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Liverpool 0 Arsenal 0 (Jan 13 2022)


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Report by
Dave Usher

 

Worse than the Leicester game. And you know how I felt about the Leicester game. But this was worse. What a wretched performance this was. Thankfully we have a second leg in which we can redeem ourselves, and I’m confident that we will. So what I’m about to write is purely based on this game and this game alone, it doesn’t represent what I think of the team moving forward.

 

So… *deep breath*… that was fucking awful and it’s too simplistic to put it down to Salah and Mané not being available. It was much more than that. In fact, it was a lot of things, some of which we maybe should have seen coming and some of them we probably did see coming. Let’s start with the team selection, specifically the midfield three. How many of us saw that trio and thought “nah, not for this game”? Loads I reckon.

 

Milner and Hendo hadn’t played since Chelsea, but even if they had I would still have wanted to see more creativity (Curtis, or even Ox) in there. Then there's Trent and Jota, who hadn’t played since Chelsea either. Both were brutally bad. Bobby and Taki are just back from layoffs and we had a front three that had never played together. The whole squad missed a chunk of training last week and some of them are coming off COVID, which even when asymptomatic may have some side effects and affect performance. Klopp certainly thinks so and on the evidence of this who can argue?

 

So yeah, this was fucking shite but there are probably reasons for it. Doesn’t really make it any easier to take though does it? This was a golden opportunity to win this tie and not even have to bother about what happens in the second leg. We’d started well and then Xhaka had done the most Xhaka thing ever and left Arsenal a man down and with no recognised midfielder on the pitch. There were 65 minutes left of the game too. And yet we didn’t muster a shot on target until stoppage time.

 

 

This is just a teaser, click here to view the full report

 

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Credit Dave for writing so much about nothing. No way Trent or Hendo could be dropped, Klopp don’t do that. 
 

You’re right when you say that shit is not on Mo and Sadie gone? But it’s worrying really, where are the goals coming from ?

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Good report Dave. I dont like criticising Jurgen but his use of subs is his weakness. He could make 5 subs in this game and as you say, not bring on Ox, who'd have been my choice or Curtis, for Milner should have been made a lot earlier.

 

Have to say I thought we made hard work of the game even before the sending off such that Im not convinced Jota would have scored even if Xhaka hadnt chopped him down.

 

But it always pisses me off when a defending team is caught 1 against 1 like that and have a man sent off, they are allowed to pull everyone back to defend the resulting free kick. I dont know what the answer is but another metre or two, that's in the box and a pen.

 

Ive big concerns for the Brentford game now after that poor show.

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With the front 3 and MF I knew we wouldn’t roll-over them the way we usually do but fucking hell that was grim. At no point did I think we’d score and Taki’s miss summed the whole thing up for me. Agree that the 3 chosen for MF totally baffled me as there’s zero creativity or goal threat from them. Disagree that Jones or Ox did any better though - apart from a couple of neat flicks etc when he came, Curtis disappeared up his own arse (again) and Ox looks every inch a busted flush. With one MF sick note away in Africa and the other MF sick note being, well, injured of course, we have nothing going forward from midfield….

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Sadly accurate report.

It was one of those games where you knew early on we probably wouldn’t score.

As soon as Xhaka was sent off and they went 5 at the back, I was looking for us to change the 3 defensive midfielders we had and add a bit more positivity and attacking threat.

It didn’t happen until way too late and Arsenal, yes Arsenal, had played themselves into a semi decent defending block who looked as though they were happy to put themselves in the firing line to keep it to nil.

No point in repeating who was playing shite as there were times when every one of our players made simple basic mistakes, apart from Matip.

The lads who came on improved us a bit, but I expect many of us left thinking we should have kept the kids in the team.

That’s the most damning thing that can be said, and while any team is entitled to have an off day, we really can’t afford them if we’re to pick any silverware up this season.

I don’t expect Arsenal to be as good defensively as last night, or us to be so turgid and so next Thursday could still see us through, it’s only half time as they say!
But we need to get the sluggishness out of the way against Brentford, who’ll have seen that performance and Salah and Mane away and will be thinking we’re there for the taking, and I’m not just talking about the players either, for pretty much the first time I thought Klopp was at fault last night in not making changes as quickly as Arteta did and it could have made a big difference if he had.

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We where shite, but not the first team who's struggled to break down 10 men.

Disappointing thing for me is Thiago, not much point in being a decent player if you're never fit, also take note naby.

Pair of fuckin duds for me.

Also, said it before, stop signing AFCON players if we can't cope with their absence.

And a second also, splash some fuckin cash big-time fsg.

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Klopp picked a strong, experienced side who then played like headless chickens. The leaders in the team all played like boneheads - VVD, Robbo, Hendo and Milner were awful. Trent and Jota as well, shockingly bad. Minamino is normally a headless chicken anyway so no surprise there. 

 

We were crying out for some creativity and missed a great opportunity to bring on Kaide Gordon to overload the wide areas and box them in. Instead we just passed the ball sideways slowly all night. 

 

Kostas, Kaide and Curtis should all have been on at HT to inject energy into the side, like Dave I will be raging if we blow this chance to go to a cup final 

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19 hours ago, Judge said:

Spot on Dave, except for one thing:

 

We are not going through to the final. Why? Because we are not going to score one fucking goal until Mo and Sadio are back. The midfield and attack at our disposal now is not top 10 material.

Excellent mockering mate. Keep up the good work.

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