Match Report and MOM v Liverpool

1] Salah has been getting better for several weeks now, don't think it was just today that has turned it for him!
2] Also not sure you can say things are getting alarming. Two poor home performances this week but three points, as probably expected. First half today was ok, should have been equal at half time. Second half a disaster!
We were brilliant for 45 against Man U, should have been out of sight and in the end, were about thirty seconds from a point. Arsenal, again, we played well and should have had a point, officials getting things wrong. Newcastle wasn't great but we still had chances up there and the Brooks possible penalty. Man City, we played really well overall, everyone has said so, could / should have been 2-2 in the second half. Their fans saying we were one of the best sides they had seen all season. So it's not like we are playing terribly in general.
Next week is important of course, we need to come away with something if only for impetus. But everyone knew what was coming with the fixtures....and we know that once January comes, we can look upwards again....hopefully with a couple of additions.
Today was a very poor second half.....but lets not all get upset about how things are in the bigger picture.
 
Valencian said:
Sorry but Franno was diabolical throughout. His positioning and reading of the game was lower league stuff. If it’s effort you’re talking about then okay MOM poss. The rest of the team are a bag of nerves along side him and we must move the old timers out to pasture
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What game were you watching? I agree with Neil, thought Francis was mom closely followed by Surman.
 
I don't think we played the conditions well enough. Not enough accurate passes due to the wind, keeping the ball on the ground more might have helped. Franno was MOM for me too!
 
Just an observation; I am just beginning to question the defence's coaching. I understand that when it comes to goals scored against us the whole team has to take some responsibility but compared with some teams the defence is not good at playing out the ball with feet. Just before Liverpool's goal Daniels was by himself in the middle of the pitch when the ball came to him out of the Liverpool defence. He had time to take the ball down and re-distribute it but he didn't, he headed it back, straight to a Liverpool player and from that attack they scored. Every warm up the back four are put into a line and have ball heading practice, it seems now to be in their muscle memory. To my untrained eye when that sort of header is used it tends to go to opposition and the pressure is put straight back on to the defence. Given the conditions there was head tennis today but Liverpool managed to be much better in making choices both with head and feet out of defence.
 
Begovic 5 Too slow reacting to Cook's attempted pass back to him.
Francis 6 decent going forward, we now have to accept his defensive frailties...apparently!
Cook 6 Good first half, but was poor second half, his bad pass leading to their second goal..
Ake 6 Must be wondering when he is going to get some decent defensive cover from the full backs!
Daniels 5 Seems the old fella is on the wain, again some poor distribution
Stanislas 5 Largely anonymous, some poor distribution fro him too (theme developing here!)
Lerma 7 Again looks our most intelligent player, some of his turns were effective, got booked again for his first poor tackle, refs are on his case I reckon.
Surman 7 Solid game and his passing was better than most.
Brooks 5 his form seems to have dipped, maybe Eddie needs to rest him a bit? However we are short of options !
Fraser 5 Looked tired and a wee bit burnt out, wish that he would take on defenders more?
King 5 Pretty ineffective against the impressive Van Dick

Mousset 4 forlorn and headless in the main!

Bad day (again) but injuries will hurt us, especially versus the top sides...

The ref again didn't want to apply the same yellow card rules to Liverpool as he did to us...a bad trait in the PL
 
...let's get it all in perspective...we have the six teams above that I would expect every season...plus Everton who can go either way throughout the season...and we have nearly played everyone, bar Spurs,Brighton & Wolves, and by the end of this month that will be done...so let's see how we do in the return fixtures through to the end of the season, and in the cup comps too, although our squad is looking stretched now maybe?

as long as we don't get:

Lee 'Liverpool' Mason
Craig 'Red Devil' Pawson
Roger ' Lord Nelson' East
Jon ' Look at me boys' Moss
Kevin ' No one's' Friend

reffing our matches too often!
 
Think Begs was unsighted, (Cook I think) with Firmino snap shot, prior to Salahs first goal.
Got hands to it but tough one to hold on to.
 
Redpost said:
Just before Liverpool's goal Daniels was by himself in the middle of the pitch when the ball came to him out of the Liverpool defence. He had time to take the ball down
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I think you are under estimating the swirling wind today. Had he taken a touch and lost it (Bellerin did this for Arsenal at Anfield last season in an identical but less windy situation) he’d be getting even more stick.

I agree we need to defend better. We also need to stop individual errors. However, we have to realise individual errors will happen. The challenge is to get players to anticipate these errors better. Good strikers antipate mistakes, let’s get Callum coaching our defence!
 
In our first 3 seasons up........the word Fear didn't exist...they couldn't spell it! It's crept in this last few weeks.....coinciding with Smith dropping out?
After the great start....injuries and tough fixtures have hi-jacked our euphoria! I was mega upset at 1430 and apologise for any negativity coming out of me since then.
The only football I'm watching tonight is a re-run on U- tube of Steve Cooks goal v Them two years back...he deserves that after his performances this year!
 
We were always going to runs like this were we don’t a win for a while. At the moment we have a few injuries and individual mistakes are being made .

It will change and the biggest thing is to make sure the gap between us and the bottom 4 or 5 stays big
 
davygravy said:
1] Salah has been getting better for several weeks now, don't think it was just today that has turned it for him!
2] Also not sure you can say things are getting alarming. Two poor home performances this week but three points, as probably expected. First half today was ok, should have been equal at half time. Second half a disaster!
We were brilliant for 45 against Man U, should have been out of sight and in the end, were about thirty seconds from a point. Arsenal, again, we played well and should have had a point, officials getting things wrong. Newcastle wasn't great but we still had chances up there and the Brooks possible penalty. Man City, we played really well overall, everyone has said so, could / should have been 2-2 in the second half. Their fans saying we were one of the best sides they had seen all season. So it's not like we are playing terribly in general.
Next week is important of course, we need to come away with something if only for impetus. But everyone knew what was coming with the fixtures....and we know that once January comes, we can look upwards again....hopefully with a couple of additions.
Today was a very poor second half.....but lets not all get upset about how things are in the bigger picture.
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When i say things are getting alarming I’m not actually just referring to the last six games, some of which have been good performances as you point out. It’s more the squad depletion, tiredness and run of fixtures coming up that is scary. How will he line up v Chelsea and in the twice we have two games in three days. He would have used a full squad with some decent rotation. Not having that option to me is a situation that becomes alarming.
 
Neil Dawson said:
When i say things are getting alarming I’m not actually just referring to the last six games, some of which have been good performances as you point out. It’s more the squad depletion, tiredness and run of fixtures coming up that is scary. How will he line up v Chelsea and in the twice we have two games in three days. He would have used a full squad with some decent rotation. Not having that option to me is a situation that becomes alarming.
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squad depletion is a worry, this is our worst injury run since our first PL season when we lost Wilson, Gradel and Mings. Thankfully we have a good cushion but we are going to struggle a bit over the next few weeks and need to get some new blood in for the second half of the season.
 
Well it was nice being up there for a fair bit of the season ,chatting about finishing top six and a trip to Europe , why not be positive while we’re up there ...but zero points vs the big six shows exactly where we are I still think we’ll finish comfortably (maybe flirt with the bottom half) it seems these day it all comes down to how you finish the last 4 or 5 games and we have an easyish run in . .... but we are certainly not top six .
 
BillMcgarrycherry said:
In our first 3 seasons up........the word Fear didn't exist...they couldn't spell it! It's crept in this last few weeks.....coinciding with Smith dropping out?
After the great start....injuries and tough fixtures have hi-jacked our euphoria! I was mega upset at 1430 and apologise for any negativity coming out of me since then.
The only football I'm watching tonight is a re-run on U- tube of Steve Cooks goal v Them two years back...he deserves that after his performances this year!
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Rubbish ! This is the first season we have played with total confidence in the Prem .. first couple of seasons we were like deer in the headlights half the time
 
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