Topic: Round Table LFC 3-0 Manchester City

[Hinesy]

What a difference a day (or 3) makes. My abiding thought about this match is why the fuck couldn't they have played like this on Sunday.
Still, lovely to watch us at work, and to see when Klopp's orders are followed and executed properly, they work against teams like these.

I thought Can was again good, I thought Flanno and Clyne both had a good game and I thought Toure was outstanding, reminiscent of Carra at times with his proper defending.

Firmino still divides opinion in the Hinesy household. But at least his haircut isn't as bad as bloody Sterling's, whose is still so bad it merits mentioning in two round tables. Firmino needs to be more consistent yet it was interesting he was preferred to Coutinho and Sturridge, both who weren't used at all. Milner had a proper game, stamping his authority on the match, but I wish he had taken that control last week too. hey ho.

You could see where City wanted to play, down the right hand side and in groups of 3's, quick passing and little passes but it didn't work out for them, and Adam's goal was so ridiculous and unexpected it took them more than us by surprise. I think that enormously shaped the game, making them attack and letting us strike back.

Any thoughts apart from it looked like two different teams several days apart?

[SerbianScouser]

Lallana was the key to our performance compared to cup final heck even in the final since we was subbed on we were the better team but it wasn`t to be.

After that horrible CM performance at Augsburg it was clear to me there was a massive Lallana shaped hole in our team, our two CMs found it extremely difficult to push the ball up the field early and precisely; Lallana makes it considerably easier for them as technically he`s one of the most accomplished players in the league, you will struggle to find a player in this league who has a more beautiful relationship with the ball, truly a joy to watch. He is so adept at finding pockets of space where he can go to receive passes, he has an array of tricks to find a way to turn on the ball and pass it to the next guy - he really is right now the glue of the team, a player who can knit the play and connect our CM with our forwards.

I`ve been incredibly critical of him this season because I didn`t and still don`t see him as a final third player for us or any other team with Top 4 aspirations, I don`t think he`s ruthless or consistent enough in front of the goal nor do I think he necessarily has the killer instinct needed to be a part of our front 4 that will drag us to 70+ goals in the league. It has dawned on me in the meantime that he could be a fantastic solution for us in a midfield 3 as a midfielder who can provide the link between midfield and attack. It`s a shame he can`t really do through balls but when you watch those two Augsburg games and cup final it`s so easy to see we needed a player in the center with his class and quality touch to give us balance we desperately lacked. He pretty much cemented his place in the team and rightly so.



It was clear from the picture above that we were really, really narrow and that we did something very similar to Ettihad gameplan which was to congest the central area and target their two CMs and press the living hell out of them. Our successful pressing wasn`t a coincidence, seeing us hunt in packs wasn`t a coincidence it was the narrowness of Lallana and Milner which gave us that numerical advantage in the center of the park allowing us to squeeze them and suffocate them to nth degree. I wonder if this was by design because in the 3 previous games we haven`t really seen it with Coutinho in the team because to me he was occupying much wider position than Lallana did on Wednesday.

One thing that Rodgers was right about was when he said that `when we press well we pass well` and this game was a classic case of how good we can be when we organize our pressing in the right way. However before we get carried away we must remember in this division there are more teams who won`t allow to be pressed this way ( teams who are very direct ) than the teams who insist on their build-up and short passing till the final third.

[redmark]

Lallana was the key to our performance compared to cup final heck even in the final since we was subbed on we were the better team but it wasn`t to be.

The narrowness is overstated in that image, because Milner and Lallana swapped flanks for a chunk of the game (which pulls their average positions more central). Not a particularly noteworthy contribution to a RT, but I might have more time later .

[John C]

The narrowness is overstated in that image, because Milner and Lallana swapped flanks for a chunk of the game (which pulls their average positions more central). Not a particularly noteworthy contribution to a RT, but I might have more time later .

Milner swapped positions with everyone of the pitch, his endeavour was truly awesome. He scored at one end and blocked at the other, he chased down one flank and covered down the other. A motm performance that you'd wish a couple of people would put in each week to ensure we reach high levels.
Perhaps its the 5 changes that made a difference. But overall this was a magnificent team and individual display that limited City's input completely. Of course they had a 2 spells where they controlled the game for a solid 5 minutes each and had Aguero been a bit more alert he may have got on the end of a decent cross in the first half. But that was it, Mignolet was untroubled.
The result wasn't necessarily because City looked nothing like league winners, Liverpool simply outplayed them. And our display was bolstered by the introduction of an ineffectual Bony at at half time which push Silva back in to mid-field to try to compete with a raucous Henderson and determined Can. Good luck with that one lad.

Even Kompany feared the presence of Benteke when he appeared. Kompany grappled and groped him cowardly every time there was a set piece.

There's so much brilliance to enthuse about from that performance it made me extremely proud coming away from the game.

[JackWard33]

Not wanting to ruin the party but was this game just a case of 'we cared and they didn't' ?
They should have cared - they should have been going for the title but they barely seemed to care

Pellegrini found the way to play against us in the league cup final (low block.. two sitters.. counter attack .. wait for us to make a mistake) and then inexplicably changed it for this game.

Don't get me wrong it was great fun - great to see the heart in this squad... but then I never questioned that

We've done well against teams that want to play and want to play football - we've done badly against teams who defend deep, counter attack and punish our mistakes...not sure this game changes anything

Hate to be the wet blanket and this game was great revenge, great for our confidence, great to watch ... but also another flatter to deceive moment until we prove it isn't.
Why did we show more intensity in this game than a final? We still haven't mastered the art of upping our game when it really counts.

We were great - we monstered them.
Now do it away at Palace. Do it when there's no revenge motive. Do it when there's no cameras and lights, when the opposition don't want to play. Do it then and we'll start to believe

[John C]

Not wanting to ruin the party but was this game just a case of 'we cared and they didn't' ?

Don't get me wrong it was great fun - great to see the heart in this squad... but then I never questioned that

We've done well against teams that want to play and want to play football - we've done badly against teams who defend deep, counter attack and punish our mistakes...not sure this game changes anything

Hate to be the wet blanket and this game was great revenge, great for our confidence, great to watch ... but also another flatter to deceive moment until we prove it isn't.
Why did we show more intensity in this game than a final? We still haven't mastered the art of upping our game when it really counts.

We were great - we monstered them.
Now do it away at Palace. Do it when there's no revenge motive. Do it when there's no cameras and lights, when the opposition don't want to play. Do it then and we'll start to believe

Yes, we've been frequently inconsistent and often grossly under-performed Jack, but we can only assess how Liverpool played following a devastating cup final defeat, facing the champions with one of the best strikers in the league who are desperate for back-to-back PL titles. And we mugged them strategically, physically and tactically.
If we drop points at Palace it adds to the frustration of the season, but it doesn't dilute the experience gained from the two games we've thrashed City in this season, but it does illustrate that somewhere in that squad there is character. Most importantly though, we did it at Anfield, for a while we've been raising our game away from home, City got what the faithful have longed for.

[wordroam]

Funny that - I remember reading somewhere we were a bunch of tippy tappa players with little character. We are a young team but the more I think about it I think we've got bags of 'character'.

[JackWard33]

Yes, we've been frequently inconsistent and often grossly under-performed Jack, but we can only assess how Liverpool played following a devastating cup final defeat, facing the champions with one of the best strikers in the league who are desperate for back-to-back PL titles. And we mugged them strategically, physically and tactically.
If we drop points at Palace it adds to the frustration of the season, but it doesn't dilute the experience gained from the two games we've thrashed City in this season, but it does illustrate that somewhere in that squad there is character. Most importantly though, we did it at Anfield, for a while we've been raising our game away from home, City got what the faithful have longed for.

Yeah wrote that pretty late at night.... bit of season long frustration and frustration at not hitting that level in the cup final then doing it a few days later coming out ... you're right to highlight the positives

It was a very good performance no question - one of the most impressive things was holding City to 4 shots - that's an incredible level of control against a team as good as they are.
When we've played well under Klopp it's been in midfield - we've shown that when we're 'on it' we can throttle almost anyone

The source of our inconsistency is still our attack. Goals change games and if Lallana's daisy cutter doesn't go in then maybe it's another frustrating day. I suspect we still would have broken them down on this day; but the reason we've under performed this season has last has been our inability to create good chances and we still need to show we can do that regularly.
Going forward it'll be interesting to see what Klopp sees as his first choice attack. Lallana seems pivotal to how he wants to play - he's so good at pressuring high up the pitch and retaining possession in the final third. I'm still not sure how Coutinho fits, especially if we want to play Firmino with another striker.

[stockdam]

Not wanting to ruin the party but was this game just a case of 'we cared and they didn't' ?

I think that would be over-simplifying how good our performance was. They are a team that still believe that they could win the league and it would be very poor to think that they didn't want to win.

We hunted in packs whereas they tried to play fancy football. We were on top of them as soon as thay got the ball. Milner and Lallana were superb at this.

Sterling was owned by Flanagan. Toure put in a 5 star performance.

Up top Firmino had his best game and always looked like he was in control.

Our defence played as a unit and backed everybody up. Flanagan held his position and let the midfield do their job which I think is the best for the team.

I can't add anything about tactics as I think the game was won and lost by individuals all over the pitch.

Firmino and in particular Lallana were the best players on the pitch.

Let's keep up this high energy style and go on a good run.

[the_red_pill]

I had this to say earlier about how I think Klopp sees the physical side of the game- responding on a post from Gnurgs:

Quote from: Gnurglan on February 25, 2016, 02:57:15 PM

    Maybe this ability to play a lot of games should be something we look for when we sign players? I believe it should be. We'll have to rest players. The question is how much. Perhaps less than we think. I heard something interesting last night on this topic. The coach of Iceland, Lagerbäck, said that it could be a psychological thing too. If you talk about it, players are more likely to feel they need a rest.

And if you listen to Klopp, you may also take it that he believes mentality/psychology plays a big part in "fitness".
Things he said during his time here, such as "we decide when we're tired" and suggesting that Daniel needed to know the difference between real pain and ordinary pain.

Then there are the dismissals of concern over players' fitness levels, fatigue etc.
The way he pushes his squad(we don't hear him ever complain about fitness or the lack thereof or even fatigue- about the only thing he complains about is the amount of games not allowing him to properly prepare) and what he said about needing only a few players in the Summer and not as many as 6 or 7. I can understand that if I look at what sort of player Klopp was- very much a Carragher type and hailing from the Black Forest as he says. He believes in heart and hard work.

To the modern sensitve fan, I guess he's a "Slave master", for us older ones- we can't see the issue really

And he had this to say after the game:

On the victory over City, Klopp said: “It was an extremely lively game. It was a demonstration of how mentality can beat tired legs.”

“I was never in doubt we could do things like this. We have to perform all the time. We have to learn to do this.

He doesn't mention tiredness in a sympathetic light, ever. This was one of the 2/3 times he's specifically mentioned it but only because he dismisses it out of hand.
He just brushes over it and I read an article earlier in the week where he rubbishes talk of fatigue/tiredness. He's not a big believer in it, it seems.

This team will have to run and play until they can't do it anymore.... and then do it for a few more minutes/games. They're going to kak!

[robblac1]

Funny that - I remember reading somewhere we were a bunch of tippy tappa players with little character. We are a young team but the more I think about it I think we've got bags of 'character'.

Agreed.
Interesting to watch Lovren after each goal we scored and the players were in a huddle celebrating, he seems to be talking to each of them reinforcing a message and keeping them focused
Watched it a few times on the replay....not quite Carragher esque....but good to see....