Burnley Build Up

[SB]

Yeah Klopp loves him

[RedReet]

All fair points.

For the first one I think that Trent is a much better attacker than defender, we forgive his rickets at the back because he offers so much going forward. That's the trade off generally with the way our full backs play though. He's a fantastic player and I see his long-term future moving further up pitch. He was skinned today and that position has been targeted for two seasons now because he often gets gubbed, so it's not only McNeil that he needs to worry about.

With Mane he's proved to us that he's an exceptional player, he just doesn't seem to be as good as he has been for a season I'd say, he's struggling to beat people and hitting weak shots where before he was testing the keepers a lot more. Don't know why that is, I'm just willing him to get his mojo back.

Re Keita, I think we've said it all before, no need to run through it again. You see his performances and think he's good enough for us, I don't. That's not saying he's ****, just that we need better than him in our midfield. I think we can leave that one there. I don't have any agenda with Keita - if he plays well I'll say it and be happy to do so, same as the rest of the players.

Trent does indeed get targeted, with varying degrees of success. As I've said many times, I don't think it's fair to draw any conclusions from last season, but the previous two, he was a key part of the best defence in the league. This season it's two clean sheets in two, one assist and once again created the most chances in our team. It's probably confirmation bias on my part having read about his pre-season training, but I have genuinely felt he looks a lot more assured defensively this year, but they way he plays he's always gonna get caught out of position on occasions.

In terms of being targeted I think back to City in the CL 3 years ago, when they targeted him after a few dodgy performances. He was excellent that night and City playing that way played into our hands, as they couldn't get their best player (KDB) involved in the game.

That's fair enough about Mane. Had a similar conversation with Jaco preseason and he argued that our forward line have regressed and can no longer be considered world class (Bobby in particular). I feel we still have the best front 4 in the league and have seen enough to suggest they can get back to their best form, Mane included. TBH, I expected more goals in first two games, but 5 goals in total with all 4 of them scoring isn't a bad return after two games.

Keita, we'll just have to wait and see. If he can stay fit for a few months, we'll assess his contribution then.

Just had a quick look at his stats and as expected they are actually quite poor compared to the first game. He seems to be getting a lot more praise this game, presumably because his back heel contributed to Jota's goal, but it was a steady performance again from him and IMO, the shirt is his to lose. Be interesting to see how we line up against Chelsea if everyone is fit.

[Rigadon]

Jurgen Klopp: Liverpool boss says Premier League in danger of going '10 to 15 years backwards'

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said "it's like we're going 10 to 15 years backwards" as he called on the Premier League to protect players by rethinking rule changes.

Klopp was unhappy with a number of challenges during Saturday's 2-0 win over Burnley.

Before the new season, clubs were told officials would not penalise "trivial things" to allow games to flow better.

Klopp told BT Sport: "If you like that sort of thing, watch wrestling."

Referee Mike Dean did not issue any yellow cards at a sold-out Anfield on Saturday, despite Burnley conceding 12 free-kicks.

Klopp was frustrated with challenges from Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood and left questioning if the rule changes are having a negative impact on the game.

"We always had to be ready for a proper fight and we were today," said Klopp.

"You saw these challenges with [Ashley] Barnes and [Chris] Wood and Virgil [van Dijk] and Joel [Matip]. I'm not 100% if officials are going in the right direction with these decisions.

"It's like we're going 10 to 15 years backwards. The rules are like they are, but you cannot defend these situations.

"The message now is let the game flow, but nobody exactly knows what that means.

'This is the football we want to see but it's just too dangerous."

An 18th-minute Diogo Jota header and an impressive second-half Sadio Mane strike ensured Liverpool made it two Premier League wins from two, and Klopp is thankful his players emerged unscathed.

"I like decisions that favour the offensive team, that's fine," said the German.

"But we have to stick to protecting the players. We cannot deny that.

"In a lot of moments, we played a brilliant game without scoring. In all the other moments, we had to fight incredibly hard. We won it and nobody got injured."

Liverpool 2-0 Burnley: We 'should have had penalty' on 'tough' day - Sean Dyche
Klopp's Burnley counterpart Sean Dyche was also unhappy with some of the decisions, which he felt contradicted what managers were told prior to the new season.

When asked if he liked the new rules, Dyche said: "I do, but it didn't happen today.

"There were too many soft fouls. We were told in the week before there would be no soft fouls. There were too many for me.

"Then we get a penalty that isn't given. If that's in the middle of the pitch, it's given."

The Clarets boss felt his side should have been awarded a spot-kick when winger Dwight McNeil went down in the box under pressure from Trent Alexander-Arnold, but Dean allowed play to continue.

"Our record with [getting] penalties is not great," he added. "Hopefully that will change at some point."

'We need the big characters like Klopp to get behind the new way of refereeing'

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 live, former England midfielder Jermaine Jenas said the rule change is a welcome addition.

"If anything we had gone too far the other way with constant whistle blowing for fouls and we forgot that end-to-end game of football that is the Premier League - it's been a welcome addition to me," said Jenas.

"Jurgen Klopp is the first person I've heard saying he wants it to go back to how it was - which is disappointing.

"The referees have taken so much criticism in the past couple of years for the way that the game has gone with VAR and the way they referee the game and they've reacted in the right way I think.

"We need the big characters like Klopp to get behind it - but he obviously felt today was too physical a game for his two centre-halves and that's his opinion."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/58293478

1. Jenas clearly didn't watch the game
2. Jenas has completely misunderstood (ignored) what Klopp said

Jenas - bellend.

[Exiled_red]

BBC pundits are terrible, Jenas, Shearer, Murphy, Richards, Keown are all all boring and have nothing useful to say and often miss the point, Ian Wright isn't much better but at least he can be entertaining.

[memzey]

Micah Richards is the worst, by far. If he’s on tv I’m changing the channel.

[RedReet]

Watching MotD and realised that Wood was playing yesterday and I didn't even notice. Checked stats and he had 17 touches, 1 less than Thiago managed in 10.

Two CB's were immense yesterday, Matip bossed 1st half then Virg had a great 2nd.

Part of me so hoping Lukaku is fully fit and on it next week, as it could be a fascinating matchup.

[RedReet]

think I have to get the ground in a min just to get in

How did you (or anyone else at the match) get on at the stadium? Any issues?

Will be over for Chelsea game next week and although I'm heading towards stadium after City game, not sure if I should go straight in or hang about stadium bar for a bit as I normally do.

[Tribute]

Burnley Build Up

Micah Richards is the worst, by far. If he’s on tv I’m changing the channel.

He’s so ****, mind you he’s in good company as most of those named above are all absolute turd as well…

Pundits standards are **** these days, no decent ones as Sky/Beeb/BT/ITV have jettisoned most of the old guard over the last few season…