Went to the match on Saturday as usual but I've been busy since and haven't re-watched the game or saw any of the highlights. So again, I'm giving my post match comments based on my memory from Saturday and from where I was sat in the ground.
I'll begin with the starting line up. When I saw the team I must admit I was very pleased. After the Sevilla game on Wednesday the two players who I criticised were Lovren and Henderson so I was made up to see them both out of the team. I had no issues with our starting line up at all and apart from Mane and perhaps Wijnaldum, then its our strongest 11 in my opinion.
The game started as I expected. We were very much on top with all of the possession but we still struggled to create anything clear cut or break Burnley down. We had plenty of half chances, some decent ones, but I can't really recall any moments in the first half where we definitely should have scored. It was all a bit same old same old to me.
Their goal was just the typical type of goal we concede every week - just a farce from our back four. As I said I haven't seen any replays of the goals so this is from what I remember and I apologise if I'm wrong.
Burnley switched the play with a long ball that trent doesn't deal with. That wasn't the problem though, TAA or any other player isn't going to win every single header and at that point we weren't in any trouble either. Mignolet however, chose to move completely away from his goal (in the direction of the corner flag) as TAA was challenging for the ball in the air. I've no idea why he did this but I remember shouting 'where the f**k are you going you stupid dope' or something along them lines at the time.
The lad who beat Trent in the air heads the ball towards our box and that's when Matip and Klavan get in each others way and make a real mess of it. I remember thinking it was more Klavan who created the problem than Matip though.
The ball then falls to a lad on the edge of the box and at this point Mignolet is scurrying back towards his goal. The lad places the ball to Mignolets right (the direction in which he had just came from) but because mignolet is quickly moving towards the left to get back in his goal he couldn't position himself in time to save the shot. It was just f**king pathetic. Proper school boy defending as usual. It's actually embarrassing.
Luckily, we equalised almost immediately. A nice chip forward by Can and a great take and finish from Salah. HT 1-1.
Second half begins and its clear to me very early on that the pairing of Can and Milner aren't doing too great and we could do with a bit of pace or some more creativity in the middle. Sturridge was completely isolated too so we should have either taken him off and put Firmino up top, swapped him for solanke and gone more direct, or put solanke on alongside him. Me personally? Id have taken Milner off, put Wijanldum in the middle, taken sturridge off, put firmino up top and the ox out on the left. Jürgen however, left it how it was and for the next 30 minutes it was more or less the same as the first half. We had all of the ball but did very little with it.
Around 75 mins Klopp finally makes some changes but surprisingly brings the Brazilians off. Neither were having wonderful games but both of them are still potential match winners so it was an odd choice in my opinion. On came the Ox and Solanke but solanke appeared to be playing left mid? What the f**k was that about?
Solanke actually did really well when he came on, some great hold up play, good with his feet, very unlucky not to score when his shot came off the bar.
We still didn't look like scoring though and then come the two Burnley corners late on. Everybody in the ground can feel it, everybody is holding their heads in their hands nervous. I think it was Mee for Burnley had his header cleared off the line, and then for the second corner Mee again had his header saved at the near post. How on earth can we let the same player nearly score from almost identical corners in quick succession? As I said its just embarrassing.
A draw was probably a fair result because even though we bossed the possession, we didn't do enough to win the game in my opinion.
So to summarise, I was very happy with the starting 11 but I thought klopp left it far too late to make changes when it was obvious things weren't going our way or to plan. The back four is a joke and we won't win a thing with them. Firmino is ineffective on the flank and needs to be in the middle every game. Salah looks a real player and he was my motm again. He can be a bit more polished in the final third but apart from that I think he has been superb for us so far. 2 points dropped in a game we should be winning.
« Last Edit: Sep 18, 2017 02:03:49 pm by HamannsTheMan »
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