This is a good opportunity to see how hard referees have it. I really didn't think it was a penalty. I thought diaz fell over him.
Pitch looked horrendous tonight so can’t blame them for taking 45 minutes to get going. Good strike from the corner, poor not to have player somewhat close by to cut that out but take nothing away from the goal. Penalty super soft. Be pissed if given against us. Wasn’t as bad as some tackles after player had a shot so surprised was given. Other 2 goals were very good though. Diaz with another goal. Guy should be getting 30 goal/assists this year
Henry Jackson on Twitter : " Salah's come on and looks like a Year 11 gatecrashing a Year 7 at lunchtime. Different level."
We won Job done Nothing special For me I was happy with that Wish we would stop giving teams a head start but that will come
Dire first half. Disappointed in a few players, but that's all - it's the league stage of the Europy, FFS: it's almost like pre-season. Endo looked lost, but ffs, give the guy more time, eh? Some of the dog's abuse on Twitter he's got - presumably those ****s are not real Liverpool fans, just global social media followers (no disrespect to true Reds like Dribs and Milk). The midfield though, even with Elliott in it, still looks turgid without Szobo, but Gravenbach is nowhere near fully match-fit yet, and I expect that his touch and control will get even better as he does blend in with the team. I do hope the fact that Diaz played the whole game doesn't mean he won't start on Sunday though - he and Mo should be the first names on the team sheet for Prem games, along with Ally and Szobo. Oh, and Kelleher was sounder than sound again. No chance whatsoever with the goal, but did everything else like the class act that he is.
I really didn't think it was as bad as people are making out to be honest. A much changed team, looked abit disjointed, it wasn't a shock. There where positives, I liked the look of gravenberch. Some really nice play going forward, he looks to have an eye for a killer pass, even if it didn't quite happen. Made up to see baj back, unfamiliar position, but the boy oozes class. Doak played within himself, didn't display the usual aggressive attitude, maybe a bit more worried about ****ing up than usual The negatives. The absolute dogs abuse some on here give out to players, as if they are all knowledgeable gurus of the football game.
The state of the pitch didn't help; players falling all over the shop and the ball bobbling around the humps and bumps. Slippery as an eel and they watered it at half time Doak did some great cut backs but each time there was nobody to get on the end of them. Virgil said once he starts reading the game better, he'll be unstoppable.
I thought that he was easily bullied off the ball at times...which is to be expected at his age….I wanted our entire RHS replaced during the game as we created little from it but was also completely wrong closed at time and there too…..there were one or two times that he really showed his quick feet….can’t say how much these experiences will help him. All good for the future.
Assume doak played RW? If so he’s a very different player to Salah so would explain why no one was maybe there. With Salah there he cuts inside so rarely ever gets past winger for a cut back but with doak being right footed, is the more natural thing for him to do. Might be that other forwards and midfielders weren’t alive to that being the default option for him
The pitch was horrible and consequently a lot of passes were under-hit and that makes people seem lazy or careless. You can argue with some justification that professional players should be able to deal with that, but I wonder... most of the younger players know nothing other than the billiard-table surfaces they're used to. Should take them over to Stanley Park for a kickabout as part of their training.
he did but the honest truth is the side stuggled to get the ball to him at all never. mind facing the right way where he could impact. we were passing it about between vvd, konate and kelleher with minimal midfield movement and very few ways to get anyone involved. when doak did get a run he beat their left full all the time and did the usual drive it across rather than pick someone out. Once he starts picking people out in the box to score we will score a hat full. as unpopular as it seems to be I will state it again, Endo was a black hole in midfield. no movement anywhere, passing was poor and he struggled to even put a tackle in at times. if we played with 20 someone else would have gone and rans into the areas he was supposed to be and actually did the job. Endo has to look at that game now and get on the front foot. you.cannot stand there easily marked and be passive. he must look at thst and realise he takes the game by the scruff of the neck or won't get games.
He wasn't the only one bullied off the ball tbf. It looked like their best tactic. He's still got some way to go and I agree with you that these kinds of games are valuable experiences.
I remember the old footie boots with removable studs so you could put longer ones in for a different surface or whatever. I haven't looked at boots for a good while but I think they have blades now? Not sure whether they are suited to uneven surfaces.
i normally pretty good at deciphering MITOese but i give up with this "sentence" . Can we have the English version.
Been 30 years since I played on a Stanley Park pitch, but my recollection of them was that they were far superior to the one on Thursday night. That reminded me of our old pitches at Mersey rd, Aigburth, when it had been raining all week.
