Unfortunately, it was correct that Liverpool's first goal did stand. As
it was pointed out to me while I was baying for a VAR intervention,
Salah was behind the ball when it was played across the face of the
goal, therefore not in an offside position.
As far as Roberts is concerned, his main contribution was to screw a
shot well wide from a decent position on the edge of the area. Normally
he sends the ball over the bar from that distance. Whenever he comes on
for Rodrigo it feels like a change for the sake of making a change, as
he's not good enough to offer anything different at this level.
------ Original Message ------
From: "John Lee via Leedslist" <leedslist@gn.apc.org>
To: "n...@6haroldplace.co.uk" <n...@6haroldplace.co.uk>
Cc: "leeds list (leedslist@gn.apc.org)" <leedslist@gn.apc.org>
Sent: Monday, 13 Sep, 21 At 10:31
Subject: Re: [LU] Liverpool
Re Rich’s big question and can we play with 2 wingers and Rodrigo - the
answer is no! I like Rodrigo, good player, but he has neither the
tactical or defensive nouse to play that role, and I don’t think he’s
fit enough either. I too would have definitely had Shackleton on in his
place, and Klich too, although Llorente’s injury scuppered likely
substitutions.
I’m not going to talk much about Cooper, because we all know he gives it
all he’s got, but realistically he’s an ageing Championship-level
defender who keeps getting found out! The only real question is why does
Bielsa keep picking him knowing that in all probability the same thing
will happen? My main gripe, re the defence, is Ayling - I thought he was
heading downhill towards the end of last season - his positional sense
is poor, his blocking is patchy (another through his legs yesterday),
but it’s his passing from right-back which are constantly wayward that
put us under immediate pressure time and again, usually half way into
our own half. This needs to change. I would have Cody Drameh in at
right-back now. As for Aylings ‘chance’ - why didn’t he head it?
Hopefully the club will appeal Stuijk’s red card - terrible injury, but
it wasn’t a bad tackle, just really unlucky. I watched to frame by frame
- he won the ball, but when he turned to stand he did bring his full
body-weight down on Elliot’s ankle - totally accidental. The ref clearly
saw nothing wrong in it initially, but Klopp’s histrionics and the
severity of the injury got Struijk a red, which seems all wrong.
I thought Firpo did ok - he was up against Salah after all. I’m still
convinced their first goal shouldn’t have stood - both Salah and Mane
were offside when the ball came forward, gaining a clear advantage, then
Mane was off as Salah scored. Liverpools tactic of leaving forwards
goal-hanging and then playing the linesman really bugs me.
Finally, will Bielsa learn? He knows we cannot compete with the top 6,
yet sends the same tactics out on to the pitch whoever we’re playing. We
could, and probably should have lost by 6/7 goals - bollocks to playing
our own game, we need some pragmatism against world-class players!
Second finally - if Struijk and Llorente are out on Friday, I hope
Cresswell is used, and not Ayling at CB - that would be a big error!
On 13 Sep 2021, at 09:44, "n...@6haroldplace.co.uk"
<n...@6haroldplace.co.uk> wrote:
Yeah, it was a big disappointment…the first half was even enough,
although I thought we were only just hanging onto their coattails. But
in the end 0-3 didn’t flatter them.
I’ve not seen any replays, so I don’t know about the sending off. Live,
it looked like a clean challenge, but then we saw lots of the folk
around lad running away holding their hands to their mouths, and so knew
it was a bad injury.
I think in time Bielsa might want to switch Raphinha inside into a no.10
role, behind Bamford, with Harrison and James on the wings. But there
has to be better coherence between the full backs and the wingers.
Ayling has started the season at quite a low level, he seems to be
struggling…a lot of unforced errors. Cooper can’t be any more than a
squad player. Llorente is class, I hope the injury is not serious.
Firpo, I actually think had his best game for us yesterday…whether that
is good enough long term is another thing.
In midfield, I think Phillips was very good, but can’t do it alone.
Dallas was curiously absent - or the game passed him by. Oddly after an
invisible first half, Harrison was having a good 15 minutes when he was
taken off.
Don’t know what to do with Rodrigo, he has played a lot in that advanced
midfield role and is not a success there. He has done ok as a centre
forward, but he is not the same kind of forward as Bamford, and Bielsa
sees that Bamford brings more to his preferred style of play.
We continue to be grateful for having Meslier in goal. He is a future
star.
What we need are a couple of wins, to settle the nerves.
The atmosphere in the ground was bouncing.
Sent from my iPad
On 13 Sep 2021, at 08:40, Richard Walker via Leedslist
<leedslist@gn.apc.org> wrote:
My first PL game for donkeys and what a disappointment it was. Totally
outclassed and outplayed for most of the game. If anything we showed
some spirit second half with only 10 men and could / should have got 1
back.
For me, there's a big question as to whether we can play with 2 wingers
and Rodrigo against opposition like this. Phillips and Dallas didn't
stand a chance and Liverpool took total control in midfield which meant
Raphinha and Harrison never really had a kick. Rodrigo had an early
chance which he could have done better with but apart from that he was
totally ineffective as the no 10 and was hauled off for Roberts at
half-time which is now becoming a regular change. We've seen what
Rodrigo can do as a striker but as a midfielder he hasn't the legs to do
what Hernandez did.
It was a good atmosphere but all around me agreed that going in 1-0 down
at half-time was a real result for us because it should have been more -
a lot more. Time and time again the Liverpool midfielders and attackers
seemed to have all the space in the world as they passed it around our
box. Occassionally we would get a last ditch tackle in but we really
struggled to contain them and struggled to get out of our half.
Second half, Liverpool continued to control the park and were soon 2 up
from a corner. The ball just seemed to be on the floor for an age until
Fabinho, unmarked, poked it home. Poor defending again. Then Struijk got
sent off and from the stands it looked like a great tackle and having
seen it afterwards I still think Strujik is unlucky and was sent off for
the injury not the tackle. The incident caused a bit of upset between
the South stand and the away fans which then spiralled into a tit for
tat sing song. "Always the victim, never your fault' to which the
scousers replied "Yorkshire Police - murderers". A few scousers got
really upset and ended up bein dragged away.
We did show some heart with 10 men and Dan James came on and looked ok
without really threatening. Liverpool scored a deserved 3rd late on and
we all went home thinking that this is going to be a tough season and
any thoughts of Europe and bettering our 9th place from last season need
to be reassessed. Yes we've played 2 of the top 4 teams but I think it's
clear that there's something missing and we are not playing with the
fluidity and movement that we know we can.
Bielsa's response to the first half debacle was to put Roberts on for
Rodrigo. That was it. We were getting the run around in midfield but he
just replaced like for like and carried on. He knows no different to his
system and that is definitely a limitation. There was an argument to put
Klich and Shack in a 4 man midfield with Raph on his own up front. At
least we would have competed and seen some of the ball. We definitely
needed another body in the middle.
Scores:
Meslier - 7. Made some great saves to keep the score down. It could have
been far worse.
Ayling - 3. I thought he was really poor and if you look at his
performances this season I think he's not started well. He did have our
best chance first half but couldn't decide whether to volley or head it
and I think it just ended up cannoning off him into the South Stand
Cooper - 3. Let's face facts, he's not up to the job and against the
better team this is really obvious. He was booked early on when he was
turned and just pulled his man back and from then on he really
struggled.
Llorente - 4. Llorente also struggled it has to be said and then got
injured. The lad has been unfortunate with injuries and looks like he
might be out for a few weeks now.
Firpo - 4. The general opinion on the P2 back was that Firpo isn't up to
it. He's no Allioski going forward, in fact he rarely does get forward
and that means Harrison sees little of the ball. His defending is also
suspect. He did manage a few last dith challenges against Salah but he
looks really dodgy.
Dallas - 4. His worst game for a long time and that was mainly because
he didn't see much of the ball and was just chasing shadows most of the
afternoon. We keep buying wingers but surely central midfield is where
we are really light for options.
Phillips - 7. I thought he was our best player. Never gave up, tackled
well and got around the park. He can't do it on his own though
Harrison - 4. Ineffective
Raphinha - 4. Ineffective
Bamford - 3. Ineffective - had one speculative effort well saved but
just didn't get in the game at all.
Rodrigo - 2. Worrying performances from our record signing.
Subs:
Strujik - unlucky
Roberts - one or two moments but didn't really influence the game. Maybe
his running and ability to cover more ground than Rod was a factor in
our improvement 2nd half.
Newcastle will be another test.
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