I could see his logic tbf even if I didn't fully agree with it. It's a long trip down to Plymouth and then you're asking the same players to deliver against Everton, Wolves, Villa, City and Newcastle in about 15 days.
He's clearly prioritised, in the light of the impending weeks. Also perhaps a case of underestimating lower league opposition, something Rafa was guilty of many times.
On the positive side. There's now a few weekends where we won't have to play. Proper rest breaks between the games that matter. Matches Arsenal's breaks as well.
Neither of them are going to win the league. City need the FA cup to stop their season being a disaster. Newcastle need to win a cup this season.
Yeah, I agree with that. No problem with the team he picked, especially when you see what happened to Gomez. Pleased for Plymouth too - they played at Anfield some years back and their fans were sound. My grief though is they way the likes of Elliott, Chiesa, Quansah, Kostas, Jota, Diaz, and even Endo played. Difficult occasion, venue, conditions, etc, but that team has to do better than just turn up for the last 15 minutes, and that includes nine minutes stoppage time. And this has to be said as well - McConnell and Nyomi might have been over-hyped.
Expected to lack cohesion but there were some really poor performances individually too, we never even threatened until the last 10. Is what it is though, bag 3 points on Wednesday and this will be a distant memory
Today showed how much we should have bought a CM in Jan. The lack of cover for Mac and Grav was very much highlighted today. Jones and Elliott are not pivot/holding players and the kids are not ready to cover when needed.
I didn't give him abuse because he wasn't trying. The point was he was tragically doing what he could. Zero pace, zero little ability to accelerate means that's not good to us. Whoever decided he was worth a punt he really really wasn't.
At least Diaz had life wlthe rare times he got the ball. By the end we had McConnell moved 3 or 4 times. The wingers swaps pointlessly. Elliott at 6 and playing absolutely terrible passes. That says slot got it badly badly wrong but he clearly prioritised the trip which is a long one over the cup tie. He took them for granted but in the end a stupid pen is what separated the teams and we were never scoring unless something bizarre happened. The ball went out to Diaz say and there was 4 there. He could.move.himself so.it usually.made it's way laterla or back. The ball went out to chiesa and he couldn't move so two closed him out and took the ball. There was zero though to create over loads, to press up or to really work as a unit. Overlapping runs were rare but even so no use as nobody is in the box. We need to make 3 v 2 but it took so long to move the ball we made 1 v 3s instead. They worked hard and ran themselves into the ground to earn their win but a player like Elliott at 10 has to see he is the body to make that overload and link with chiesa or mabaya or whoever and really get in behind them. He farted about and actually pulled out of anything physical. Imo Mr slot will be judged not on his trophies this season but on how he can influence the clubs hierarchy to change this squad up. Please God this exit buys a couple of rests and we can keep going in the league. We are a 16 man squad really.
I'd rather employ a hierarchy of criticism when assessing a game. First look at the team as a whole, and in my first post I said they played like a collection of individuals rather than a team. Straight away you're up against it as you're then relying on a moment of brilliance or an opposition mistake. Next I look at attitude, too many of our senior players just weren't up for it. After that I look at abilities of an individual. Chiesa was poor, I've already said that, but at least he tried, and there were at least three out there who I'd expect more from who seemingly weren't bothered.
Didn't see any of the match because I've spent the whole day at Peppa Pig world/ Paultons Park for my daughter's 4th birthday. I'm finding it hard to be too miffed at the result, we're top of the league, ahead by 6 pts (or 9 if you like counting unhatched chickens), top of the CL and in the milk cup final. Life is good.
You didn't miss anything, from a Liverpool perspective at least. Hopefully win the league cup, then go all out for the PL and hopefully the CL as well.
