Saun Dyche decided to teach Klopp some manners and he did it with only 23% possession, 62% pass accuracy compared to 88% of Liverpool and 227 passes compared to 717. He got away with a clean sheet, a 2-0 scoreline against the title contenders while fighting in a relegation battle. The Premier League is ruthless, but when it comes to the City, teams are helpless (sort of).
We were hoping for Brighton to do Everton on Man City but they lost 4-0. City are only a point behind with a game in hand to Arsenal. I doubt they are going to drop any points in their next 5 games, they are going to get away with the title most likely. Winning mentality comes from WINNING, and if we were the winners last season, I would have put my money on Arsenal. They are not going to drop points. No chance at all.
We are doing our best. Arteta humiliated Pochettino as if he was still managing Spurs and I’m pretty sure he is going to do the same to Ange. The problem at the top is that, you lose 2 games and your season is over. We are out of champions league because we didn’t win against Bayern, and we are going to lose Premier League race because we lost to Aston Villa at home.
Klopp has suffered this for 8 seasons, winning only once when he had one of the best teams at one point (Salah, Mane, Firmino, VVD, TAA and some more). Arteta suffered it last season and is going to suffer again in 4 weeks.
But…
What’s stopping us from being the City? KSE has not shyed away from investment. Mikel has gotten everyone he wanted. We have a bench of players like Vieira, Jesus, Zinchenko, Timber, Tomiyasu, Partey, ESR, Nketiah, Nelson. That’s about 200 odd millions.
I think it’s the football we are playing. We are doing what Pep does with better players. Of course, he is going to win. We need the chaos Wenger used to have. We need the chaos the front three of Liverpool had. We need the chaos Martinelli showed initially but is now reduced to a player who runs on commands.
Chaos and Order. Fuck the order next season and let’s get some chaos. Let’s get some Trossard and Martinelli and Partey.
Right, I’m typing this on phone so excuse me for any errors. Marriages here are a week’s thing and I still have couple of days to enjoy. Hope you are having a nice one.
in regards to Arne Slot this is the common consensus:
“He plays an attractive, attacking brand of football and is someone who is not afraid to trust in youth, while his man-management skills have also been widely praised”
as the late great Chris Farley would say “me likey”
I’m not so sure I think Liverpool thought it would boost their chances to win the league, which has monumentally back fired. Whether Klopp went along with it I have no idea.
What is Liverpool famous for other than the world’s biggest collection of stolen hub caps and wheels? There is the Beatles and Jerry & the Pacewankers and Liverpool and the poor relation Everton not forgetting Accrington Stanley.
I don’t recall Liverpool ever claiming to be a brain drain area. Street savvy academies alorra aplenty. Gigged there many times where you have to have security for your equipment trucks but the hells angels humper crews back then doubled as back stage security for a few cases of feet and recreational money.
United looked dire. Looks like I git Ten hag wrong. He did a great job with Ajax but I think the Pl is not for him. Not doing well in the team building area for me. There were more stand out albeit rough diamonds playing for Burnley than for the very average Manure.
A thoroughly enjoyable Saturday with its results.
Now looking forward to Sunday’s game.
My god Chelsea are poor 4 minutes and already a goal down to Villa.
Whilst I’m not 100% sure I think we need Chelsea to get something tonight to keep the Spud’s interested in 4th enough to go after City.
Of course that means we’ve got to deal with that but as I said yesterday you want to win the league who need to beat the Spud’s at least once a season.
Morning all
Didn’t get to see the Chavs game, but looks like Emery scraped a point won with the VAR late decision to disallow the Chav’s winning goal. The joys of the modern game. Always good to see the Chavs lose.
So what has St Tott’s day got in store for us with today’s slightly early KO time at 8pm for me?
To be honest I have no idea.
It’s a game where the football pendulum can swing either way as emotions run high on the pitch, where it’s who can keep their nerve in a must win game for us and Spuds. I haven’t watched much of the Spuds this season; I prefer other types of comedy. If I feel low, I watch Spuds play for the comedic value of their points tally being rightfully below us: the Spuds know their place.
What of this afternoon, though? We need to keep up with City and Spuds want to overturn Emery for 4th spot, so all to play for for us both. Drop points and our season is 100% dead, up from 90+%, but Spuds can still be a Europa football side, they are best at. CL is not for Spuds these days, but then winning trophies is not what Spuds do; they are our poor relations of also rans from London 17 points below us in the league, but the nearest London club to us.
London is definitely Red!
Win today and we keep pressure on Pep, but win or lose today and Ange P has delivered Europa football in his first season at Spuds. With little money to spend and a squad of serial losers that their trophy cabinet proves replete with moths and about 60 years of dust.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH2w6Oxx0kQ
It’s what Spuddie fans sing at the end of each season.
What can we expect from Spuds, as we pretty much know the 11 starters from our 13 man Arteta pets’ squad? Son up top with Kulusveski Maddison and Johnson in support. Bissoume & Sarr in midfield tight behind front the supporting trio.
Not sure about their back line, so maybe TRVL or Aitcho can offer more about their defensive abilities/frailties from their 49 goals conceded? With 65 goals for, they have a GD of 16 and an average game ball possession of 61.8%
Looking at our stats we’ve scored 82 goals conceding 26 with 60% average playing time with a GD of +56 vs the aforementioned Spuds tally of +16.
On paper it’s a no brainer, and should be at least a 1:3 win for us on stats alone. Sadly, junior is not here to do his applied level of maths for our probable win margin. Shame PhD2020 isn’t around any more either.
However, St Totts Day history is interesting as you can read its history here for the uninitiated or young Gooners:
https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~mikepitt/tothistory.html
The above overall findings are as follows:
“Arsenal have been above Spurs in the league on 66 Occasions. Spurs have come above Arsenal 30 times. On the times when Spurs and Arsenal are in the same division (which has always been the top flight) Arsenal lead 51 to 28.”
The historical odds favour us far more, but football is not a game that you can be 100% sure even when the odds favour you most. In football there are always surprises and I hope Ange P doesn’t have one up his sleeve that will out maneuver El B’s tactics of wash rinse repeat with the same trusted, yet tired leggy players.
My gut says we won’t lose. That’s as close as I got to a prediction, so a win or draw is my conclusion, but obviously my hope is we rattle 5+ goals past Vicario for City to savor before they play Forest away after our game, so we need to keep the pressure on to maintain our hopeful claim on the PL trophy.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Tony—I would suspect the backline will consist of Porro, Romero, Van de Ven and Davies (1st choice Udogie is out for the season)…Ange prefers a base 4-2-3-1, which will likely be anchored by Bissouma and Bentancur, with Kuv, Maddison and Werner ahead of them and Son up top…unlike Pep or Arteta, who prefer the positional approach with predetermined movements, Ange prefers a hybrid between Pep’s strictness and the functional approach of Real, where players are encouraged to think for themselves and react to naturally occurring spaces on the pitch…as such, they won’t usually spend a lot of time pressing high, but they will try to counter with pace and maximum efficiency, which means doing so with the least amount of passes possible
keys to victory
(1) start off by attacking Romero, who’s both rash and a fucking hothead…this will likewise give us valuable insight into how this match will be officiated right from the off…if it’s going to be a ticky-tack affair, we stretch them at the back, with hopefully Marts and Saka in wider spaces, whereas if it’s a whistles in the pocket kind of gig, we need to put more pressure on their CBs…this latter plan will likely include Rice taking up more advanced spaces, which leads to my second key factor
(2) how we deal with the counter if Jorginho is sitting deep and Rice is more advanced…not sure if the risk matches the reward, especially considering Jorginho’s lack of pace…some of those concerns could be alleviated if we drop the whole inverted nonsense on the left, so Gabs can play more centrally
(3) making them pay for allowing us to setup shop in their half…we simply must take advantage of our early opportunities…if we don’t, it will require us to commit more men forward, which in turn could leave us exposed on the counter…this could be a fixture where the our possession stats flatter to deceive
(4) don’t play such a highline that we allow Son to get beyond our defenders, which could be an issue if we don’t properly track him when he moves out wide on occasion
personally I think we should cause some real problems for them and win relatively easily, but that’s why you play the game
Thanks for your thinking TRVL. Taking in what you’ve laid out I agree we should be going home with all 3 points. The St Tott’s Day win stats are well in our favour, so hopefully we get the job done quickly and tidily.
What are the odds for a Havertz hat trick?
they should be astronomically low, but when both he and White get braces in the same fixture, who the fuck knows…this is the kind of matchup I would actually start Tross up top, with Saka and Marts on either side, as I think his shiftiness could present a few more problems for both Romero and de Ven, who’s had some issues with more diminutive Strikers…he might even be able to draw a penalty from Romero, who’s not adverse to sticking a late leg in on occasion…of course, I know this will never happen, as it would require MA to bench the teacher’s pet…I just hope we don’t get lulled into a false sense of security if the Spuds allow us to dominate possession, much like what happened in the first leg against Bayern
Some very readable analysis there from both of you. Thanks. Good piece in this morning’s Observer too about Saka and his personal philosophy about football and winning.
I’ve ebbed and flowed on this game since we beat Chelsea. I think we’ll have enough to win because we shade them in all three areas of the pitch, ie defence midfield and up front. Romero is nuts (Scots would call him a ‘heid the baw’ but mental fragility runs through the their team). We need to show composure and ready to help the ref clock up the yellow cards against Spurs. If Postecoglu is still persisting with his own abnormally highline, Martinelli has to feature and balls over the top to be played anywhere apart from in the zone occupied by Van der Ven who is quick.
And the other thing that will ensure victory?…….. DON’T FORGET, WE HAVE DECLAN RICE, who will dominate today as he always does. A 3-1 win.
Thanks for Saka Observer piece I check it out. I haven’t formed an opinion on Saka other than he is intelligent and mature, and yet still young making ill advised overplaying decisions.
Something from the Valleys is the below vs movie with Anthony Hopkins and Jonathon Pryce in fine form. True story about saving children in 1939 Eastern Europe.
https://g.co/kgs/nrMFXSw
Now we have Ukraine and Palestine with human atrocities especially poor children.
Back to football.
An incredible and moving movie with Hopkins at his very best. Keep the tissues handy true story.
Seems to be a few old WW2 stories keeping the necessary moving memories to keep us and our children well informed through excellent cinematography: this time with Dame Helen Mirren.
White Bird https://g.co/kgs/7JR8Kre
What do people think about Salah and Klopp’s spat? My side is with Klopp because Salah is in a form slump as was evident when he broke free and passed behind Diaz for an easy goal winner making Salah look a real plonker.
Salah putting his slack of form on Klopp is bad prima donna optics. Perhaps he should go play in Egypt or Saudi where he can dictate terms like Ronaldo and be godlike for average form.
Klopp made Salah not the other way round because Salah was surplus to requirements at Chelsea when Klopp bought him.
So this is where we are. Win all of our remaining matches (todays is in my opinion by far the toughest) and we finish on 89 points, draw today and we finish on 87 (its not even worth talking about if we lose).
If City win 4 and draw 1 they finish on 89 points so it could go to goal difference, win 4 and lose one its 88.
A draw for us today means City have to drop points in 2 matches – 2 draws would see it again go to goal difference.
I can’t see City dropping points in more than 1 match so we’ve got 4 Cup Finals.
Now go out and fucking win.
New post!