What I wrote at the time
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There are ways of shutting up shop that send the ball in a forwards direction. Or a sideways direction and we all know we have a master of the sideways pass in the team. They have no need to throw themselves forward in a wave of attacks, they can keep possession of the ball for ten minutes and let things calm down before building up to attack again. As I've said before, when under the cosh they don't have to always attempt a counter attack, they can launch the ball into their corner, have one of the forwards keep it there while the defence reorganises itself in preparation for the next attack from which we're then in a much better position to counter attack. The dark arts are missing in our team. Players can start crumpling under the lightest of challenges and disrupt the opposition's rhythm - it's done often enough to us. Just because a sloppy ball played back results in a goal because our keeper has arms made of smoke doesn't mean we can't shut up shop, we simply have to learn how to do it properly.
Klopp has said he would rather resign than do all that. Guardiola says the same. So that's what we play, 100mph all the time. Traditional British football style really, just with better players nowadays.
We have tried to close games down before though. Sometimes it's worked, sometimes it hasn't. I can't say I like it very much because it's a gamble, it's not our natural game, it breaks our momentum, and when it's lost, it stays lost. And if the opposition take advantage of it as they have in the past, he gets stick for that also. Our game is designed to be 100mph football all the time. That's what we wanted from him, that's what he promised we would have, and this is it in action. And the table shows it works more often than it doesn't. At 50 quid a pop, it's full value for money.
We know Migs isn't good enough, Klopp knows he's not good enough, he signed Karius to get rid of him after all, he has tried Bogdan, Ward, and Karius to replace him but none of them have been up to the job. However, if all these opponents are better than us, why aren't they beating us? Why aren't they ahead of us? Because every one of them has their own faults. As for City, they rarely keep a clean sheet. So let's stop eulogising about the scumbag that got Sadio Mane sent off. He's no Gordon Banks.
Going into the game, most of us would have taken a point, and a point is what we got. It's now 13 games unbeaten, and it keeps us in the top 4 at halfway. They are the facts that matter. Stay there after another 19 games and it's job done, see you next season.
Back to normal for the next game, playing against a side that won't move out of their own half. I'll be there for it, so please God we'll get the job done. It's about time we won at home again.
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