Liverpool v Spurs (h)

[Rafa Justice]

What about the men on the women’s games? Adults covering youth football? Humans commentating on the horse racing. Don’t get me started on Robot Wars.

Surely we need some consistency?

I don't watch any of those things so couldn't give a ****.

[Doc_Piptorious]

I was there also with my eldest, as was Shaggy! Where were you sat? Got home at 12:30 (zzzzz) cracking game.

Was in 104 as Michelle sits there as she has club related tickets through her job so I get in as her guest. She had the option of a box after she moved to Liverpool for work, but she is very much a sing her head off in the middle of a crowd person so she got a season ticket and her guest pass instead. Her match buddy Bob she met through happenstance as he has been going to Anfield for seven decades now and now he is part of her match day crew and vice versa after she got her spot on the Kop seven years ago. Real old school born in Vauxhall and still in Vauxhall scouser that man is. A real gent with great tales to tell about the club and city.

Shaggy was there was he? That ****er has a bout against me scheduled as per the boxing thread.

If I knew he was there I could have sorted him out around Concert Square before I went on to Manchester two minutes later.

Was a cracking game as where I was sat was very much a no moaner zone (again that is probably the Michelle effect and her wild eyes scaring folk ) so when Spurs scored, then scored again and then scored again the mood around me was one of defiance rather than deflation.

I love being at games though be it at Anfield, the Gaelic grounds or Thomond up in Limerick or at Turners Cross or Musgrave Park down here in Cork. I kick, head and puck every ball/sliotar and generally have a great time getting sucked into the spectacle. Very much a if I cannot compete myself then I am channelling what I wish I could do and every gram of wanting to win into my watching of the game.

I'm the same if I turn up at any of my old ABCs or go to an amatuer tournament, I will the the guy who at some point is throwing short punches or hooks if I am ringside whilst wishing I could be doing what the guy or girl I am supporting is doing.


Then the final whistle or bell goes and a switch goes off and I go back to being mellow.

[chadrtc]

I don't watch any of those things so couldn't give a ****.

Entirely in fitting with todays society.

[Doc_Piptorious]

In terms of the performance, was great to be at the game, it’s so different than being on here reading about all the half baked tacticalmoans and groans () just enjoying the sporting contest.
Also a treat getting to see Spurs go full Spurs

The pluses, Diaz, first start and his movement and attitude make a huge difference. Hope he has no after effects from that tackle, he was definitely less influential after it. Gakpo, looks a player and that front three could be incredible with a decent midfield behind it.

We started (obvs) very strong. We looked like we could score at will. Fabinho was getting so much space and time on the ball.

The worries for me are the formation. It doesn’t quite work. Robbo is being sacrificed to protect Trent. Robbo was solid for 25 mins or so, then got caught in possession 3 times when Spurs went to 2 up front, which was part of the momentum shift. Look at the positions of the back 3 on Kanes goal. All over the place. Trent clearly has a future in midfield, but we aren’t tactically astute enough to cover him without and particularly with Elliot as one of the three - bright but lightweight. I’d say we’d need to play 3CBs - but we then lose Robbo raids down the left….

The other big worry was Nunez. He was awful. The ball just bouncing off him, clueless in possession. Just everything up too early for headers, can’t pick a pass in attack. Rank. He has regressed as the season has gone on and needs a strong pre-season. He is 5th choice up front now. Rumours that his comms are miles off as he doesn’t speak English well yet fit, but he needs to kick on in a big way.

Anyway, it was all about the last few mins, was absolutely the most depressinglypredictable thing ever to see Richarlison score and I was set to accept the 3-3 we’d barely created anything second half. To witness the raw euphoria of their equaliser right in front of us and to then steal the win a minute later was sooooooo sweet. The atmos was incredible. Is out crippled the guy next to me landing on his ankle . It’s the best way to win.

Had no idea how Jotas goal came about so seeing Lucas Mouras assist made some sense of it all this morning.

Ref was awful all game. They got FK ever time they hit the deck, and the treatment Salah gets is just baffling (he was good first half also in that 3).

YNWA

Those two things stood out along with how once of good period ended how easily Spurs started to look towards exploiting the fact we had to constantly sacrifice a player to cover TAA.

TAA may look better because we are having other players cover for him, but we are getting caught cold in other positions as someone is constanmtly having to cover thge right flank and then someone from the lefty is having to shove in to cover that gap.

Scary thing about that is how predictable and obvious it looks from the stand once you start noticing it so is something I think better teams could exploit more easily than Spurs did.


Nunez had one of those games where a player looks to be trying too hard to make things work and then rushing every touch he attempted on the ball instead of just taking his time and trying to do the simple thing each time until he caught up with the game tempo. He lacked in any natural support too which only helped to make him look worse again.

Do like his attitude though. He ****s up and he straight away will try again and again. Guy has fight in him and looks to have the sort of mentality that will see him not shy away after a set back. Need to find a way to give him steady minutes next season in a defind position rather than a season like this one where he is all over the place within a mostly misfiring team.

He has a really good workrate too, which is something that does not show when watching on tv. He makes tons of runs and does try to chase back and harry players that are on the ball. There is a player there we just need to get him up to speed with the team when we finally get a fully functioning unit of a team.


That functioning unit is very much not there though. Was shocking at times how many players seemed to lose their heads, senior players at that, when Spurs put us under pressure. Misplacing passes, not quite going in for 50/50s and so on.

Jones was a treat to watch at times though. Guy does a hell of a lot of the donkey work and does it really well. He is hard to press, he presses well, good in his duels and is keeping his head up to watch play more than I recall him doing in past seasons. Really like how he seems to glide between the lines too, if we get better players into the midfield around him I have a sneaky feeling he will be a much better foil to higher quality players than what many might think. He is very much a watch from the stand type player than he is a watch on tv player. He stays fit and has a full pre season and it would not surprise me to see him become a real contender to be a starter at LCM next season and he might well change Klopp's plans for who we buy this summer if he can keep it up until the end of the season.



Ref was an effing joke. Salah was getting tackled like it was a game of rugby or a wrestling bout and getting nothing. Lot of off the ball rough treatment on Salah as well that did not get flagged.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Oh and Diaz is a ****ing warrior of a player too.

[Buzzo]

Agree with all of that. City would demolish us with that formation. It’s just not quite there.

That said there is loads to be an encouraged about. Agree on Nunez, also, I think he needs the season to end so he can regroup and go again. Looks short on confidence now he realises he is 5th choice. Doesn’t have an obvious position in the team with his qualities and the way we play…

[wiw]

Agree with all of that. City would demolish us with that formation. It’s just not quite there.

That said there is loads to be an encouraged about. Agree on Nunez, also, I think he needs the season to end so he can regroup and go again. Looks short on confidence now he realises he is 5th choice. Doesn’t have an obvious position in the team with his qualities and the way we play…

We did draw 2-2 against Arsenal with it

[Buzzo]

We did draw 2-2 against Arsenal with it

Fair point. I’d defo file it under ‘work in progress’. And City attack wise are next level at sniffing out weakness.

I also wonder if we needed a 3 nil up Tactic? . We lost our way. Though it seemed to coincide with that awful tackle on Diaz. If I remember it rightly.

[Maxiedge]

It’s crazy how a last minute winner can change your complexion. Let’s say it stayed 3-3, we’d all be a bit meh today. As it is, we are soaking it in

[wiw]

Fair point. I’d defo file it under ‘work in progress’. And City attack wise are next level at sniffing out weakness.

I also wonder if we needed a 3 nil up Tactic? . We lost our way. Though it seemed to coincide with that awful tackle on Diaz. If I remember it rightly.

City definitely look after the ball better which obviously helps. We need to get the confidence back to knock it around but not lose it, or it would be nice if we did!

I didn't really notice in the moment, but i'm guessing we didn't exactly drop back or anything? If anything it felt like we got a bit complacent and committed too much going forward

[Doc_Piptorious]

Agree with all of that. City would demolish us with that formation. It’s just not quite there.

That said there is loads to be an encouraged about. Agree on Nunez, also, I think he needs the season to end so he can regroup and go again. Looks short on confidence now he realises he is 5th choice. Doesn’t have an obvious position in the team with his qualities and the way we play…

Put better midfielders into the team with more mobilty and maybe we can carry the formations.

Or maybe the formation is a means to an end until we can reset in the summer.

We are still open as hell with it on the right side, but we are hurting teams a bit more so we are playing like an upper mid table team more often than not now rather than the lower mid table or worse performances we had been putting in.

I do think Jones being fully fit and getting a run of games is playing a possibly under the radar part in our current uptick in form. The guy is doing a really good impression of a prime Wijnaldum since coming back into the team and our little run of form has also coincided with him becoming a starter. Hell of a lot of the poressing that was killing us is not happening since he came in, and his duel stats and possession stats are really really good over the past five or so games, as in top level good.

[Maxiedge]

Those two things stood out along with how once of good period ended how easily Spurs started to look towards exploiting the fact we had to constantly sacrifice a player to cover TAA.

TAA may look better because we are having other players cover for him, but we are getting caught cold in other positions as someone is constanmtly having to cover thge right flank and then someone from the lefty is having to shove in to cover that gap.

Scary thing about that is how predictable and obvious it looks from the stand once you start noticing it so is something I think better teams could exploit more easily than Spurs did.


Nunez had one of those games where a player looks to be trying too hard to make things work and then rushing every touch he attempted on the ball instead of just taking his time and trying to do the simple thing each time until he caught up with the game tempo. He lacked in any natural support too which only helped to make him look worse again.

Do like his attitude though. He ****s up and he straight away will try again and again. Guy has fight in him and looks to have the sort of mentality that will see him not shy away after a set back. Need to find a way to give him steady minutes next season in a defind position rather than a season like this one where he is all over the place within a mostly misfiring team.

He has a really good workrate too, which is something that does not show when watching on tv. He makes tons of runs and does try to chase back and harry players that are on the ball. There is a player there we just need to get him up to speed with the team when we finally get a fully functioning unit of a team.


That functioning unit is very much not there though. Was shocking at times how many players seemed to lose their heads, senior players at that, when Spurs put us under pressure. Misplacing passes, not quite going in for 50/50s and so on.

Jones was a treat to watch at times though. Guy does a hell of a lot of the donkey work and does it really well. He is hard to press, he presses well, good in his duels and is keeping his head up to watch play more than I recall him doing in past seasons. Really like how he seems to glide between the lines too, if we get better players into the midfield around him I have a sneaky feeling he will be a much better foil to higher quality players than what many might think. He is very much a watch from the stand type player than he is a watch on tv player. He stays fit and has a full pre season and it would not surprise me to see him become a real contender to be a starter at LCM next season and he might well change Klopp's plans for who we buy this summer if he can keep it up until the end of the season.



Ref was an effing joke. Salah was getting tackled like it was a game of rugby or a wrestling bout and getting nothing. Lot of off the ball rough treatment on Salah as well that did not get flagged.

Have to say, we probably had the one of the best players in exploring space (Son) playing against us. He was immense for them yesterday. But your point still stands true as at highest level, we will come up against players that can run in behind and finish.

Re: Nunez, there’s definitely a dynamic difference when he’s on the pitch. We don’t look like ourselves tbh as I think he’s still learning what the manager / coaching team wants from him. The point about him not speaking English has clearly been an issue. I think if he can start doing the tactical things right, then he’ll be fine and a great asset.

[Buzzo]

City definitely look after the ball better which obviously helps. We need to get the confidence back to knock it around but not lose it, or it would be nice if we did!

I didn't really notice in the moment, but i'm guessing we didn't exactly drop back or anything? If anything it felt like we got a bit complacent and committed too much going forward

It was really the season in a nutshell. We lost our way and grip on the match and seemed unable to wrestle it back. Spurs would be ****ed without Kane and Son tho. Those two dragged them back into it.

[Buzzo]

Put better midfielders into the team with more mobilty and maybe we can carry the formations.

Or maybe the formation is a means to an end until we can reset in the summer.

We are still open as hell with it on the right side, but we are hurting teams a bit more so we are playing like an upper mid table team more often than not now rather than the lower mid table or worse performances we had been putting in.

I do think Jones being fully fit and getting a run of games is playing a possibly under the radar part in our current uptick in form. The guy is doing a really good impression of a prime Wijnaldum since coming back into the team and our little run of form has also coincided with him becoming a starter. Hell of a lot of the poressing that was killing us is not happening since he came in, and his duel stats and possession stats are really really good over the past five or so games, as in top level good.

yep, all solid points.

[S-RED]

Klopp called out Nunez mid week didn't he & say he has to learn the language soon & questioned why he hadn't already.

Think thr coaching staff are increasing thepressure on DN. That said i so hope he suceeds, there s a player in there