Leicester City 2-0 Liverpool: In game and Post Match discussion

- Gomez - Didn't stand out, but didn't do too badly either. I don't even blame the CB's for the first goal, the whole team just ran out of the box aimlessly - their all culpable. (6/10)

That's where I stopped reading. Have you ever heard of the term 'offside'? That's kind of what our whole team running out 'aimlessly' were trying to do there. Gomez clearly didn't get the memo though and decided to step back. No biggie, I wouldn't blame him for that either. 

Not a great performance by all manner of means the result just pee`d me off yet some guys did impress me , first off was our keeper I dont think he`s going nowhere fast at Liverpool TBH  ,this you play in the league you play in the CL bollocks from Jürgen ,did last nights result just end his season and move him closer to the door, ? that is unless tic and toc get injured.

Robertson getting there, surging runs crosses defends well a bargain at £8 million

Young Ben`s a joy to watch in a Liverpool shirt what a talent it wont be long before the young lads a starter.

Ward, robertson, ings, solanke and Woodburn....all showed something that I expect of an LFC team.
The rest.:::dire
Not a happy red tonight.

hopefully this won't be happened again on next Saturday, our team should learned something, c'mon Reds !

Yeah, it wasn't that bad.

Only dumped out the cup in the first round of asking by a Leicester B team.

I'm sure they'll be one poster who can positively spin that with some mental gymnastics --- anyone cry per chance?

hopefully this won't be happened again on next Saturday, our team should learned something, c'mon Reds !

Sure Jamie Vardy will play this week. he's always good for 1 or 2 goals against us.

F***ing hell, not looking forward to Saturday.

Can't we have COTM when we lose? Chump of the match.

Eight times. Eight times we have won the League Cup and hold the record. It's one of the many trophies that we have won, multiple times, which had us as England's most successful side. I care.

Of course you'll have the slow of mind pretend that getting dumped out of it will, somehow aid our "push" for the title. Why? It's not like we have won the title every time we are put out ffs. Start caring again Redmen.

We bossed the first half; our midfield dominated and passes always hit their man [cause they had men to hit].
Second half they made one change to personnel and we failed to cope but more disturbingly... when Coutinho went off; both Ben and Dom (for some reason) started taking up positions wide left. They crowded Robertson's space and any out ball, our midfield had in the first half, disappeared. Sadly there was no adjustment and it became easy for them to get at Klavan & Gomez by by-passing our midfield three with simple balls for Okazaki to run on to.

We have to learn and learn quickly to adjust to what's happening in front of us when "heavy metal" just isn't working.

Eight times. Eight times we have won the League Cup and hold the record. It's one of the many trophies that we have won, multiple times, which had us as England's most successful side. I care.

Of course you'll have the slow of mind pretend that getting dumped out of it will, somehow aid our "push" for the title. Why? It's not like we have won the title every time we are put out ffs. Start caring again Redmen.

We bossed the first half; our midfield dominated and passes always hit their man [cause they had men to hit].
Second half they made one change to personnel and we failed to cope but more disturbingly... when Coutinho went off; both Ben and Dom (for some reason) started taking up positions wide left. They crowded Robertson's space and any out ball, our midfield had in the first half, disappeared. Sadly there was no adjustment and it became easy for them to get at Klavan & Gomez by by-passing our midfield three with simple balls for Okazaki to run on to.

We have to learn and learn quickly to adjust to what's happening in front of us when "heavy metal" just isn't working.

I think we need a bit of heavy mettle more so than heavy metal.

Heads drop far too easily.

Gutless and naive.

hopefully this won't be happened again on next Saturday, our team should learned something, c'mon Reds !

With the benefit of hindsight Coutinho will see the full 90 out.
When he didn't come out in the 2nd half last night it was like watching a different game, unfortunately.

What's the F***ing use - a striker gets suspended and 'Atlas' Coutinho is taken off - result - the arse falls out of our world.

What F***ing chance the Prem or the CL with a wafer thin squad??

Which manager is to blame??

Oh that will be the incumbent.

For me - it wasn't the withdrawal of Phil per se (I thought he was ok - bit self indulgent and still rusty) but rather the de facto impact on team shape.

Woodburn was either told (or opted to) play the first 20 mins as an orthodox left winger which completely blocked Robertson's runs - our most promising avenue in the first half. That Solanke then ended up out there as well just made it worse.

I'm still trying to work out why that happened - Jürgen definitely set us up differently in the second half. It was clear in first few mins he'd asked Robbo to tuck in and pick up the midfield runner that would have been Phil's. Was that to protect Ben or was he trying to create a bigger overload? I'm not sure.

Was it just kids lacking the positional discipline that comes with experience? I think that was part.

That was further compounded by Leicester starting to hit it long into the orthodox left back area - pulling Klavan across and exposing him (he'd had a tidy enough first half centrally).

Must admit all told it was a collective clusterfuck of a half and no mistake.

I think we need a bit of heavy mettle more so than heavy metal.

Heads drop far too easily.

Gutless and naive.

Indeed.

I wonder, sometimes, if our lot are only 'prepared' for success; that they don't know what to do when we go behind or conceed. Its like... "This isn't supposed to happen, we are the team supposed to be scoring; right? What the F**k do we do now?"

Our defence (personnel or system, you decide folks) has been utter pish for quite some while now; without correction. Trying to do things on the cheap [replacing Pepe with Migs and then Karius for eg] hasn't worked;  it's a false economy (football wise obviously). How much have we spent, trying to replace quality, on the cheap, with potential?

Here's the rub tho': if 'the club' is not going to do anything about it, when it has the chance, it loses the right to complain when it goes tits up, yet again.

 

With the benefit of hindsight Coutinho will see the full 90 out.
When he didn't come out in the 2nd half last night it was like watching a different game, unfortunately.

What's the f**king use - a striker gets suspended and 'Atlas' Coutinho is taken off - result - the arse falls out of our world.

What f**king chance the Prem or the CL with a wafer thin squad??

Which manager is to blame??

Oh that will be the incumbent.

But it was more than that, Coutinho went off but after that the players didn't seem to have any idea what their role was, they were completely disorganised but Klopp just sat there doing nothing to change it, that's what annoyed me. He just doesn't seem able or willing to change our formation or style intra-game, its really weird and not what you'd expect from a top manager.

Based on last night I can't see the OX getting a start in CM. For the next game against Leicester I'd go for Can instead of Hendo with Wijnaldum and Grujic as the other 2 in midfield.

Based on last night I can't see the OX getting a start in CM. For the next game against Leicester I'd go for Can instead of Hendo with Wijnaldum and Grujic as the other 2 in midfield.

Our defence needs protection mate.

That's like smearing them in gravy and chucking them in a skip with Luis Suarez.

Can as our deepest midfielder? He doesn't track his runner in a less onerous role and moves the ball too slowly.

Our defence needs protection mate.

That's like smearing them in gravy and chucking them in a skip with Luis Suarez.

Can as our deepest midfielder? He doesn't track his runner in a less onerous role and moves the ball too slowly.

I'm going to call you the Hender Defender from now on.

I'm going to call you the Hender Defender from now on.

As you will Ribs.

Strikes me you're rather obsessed with "Hender....."

If you read my point - my rapier wit aside - it's that I think Can would be an extremely odd choice as a pseudo DM given he can't be arsed tracking runners as is.

I didn't mention "Hender....."

There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that were Lucas still available to Jürgen, he would get a game in EITHER defence as a centre half or as a sitting midfielder at the moment. I qualify that remark by admitting I was never a Lucas devotee AND I think we were right to sell him as he was/is way past his best, but put quite simply EVEN ALLOWING FOR THAT he'd still get in.

Our best two centre halves by a mile are Lovren and Matip, and although it is a controversial view on here I think there is little to choose between them. The others though aren't even close to being up to it. Klavan bless him has very quickly gone past his best and is deteriorating gradually, while Gomez looks to me like he has more chance of making it as a full back in the medium term than he does a centre back.

In central midfield, NONE of them really seem to be able to offer a defensive shield to our weak spot. Henderson looks to me like his injuries have worn him down, Can looks like he's already on the plane to Italy, the Ox s no defensive midfielder, nor is Grujic.

Good managers (of which Jürgen is one) find solutions to such problems. I wonder perhaps whether it might be worth giving Wijnaldum a go in there. He's got the legs for it and can put a tackle in. It would need an adjustment to our style such as it is, but we need to do something.     

Thank God. Someone speaking sense.

Just looked at the replays of both goals:



That first goal is 90% down to Gomez. He plays the offside trap like every other LFC player was doing, we wouldn't even be speaking of it. Everyone then has to rush back into position, Klavan hurries back, is in no position to win that header (How could he even be?) and Henderson is no where to be seen for the knock down, harsh on him maybe, but still. Robertson perhaps a little too late, but same reason as everyone else, he was getting into position, so no blame on Andy there.

If you actually look at our shape there. Imagine Gomez being where he should be, you'd have the perfect triangle of our two CB's with the #6 in front of them.

I found our DM jumping around the box (should look at the replay, funny as f**k.):



Second goal:



Throw in, Robertson challenges for the header and loses. Klavan is defending on Slimani, doing what he should be doing.  Robertson reacts too slow and Okazaki runs off him (top of the picture). Slimani turns Klavan (he gets beaten too easily there) and runs past. Okazaki plays it to Slimani. Grujic has a chance to stop the attack by making a little foul that will most likely never be a second yellow. Think Gomez drops a little too deep there and maybe should have stepped out to make the foul there himself. Also possible.

Possibly Grujic's responsability in that area though after Henderson was positioned as the left midfielder there.

Yeah, those photos of the first goal show it pretty clearly. As you say, Gomez fails to play the offside trap. But, also, our midfielders just wander off. Not just Hendo but Gini ( who'd otherwise had a good match) as well.

When the ball is being played in the first one, we have 5 players along the edge of the D ( plus Gomez deeper) and Leicester have 5 up. A couple of seconds later, there is a circle of about 10 yards radius centred on the D with the Leicester players all still there, converging on the ball, and our guys all gone. Hendo for some reason has actually moved wider, and Gini has just run off up the pitch.

Ok, they were playing an offside trap and their momentum was taking them away, but for FFS once the ball has been played back in, you've got to get back in there. [Edit: Klavan has managed to turn round and go back about 10 yards to try and help Gomez - why did our midfielders just keep drifting away?]

An individual mistake by Gomez, yeah, but also a total lack of organisation once again. Not so surprising this time, given Gomez is not our usual starter in that position.

Was Matip injured? If not, I don't get dropping him. We need to establish a settled, well drilled back 4 as fast as possible. The problem is finding a partner for Matip and then sticking with that partnership. [Edit: trying Gomez as a partner for Matip I could understand. But Gomez and Klavan - what was the point? Even if they'd had a good game, that was never going to be our first choice CB pairing for this season. And we need to get that first choice pairing working quick.] Rotating in attacking positions I get, but CB's really don't need as much rest as other outfield players and we should be looking to groove a partnership there.

Just when you start believing that things could not be worst than they are already you see a game like this one….

Ok it could be argued that we (LFC) did not field a full squad, but the same can be said of Leicester City… Do you remember when we faced Arsenal in both FA and League cups and they fielded mainly reserves beating us 3-1 and 6-3 respectively…?

Well this was not that…We started a few players that should have insured a fairly comfortable victory (No disrespect to L.C)…Coutinho was starting, our talisman, The Ox was starting in a front three, the midfield was strong and a fairly solid back four….

So what when wrong…

For me at any rate this game was lost per-season…We kept hold of a player that we really should have sold (Coutinho) The player was clearly unhappy and wanted to depart and instead what does the club do…?? We refuse to sell him and try to force him to see out his contract… With the money we were being offered (£140-160 M) we should have taken that money and re-invested it on a player who wanted to play for the club… Instead we have a player who is unhappy and it shows in his performances or lack of…

The Ox… I said here on this very site that I could not see what he would bring to the club and that we had wasted £40 m on a player that would be a squad member…Boy! Was I wrong… He is not even that…I can not believe that we sent Ryan Kent out on loan and bought the Ox… The only things that he showed last night was his standard of play is third of forth tier at best, and that he was more concerned with his socks than he was with performing…I would be quite willing to pay Arsenal another £40m to take the Ox back…Shinji Okazaki  showed more than The Ox and I would sooner that LFC spent the money there even if he is 31

Right now Barca most be thinking “Boy we dodged a bullet there with Coutinho, we would have wasted £140 m +)… Chelsea would be thinking the same thing in regards to the Ox

There were many others who under performed, but for me these two really hurt us

Just when you start believing that things could not be worst than they are already you see a game like this one….

Ok it could be argued that we (LFC) did not field a full squad, but the same can be said of Leicester City… Do you remember when we faced Arsenal in both FA and League cups and they fielded mainly reserves beating us 3-1 and 6-3 respectively…?

Well this was not that…We started a few players that should have insured a fairly comfortable victory (No disrespect to L.C)…Coutinho was starting, our talisman, The Ox was starting in a front three, the midfield was strong and a fairly solid back four….

So what when wrong…

For me at any rate this game was lost per-season…We kept hold of a player that we really should have sold (Coutinho) The player was clearly unhappy and wanted to depart and instead what does the club do…?? We refuse to sell him and try to force him to see out his contract… With the money we were being offered (£140-160 M) we should have taken that money and re-invested it on a player who wanted to play for the club… Instead we have a player who is unhappy and it shows in his performances or lack of…

The Ox… I said here on this very site that I could not see what he would bring to the club and that we had wasted £40 m on a player that would be a squad member…Boy! Was I wrong… He is not even that…I can not believe that we sent Ryan Kent out on loan and bought the Ox… The only things that he showed last night was his standard of play is third of forth tier at best, and that he was more concerned with his socks than he was with performing…I would be quite willing to pay Arsenal another £40m to take the Ox back…Shinji Okazaki  showed more than The Ox and I would sooner that LFC spent the money there even if he is 31

Right now Barca most be thinking “Boy we dodged a bullet there with Coutinho, we would have wasted £140 m +)… Chelsea would be thinking the same thing in regards to the Ox

There were many others who under performed, but for me these two really hurt us

Don't know how you managed to blame that on Coutinho. He was running the show. We disappeared as an attacking force as soon as he went off.

The Ox… I said here on this very site that I could not see what he would bring to the club and that we had wasted £40 m on a player that would be a squad member…Boy! Was I wrong… He is not even that…I can not believe that we sent Ryan Kent out on loan and bought the Ox… The only things that he showed last night was his standard of play is third of forth tier at best, and that he was more concerned with his socks than he was with performing…I would be quite willing to pay Arsenal another £40m to take the Ox back…

He has a 100% winless rate with us. Or he's a jinx. We haven't won in the last four matches and he played in every one of them.

Got that impression in the match thread off you mate and I'm usually one of his biggest critics. I totally get that he could have done more, but I also think in the first half he was excellent, really gave us that tempo we needed, pinged every pass and drove us on without over doing it. In that first half I thought it was Gini who slowed us down and Grujic that just constantly did nothing other than get in other people's way.

Second half I thought again his passing was very good but you can't legislate for your CBs doing what ours did for the 2 goals. Maybe he was at fault for the first as I haven't seen the full replay but whatever it shows the lion's share will always be Gomez's because the offside trap was set and he just let 3 of Leicester's players out the cage and they killed us for that stupidity. Second goal, again I didn't see Hendo involved, saw a throw-in with one of our CBs pushed on wrestling and the other unable to catch Slimani when given plenty of time to do so and Flanno just basically asleep on the far side waving his arms around but truth be told I'm not too worried about Jon as he'll never get a game for us again imo.

Maybe I'm wrong mate but I thought he played well.

I don't know Luke. Some of the criticism he gets on here is over the top, but he was poor yesterday. The first half he was a bit of a  passenger and in the 2nd he was a big part of the problem. It's not all on him of course, but I was really disappointed in Jordan yesterday.