Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool: In game and Post Match discussion

Trent's having a tough time of it lately. Some very basic things he got badly wrong both positionally and on the ball. Very passive and doesn't look confident, stepping back when the opposition is running on him, slow to react to runners passing by him. Certainly not the combative, first step forward Trent that shone with such brilliance in that first leg against Manchester City at Anfield back in the spring. He won't be pleased with the way Welbeck skinned him from nothing late on and I don't doubt that moment will race around his brain this evening. Thing is, Jürgen knows it. The only reason he played today is because Lovren wasn't available. I don't doubt we would have seen Gomez at right back if it weren't for that. That said, he's young and it's inevitable that he'll come up and face these challenges. He's more or less had a clean run of it for much of the last two years so this is his first hurdle. With some hard work on the training pitch he'll clear it no problem.

Thought Milner was excellent. His usual, disciplined self - he won't be pleased with the way Fabinho and Gini were scooped out easily by their opposite numbers though. They were really poor and Milner had to do a lot of dirty work for their poor work today. Both have work to do.

Van Dijk - he really is superb. There is nothing to say. So bright and so aware. Technically superb and physically awesome. One of, if not the best central defender in the world at the moment. His partner in defence, Joe Gomez, isn't doing too badly either. And Robertson was once again his usual, tireless and faultless self.

Front three? Mane was superb in that second half. Salah was creative with some visionary balls over the top. Firmino? Having a poor season but I don't think any of them are being helped by a midfield that is slowing things down and has stopped the instant release to them. They thrive on instinct and the adrenaline of the break neck, caught unaware attack. The amount of checking back and failure to release quickly is killing that front three.Very disappointing to concede the goal though. As stated at the top of the post, a point is what many would have been satisfied with. But in the context of the match I don't feel that content.

Another goal given up after the 80th minute. Really need to learn how to shut down the shop and kill off the game. As has often been the case late in games we need better from Alisson

The hate on Alisson is strong with this poster. Seriously, it's getting pretty pathetic now. Wonder what Karius did to your mind?

Trent's having a tough time of it lately. Some very basic things he got badly wrong both positionally and on the ball. Very passive and doesn't look confident, stepping back when the opposition is running on him, slow to react to runners passing by him. Certainly not the combative, first step forward Trent that shone with such brilliance in that first leg against Manchester City at Anfield back in the spring. He won't be pleased with the way Welbeck skinned him from nothing late on and I don't doubt that moment will race around his brain this evening. Thing is, Jürgen knows it. The only reason he played today is because Lovren wasn't available. I don't doubt we would have seen Gomez at right back if it weren't for that. That said, he's young and it's inevitable that he'll come up and face these challenges. He's more or less had a clean run of it for much of the last two years so this is his first hurdle. With some hard work on the training pitch he'll clear it no problem.

Thought Milner was excellent. His usual, disciplined self - he won't be pleased with the way Fabinho and Gini were scooped out easily by their opposite numbers though. They were really poor and Milner had to do a lot of dirty work for their poor work today. Both have work to do.

Van Dijk - he really is superb. There is nothing to say. So bright and so aware. Technically superb and physically awesome. One of, if not the best central defender in the world at the moment. His partner in defence, Joe Gomez, isn't doing too badly either. And Robertson was once again his usual, tireless and faultless self.

Front three? Mane was superb in that second half. Salah was creative with some visionary balls over the top. Firmino? Having a poor season but I don't think any of them are being helped by a midfield that is slowing things down and has stopped the instant release to them. They thrive on instinct and the adrenaline of the break neck, caught unaware attack. The amount of checking back and failure to release quickly is killing that front three.Very disappointing to concede the goal though. As stated at the top of the post, a point is what many would have been satisfied with. But in the context of the match I don't feel that content.

Opposition managers play a percentage game by targeting him as well.
A young player is more likely to make a mistake.
It must be very wearing for the lad, but hopefully he'll learn from it and keep getting stronger.

A draw was prob the fair result and considering how well they played and how poorly we did it’s a good result

Missed Henderson , and went for Robbo as MOTM - it was VVD until he didn’t cover the run for their goal

Disappointing game.

1. If there was ever doubt we now know: this team is just not good enough to win the PL against City (sounds harsher than it is for City plays lights out).
2. Arsenal showed methodical football with some nice sequences, we just stuttered and stumbled, our chances came by chaos and coincidences.
3. Arsenal looked more into it, played more aggressive, not a compliment to our boys.
4. Alisson with his 2nd mistake, Karius didn't have more, just two in the same game.
5. No blame to the defense, even if TAA didn't play well.
6. Fabinho showed something , but then also he showed something , right now I'd still rate Henderson better.
7. Milner & Gini as usual, but that also means: no creativity or attacking impuls whatsoever.
8. We could/should have pressed more aggressively, other than that no blame on the front 3, you cannot make a lot of out little.
9. Overall I am shocked at our inability to pass the ball around and play some methodical football.
10. We could have lost vs. City, vs. Chelsea and vs. Arsenal. This team is more a pretender than a contender.

Good game, even though our performance was a bit mixed. We were better 2nd half than first anyway, but we can't really complain too much about a draw. Arsenal played well. don't think City will find that an easy game either, so a point is ok.

Biggest plus is that we defended well ( despite a few shaky moments from TAA). Pre-2018 we'd have shipped more than 1 goal with the amount of good possession Arsenal had. MOTM was VVD - individually played well, but also organised that high line that kept catching them offside. Cracking CB. Gomez, Alisson and Robbo also good. Mane had very good 2nd half, after being quiet in the first. Mo was pretty lively throughout I thought, bit unlucky with his final ball a couple of times. Fabinho had a decent game.

My one real question is about whether our press has its usual intensity right now. Looks like we aren't quite rushing teams into mistakes like usual. I think Bobby is not quite at it, compared with past seasons. We just aren't defending from the front quite as strongly - hence Arsenal getting a lot of possession. Noticed it a few games already this season. Our stronger defending is making up for it, but it's a slight concern.

Anyway, the point is ok, and about right based on the performance ( even though we did have the better chances). That'll be one of the toughest games we have this season.

Have no idea what's happened to our press either. The absolute core of our attack. He got a lot of criticism in his last couple of matches for a lack of end product but the good thing about Lallana was that he brought some of that press back. Needed some of that today and I was disappointed he didn't come on in all honesty. He would have filled space and pressurised the opposition so much better than Fabinho and Gini.

Here we go.

A new agenda to try and be "controversial".

When you have been at Melwood all week (it's OK, you can google it) and have all the information Klopp has, maybe you can make a point about subs etc, but as you don't it's all just guesswork to try and be a WUM, as your "Klopp is a noob" post clearly shows.

To be fair, I think he has a point about the Management decisions. Today, we were slow with the changes, and they contributed little. Arsenal meanwhile turned the game in their favour with theirs.

Think Klopp got it wrong today with his in-game management. That's a fair observation.

Blaming Alisson for that goal is laughable. He had to come out and close the angle - and he did it well. It was just a great bit of finishing from Lacazette. No blame whatsoever on Alisson, who had a good game.

CT_LFC - you're Loris Karius's mum aren't you? He's gone, get over it.

Opposition managers play a percentage game by targeting him as well.
A young player is more likely to make a mistake.
It must be very wearing for the lad, but hopefully he'll learn from it and keep getting stronger.

Agreed. He's been had at for month on end now even in matches we win comfortably. Even in that 5-0 away win over Porto back in February I noticed they were content to go down his side whenever they had the chance. Like you said, he's young and still relatively inexperienced.

Did not think this would be an easy game, but if i am honest I thought we would win it, that was until I saw the midfield trio and then a doubt or two crept in. The first 10 minutes Arsenal was all over us but then things started to settle and we had our chances...
I though that Firmino played well albeit a bit deep, but he had chances.

I thought James Milner when missing for periods of the game. He Scored, which was welcomed, but I felt that bring on Shaqiri for Bobby was a mistake, especially at 1-0 up you don't take of one of the front three when playing Arsenal, next thing it is 1-1 and we are one of our best Creative strikers down... 

Should have taken off Milner after his clash with Gomes and bought Shaqiri on.

Then Klopp, for me, compounds this by making the same mistake that cost up many games last season and brings on a defender for and attacker to try and see the match out.

Not happy with his choices this evening...

Man of the Match...? could go with VVD, deserves it, or Robertson, but for his tireless work against Arsenals speed merchant and often out pacing him I'll give it to Mane

To be fair, I think he has a point about the Management decisions. Today, we were slow with the changes, and they contributed little. Arsenal meanwhile turned the game in their favour with theirs.

Think Klopp got it wrong today with his in-game management. That's a fair observation.

Without having the same information as Klopp and knowing exactly what the gameplan is, it's impossible to know.

It's posturing and bollocksology unless you have the information Klopp does.
Simple as that.

Have no idea what's happened to our press either. The absolute core of our attack. He got a lot of criticism in his last couple of matches for a lack of end product but the good thing about Lallana was that he brought some of that press back. Needed some of that today and I was disappointed he didn't come on in all honesty. He would have filled space and pressurised the opposition so much better than Fabinho and Gini.

Yeah - I'd have started Lallana for that reason. But the press starts from the front and Bobby isn't quite doing it to the levels of past seasons. Maybe time to start Mo up front, and Shaq wide?

Why are people going on about Klopp bringing on Matip ?! It was with about 1 min to go and was purely to run the clock down

I know Klopp isn't a noob and I didn't mean to say he was, I meant he was being a tactical noob with subs today out of frustration. It probably was a bit uncalled for, but I generally think Arsenal were ripping into us in that final 30 minutes and it's never good to go defensive in the last minute of injury time. We shouldn't play into other teams hands with shape changes like that. Putting on Sturridge we can grab a winner, put on a defender and there's a chance we could concede a late penalty or something.

It's amazing how we always rate players, but never discuss the manager. I thought starting lineup was spot on, but Fabinho and Trent didn't perform. Nothing we could have done about Trent but not dealing with Fabinho cost us. The subs Klopp made felt trivial. Personally I would have dropped Gini deeper and took off Fabinho and let Lallana go into the centre. I'm aware Lallana isn't exactly great as he has been but Keita and Henderson aren't available.

Same here, he could have done it at half-time. Lost count of how many times I saw Fabinho trotting back wrong side of the ball. Much like Can he isn’t the same player when it’s fast and frenetic out there. Was a bit disappointed in Klopp today, he had some good players on the bench but seemed to be sat on his handste subs. Lallana for Fab would have helped us beat their press which was a problem the entire first half.

Still it’s a good point for us but unfortunately a great point for City.

VVD, Gomez and Robbo were all excellent. Our three best players this season.

Think Klopp got it wrong today with his in-game management.

Not only today, Klopp seems to lose the plot without Buvac. First he leaves out Shaq who could have given our midfield a boost, then he brings him when we lead 0-1 and could have used Lallana a lot better. What?!?

Why are people going on about Klopp bringing on Matip ?! It was with about 1 min to go and was purely to run the clock down

because of the risk of conceding late. inviting pressure at the end is an awful tactic. Defend at their corner flag if we need to, not in our penalty box.

Not only today, Klopp seems to lose the plot without Buvac. First he leaves out Shaq who could have given our midfield a boost, then he brings him when we lead 0-1 and could have used Lallana a lot better. What?!?

Same Buvac without whom we reached the CL final?

FAbhino is just slow of mind and pace generally no way can he adapt to fast paced pressing game he looked way off again and if people think Henderson isn't a better option then I don't know what game they are watching. It may be confidence but so far he is off the pace and it makes sense why we haven't seen a lot of him. You could pick holes in all our performances so far but 11 games in we are right in the mix so we have so much more to give

Same Buvac , without whom we reached the CL final?

We had already made the CL final if I remember it, and even if I'm mistaken he was there for the main bulk of the campaign.

Same Buvac , without whom we reached the CL final?

someone actually agrees with him I have my suspicions

because of the risk of conceding late. inviting pressure at the end is an awful tactic. Defend at their corner flag if we need to, not in our penalty box.

Bringing on a big CB to add in another number isn’t going to “invite pressure” or increase the risk with about 40 seconds left to go for Christ sakes.

Seems like people are happier looking for things to be negative- dragging the place down.

FAbhino is just slow of mind and pace generally no way can he adapt to fast paced pressing game he looked way off again and if people think Henderson isn't a better option then I don't know what game they are watching.

Spot on. But he could still develop into it, IMO he has more potential than Henderson: better tackler, more vertical mindset. But in this game one could clearly see that he's not ready for prime time PL games.