Well, it’s gonna be a very short one as I am travelling but I won’t let you do the Carabao Cup analysis on a Champions League post. We are playing Brighton today, in about 15 min and Mikel has fielded a very rotated side.
Kepa starts ahead of Raya and will get support from the back four of White, Hincapie, Mosquera and MLS. Dowman – the 15 year old wonderkid gets his start today. The last time I was happy seeing a young one break into the team was Wilshere, and he turned out brilliant. Here’s to Max achieving much more than that. Everyone gonna cheer for him today. He will be supported by Merino and Norgaard in the midfield.
Mikel has gone with a strange front 3 – Harriman-Annous, Nwaneri and Eze. Now, I am all for rotation but we have 2 world class players in each position and against Brighton, we could have afforded a better challenging team. Every trophy is important, i hope it doesn’t come down to it but if it does, i seriously hope the bench will give us some relief.
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Anyway, lets just enjoy the game and see if one of the kids takes their chances and puts up an impression which makes Mikel’s life difficult. See you in 15 min.
I don’t know who the producer / director is running the footage at Sky but we really need to bring the death penalty back.
A couple of big chances for Brighton – we need to get it together.
Brighton should have been up 2-0 by now.
Ambarish
It looks like they’ve been told to shoot on site when given a chance.
Marc
Yes, they tried it again. They are betting on Kepa may be.
Ambarish
Its a good way to unsettle the opposition and make them be a little more cautious when going forward.
Mikel won the only trophy in 2020. I assure you Covid was around only few months back. 6 years – and a billion dollar investment, bring it on 1-0 to the Arsenal and play as boring football as you can but get me a trophy for fuck sake.
Swansea teaching Citeh some footballing lessons.
Dowman is going to be a top player.
If we can get Enrique in to take over his development he’ll be one of the best in the world.
What the fuck is happening at Liverpool?
What’s that 5 loses in their last 6?
My prediction for the draw – we’ll get Newcastle.
Shaky start a consequence of the unfamiliar line up. But a good test for the players and a chance for them to show what they can do without the usual faces.
Test passed.
Proper captain’s performance from Merino. He and Norgaard grasped the nettle after that first 20 or so, you could see them demanding more from themselves. Merino became much more assertive as he should given his role as captain today.
I was disappointed he didn’t start higher up but his pre assist for the goal was delightful.
Hincapie, rightly, berating MLS after he perhaps his third dodgy piece of decision making was good to see. New face old head, still taking him to task for losing the ball in risky areas. No sacred cows, it needed to be said.
Once players like White, Merino and Norgaard started to impose themselves you could see the younger players grow into the game. White had a good run out to remind us that he’s still quality.
Some of the defensive positioning was a bit loose and gave BHA more space to attack than I would have liked. Again, a lack of familiarity between them played a part I imagine. Getting the shape right, delegating the work, communication wasn’t going to be as sharp. There were moments of indecision between them that BHA could have potentially capitalised on.
Kepa was decent but reminds me how good Raya’s distributon is in comparison.
Clean sheet most importantly.
Different vibe this eve, half term, more kids and more irregulars. A lot of the guys around me passed on this one. They missed out, 2 goals and no set piece. Although Gabriel, he’s the master of illusion in the box. In his short cameo he constantly threw his blocker off the scent at corners even though they started off literally facing each other. Like Ali dancing round Geroge Foreman. Now you’re touching my chest, now I’m winning a header behind you.
A most agreeable evening.
And they say we can’t score from open play ….fools.
both goals tonight were of the highest quality, great movement and perfectly weighted final balls from Skelly and Timber.
Kepa should get a mention as he looked very assured , Norgaard looked shaky early on and was loose in his passing but finished the game very strong, Dowman will be unstoppable in a couple of years , Nwanari was very tidy on the ball and the young lad up front had some nice touches.
2nd half performance was good and in the end was a comfortable victory, the Liverpool result is proof that men against a team with kids can easily go wrong but our kids are the real deal and it bodes.well for the future.
I was unable to watch the match live, so I just finished…I was encouraged to see the lineup, as in the past there’s no way such a side would have been trotted out against a top-half PL squad…our backline took a little time to figure their shit out, but I quite like the ball distribution capabilities of this CB tandem…they’re certainly not as formidable as our starting duo, defensively-speaking, but they both have a bigger up-side when it comes to producing a wider array of passes…maybe that will come in handy at some point this season…Dowman and Ethan both performed admirably, which hopefully will open the door to a few more opportunities, especially for the latter
by far the best part of the match was the first goal…not only did it come from open play, but it required two deft touches, most notably the one by Merino, and a well-placed finish…the only beef I have with Merino is the disgusting manner in which he flops about with the slightest bit of contact, almost as if he’s 5 feet tall and a 100 pounds soaking wet…he might have learned that in La Liga, but he’s taken it to a whole new level since arriving in London…regardless, we should be investing far more time on the training ground trying to produce those sorts of moments so that we don’t need to rely so heavily on set pieces…all-in-all it was a decent performance, even though we were incredibly lucky not to be 2 down early on…most importantly, several players who haven’t seen a lot of minutes, for whatever reasons, got a good run-out
In praise of a Chelsea reject …
I thought Kepa had a terrific game. Most importantly, he’ll be an asset – not an immediate worry – if Nostrildamus picks up an injury. No more Turner and Runnarson type traumas.
Nice one Herr Wickmeister with the goals from open play comment which I bet you’ve been dying to deploy for weeks now! 😂
Could El B beat Maureen’s 2004/2005 record of goals conceded. Wenger had held the record and pre premiership GG did well with one more goal than Wenger.
KP—months not weeks
Liverpool’s next 3 matches are Villa (H), Real Madrid (H) and City (A).
Not the 3 matches you’d pick if you were on a terrible run and desperate for wins.
TRVL and Kroenke
More like years!
Marc
seems like years.