14]

1 hour ago, sir roger said:

...Matip will be out for a minimum 34 weeks.

 

 

Fixed that for you Rog. 

[Captain Howdy]

I thought we were dreadful yesterday. Our inconsistency for whatever reasons has become a major problem. I was actually relieved when the whistle went as I thought an Albion win looked on the cards. Lamentable stuff and we need to get our shit together.

[Mikhail]

When we were leading 1 - 0 at half time and the pundits were talking about how negative West Brom were being I was worried because I've been watching Fat Sam teams for years and I knew he would have loved being 1 - 0 down. 

 

This match reminded me of the 2017 Merseyside Derby in many ways, we dominated the Allardyce led Everton, we had a soft ref that gave them every decision, then we got sucker punched late in the game because we couldn't put them away. It's so frustrating how many times this asshole gets us like this I fucking hate him because I know he takes great pleasure in winning these battles against us.

 

Anyway onto the next match if we win it this one can be forgotten. Also fuck Kevin Friend

 

 

[Marcas]

Total shitshow. 3 points from WBA, Fulham and Brighton. Granted we got fucked by VAR against Brighton but apart from that...total complacency and really Div (legend for what he did in the ECL) needs to be somewhere else. Fuck me playing Jota in a meaningless match makes my blood boil and Matip/Keita can do one. Doesn’t matter how good they are they’re both worth fuck all in the treatment room. And what an utter waste Naby has been...

[SasaS]

The most irritating thing about this is that it was on the cards ever since they sacked Bilić and appointed Allardyce. Everything was just so predictable, they lined up in two lines of five, didn't want to cross the halfway line, we scored early which gradually killed our urgency, they started getting at us with more purpose, Matip got injured, we were getting progressively more nervous, gave away stupid  corners and eventually they scored from one which everyone would sense was coming, Klopp sent Origi on for the last 180 seconds and we were treated to Fat Sam's smug chewing mug.

[Arnaud]

That was poor, I mean the game, not the report, even though we would have liked to know your mum’s point of view!

 

I thought Bobby was poor , and no fault on their goal, it’s part of heading the ball.

 

After these freak results, we know it will be a weird and long season.

[s(k)aturation]

 

On the subject of EPL match reports, are you still involved with ESPN, @dave u ?

 

By Christ they are fickle, vacillating bullshit artists.

 

Every time someone wins two games in a row, they're title contenders... every time someone draws there are question marks about them... and every time someone loses they're in crisis. 

 

And talk about the bleeding obvious:

 

 

 

 

They're missing a manager.

 

 

 

[dave u]

15 hours ago, skaro said:

 

On the subject of EPL match reports, are you still involved with ESPN, @dave u ?

 

By Christ they are fickle, vacillating bullshit artists.

 

Every time someone wins two games in a row, they're title contenders... every time someone draws there are question marks about them... and every time someone loses they're in crisis. 

 

And talk about the bleeding obvious:

 

 

 

 

They're missing a manager.

 

No they fucked most of us off a couple of years ago as a cost cutting measure. My last piece for them was the CL Final win so at least I went out on a high.

[dave u]

West Brom are going down. It's all well and good packing their own box against the likes of us and City, but when they actually have to come out and win a game they've got nothing. Look at them tonight, getting destroyed by Leeds. Pricks.

[DalyanPete]

On 28/12/2020 at 14:19, tlw content said:

What that sometimes does is lull you into a false sense of security. Players take an extra touch because they can

Totally agree with that now you mention it. The look on the players faces as a chance went begging looked like, "no probs, I will put the next one away"

We have to change that mentality.

[StevieMax]

On 28/12/2020 at 12:03, dockers_strike said:

 

Klopp got booked for shouting 'Why are you laughing at me?' to friend.

Maureen's comments after the Spurs game planted the seed in any referee's mind.

[Mikhail]

1 hour ago, StevieMax said:

Maureen's comments after the Spurs game planted the seed in any referee's mind.

Was it something like this?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfcy15ZUE2c