I don't know what you bastards are complaining about. I spent the afternoon and evening at my mother-in-laws birthday. I live on the Wirral and all of the family there are Liverpool supporters. I got no option to "switch off at half time" as everyone felt the need to tell me how we were doing. With smiles.
I don’t wanna make excuses andvive had a drink but that first goal changed the game. It was free kick on Merino, maybe even two, we were made to play on with no adavabtafe to us down in our own corner, had to pump it long surrendering possession and conceded. Yes a lot went on after that but the fundamental thing is we should have been setting up a free kick fully organised. Absolute **** stain of a decision. When your game plan is to spoil and stay in the game you can’t afford a ref to that. It’s all about being set and it unsettled us as the game was stretched at the time. Very annoying. All things considered we did ok and not much confidence will have been hit for the run in. I know it’s a depressing side of footy now where you have to write off games because of the gulf but I can kinda understand what Rafa did today. And we was robbed
Worst game from Lascelles today for a long time. Looked out of sorts. Lejeune I thought looked pretty strong and good on the ball and Dummett was top draw except for the usual couple of clearances/long balls that went back to the opposition. Diame was okay but had no time or space on the ball, Merino okay, the rest were mediocre at best. The keeper is good at coming out and sweeping up which is the type of keeper Rafa likes so you can see why he brought him in.
Our issue is the place we have spent most money - the wingers - pure ****e! Atsu - called it before the start of the season - has nothing to his game Murphy - very average but young and may or may not improve Kenedy - we waited all season for this? Bloody shake the knees, that is it with him.
Are we all forgetting that the aim of playing football is....... to actually try and play football. Look don’t get me wrong they have more quality and they are well above us. But that does not mean we should stop trying. I play Sunday league football at a reasonable **** standard. We come across teams who are better than us so we play to our strengths and try and still win. Teams are now turning up against the top six to get a point and not lose. Total anti competitive nature mind set....... That’s why the top teams are winning and the ref are treading water. It’s becomming boring.
To be fair guys, most of the teams that have had success against us have sat back and tried to soak up the pressure and then maybe nick something on the break or from set piece. Recently we've become a lot better at that though so tricky one. Can't really blame Rafa for that, anyone who has opened up against us haven't gone well. I guess it's tricky because if you open up and attack and lose 5-0 everyone will moan at Rafa for getting hammered and with everything so tight down there, GD could be crucial.
Sorry mate, but there is a strategy to win. We keep it tight and hit them on the break. That is playing to our strengths. As Rafa has said they only did it for 40 minutes and not 90 and the counter attack stuff wasn't good enough. Assuming we could have more of the ball, if we commit forward more they will tear us apart. We had a go but they were too good for us.
I think it was a fair strategy. I’d have been interested to see how frustrated they’d become if the ref had blown for the free kick and we never conceded the first goal.
And that strategy to win has got us how many wins this season. I know we are in a relegation fight and that every point is crucial but we are handing it on a plate to anyone above us. This tactic is setup to not lose means we don’t just draw but lose most games. It’s damn right dangerous.
I just know the quality of the the two squads. You live in a fantasy world where you think Championship players could somehow outplay the second best team in the country.
