Burnley v Liverpool
Premier League, Matchday 19
Tuesday 26th December 2023, 17:30, Turf Moor
Referee: Paul Tierney, Assistants: Marc Perry, Scott Ledger
Fourth official: Graham Scott, VAR: Simon Hooper, Assistant VAR: Nick Hopton
Merry Christmas you lovely people.
This year, on a very short turnaround after that exhausting match against Arsenal, Liverpool are playing on Boxing Day against drowning but battling Burnley - who look as destined to go down as any club I've ever seen (but we said the same about Everton and look how that turned out). So what can we expect?
Well, looking at Burnley paints very much a similar picture to what we might have seen before visiting Sheffield and Luton - with one major difference. I honestly do not see Burnley offering the same defensive resilience those two clubs demonstrated. Burnley seem to be a different prospect, attempting to play a more expansive brand of football and repeatedly getting punched in the mouth by more organised and quality filled teams in this division. Yet still they try and make no mistake about it - they will carry threat if we allow them room and time to operate. I wouldn't exactly say it's the same type of scenario we faced in previous two away games against newly promoted sides this season - but it does come with some perils. Most important one obviously being a holiday fixture - which will as always be rowdy and loud. It's the type of fixture that from our perspective cries out for establishing early control. Not necessarily fierce and aggressive opening that looks to crack them early - but high tempo control, one that will make their structure wobble. Maintaining pressure with good passing and movement is key here. They need to be made to work much harder than what we managed to do against Palace, Luton and Sheffield away. Those games were shaped by our relatively slow and uninventive passing from the back paired with fast, sloppy and nervous passing near the goal. Which basically meant we struggled to apply meaningful pressure for sustained periods of time. If there is one thing we should look to change, this is it for me. Snappy , focussed and brave from the back - get the ball up and keep it there, moving them around faster. Openings will come, if none are available then recycle rather that crossing aimlessly or taking wild shots.
For those, like me, who don't follow them closely - Burnley beat Fulham in their last outing, in a game that not only ended their miserable run of five straight away losses, but one in which they showed a lot of fight and effort. And this is what we need to be vary of, they are now home, festive and hostile atmosphere, after a good result. They will be more than up for it and we once again seem to be facing a lower end team as they hit the upwards trend and form curve. Which really means - do not fuck about and expect a fight. We cant be taking much for granted here, holiday fixtures always spit out a few wild results and I do hope we make this a calm, boring procession as much as possible. Give them something to hold on to and it will get nasty - fast. Not that we can't handle those scenarios, but really it would be great if didn't have to this one time. There is only so much room for anxiety in mince pie filled bellies after all.
It will be curious to see who gets a run out for us, I do expect some changes, but not too many. It will be as strong as possible, with enough recovery time afterwards before Newcastle. The injuries are now pretty much determining some things, so Gomez is almost certainly playing left back until who knows when, probably the Winter break. Midfield might see Harvey get a start, I think it would be both deserved and desireable, with Endo and hopefully Jones alongside him. It's the attack that we can't really be certain about, especially the left side - which felt like a bit of a dead leg ever since Robbo got injured. Do we choose this game to try and inject some threat in there with Joe deputising in a half-comfortable position, or do we just play by numbers for a while longer and focus elsewhere? Not sure. I think it will be the relatively standard lineup of Diaz-Nunez and Salah, which really doesn't resolve anything on the left side. But we are where we are now - it's crunch time and we have to make do with what is available. Let's just come prepared to fight and just a bit more focussed than previous bottom team away games.
There we are.
Another Christmas.
Another year almost gone.
This new Liverpool looking good.
Let's end 2023 in style.
