Played decent, let the other team into it too easily. Gotto say Matip is just sheer class (mistake aside).
I said last week and I'll say it again this week. The Karius experiment has to be stopped. He is just plain awful. I've seen people bring the example of De Gea into the debate, and it's not congruent with out situation. De Gea still pulled out a couple of great saves along with his clangers. Karius has done no such thing. And claims that the 'save' against Bournemouth are in that cetagory are reaching. I'm talking about the one where the player went through, lost his head and just hit the keeper. You can give him credit for being quick off his line I guess, but the rest was sheer fortune and erratic finishing. Luck that deserted him for West Ham's second tonight.
The main problem I have with him are not seeing one truly 'good' save from him. His positioning for the free kick was horrendous, his 'punch', almost into his own goal against Bournemouth was comical and his punch out tonight was all just wrong. Positioning and punching wide or out are fundamentals of goalkeeper coaching. But the thing that pisses me off the most is the fans berating, laughing, mocking and calling Mignolet all sorts in the cup game. This has become a battle now of principle, where if we leave Karius long enough he'll show why we bought him. He's cosing us points and matches currently. He weakens the team and doesn't deserve his place. Whatever Mignolet's faults or previous indiscretions are, he deserves the goalkeeper jersey more and he is just better. Karius is showing no signs of even being able to operate at this level.
Good to see Firmino getting more involved though. Really feel he should use his strength and size better in the air when in the box. He's basically built to arrive late, bounce defenders out the way, and nod in - but I don't see that desire.
Lovren and Matip have one lazy ball watching incident each, one leading to a goal. And towards the end we really seemed to have lost our attacking impetus. Just tailed off. Mane needs to start producing again, and Wijnaldum needs to have a few pot shots, he has excellent technique. And Origi is excellent at holding up play yet we're not really playing into him. It's a bit disjointed like we haven't got one over arching plan. It's just like go out there and score any which way. Which is fun and creative but when wehave lulls we do need that Plan A or point of attack to play to.
Thought that was a penalty on Lallana as well. And boo's at half time??
