Match Day Thread Vs Aston Villa (A)

Not sure you can really blame Adrian for any of those goals tonight mate.

 

I've no doubt that the lack of fans is contributing to the crazy amount of goals. Most matches have the training match feel about them. Almost feels like a fake season.

We conceded 5 in a match and have one of the best defences!

 

The first? It definitely makes a huge difference.

 

Can't cry about it, everyone is in the same boat and the players need to deal with it.

 

It shouldn't make such a difference but it sorta gave them the spark they needed.

 

we are currently not as good as we were before the lockdown when we had the title sewn up by New Year.

The current best team is ...Everton and they will go into the Derby as deserved favourites. Especially if Adrian is in goal and Mane is still absent.

Adrian is not a good cover for Allison and Jiota is nowhere equal to Mane.

 

Think it also works the other way where some player will play with more freedom, less fear of making a mistake without the groans from the crowd.

Must say, excluding the two today, I've found a lot of it dull and struggle to really engage in the games. Didn't even bother with our match today as wasn't worth leaving the house for. Sooner fans back the better.

 

I'm getting used to it a bit now, struggled last season. I suppose I've just got it into my head that this is how it is now.

 

Its only 10 days from when his symptoms started, provided he hasn't had any for 48hrs. He would have been back, as would Thiago, by next weekend, but its an international break anyway

 

On the other hand the result destroyed my enjoyment of that Utd match result. It would have softened the blow of many Utd fans including Evra who perked up very significantly through the evening and even managed a smile.

 

Wut??? Did you not see the goal that got the whole show on the road?

 

Covid symptoms can have a long lasting effect. Fatigue is one that can last a longer time even though the fever and cough have disappeared. Let’s hope he hasn’t got one of those long Covid.

 

looked like the entire team had ‘long Covid’ yesterday mate. Just need to scratch it off as one of those things I reckon.

 

When everything that could go wrong happens. Was fuming yesterday but all okay now. I will take it as a freak result and hope it is the kick up the backside the boys needed. Painful one. Luckily though, we get Thiago Henderson and Mane back for the next game.

 

Agreed, suck it up and make sure we react. Was madness. How we can go from the performances versus Chelsea and Arsenal to last night is beyond me. I guess that in Alisson, Hendo, Mane missing, you could argue that 3 out of our best performers were missing and Thiago, who would make a difference in midfield was too. But that’s clutching at straws really. We were just plain, old fashioned, sh*t

Would love to see us react in the transfer market by buying a CB but it won’t happen.

 

Thank god I avoided coming on last night because I would have been peak Jimmy and would have just slagged everyone off lol. On reflection, this really was a freak result. Yes, we were terrible but this was not a 7-2 match.

Positives

- Jota played well and gives me encouragement that he can come in and replace any of the front 3.
- Salah played well and bagged a couple, and could have had more if we got the ball up to him more.
- Robbo continues his good form (bar the error against Arsenal, he's been very consistent recently).
- Our attacking play in the first half was actually really good and we could have easily scored more.

Where it went wrong?

- I have no issues with playing the high line. We have done this for almost 2 years and we're excellent at it. Today, the execution of it was poor but why?

• Fundamentally, Adrian was a big part. If we are to play a high line, you need a keeper who covers the space. The issue is that he was too close to his line and that created a huge gap between him and our back line.
• The midfield simply did not track runners and Villa ran right through us. The high line has been so good for us because it compresses the amount of space in the middle for the opposition to utilise i.e. no space = becomes very difficult for them to create. But we were so easily bypassed.

- Other than the 3 positive players, the rest should be ashamed, humiliated, disgraced. They were all terrible. Going back to Adrian, we cannot rely on him anymore. He is arguably more error prone than Lovren and what really irks me about Adrian is that he looks arrogant and doesn't take responsibility for his actions. He could potentially cost us many more points until Alison returns.

- The midfield had a mixed game - they did well going forward and linked up well with the front 3. But defensively, all at sea. Didn't track runners at all. Did Fabinho win a single tackle?

- Gomez is the weak link of this defence, and has been for most of 2020. Not sure what has happened but his performances have regressed and so has our overall defensive numbers since the turn of the year. The sooner we get Matip back, the better (even if it's just his presence alone to help raise standards). He lost the physical and aerial battles, his positioning was awful and his passing was unusually terrible.

- Bobby is the weak link of the attack. There has to be a serious conversation about his contribution because working hard and creating space is not enough. We had a golden opportunity to equalise but I'll be honest, I had zero faith in him scoring it (having said that, we should have had a penalty). He broken down attacks, gave away the ball on numerous occasions. Being an attacker means that chances are, his passes will be more difficult because he surrounded by more defenders. But its the simplest and most basic passes which he can't complete and that's what infuriates me.

Overall

Like I mentioned before, this wasn't a 7-2 game. We conceded at pivotal moments in the game which kept knocking our momentum. Conceding the early goal, not scoring that chance to make it 1-1, not getting the penalty, we then scored to make it 2-1 and we did look decent going forward but then we conceded a deflected shot. It just kept happening.

This was a freak match but questions need to be asked. Adrian is not good enough - he's conceded 5 goals as a result of his own errors in 21 matches. 1 error every 4 matches is unacceptable at this level. Gomez really needs to step up now because our back line is only good if all 4 are on it. Whilst Bobby wasn't the reason we lost, we need players who take the big chances to get us back in the game. Bobby has a goal, assist or the pass before the assist in 5 games of 2020 (he's played 25 games).

 

We need Allison back as well. Adrian is Lovren bad.

 

Adrian made the mistake for the first, but even in the short time prior to the first goal we looked all over the place.

 

For years one of our biggest problems was mentality; we just didn't have the mentality of Champions. One of Klopp's biggest successes imo has been to instill that mentality in the players, as best seen last season. No matter what the opponent thought, we believed we would win and did so, no matter how bad the performance or how late the winning goal.

That mentality is probably now facing it's biggest test. A humiliating defeat, no Anfield crowd to spur us on, possible slight complacency from having won stuff. If the mentality is resilient, this should just be a one off and we'll be fine. If it's damaged, this could be a sign of a deeper malaise.

Still, I'd much rather it happened against Villa than, say, Everton, Man U or Spurs (though it still might).

 

I was questioning our mentality during the game because we had been so impressive under Klopp. But to be fair, we did keep trying to come back into the game but we kept getting sucker punched just when we were on top. We should have made it 1-1, but it quickly changed to 2-0. We then scored to make it 2-1 and back in the game but then we conceded a deflected goal. And it just kept happening all game.

One of those games where literally everything goes against you. But I'm sure we will come back strong.