Inter Milan 0 Liverpool 2 (Feb 16 2022)

[tlw content 17,341]

 

 

 

Report by

Dave Usher

 

It’s easy to take this for granted and sometimes I have to stop and remind myself of exactly what this team is doing. Going to the San Siro in consecutive Champions League games and beating AC and then Inter, and doing it without any real drama, it’s nothing to be sniffed at.

 

Yet it doesn’t feel like a big deal because we’re so clearly better than these teams. We’re clearly better than most teams and that’s the thing that we shouldn’t take for granted. These are halcyon days we’re living in right now. Where we get drawn against Inter Milan and no-one really gives them any kind of chance against us.

 

We’ve had great results against Europe’s big names throughout our history of course so this is nothing new, but what is new is that we’re so good now that we didn’t even need to play to win these games. We can do it on cruise control.

 

If you go back to some of our great European results under GH and Rafa, it was often done in a backs against the wall fashion. Great tactical gameplays by the manager and players carrying it out to the letter to win games with great defending and then smash and grab counter attacks. Often we were up against sides that were better than us but we found a way to overcome them. This isn’t that. There isn’t any team on the continent that can lay claim to being better than us. In fact, Bayern Munich are probably the only ones who can even say they’re close. 

 

Real Madrid will argue their case and they have had the better of us in recent seasons, but there’s no way they’re a better side than us and if we meet them this season (which I pray we do) I’m sure we’d dispose of them handily because the lads would be so up for that game that Madrid would be facing us at our best, and our best would take them apart. 

 

We didn’t play particularly well by our own standards against Inter but even that was still comfortably enough to beat the best team in Italy. That’s the level we’re at these days. I don’t think anyone gave Inter much chance going into this game which speaks volumes about how strong we are now. It’s just taken for granted that we’ll beat teams like Inter Milan.

 

That sounds mad when you stop and think about it. Ok, Italian footy is nowhere near what it was, but it’s still Inter Milan in the San Siro and virtually nobody gave them a hope of winning. I feel as though we got their absolute best effort too. That’s as well as they could have played, but they didn’t manage a shot on target all night.

 

In fairness I feel like that’s an over-rated stat. You can hit the woodwork five times, miss a bunch of sitters and it’s classed as no shots on target and gives the impression you didn’t offer any threat. Inter did offer some threat though. They had some good moments and they hit the bar in the first half. They played as well as they probably could, and we just dealt with it in second or third gear.

 

 

 

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[alles ist gut 4,778]

Top, top “Vidal’s haircut in Premier League move” analysis there, Dave.

[Anubis 21,788]

Can't help but feel that was a retrospective 'my boy' status for Perisic. I can't recall you ever mentioning him before now. Hmmmm.....

[rb14 1,901]

Almost worth a latte, that report. 

[fredo49 43]

Great report. Love the Vidal analysis..

[dave u 7,830]

1 hour ago, Anubis said:

Can't help but feel that was a retrospective 'my boy' status for Perisic. I can't recall you ever mentioning him before now. Hmmmm.....

 

[dockers_strike 4,192]

Top analysis, Dave. Personally, I dont know how the ref didnt show that Vidal a card, some of the 'tackles' where he just flew in were diabolical. Sorry, out of rep will come back when Ive been re juiced!

[Arnaud 959]

Hebdos has been shot for weeks, but he was instrumental in the win. His position, drive, leadership changed everything. 
 

I thought Eliott was poor, he lost the ball so many times. Trent was worse, totally outplayed by your boy Perisic, what a player !

[Razoray 894]

The ref was excellent, I agree but surely we need to mention Salah being through with 2 seconds left on the clock and he blowing for half time. Mo was disgusted. 

[Bucksinator 25]

The refs for the majority of these cl games are mint,just letting the games flow,its a breath of fresh air.

[DalyanPete 1,290]

12 hours ago, rb14 said:

Almost worth a latte, that report. 

Almost.

[HolyHank 44]

13 hours ago, dave u said:

 

Working for the Ministry of Truth now, do you?

[Section_31 25,650]

This team is fucking immense now. Not as deep as City's but far better, man for man. 

 

I was actually thinking about how opposition fanzines, websites and sports papers must even start trying to profile our 'stars' and danger men because there's so fucking many of them. 

 

I remember when the Echo used to profile upcoming opponents, even sides that flew under the radar, and they'd have one or two players to keep an eye on, 'the diminutive Bulgarian playmaker' or the 'rock at the back who's a danger at set pieces'. 

 

You'd need about four fucking pages for our team. 

 

Best goalie in the world, best CB in the world and what looks like one of the best young CBs too. Grit, poise, athleticism and youth in the middle of the park, playmaking ability with Thiago and five top - top - attacking players.  

 

 

[Barnesey 359]

I'm a big fan of Elliot's but he was poor. If Naby had played like that much of this forum would escort him from the premises.

[Peter Cormack 179]

Excellant as ever Dave; my physio is Chilian and a Vida fan; I’ll be printing it out for him.

[Shooter in the Motor 8,624]

 

[aRdja 2,921]

Player ratings plz 

[dave u 7,830]

4 hours ago, Section_31 said:

This team is fucking immense now. Not as deep as City's but far better, man for man. 

 

This isn't the case anymore. It's kind of snuck up on people but our squad is much deeper than City's now. City have a squad of 18 or 19 top players and the rest is made up of kids.

 

We named a nine man bench last week with no room for Gomez, Jones, Minamino and Origi. 

 

2 hours ago, Barnesey said:

I'm a big fan of Elliot's but he was poor. If Naby had played like that much of this forum would escort him from the premises.

 

It's about context though. Naby has played dozens of CL games so the expectation is higher. Harvey didn't have a good game but he wasn't that bad either and it was his first ever start at this level.

 

Naby has played much worse than that in Europe, and yeah he got panned for it but that's because he's an experienced player who cost £50m. If Harvey plays like that when he's 26 then I expect he'll get heavily criticised for it too.

[deiseach 3,870]

Good discussion about Guardiola. Much as we revel in the Fraudiola jibe, I'm certain that anyone other than him would have been broken by Klopp and we'd now be contemplating something like a third Liverpool title in four years. The shoeing Liverpool gave City in 2020 would have seen the likes of Mourinho or Conte flounce off, even in their pomp and no matter how much money they would have to spend - which is never enough anyway. Guardiola, on the other hand, dusted himself down and applied himself to the task at hand. He may have infinite tools at his disposal, and all other things being equal it diminishes his legacy, but you can only wield a finite number of those tools at one time, such as putting the right 11 out on the field. When it comes to stuff like that, he's one of the best. The weird fucker.

[Kevin D 9,715]

5 hours ago, dave u said:

 

This isn't the case anymore. It's kind of snuck up on people but our squad is much deeper than City's now. City have a squad of 18 or 19 top players and the rest is made up of kids.

 

We named a nine man bench last week with no room for Gomez, Jones, Minamino and Origi. 

 

 

Why are City 9 points ahead in the middle of February?

[Anubis 21,788]

On 17/02/2022 at 18:14, dave u said:

 

The only posts you could come up with were 2016 and 2018? Seriously, you expect people to have read them, let alone remember them?

[dave u 7,830]

1 hour ago, Anubis said:

The only posts you could come up with were 2016 and 2018? Seriously, you expect people to have read them, let alone remember them?

 

Apology accepted.

[dave u 7,830]

2 hours ago, Kevin D said:

 

Why are City 9 points ahead in the middle of February?

 

because they've played a game more.

[Kevin D 9,715]

17 minutes ago, dave u said:

 

because they've played a game more.

 

If City have a worse starting XI, worse squad and worse manager, why are they top of the league?

[stringvest 14,248]

3 hours ago, deiseach said:

Good discussion about Guardiola. Much as we revel in the Fraudiola jibe, I'm certain that anyone other than him would have been broken by Klopp and we'd now be contemplating something like a third Liverpool title in four years. The shoeing Liverpool gave City in 2020 would have seen the likes of Mourinho or Conte flounce off, even in their pomp and no matter how much money they would have to spend - which is never enough anyway. Guardiola, on the other hand, dusted himself down and applied himself to the task at hand. He may have infinite tools at his disposal, and all other things being equal it diminishes his legacy, but you can only wield a finite number of those tools at one time, such as putting the right 11 out on the field. When it comes to stuff like that, he's one of the best. The weird fucker.

Guardiola is a great manager, but having access to unlimited cash would make even an average manager very difficult to beat.  Money has a much greater impact than the difference between managers at the top of the game imo.  With cash, you can make some quite spectacular mistakes in the transfer market and just replace until you get it right.