I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up using the 3412 that Conte used at Inter last season, not least because that increases the chances of Gil, Lo Celso and Lucas playing in some role
Take into account: is it a team that will sit back and busparquet or will they play open like 'pool did yesterday?
Even in that game, Trent got away with a diabolical challenge on Saka. please log in to view this image Don’t think he even got a yellow and VAR didn’t deem it ‘a clear and obvious error’ . EDIT: he did get a booking but how this wasn’t upgraded to a red I will never know.
Made his debut against us in the League Cup and should've been sent off: please log in to view this image
Obviously the furore over Kane's red card simply mirrors the outrage over Xhaka's (probably worse) attempt to break the Leeds' players leg. So why complain? Oh hang on a minute, that's not true is it. Xhaka "only" tried to injure a Leeds player, so that doesn't count. To get the attention you probably need to assault a player playing in red.
Respectfully, I don’t think this is true. Xhaka received condemnation and was vilified by Arsenal fans on social media, by the commentators on Sky, pundits in the studio and in most of the news reports I read. It absolutely was not downplayed or justified by many. He was extremely lucky to not get sent off. Frankly, I don’t think he should currently be an Arsenal player for various reasons, but that's another discussion.
Seemingly gone under the radar on here unless I’ve missed it (apologies if so) but that was Son’s 300th appearance for us in all comps yesterday. 115 goals and 67 assists, what a return. I’ve bemoaned how poorly we’ve wasted money on big money signings especially in recent years but at £22m Son was absolutely money well spent.
I defer to your specific knowledge. However I suspect that if the challenge had been on a Liverpool player the uproar would have been greater, and longer lasting.
1. I've never heard of anyone regularly playing someone for a half, but there's a case to be made for Ndombele. His pattern has been to come on, do something pretty spectacular, then contribute to a goal going the wrong way. So getting him on the pitch long enough to do the former, and off before he has the chance to do the latter, may be the way to go with him. 45 of him + 45 of Hojbjerg or for that matter Lucas, may make sense. 2. Even Robertson doesn't dispute his sending off, so that leaves four controversial decisions. Kane's tackle, a pen either way, and Salah's handball + Mane's kick. Klopp and the LFC fanbase are shocked, flabbergasted and utterly dumbfounded that Liverpool only got two of those four decisions...as am I. 3. Whatever you may think about individual decisions, most of the reasonable and for that matter pretty much all of the utterly batshit posters agree that PL officiating is crap and needs a complete redo involving competent people. And I agree with IBWT that it's the painful attempts at, well, reasoning is such a strong word, that are the icing on the crap cake.
2 points dropped imo been crying like a twat about excessive missed chances for years not good enough Just because it was Liverpool doesn’t mean I should be satisfied with anything and just take it and run Them missed chances…of which there were too many makes it feel like a defeat to me.
Winks was definitely different gravy. I'm not a managerial genius by any stretch of the imagination, but I did call this a few games back. I hope that both Winks and Sessegnon push on from here. I love the fact that Conte has the balls, and knowhow, to confidently try a different formation, and line-up, that doesn't come off as a relatively poor plan B, or compromise the style of play too negatively. Plus, he makes the right substitutions? At the right time? Wow! It's refreshingly different. Get this man a full and balanced squad asap.
There was certainly a reaction but not to this degree. It is largely driven by the disproportionate number of ex-Pool players in punditry. It wouldn't surprise me if a public inquiry is opened and flags flown half mast for the rest of the week.
Pass map time please log in to view this image So there's something right in the middle of the map that undermines several years worth of Winks Derangement Syndrome, would anyone like to tell me what that something is? What's interesting about this map isn't what it does show, but what it doesn't show - specifically how Ndombele got the assist for Kane's opener, but look at the lack of traffic from him to anyone but Emerson. Now, keep in mind that to register an arrow a player needs to complete a minimum of five passes to their teammate, for example the arrows from Lloris and Dier to Sessegnon which is the basis for Norbert accusing us of playing Route One all match long, is what it looks like where five successful passes between A and B are made. Yet where's the equivalent from Ndombele? He's not even getting the ball to Winks that often On the other hand what you can see is Conte's tactical plan of the midfield playing the ball back to the CBs so that we can begin to build again, as you can see Winks is reliably working it back to Dier and Sanchez in order for them to work the ball back up into midfield, which is something Skipp and Hojbjerg have also been doing on those rare occasions where we actually have a match, which is also why I'm bagging on Ndombele somewhat because if he was rolling the ball back to Dier or Sanchez like Skipp, Hojbjerg or Winks do then we'd be rebuilding more often But there's something else interesting to see: regular traffic to both Kane and Son, with Lloris, Winks and Dele all finding Kane while Sessegnon is bringing in Son, which is something we weren't seeing in the early games of this season and Son was doing twice the work - although, yeah, the lack of anything from Emerson to our forward line is an issue Meanwhile, here's the Saltypool pass map please log in to view this image You can clearly see their plan was to target our fullbacks, with them constantly getting the ball out to Salah and Mane, but you can also see that Sessegnon and Davies were keeping them quiet down our left flank as Salah's sending the ball back to Keita and little else However, the most interesting thing about their passmap, other than it literally saying that Alisson was sending it long all game so Norbert can shut his gob, is the invisibility of Tyler Morgan in the middle of the pitch, as the passmap would look exactly the same if nobody was there as the entire team is passing to Milner and Keita while he's running around like a headless chicken, and it has to be said that when TAA is passing 2/3 the width of the pitch to Milner or the entire width to Robertson rather than play it to Morgan, that's the point you start to wonder if he broke some form of dressing room etiquette and is getting hazed for it
That is just so unbelievable ( Oh I believe it, after all , it was expected, but any other manager would have got a ban , not just for his comments directly at Tierney but also what he said to the press after. Wonder how Dyche feels about it?
2 days later: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/59739129 12:40 Standard of refereeing is unacceptable - Shearer Tottenham 2-2 Liverpool please log in to view this image Liverpool Alan Shearer has urged head of referees Mike Riley to "take responsibility" for the level of refereeing decisions in recent Premier League matches. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was unhappy that Tottenham forward Harry Kane was not shown a red card for a lunge on Andrew Robertson, while Robertson himself was dismissed after VAR check for a challenge in the second half of the teams' 2-2 draw. Shearer is also frustrated by the "terrible" decision not to award Newcastle a penalty in their 4-0 defeat by Man City.
