I'm sure if Keita had remained injury free we'd be having a different discussion,
but him coming off was a bit like Ox, in that it took that driving force out of midfield.
I quite liked the 3 with Fabinho, Gini & Hendo at times,
but ultimately we ended up with 2 no 8's doing a lot of covering and nobody pushing up enough to cause Napoli problems.
That's something we'll only really see with Keita or Ox, but from Napoli's point of view (Allan) there was a lot of drive and then
some distribution too, something LFC lacked.
It was noticeable on watching again that Firmino was continually thwarted when he tried to drop deep, by the simple expedient of blocking his direct running line.
It meant he couldn't get back as quickly as usual, and really affected his defensive work.
Napoli did a lot of blocking (not fouling as such, but little bits of jostling, and tugs that the ref didn't notice) and taking a player out early if he looked like he was going to break.
It was effective, and some might say canny, but for me, a stronger ref would have stopped it by booking a couple of players early on, especially the drag backs on Mane, and some of the manhandling of Salah.
For me, it crossed the line between being clever and cheating, but I don't moan when we do it (I applaud it) so I'm not going to be a hypocrite by making a big deal out of it.
Suffice to say it affected us a fair bit, and was doubtless part of Ancelotti's gameplan.
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