Sunderland 2-2 Liverpool: In game and Post Match discussion

It is sad to drop 2 points to Sunderland but as a   RED I have to look on the bright side.We have got 13 points out of the last 15 and that can't be bad.

It's the 3 games in 7 days and the fact we are missing Couts, Matip, and Henderson. Chelsea on the other hand, have played 3 games in 10 days and don't have a single injury unless I'm mistaken.

If we'd have those three fit, we would have had more options off the bench and that's massive at this time of year. So for me, because we really don't have a solid bench, it's cost us today.

That's our fault. We all know Christmas time is busy in this league, and it's our job to be ready. Other teams have the same challenge as us, and have to deal with it. Last year we had 4 days between games at Christmas, when others such as Chelsea and the mancs had 2 in 48 hours. The year before we had 75 hours between games while others had half the time. The year before we had 3 days between trips to City and Chelsea, while others did not. So we can't complain much tbh.

Chelsea have had a number of suspensions to deal with during Christmas. Then they have to go to Spurs. Their schedule has it's own challenges, but such is life in this league at this time of year.

Positives: over the course of this hectic Xmas period we have picked up a lot of points.
Negatives: the lack of depth in the squad is a huge concern to me and today (and also most of the city game) we looked tired.
Too many misplaced passes, labored procession and obvious moves in the final 3rd.
Sunderland fought us all the way but we were a team that appeared to be running on fumes for the last game and a half.
Just hope that klopp is willing to spend some dosh this January. It's not just the injuries and mane going if to the African cup...we need some new blood.

Football is never just a game of 11 v 11.

You've got to include subs, so it is essentially a game of 18 v 18. Jürgen's really fighting for scraps at the minute in terms of choices, and the impact is severely limited with subs who are struggling to make an impact.

Potential in the youths, but as ever, you cannot rely on kids in such pressure situations.

Disappointing yes,but Christ on a bike chill the F**k out.
We are second in the league(yes second)best points total so far,and given that at the start of the season I bet the sane fans in this world would of snapped hands of at the wrist.
A few bumps along the way are inevitable especially in the loaded xmas fixture list.
Chelsea will have there's its inevitable.

Football is never just a game of 11 v 11.

You've got to include subs, so it is essentially a game of 18 v 18.

Aye was thinking this earlier what is the point of having a squad and subs if they apart from Studge and Origi are not trusted to come on and do a job.

Gini and Can and Firmino were crying to be taken off but either Klopp thought the replacements were not good enough or he has too much faith in his players to play themselves into form through a match.

Disappointing yes,but Christ on a bike chill the f**k out.
We are second in the league(yes second)best points total so far,and given that at the start of the season I bet the sane fans in this world would of snapped hands of at the wrist.
A few bumps along the way are inevitable especially in the loaded xmas fixture list.
Chelsea will have there's its inevitable.

The draw wouldn't hurt so much, it's just that Chelsea have set such a high benchmark that we can't afford to do this. And bloody dafties like Can playing like that when there was so much at stake too really boils my blood. One day rest isn't ideal, but Sunderland also had the same issue too.

Christ almighty, it's a bloody sin that we've had the best points total in our Premier League history, and I'm just cursing the luck that its sadly come at a time when one team is absolutely charging to the title at a meteoric pace.

That's our fault. We all know Christmas time is busy in this league, and it's our job to be ready. Other teams have the same challenge as us, and have to deal with it. Last year we had 4 days between games at Christmas, when others such as Chelsea and the mancs had 2 in 48 hours. The year before we had 75 hours between games while others had half the time. The year before we had 3 days between trips to City and Chelsea, while others did not. So we can't complain much tbh.

Chelsea have had a number of suspensions to deal with during Christmas. Then they have to go to Spurs. Their schedule has it's own challenges, but such is life in this league at this time of year.

There's not much Klopp could have done about Matip, Couts, Henderson, and now Studge and Millers getting injured though. It's not as if he could dip into the market in December to shore up the squad. That's what's really cost us. Small squad

It's not that they played any better more like we were sloppy in our passing through midfield and they just kept hoofing it long ball, especially second half.
I'm more annoyed at the fact that both penalties should never been allowed to happen in the first place.

Once again their keeper has the game of his f**king life..

A few of our top men we're off the boil today which was frustrating to watch at times, admittedly more second half when we should have put the game to bed.
instead we allowed their long balls up to defoe continually cause ourselves problems.How old is he?

F**k it..
Tough month ahead..
FA Cup tie
League Cup Semi
Man U away
Chelsea at home

Gotta stay strong and keep going game by game.

 

Didnt see the game so can't judge that.

However, whatever the performance, fatigue has to be factored in. One day of recovery is a joke.

Maybe Jürgen could have shuffled the pack more, but it would have meant sacrificing some quality for fresh legs, especially with our injury situation, so he was between a rock and a hard place.

I didn't see the game but it does feel to me that the volume of fixtures has simply caught up with the relatively small squad and the City win clearly took a bit out of them.

Read a few posts in this thread and there are some people over reacting to the result saying we aren't title contenders and we played dreadful and then there are other posters who are defending what was a pretty poor performance by our standards in all honesty.

Today we looked tired. We didn't press like we usually do but it was more frustrating watching us lose possession time and time again - we were struggling to make five yard passes for most of the game.

You've got to remember that this is a shitty Sunderland side managed by "The Chosen One", I'll be gobsmacked if they manage to stay up, they are dreadful. So comments like 'we were still the better team' doesn't really mean much. They seemed more up for it than we did which is surprising, it's the first time I've felt that way about the opposition this season. Might just be my imagination but they appeared to win every 50-50 and every second ball.

We have got ourselves in a fine position at this stage in the season and we have been waiting for weeks to play before Chelsea so we can win, go within three points of them and really pile the pressure on. We had that chance today and it was vital that we won but we bottled it a bit truth be told. It was disappointing. That said, a draw isn't a disaster, we have still closed the gap and let's see how Chelsea do at Tottenham first before we all write our chances off.

Back to the game. Their goalie made a few good saves but so did mignolet. I thought Simon was very good today and I've been impressed with him as a whole since he has returned to the team.

I thought clyne played well and put in 2 or 3 brilliant crosses which we should have made more of. He was sound defensively as usual.

Lovren and Klavan played well and were pretty solid throughout too. Klavan gave a pen away but it was a harsh decision given by the ref in my opinion.

Milner was booked and took off at half time. Moreno came on but we didn't make the most of his natural width and pace, he wasn't involved much.

Wij looked tired and was sloppy on the ball. Lallana was the same.

Can was my motm. He too was poor in possession at times but I thought he covered a lot of ground and won the ball back for us so many times. He looked like the only player who was up for a battle and a fight for me.

Firmino is another who looks like he needs a rest. Was poor at times.

We see flashes of mane but overall he wasn't involved enough, maybe had one eye on the afcon and didn't want a knock possibly.

Sturridge played well and tested their keeper with a few shots. He must have had half a dozen attempts and on another day he would have got a brace.

To summarise yes it's a bad day at the office for us, we expected to win and we didn't, we didn't perform very well and we have some injuries to deal with now. But we're still up there and were still in the race. Hopefully Jürgen can bring in one or two in january and they hit the ground running.

Did I miss something with my poor stream? I mean there's no way you are referring to Can?

if you did miss it, can blocked a ball in the box with a semi out stretched arm.  99/100 it is a penalty.  we got away with one there

It is sad to drop 2 points to Sunderland but as a   RED I have to look on the bright side.We have got 13 points out of the last 15 and that can't be bad.

This  ...

if you did miss it, can blocked a ball in the box with a semi out stretched arm.  99/100 it is a penalty.  we got away with one there

Oh no, I saw that one, and 99/100 it is not a penalty. Distance to arm and movement.

Oh no, I saw that one, and 99/100 it is not a penalty. Distance to arm and movement.

I thought it was a pen too to be honest mate. Cans arm was too far away from his body and in those situations the defender needs to tuck them in. 99/100 times its a pen for me.

Disappointing, but not the end of the world. Sunderland made this a very open game which meant more running had to be done and within 44 hrs of playing Citeh it looked a bit of a stretch - especially with this squad - which contrary to popular myth, well earlier on in the season anyway doesn't have the strength and depth to call upon. Noticed in the last two games specifically we've looked to conserve energy with the 'press' by sitting a bit. This didn't have any detrimental effect on us, I think Moyes' game plan with his injury ravaged squad caught us more today with a more expansive and open game that had high tempo added to it. Ironically, it would have been easier - fitness wise had Moyes parked the bus, but he turned it up on our weary legs and had his lads push us.

Sickening to be pulled back by two penalties when overall I thought we were 'decent' all things considered.

Mignolet: had a good game probably his best over the last four games as he was called into action and made some telling saves, the one v one against Defoe was outstanding. 8

Clyne: Whipped in one decent cross from memory onto Mane's head but other than that didn't attack or receive the wide balls enough to stretch Sunderland's back four. 6

Lovren: Thought he had a good game today, especially as we appeared more open and stretched at times during this match but everything he needed doing he did pretty well. 8

Klavan: Conceded the first penalty but this looked another game than came too quickly for him. 6

Milner: Started where he left off, probably the age/games played factor saw him go at HT, but looked more of a threat down the left than Clyne did down the right. I wouldn't have brought him off - TAA for Clyne (if Milner wasn't injured would have been the go). 7

Can: Thought he had another decent game barring a few sloppy passes and mistimed challenges, his lack of mobility I thought left him and the defence a little exposed at times as this game appeared stretched from the off. 7

Lallana: Not quite the impact in midfield he had against Citeh, worked well but was unable to influence the play with the ball as much. Another game that came too quickly for him. 6.5

Gini: Clearly hadn't recovered either, those passes weren't there, looked knackered from the off. 5

Mane: Hero to zero. I thought he was having a decent game even before he scored, he looked a threat even though he seems to have slightly gone off the boil. Then gave away the penalty trying to do Mignolet's job for him. 7

Firmino: The lad isn't offering anything now. A stark contrast in performance from months back, yet still keeps his place. Not good enough. 5.5

Sturridge: Looked boss in the first half, faded slightly in the second although it was his little 1-2 with Lallana that won us the corner we scored from. Good instinct and movement to anticipate Lovren's miss-hit pass for the goal. 7.5

Moreno: 6 Barely had an impact.

Origi: 6


We now need to be cheering on the Spuds in the hope they can hold Chelsea's lead to 5 pts. They're usually f**king useless though so I won't hold my breath.

F***ing media narrative is funny though, when we were top a while back we were certs to win the league, now Chelsea have won a couple of games on the bounce the fickleness and expert pundits quickly jump on their bandwagon and speak as though their a nats piss from winning the league. F***ing turkey's! There's still a long way to go yet, we just have to annihilate our penchant for dropping points to 'smaller' teams at the wrong time - Bournemouth and West f**king Ham, if any result will be the arse biters it will be these two. 

F***ing media narrative is funny though, when we were top a while back we were certs to win the league, now Chelsea have won a couple of games on the bounce the fickleness and expert pundits quickly jump on their bandwagon and speak as though their a nats piss from winning the league.

Oh yeah they were also drooling all over City saying how they'd walk the league this year 5 games into the season 

Oh yeah they were also drooling all over City saying how they'd walk the league this year 5 games into the season 

That's right, they were too.

Take a JCB bucket of salt to what they say. They swing with the wind those "experts".

There's not much Klopp could have done about Matip, Couts, Henderson, and now Studge and Millers getting injured though. It's not as if he could dip into the market in December to shore up the squad. That's what's really cost us. Small squad

The squad size is our responsibility. We knew Christmas would be busy, we knew about the AFCON coming up. A lot of players were let go in the summer, we didn't sign enough reinforcements to cope with injuries or busy schedules, so its no surprise that the squad is lighter than it should be, if they start dropping like flies.

I didn't miss Hendo at all, he would have contributed nothing to the game, as he never does against Sunderland. He's just never up for the fight.

If Chelsea lose this week, then this result is a point gained. But if is the biggest word in football.

Just home from the match after a few sherbets.
Gutted about the pens but will need someone in a better position than me to call it as through my red tinted specs neither looked a pen.

They were the worst team we have played all season. Terrible atmosphere and just a sh*t game. Last few days looked like they took there toll on us.

Take the draw and move on.

Come on Redmen we can do better than that.

Take the draw and move on.

Come on Redmen we can do better than that.

We are still OK, hope spur & Chelsea loss points now.

Still pee'd off about this result and the performance.

Gave MotM to Migs who looked the part for once and did nothing wrong. Defoe's pens were too good for him.