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Liverpool 6 Leeds 0 (Feb 23 2022)


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Report by
Dave Usher

 

As pleasing as it was unsurprising. This was always going to be a massive beatdown but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable. Leeds play a certain way and won’t change for anybody, despite being without their two best players. That way of playing cannot possibly work against this current Liverpool side in the form we are in, so what happened in this game was entirely predictable.

 

In fact, the only thing that surprised me was that it took so long for us to add to the three goals we had at half time. 6-0 was about right but it could easily have been more as the chances were there. City put seven past Leeds and I’d have liked to have done the same or even gone higher, but that’s just being greedy.

 

This was a lot of fun though and not just because we scored so many goals. I found the whole thing fascinating and absorbing because of how Leeds play. Prior to the game I was saying to the lads how much I was looking forward to watching what Leeds do and what we’d do to counter that. It isn’t a normal game, it’s something you rarely see because, well, as Klopp and other managers often point out, nobody else plays like Leeds and it’s tricky to play against.

 

I know that sounds ridiculous after a 6-0 win, but everyone who plays Leeds comments on how unusual it is and how it isn’t easy to play against them. It is easy to batter them if you’re good enough, but I think the point being made by their opponents is more about how they’re a pain in the arse because off the unique challenge they pose.

 

Some call it brave, others call it suicidal, but one thing it isn’t is dull. Because of COVID we didn’t get to see Leeds in person last season and although I’ve read lots about their man to man marking tactics and how unusual they are, I can’t say I’d paid any real attention to it because you don’t pick things up properly just watching on TV, especially when it’s usually just highlights on MOTD.

 

So I wanted to see this in person to get a feel for what exactly it is they do. And it was fascinating to watch. They did what they do, but doing that against vastly superior opponents is just never going to end well for them. Without understanding too much about what it is they do, I was sure we’d smash them just because other teams have. Everton beat them 3-0 which translates to around a 15-0 for us given how much better than Everton we are. 

 

In addition to that, my logic was that if they man mark everybody that means one v one battles all over the pitch and that’s just not something anyone is going to win against us. Going one v one against Salah, Mané, Diaz… even Thiago and Jones. Every one of those are going to go past one marker nine times out of ten. Robbo too for that matter.

 

 

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8 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

Great report Dave but wasnt the first pen given away by Dallas?

 

I thought we would have won eleventeen nil with better finishing!

Watching his reaction on the telly, it looked like Dallas didn't feel hard done by, just disappointed that he'd handled it.

 

The second pen was odd, though.  From the Lower Kenny it looked like Mané had tripped over his own feet. None of us could quite believe it was given.

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2 hours ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Watching his reaction on the telly, it looked like Dallas didn't feel hard done by, just disappointed that he'd handled it.

 

The second pen was odd, though.  From the Lower Kenny it looked like Mané had tripped over his own feet. None of us could quite believe it was given.

 

Dan James never kicked off after the Alisson incident either. If he'd still been with the mancs he'd have been screaming blue murder there. I think maybe Leeds just don't have that culture of being pricks. There isn't one player in that squad I have any negative view of. They seem like a decent hard working set of lads.

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Bielsa is a fraud, Dave. You’re lucky the fanzine is dead and buried because I would have written a very good article about that. In French obviously.

 

Let’s not get carried away, but we put 9 to Palace last to cave in right after.

 

And Fuck off Putin and all the Russians of this world. Ukraine is a great place, Ukrainians are great people. 

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The James/Ali incident wasn’t a penalty. You look at it carefully and James never touches the ball. Ali’s foot actually comes down onto the ball and it squirms back towards the goal. He never fouled James. That’s why James never appealed for anything.

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8 hours ago, tlw content said:

Some of [Mo's] best work this season has been chasing back to snuff out danger when teams have cleared our set-pieces and are trying to counter attack.

This is so true. There was one particularly memorable example of that when he chased back miles and blazed a stunning, curling, lofted crossfield pass to (I think it was) Robbo. 

 

8 hours ago, tlw content said:

The only discussion should be “if you take Salah out of the equation then who has been the best player?” because anyone trying to make a case for anybody else is embarrassing themselves. Unless they’re suggesting Matip, in which case they’re still wrong but at least it shows they’ve been paying attention.

Excellent. In fact better than excellent. 

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Couple of points on Curtis I forgot to mention on the pod: firstly his performance was lifted by an interception that he pinged with his first touch, 30 yards, into Sadio. It got a reaction from the crowd and he visibly relaxed immediately after. Second of all, I really felt he made the wrong choice when he cut it back for Mo; he definitely should’ve taken it on himself. Certainly it was a much better chance than the one he took on on the other side. 

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Agree about the pens. I thought the reaction to the handball was just deflation rather than an acceptance of guilt; you could tell some Leeds players felt they were going to get a hiding and it was only a matter of time. I know the new rule is if your arm is away from your body, but his elbow was tucked in, so it was only his lower arm swinging as he turned. It made his reach smaller than Pickford's. Very harsh.

 

I watched the Mané one numerous times and still couldn't see the supposedly clear contact the commentators were mentioning.

 

I'd rather get these calls on Sunday, as we were always beating Leeds anyway.

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Michael Oliver tends to be generous to us. Not that he favours us every game but we get quite a few penalties and 50/50s off him in comparison to other refs. He also gave us 2 penalties in the Leeds game at Anfield last season in addition to some other penalties over the years. The derby at Goodison last year is the one big stain on his copy book. Although, he did admit afterwards he got the Van Dijk incident wrong. VAR should have been helping him out on that one. David Coote, the fucking cunt.

 

For the game on Wednesday, going by the current rules he has to give that penalty for handball. Defender's arm was away from his body and the cross wasn't from very close range. The 2nd penalty Oliver awarded was soft as fuck though. Mane was already going down after messing up his attempt to dribble round the keeper.

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2 hours ago, Supremolad said:

Michael Oliver tends to be generous to us. Not that he favours us every game but we get quite a few penalties and 50/50s off him in comparison to other refs. He also gave us 2 penalties in the Leeds game at Anfield last season in addition to some other penalties over the years. The derby at Goodison last year is the one big stain on his copy book. Although, he did admit afterwards he got the Van Dijk incident wrong. VAR should have been helping him out on that one. David Coote, the fucking cunt.

 

For the game on Wednesday, going by the current rules he has to give that penalty for handball. Defender's arm was away from his body and the cross wasn't from very close range. The 2nd penalty Oliver awarded was soft as fuck though. Mane was already going down after messing up his attempt to dribble round the keeper.

I wouldn't say he's particularly generous to us, just that he's the best of the current bunch and he gets more right than most. 

With the Mane penalty, it's tough on Ayling as he's trying to avoid contact but he does catch Mane's right heel, which is enough to bring him down at the pace he's going. It's given 9 times out of 10 (the tenth time being when Otamendi did exactly the same to Mane at the Etihad a few years back in the 1-1 game).

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Mane did quite a decent job in the Bobby role, seemed to enjoy dropping deep and unlike current Bobby, I don't remember him losing possession much if at all. He also bagged 2 goals!

As for Leeds man-to-man, I said last season already - it just doesn't work when, man-for-man, the opposition are superior to you.

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19 hours ago, Reckoner said:

Great report. I was in the kop and the atmosphere was carnival like, particularly near the end. I feel like something special is happening.

And whatever happened to the poster Lizzie Birdsworths wrinkled chopper? A truly great username.


He’s rebranded himself as @Dr Nowt and @Justice Negs

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On 24/02/2022 at 19:23, bossy said:

I like this Leeds team too, the only one I ever have. I hope they stay up. Enjoyed the Curtis take, I thought he played well, they all did.

I didn’t mind the Wilkinson era. Not great to watch, but Leicester have been the only side since them to win the title with a proper rag-tag team. A keeper who was good but had been binned by Arsenal when they wanted an upgrade; a defence full of players who had done OK elsewhere without being irreplaceable (Sterland, Whyte, Fairclough); kids in midfield (Wallace, Batty & Speed) backed up by a guy who’d been binned by Slur (Strachan); and one of the ultimate journeymen strikers (Chapman). 
Even Cantona was just a bit-part player, who scored half as many goals as Steve Hodge did for them. Bonkers, but fair play to them. 

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