Exeter 2-2 Liverpool: In game and Post Match debate

Exeter fan in Peace.

For us that was like winning a EURO semi-final in our eyes as a smaller club, our ULTRAS put on a good show and we now have the payout. We will have our two best players back as well for Anfield. Great FACUP run moneywise for a co-operative owned football club. As one of the owners looking forward to coming to Anfield.

All the best

Thames Valley Red

MOM Tom Nichols - no button to press

I read it'll be a £700k windfall for the club.

Any chance that gets reinvested in to the pitch? Seen cow paddocks in better shape

Great atmosphere from what i could hear through the TV. Bring it to Anfield - we could do with some noise. Good luck!

I agree, I'm not quite sure how Tex fading in the 2nd half is some kind of evidence that he won't make it. He won't be asked to play on pitches
Like this very often in his career, neither will he play in many matches like this, in fact it was a very unique set of circumstances that are unlikely to be repeated.

The lad was excellent in the first half, showed more than enough to suggest he should get a look in with the first team. I k ow Brendan was a big fan, I'm really hoping Klopp sees something in him.

The lad is about to turn 23. If we were talking about an 18 year old, I'd agree with you. If he wants to have any chance of making it here he has to do a lot more when he's given his chances. I don't see any way that he is here long-term. I'm not really disappointed about it either. The lad will clearly go on to have a career in the championship, at worst, and I don't see him ever being good enough to start/play regularly for a team who have title aspirations. He should move on for his own sake in order to play regularly for a team that fit more closely with his ability.

I am impressed with Smith, because of his non stop running that resulted in the  equaliser. He resembles Aldridge, nothing special, but hardworking with his running into the box, assured and compose inside the box but more importantly his anticipation and positioning inside the box is very good that many of our first team players lacked.

I think he's really good on the ball. Very rarely puts in a bad cross or shoots over or well wide. Still not anywhere near convinced about him off the ball and I suspect Klopp will, rightly in my opinion, persist with Moreno because at this moment in time he's a much better player. He's looked good in each of the games he's played in so far, but none of them have been really testing situations. He's played in a Europa league game where both sides accepted a point, a league cup game in which we were winning by three or four when he came on, and against a league 2 side.

I'd see that was a job well done on reflection. Not sure how long Enrique has left on his contract but I don't think he will be seen often or at all in the future he has lost a lot of his pace but considering he has done nothing for a year he didn't let us down. I think he will go with similar at Anfield and have a strong bench so danny murphy can moan about it.

I read it'll be a £700k windfall for the club.

Any chance that gets reinvested in to the pitch? Seen cow paddocks in better shape

Great atmosphere from what i could hear through the TV. Bring it to Anfield - we could do with some noise. Good luck!

Sorry about the pitch, it was relaid 2 years ago as we had a fund raiser with the fans to pay for it, I rans the Great West Run to raise some of the money. It is due to the floods, been hit hard down in Devon. The whole run is probably worth close to 1.5m/2m for us.  Add that to the 2nd instalment from Matt Grimes to Swansea we have a chance to invest.

Tommy Nichols may go soon as well.

Great weekend.

TVR

Thought Smith played well - not done a lot wrong anytime I've seen him - Teixeria maybe I expected a bit more.  Just a bit concerned that he's going the way of Suso and Pacheco.

It's probably a bit late in the day for him here.
Another player brought in by one manager that sees several changes of personnel.
Brought in by Rodolfo after he schooled us in the NextGen.

Pitch was clearly heavy so I'm not surprised he faded in the second half.
Put Can in beside him in the two and he'd do a job for us in the Anfield game.

Thanks for talking to us.

"I had to"

https://twitter.com/legsidelizzy/status/685581584121114624

Awesome that wasn't it, hilarious fella.

For the game I thought it went as most of us would have expected.

Positives:

Teixeira
Smith
Ojo

Think the first 2 are really knocking the door down for a starting place in the team now.

Negatives:

Bogdan
Randall
Enrique
Benteke

Pretty damning that 3 of those are supposedly the more senior players.

Proud of the young lads some very good performances out there in difficult conditions and circumstances.

Most of them deserve to start the replay, some of them need to give themselves a stern look in the mirror, not good enough.

If Bogdan was a dog!

https://vine.co/v/ihtLUDeAtVb

I'm withdrawing my earlier criticism of Kloppie for his comments about the pitch.  Having reviewed it, I can see he was a lot less critical than I first thought.  More tongue-in-cheek.  And he DID praise Exeter - must have missed it first time.  Sorry Jürgen!

However, lads, lasses.  I can't believe the criticism, the bile, the negativity towards some of the lads who played last night.  (He's sh*te, he'll never make it, he's only good for a League One team, can't wait to see the back of him, etc).

Yes, there were a few individual mistakes, as there always are in a match.  The Bogdan error was worthy of grief, but not much else.  We've got some really promising young players who came together last night in totally unfamiliar circumstances under the glare of prime time live national TV and they cam back from behind twice to draw a match in which they struggled for long periods.
How we love to sit on our arses and knock the men who do things.

Ever played football?  It ain't FIFA 15.

If Bogdan was a dog!

https://vine.co/v/ihtLUDeAtVb

I'm withdrawing my earlier criticism of Kloppie for his comments about the pitch.  Having reviewed it, I can see he was a lot less critical than I first thought.  More tongue-in-cheek.  And he DID praise Exeter - must have missed it first time.  Sorry Jürgen!

However, lads, lasses.  I can't believe the criticism, the bile, the negativity towards some of the lads who played last night.  (He's sh*te, he'll never make it, he's only good for a League One team, can't wait to see the back of him, etc).

Yes, there were a few individual mistakes, as there always are in a match.  The Bogdan error was worthy of grief, but not much else.  We've got some really promising young players who came together last night in totally unfamiliar circumstances under the glare of prime time live national TV and they cam back from behind twice to draw a match in which they struggled for long periods.
How we love to sit on our arses and knock the men who do things.

Ever played football?  It ain't FIFA 15.

WTF who is slagging young lads, they all did well, some better than others. that's it, simples.

Senior pro's though can get criticised.

Bogdan ffs, never ever let him near a RED shirt again. Shocking.

Enrique brilliant, chuffed he got a game and did very well as makeshift CB.

Benteke, what was the point, that is the only thing Klopp did wrong, I would have just started with an u21 striker.

I'd see that was a job well done on reflection. Not sure how long Enrique has left on his contract but I don't think he will be seen often or at all in the future he has lost a lot of his pace but considering he has done nothing for a year he didn't let us down. I think he will go with similar at Anfield and have a strong bench so danny murphy can moan about it.

seen some criticising Jose, he did well considering he was out of position and not played 1st team footi for 1 year.

Think he will be off as well, but maybe in the summer now for a free, we can't be letting any defenders leave in January considering all the Injuries.

Fair play to whoever gave ojo man of the match I thought about giving it to him myself. Thought his running into space caused them hugs problems and obviously he had a big part in the goal

Find it difficult to rate the young lads.  Normally you see see maybe two or three in a normal first team and it is easier to make a judgement, but in the circumstances with a team full of them they were under real pressure, and the real positive is they never gave up so no damage done and not ready to write any of them off just yet. 

One thing is that a lot of them look really small with the exception of Smith, Randall and Ojo.

Not even going to judge the two CBs given the playing time they have had in the last year.

Hopefully by the time the replay comes around we may have a few more players available to give the youngsters some much needed support.

Torn over this one in many ways. It was a terrible pitch that's for sure, this team will never be seen again in terms of man for man starting 11.

Bogdan - Makes Mignolet look like Buffon - 2

Randell - Never stopped running, gave it his all but at the end of the day was caught out of position a lot and left us exposed too - 6
Illori - Great to finally see him in a Liverpool shirt, looked exhausted by the end but played ok - 6
Enrique - A seasoned pro out of match fitness. Looked old, tired and done to be honest - 5
Smith - Good turnout, has a good bit of pace about him. Delivery was too rushed and disappointing towards the end because he definately has a good cross in his locker. Work still to do defensively - 7

Teixeira - Impressive again, lovely bits of play. Don't think the wing is best suited for him, I'd like to see him more central behind a striker. Must start to feature in the PL now. - 8
Stewart - Bits and bobs looked good from him, seemed to be disciplined and knocked the ball around a horrid pitch. - 7
Brannagan - Again looked good, nothing too special. I have high hopes for this lad and hope to see him a little more - 7
Kent - Raw, very raw but has a lot in his locker. At one point in the game he took it down wonderfully but then ended up trying too much and kicking the ball out himself, summed up his night I think, glimpses of quality but needs fine tuning, what you'd expect really. - 7

Benteke - Looked frustrated as hell out there. Sometimes I think people expect him to cross the ball to himself and head it in too. Got little to no service all match. You cannot score if you don't get the ball. As captain he should have got hold of the young lads on the wing and said get the F***ing ball into me. He didn't which was disappointing - 6
Sinclair - Took his goal well, played well enough, again nothing too much to go on. - 7

Average all round really. Ojo looked good when he came on, Chirivella less so. I would be expecting our u-21 team to beat League 2 opposition, every time so I am a little disappointed that we didn't come away with a win. Every one of those young lads if they went on loan to League 2 I'd want them to be lighting up the league and walking on to teams... I'm not so sure they all would based on that performance. However like I said at the start... This time isn't one we'll see again and that makes it tough playing against a well oiled unit used to playing together, regardless of their individual qualities.

All in all... Still annoyed we didn't beat Exeter but dare I say we showed good character coming from behind twice?

Find it difficult to rate the young lads.  Normally you see see maybe two or three in a normal first team and it is easier to make a judgement, but in the circumstances with a team full of them they were under real pressure

Agree with this, not just for the reason you mention but also because there was so many of them it was hard to really focus on each as an individual.

You see a couple in alongside the 'regulars' and you can analyse them a little bit better, if that makes sense.

Looks like some split feelings amongst Ilori, but given all the circumstances surrounding him I thought he did a more than adequate job.   Let's face it, our first team could have easily conceded twice against Exeter.

I thought on balance we should definitely be giving him some positivity.

Remember, 2 and a half years ago Brendan Rodgers was saying how delighted he was with the signing and how he would be ready to play straight for the first team so to say things haven't panned out for him is an understatement.

I would have taken a draw considering everything. Thought it was a good game like the old days and our young lads stood up well, we weren't bullied which was the main thing.

For those of you not used to watching youth footy that was a typical performance from the lads.

It's normal for them to drift in and out of games.  It's normal for them to be inconsistent.  It's normal to have a couple of wtf moments in a game. 

It wasn't the best performance and it wasn't the best result but they get to have another go, at Anfield and on our terms.  Our crowd, our pitch, under lights and with a few more days to prepare, I'll take that!

I'm so pleased that Jürgen didn't bow to pressure and bring on Lucas or Lallana, he allowed the lads time and confidence to work it out for themselves and they did.

I said they don't know when they're beaten, I had every faith in them and so it seems the boss did too.

I voted Smith motm but they all did well.

I said they don't know when they're beaten, I had every faith in them and so it seems the boss did too.

Nice one Debs, and what a quality that is for a young team to have.  Any team.

Nice one Debs, and what a quality that is for a young team to have.  Any team.

It's why I enjoy watching the youth teams play mate and I believe with Jürgen and Co. they have someone who will harness it properly.

Agree with this, not just for the reason you mention but also because there was so many of them it was hard to really focus on each as an individual.

You see a couple in alongside the 'regulars' and you can analyse them a little bit better, if that makes sense.

That was really what I meant, you just wrote it better.

Agreed, Exeter deserved better from him and I expected better from a man of his decency.  I mean, what kind of pitch was he expecting?!

In his defence I think that the kind of football Klopp has behind involved in you do not come across pitches like that

For those of you not used to watching youth footy that was a typical performance from the lads.

It's normal for them to drift in and out of games.  It's normal for them to be inconsistent.  It's normal to have a couple of wtf moments in a game. 

It wasn't the best performance and it wasn't the best result but they get to have another go, at Anfield and on our terms.  Our crowd, our pitch, under lights and with a few more days to prepare, I'll take that!

I'm so pleased that Jürgen didn't bow to pressure and bring on Lucas or Lallana, he allowed the lads time and confidence to work it out for themselves and they did.

I said they don't know when they're beaten, I had every faith in them and so it seems the boss did too.

I voted Smith motm but they all did well.

I agree Debs. You see players with far more experience drift in and out of games on a regular basis so it's only natural for it to happen with the younger lads. Some of them have been out on loan at Championship and League One clubs but they've not played an awful lot. They're still trying to work on their fitness and other aspects of their game. They're also not used to the expectations of a manager like Klopp so that will play a factor too.

A few seasons ago we had near to a first team that lost away at Oldham and got battered from start to finish, these lads can be proud of their output last night.

I agree Debs. You see players with far more experience drift in and out of games on a regular basis so it's only natural for it to happen with the younger lads. Some of them have been out on loan at Championship and League One clubs but they've not played an awful lot. They're still trying to work on their fitness and other aspects of their game. They're also not used to the expectations of a manager like Klopp so that will play a factor too.

A few seasons ago we had near to a first team that lost away at Oldham and got battered from start to finish, these lads can be proud of their output last night.

At the end of the day mate, that was a thrown together starting 11 with some of them never having had any Klopp training and a few of them playing their first competitive game for months.

I'm sure Jürgen would have preferred to win it rather than have another game to prepare for but it also gives him an opportunity to have another look at them but under better conditions.

Stewart hasn't played since getting injured 4 months ago, not even a youth game but I thought he did particularly well.  Nothing spectacular but no glaring mistakes that I remember.  Branners another who kept things ticking over nicely, I particularly loved his tracking back from midfield, you don't often get that with seasoned pros.  Ilori maybe didn't impress some people but that's more to do with ridiculous expectations on their part than his lack of talent.

Can't wait for the replay now.