Brentford 3-1 Liverpool - Monday 2nd January, 2023

[JoshBRFC+]

1 hour ago, Danny said:

There are Bees fans that have lived through League 1, League 2, collecting money in buckets to keep the club. And now you can probably find some of them in that video. What a life

 

Fair play mate. Happy for you. 

[Danny]

1 minute ago, JoshBRFC said:

Fair play mate. Happy for you. 

Them. Not me 

[Danny]

I don't really know where to begin with that match, we were just so good. Liverpool started quickly and had the Nunez chance which made it seem like they might do a job on us, but Ben Mee set the tone for the game with a great block.

First half we had them, we were first to every loose ball, kept winning the ball in the air, kept finding space down the wing to progress the ball. They kept crumbling at set pieces.

First goal was fortunate but also representative of what we were doing to them, we made them crumble.

Second goal was superb, pressing high up the pitch, everyone knew where they needed to be, Jensen's cross was hit to perfection and Wissa loves a header for a small man.

The final goal came about from what we were lacking prior to the subs, Wissa was lagging heavily after the shift he put in. Lewis-Potter injected energy into our defence and managed to win the ball back, great strength from Mbeumo to see of Konate but a calm and collected finish too.

Our strength more than anything was defensive structure. We defended with 10 men back mostly which is always going to be seen as parking the bus and you might question the structure but it was there.

 

Mads - Zanka - Pinnock - Mee - Henry

Jensen - Norgaard - Janelt

Mbeumo - Wissa

Norgaard and Pinnock always cover the centre, Janelt and Jensen narrow in when Liverpool try to play it through the middle. But when Liverpool have Trent, Salah, Elliott and whoever else on the right with the ball they are then surrounded by 4 players. Pinnock or Norgaard can drift over to cover to make it 5. You can't dribble and 1-2 touch past 4/5 players, but Liverpool were forced to everytime. There was a moment where Neville said I don't know why Trent is left alone on the right, he's left there because it lets us funnel Liverpool's attack out to the wing and then we can neutralise it there. They have more chance trying to play 1 touch through the middle and then using wide players in central positions but we kept sending them wide and they kept going for it because it's in this teams DNA.

For me they were crying out for Firminho, someone to drop in, link play up, little back heel to Salah or Nunez. But ultimately they never really looked like they had any sort of control of the game, even when they dominated possession.

[Dr. Gonzo]

2 hours ago, Danny said:

I don't really know where to begin with that match, we were just so good. Liverpool started quickly and had the Nunez chance which made it seem like they might do a job on us, but Ben Mee set the tone for the game with a great block.

First half we had them, we were first to every loose ball, kept winning the ball in the air, kept finding space down the wing to progress the ball. They kept crumbling at set pieces.

First goal was fortunate but also representative of what we were doing to them, we made them crumble.

Second goal was superb, pressing high up the pitch, everyone knew where they needed to be, Jensen's cross was hit to perfection and Wissa loves a header for a small man.

The final goal came about from what we were lacking prior to the subs, Wissa was lagging heavily after the shift he put in. Lewis-Potter injected energy into our defence and managed to win the ball back, great strength from Mbeumo to see of Konate but a calm and collected finish too.

Our strength more than anything was defensive structure. We defended with 10 men back mostly which is always going to be seen as parking the bus and you might question the structure but it was there.

 

Mads - Zanka - Pinnock - Mee - Henry

Jensen - Norgaard - Janelt

Mbeumo - Wissa

Norgaard and Pinnock always cover the centre, Janelt and Jensen narrow in when Liverpool try to play it through the middle. But when Liverpool have Trent, Salah, Elliott and whoever else on the right with the ball they are then surrounded by 4 players. Pinnock or Norgaard can drift over to cover to make it 5. You can't dribble and 1-2 touch past 4/5 players, but Liverpool were forced to everytime. There was a moment where Neville said I don't know why Trent is left alone on the right, he's left there because it lets us funnel Liverpool's attack out to the wing and then we can neutralise it there. They have more chance trying to play 1 touch through the middle and then using wide players in central positions but we kept sending them wide and they kept going for it because it's in this teams DNA.

For me they were crying out for Firminho, someone to drop in, link play up, little back heel to Salah or Nunez. But ultimately they never really looked like they had any sort of control of the game, even when they dominated possession.

I’m drunk but all I’m going to say is we were fucking absolutely dogshite and Elliott should be absolutely nowhere near our midfield anytime soon.

Which probably means he’ll start and we’ll play the same fucking sort of match next time we turn up to play.

[Mel81x+]

On 02/01/2023 at 00:44, Mel81x said:

I think this might turn out to be harder than expected. 

Fair play to Brentford, they were really good yesterday. Having said that there's no excuse for some of the way in which our team played. With the injury to VVD one can only hope the players who now get the chance try and put on a defensive performance to solidify their position because they were god-awful last night. 

[Bandito Burrito]

6 hours ago, Whiskey said:

It's that naughty Jordan Pickford's fault.

How so?

[OrangeKhrush]

what is wrong with Liverpool? we are now well beyond small sample size and fixture congestion is going to amplify problems.   Liverpool look a mess, they are being kept company by Spurs and Chelsea whom equally are looking like hot messes.

[Azeem]

 

[MUFC]

[Dr. Gonzo]

34 minutes ago, MUFC said:

Darwin Nunez probably can't even finish a wank. Him being our big signing of the summer is enough for me to be well pleased that Ward won't be continuing on in his role after this season. Too bad the season's end is still so far away.

[Cicero]

Caught the Werner bug where when he's offsides his finishing turns into prime Romario. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 minute ago, Cicero said:

Caught the Werner bug where when he's offsides his finishing turns into prime Romario. 

He's worse than Werner because he's pretty decent at everything he does on the pitch... other than finishing the football. Whereas I think Werner looks pretty bang average 99% of the time. It's something ridiculous now like 17 or 18 big chances missed from Nunez, which is a big number and a lot of those goals would probably have had us having a very different feeling about the season.

But as it stands now, regardless of whether or not he ever "comes good" - it was a big waste of resources for this season because that money would probably have been put to better use helping our midfield out and keeping players like Minamino and Origi (who honestly, I think we've missed big time with the injuries to Jota, Diaz and Firmino). Really bad planning for the current season, imo and I don't think we can salvage this season even if we do somehow miraculously bring in 2 midfielders this season.

[OrangeKhrush]

is Nunez just struggling with pressure of expectation? would he have been better say at Newcastle where he would not be expected to be City level.  I don't think he is bad, but confidence is 9/10s of the law

[Bandito Burrito]

4 hours ago, OrangeKhrush said:

is Nunez just struggling with pressure of expectation? would he have been better say at Newcastle where he would not be expected to be City level.  I don't think he is bad, but confidence is 9/10s of the law

i'd go as far as saying hes in the wrong position. With his explosive speed and good ball control I'd play him on. the wing.

[Rick]

Nunez has 10 in 23 games. Yes, it is very very frustrating when he scuffs 2/4 big chances every game, but his record is still respectable. If he wasn’t overthinking so much, I think he would comfortably be on 16/17 goals right now. 
 

He just needs to get out of his own head, but I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon. His celebration of his goal the other night was telling of his current mindset.