Other Matches - Wednesday 26th December, 2018

[LFCMadLad]

3 hours ago, José said:

Surely Klopp had a word with him given that he has already called him out (believe it was a dive versus Chelsea) and has made it clear that's not what he wants to see... Doubt it though, Klopp's hypocrite ways ain't fooling me. 

Can't you take Klopps  cock out of your mouth for just 2 minutes 

[Dave]

Well theres only two things that have stopped us from winning the title this season:

A striker that can score. 31 shots and 5 on target. Ridiculous.

Roy's bizarre reluctance to play Vicente Guiata. He is every bit as good every game as he was against Barcelona last season.

[Bluewolf]

Heard about this... now I have seen it Salah deserves an Oscar for that, such a shame that players with great natural talent feel they need to be pulling things like that to gain an advantage over a team they are already far better than.. Worse that refs can be taken in so easily by it as well.. 

[Honey Honey]

First half was alright to be fair. A better striker than Joselu and we would have scored. I think that is largely why Salah dived to be honest. It's 1-0, you've just come out after a first half where Klopp has told you it's not good enough and you need to up it. Throw yourself to the floor get that pen, relieve the pressure as quickly as possible.

I'm not that bothered about it because we went there expecting nothing and it's not like a robbery. What I am bothered about is that we've lost 4-0 instead of something respectable. It's down to that shit striker, weakened team, shite defending on corners and giving up after that dive. If we lost 4-0 to great football then fine, but Liverpool didn't need to do that. 

Even Rafa gave up at 2-0 as seen by his subs. Our tactics in these is usually to stay in the game til 80 minutes then try, since it was 2-0 on 47 mins we just resigned. You could see from manager downwards. It's a bit sad that this exists but then van dijk cost more than our starting 11 and bench combined and they went and brought a £44m sub on. We are like a Championship side who has drawn Liverpool in the FA Cup 3rd round.

[Dave]

Children laugh at other Children who believe in Santa Claus, but remember, there's grown adults out there who support Liverpool that believe Mohamed Salah didn't dive today.

[Honey Honey]

Another thing I'd like to see a replay of is Salah slapped Dubravka on the the head, right infront of us. Bizarre moment. Didn't get booked by the homer ref.

[LFCMadLad]

31 minutes ago, The Palace Fan said:

Children laugh at other Children who believe in Santa Claus, but remember, there's grown adults out there who support Liverpool that believe Mohamed Salah didn't dive today.

It's our first penalty at Anfield since last Julember! We deserve a bit of cheating. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 hour ago, LFCMadLad said:

Can't you take Klopps  cock out of your mouth for just 2 minutes 

I think he wants to hate-fuck Klopp.

[LFCMadLad]

1 minute ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I think he wants to hate-fuck Klopp.

Same as all the other tards moaning about us getting a penalty when we have had the least amount of penalties awarded at Anfield since the Premiere League was invented. 

I'm loving all this hate though  wait when we beat Arsenal and City in our next two games! It will go through the roof 

[Stan]

6 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

Same as all the other tards moaning about us getting a penalty when we have had the least amount of penalties awarded at Anfield since the Premiere League was invented. 

I'm loving all this hate though  wait when we beat Arsenal and City in our next two games! It will go through the roof 

It's because it'll be fucking unbearable if you win the league  

[LFCMadLad]

Just now, Stan said:

It's because it'll be fucking unbearable if you win the league  

Like when Leicester won it 

 

[Bluewolf]

4 hours ago, Stan said:

@José

I see 'Pogz and Lingz' linked up for the 3rd goal as well... 

What a guy that is.... surely go down as one of the best players to ever play in a United shirt..... against mid to bottom table opposition at least

[The Artful Dodger]

Pogba is class, Mourinho held him back. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

I hope Burnley go down this year.

[Stan]

1 minute ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I hope Burnley go down this year.

This I approve of.

Dyche is a fucking moany cunt that is better off out of the Premier League. And Burnley are just boring anyway so they can fuck off as well.

[LFCMadLad]

1 minute ago, Stan said:

This I approve of.

Dyche is a fucking moany cunt that is better off out of the Premier League. And Burnley are just boring anyway so they can fuck off as well.

Dyche will be the manager of Everton this time next year the frog throat cunt.. Mark my words 

[Inverted]

I know it's reactive to say this after they enter a bad patch of form, but I think a shine has definitely come off Guardiola since they won the title. 

 Obviously there was a feeling that City had a softness in them, and were prone to moments of capitulation like against Liverpool in the CL, or in the way they got dumped out the cup. But otherwise, you couldn't fault how amazing they were and how stunning the football was. 

But this season there's just something mechanistic about City. They're not even particularly amazing to watch. It seems that they only have one real way of making chances in open play - Sane or Sterling making a little dribble or running on to a short throughball in the left or right edge of the box and trying a cutback. They repeat it incessantly and so long as the other side can see it coming it's easy to pack the width of the goal and cut out the chance.

In big games particularly it seems like they rely on set pieces - they've basically got through their CL group on the strength of their set pieces.

They're extremely well prepared, but last season they blended those machine-like qualities in set pieces and in patterns of play, with some degree of improvisation. Now it seems like they're going through the motions because they believe so earnestly that that's all they need to do to win. 

De Bruyne in particular consistently conjured up those moments where he could just turn a game on its head with one pass or cross. As talented as they are it seems like Bernardo and Mahrez are more content to work as system players. 

Pep's Bayern were one of the best teams I've ever seen because they blended that machine-like consistency and cohesion with the qualities of players like Müller, Lewandowski and Robben to inject moments of inspiration or to go for the jugular when a game was in the balance.

[LFCMadLad]

15 minutes ago, Inverted said:

I know it's reactive to say this after they enter a bad patch of form, but I think a shine has definitely come off Guardiola since they won the title. 

 Obviously there was a feeling that City had a softness in them, and were prone to moments of capitulation like against Liverpool in the CL, or in the way they got dumped out the cup. But otherwise, you couldn't fault how amazing they were and how stunning the football was. 

But this season there's just something mechanistic about City. They're not even particularly amazing to watch. It seems that they only have one real way of making chances in open play - Sane or Sterling making a little dribble or running on to a short throughball in the left or right edge of the box and trying a cutback. They repeat it incessantly and so long as the other side can see it coming it's easy to pack the width of the goal and cut out the chance.

In big games particularly it seems like they rely on set pieces - they've basically got through their CL group on the strength of their set pieces.

They're extremely well prepared, but last season they blended those machine-like qualities in set pieces and in patterns of play, with some degree of improvisation. Now it seems like they're going through the motions because they believe so earnestly that that's all they need to do to win. 

De Bruyne in particular consistently conjured up those moments where he could just turn a game on its head with one pass or cross. As talented as they are it seems like Bernardo and Mahrez are more content to work as system players. 

Pep's Bayern were one of the best teams I've ever seen because they blended that machine-like consistency and cohesion with the qualities of players like Müller, Lewandowski and Robben to inject moments of inspiration or to go for the jugular when a game was in the balance.

They have still had an extremely good first half to the season. It's only because Spurs and Liverpool have recorded their best ever start which makes it look like they aren't as good. 

City for me are still the team to beat if you're gonna win the title. 

[Inverted]

2 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

They have still had an extremely good first half to the season. It's only because Spurs and Liverpool have recorded their best ever start which makes it look like they aren't as good. 

City for me are still the team to beat if you're gonna win the title. 

Yeah I'm not so much saying they've got substantially worse, so much as they seem to have evolved into a more functional side than last season. 

It's more of a stylistic thing, and as you touch upon, it's probably not something anyone would really notice or think about if they were top of the league.

[Honey Honey]

It would be good to see Liverpool or Tottenham win the league. It's the closest thing left in the English game to clubs and communities making memorable history from living in the moment. It's always a sorry sight when someone wins something again and their fans barely register it happening, like Arsenal and their FA Cup's.

[Dan+]

5 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

I'll be surprised if Puel isn't sort of under pressure again before the end of January. The best thing is it's not usually Leicester fans overreacting, it always seems to be justified at the time.

We're a very weird team. We have the odd game where we look really assured but more often than not, we've been poor, and that applies even after this last two games.

Granted the last two games are beyond anything any of us expected. Considering we normally struggle around this time of year as well.

One thing I will say about Leicester, and it's a good thing, is that we do have this weird knack of pulling a result out of the bag when all logic suggests we shouldn't. We've done it loads of times over the years. Every little thing points to a loss and we somehow go and pinch the win.

What's been sad about the Puel reign is that this surprise win has been so infrequent. The usual rule of thumb under him is that against the top six we will make them work for a while, but cave in and go 2 down before perhaps pinching a consolation at the end (Vardy scored 9 goals on a losing side last season which was some kind of record), then against the lesser sides, away, in fairness we usually get a win, but at home we stutter to a draw, unless it's Huddersfield or Watford.

The points total it requires for so many positions in this league are as low as they've been. 7th downwards could all break records for the lowest ever points total this season. We're on course for 56 points and we're 7th. That surely usually only gets you about 10th.

The truth is there is very little between 7th and 20th. Obviously we are a better team than Huddersfield, but it's no exaggeration to say that we're probably nearer to Huddersfield than we are Manchester United (if they get their act together) and look how much closer to them we are.

Yet I've felt for a lot of this season we've been stuttering to finish around 13th, in a table where I think 7th or 8th really is where we could've been.

The ultimate criticism under Puel is the lack of intensity in our games, how many games just seem to pass us by. Make no mistake we looked utterly hopeless before Saturday. We were lucky to draw at Fulham, pathetic at home to Spurs, pathetic at Palace and practically waved a white flag in the cup against Man City too with our team selection. Too frequently failing to take the initiative. We aren't a terrible side at all but the ultimate reason that Puel's come under pressure is that you don't feel like we've been getting the most out of what we've got - we don't demand to win the league or even finish in the top six, but I think what happened in 2015/16 has made us a lot pickier over what we actually get out of our players and resources and under Puel, too often we haven't seen in my eyes anything like the best. That's why he's been criticised.

But this last two games may truly be the springboard for him. They are two remarkable results that any team in the league would be proud of, and we really did deserve them for me - in-particular today.

[RandoEFC+]

Match of the Day makes it very clear our penalty shouldn't have been a penalty if it was indeed handball against Ben Mee. More justified if it was for the shirt pull on Michael Keane but I don't think it was.

Burnley were so poor. Mistake after mistake at the start from them. We did well but 5-1 flatters our performance and I don't expect us to rock up to Brighton as favourites on Saturday.

[Harry]

Unbelievable that city dropped more points today. They are still the team to beat and have depth like we and spurs do not. If CL performances are as expected we'll be in a position we'll struggle to sustain the challenge on multiple fronts. 

I think city are clearly the team to beat but having jumped out to 7 points ahead of them it would now be slightly painful to finish second to them whereas it would have been seen as a huge success if it'd been offered at the start of the season...

[Harry]

4 hours ago, Inverted said:

Yeah I'm not so much saying they've got substantially worse, so much as they seem to have evolved into a more functional side than last season. 

It's more of a stylistic thing, and as you touch upon, it's probably not something anyone would really notice or think about if they were top of the league.

What are the strongest teams pep has had to beat to win titles in his career to date? How do they compare to his current crop of opponents in liverpool spurs and Chelsea? 

He seems to have always strolled it. 

[LFCMike]

These Everton fans on Twitter trying to get Salah banned are embarrassing.