First of all, I’d like to congratulate Jürgen and the boys on a magnificent achievement with our home record. It had to come to an end sometime but what a fantastic achievement that was, well done lads.
Moving onto tonight. I had no problem with the line up. I was glad there were a few changes (much needed in my opinion) and I was pleased to see joel back. The only thing I was hoping was that origi would be on the left and mane down the middle. I’m sure I’ve said it before on here but origi doesn’t have the feet or the brain to play CF and for his build he is fairly weak and timid against two cbs. As a wide man though he can be quite powerful and beat a full back in a 1v1.
The game starts and look, there’s nothing much to say really. We all knew what type of game it would be. We dominated the play and Burnley sat in and made it difficult for us. Despite having all of the ball, our end product was really poor yet again and we didn’t do enough to win the game. That’s it basically. We look lethargic, out of ideas and badly short on confidence which is so unusual as we’ve been the exact opposite during Klopps time here.
Going through the team I thought Alisson was good again despite giving the pen away (had no other choice in my opinion), Fabinho and Joel were both solid too. Robbo defended well but offered little going forward but it was just one of those games where the play was mostly down our right hand side. That brings me to Trent who i thought had a shocker. He was beaten too easily by their left winger on a couple of occasions but what the f**k has happened to his delivery?! Absolutely awful.
The midfield three. Gini and Thiago played how they did against united. Good in spells but they aren’t doing enough. They’re controlling games but they’ve got to force them more. They’ve got to gamble more. Shoot more. Gini had one great run in the second half where he drove forward with the ball and laid it off to Salah who should have bagged but we need a lot more of that. Ox however was f**king dreadful. I like ox, but f**k me that was a shithouse performance from him that. Backed out of tackles, not involved. Just f**king poor.
The front three. Origi I thought did surprisingly well down the middle and was unlucky with a couple of his chances but the one big chance he did have he made a mess of it. I can’t believe he didn’t score that 1 on 1 and going back to the start of my post, had mane been down the middle instead then I think we go 1-0 up there. Shaq and mane both did ok but again, it wasn’t enough. They’ve got to do more.
Subs. Salah most involved but should have scored. Bobby standing around as usual. Minamino came on and got in the way of Salah for what was a certain goal and other than that did nothing at all.
It’s strange what’s happened to us. I think the no fans is really having an impact. Other clubs it can be a blessing. Look at Everton for example whos supporters are usually hostile and get on the teams back. It’s no coincidence they’re playing better without them in the ground. But our support is a lot different and I know it’s cheesy and cliche but we really are the 12th man at times.
We aren’t out the race by any means but we’ve made it such a difficult task now. I’m looking forward to the next run of games where we will play teams who will come at us which will give the likes of mane more space.
Have faith in this manager and this group of players. They deserve that after what they’ve given us the past 2-3 years.
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