Man City v Liverpool

If city and Chelsea don't have top defence I wonder who has tbh. What am saying is in starting games of klopp though players were running and pressing the midfield performance was pretty ordinary they weren't able to make decent passes and create chances. That aspect is certainly improving also scoring 3 atleast 2 goals before halftime with Bentley and sturridge on bench is also very encouraging. What was lacking was confidence which am sure will rise after such performance. Crystal game was purely lost on grounds of physicality imo.

Chelsea haven't got a top defence this season and City just had a lot of space in their defence when we caught them off guard. We won't be catching most teams off guard like that because they will play more cautiously against us. And that's been our problem for a long time now, that we haven't been able to create chances against "prepared" defences. We'll see whether that is about to change now, hopefully it is. But the City and Chelsea games offer no indication in that regard, imo.

Art Morte wrote:We were good, but City were also bad, they gifted us a lot of the chances. We're not going to have that much time and space attacking through the middle against sides who'll take a 'defence first' approach against us. So, what I'm saying is that scoring four goals at the Etihad isn't enough to conclude that our attack is now top notch. It remains to be seen whether we've improved at unlocking packed defences or are just particularly good on the counter.

I'd like to think we forced City to play bad with our constant harassing of their players.

Exactly.

We harassed them. They weren't expecting it. We made them uncomfortable which lead them to making mistakes.

Yeah, absolutely, but when we did manage to press the ball off of them, they had small numbers covering. Most of the teams we'll face in the league will have an approach that even when we do manage to harass the ball off of them, we won't find it to be an immediate counter-attack option, like it was against City.

Alright...so here's my thoughts on the game:

- initial pressing and then bouncing back into team shape was fantastic, very risk/reward but it was implemented perfectly
- Coutinho, Lallana and Firmino as a front 3 that was fluid with a lot of movement was a nightmare for the other team (Coutinho on the left, Firmino acting as a F9 and Lallana on the right)
- you can see the confidence the team has and the urgency with which they are starting to move in the final 3rd...it will bring more goals with it
- City were not great, but this was hugely to do with our pressure and execution
- I'm digging the 4-3-2-1 here...with Firmino as the F9 and both Coutinho and Lallana acting narrow from behind and both able to make runs as well as set-up plays adds a lot of danger then you also have Can and Milner with great engines and ability to get forward meaning you can have 5 different players linking up and making diagonal or penetrative runs simultaneously as soon as the ball is turned over (some will drop back to set up the plays and link up) incredible game planning
- I don't want to get ahead and refer to total football, but Klopp has this team working as a team quite well also...many of our players are able to go out of position to chase the ball or create a chance and it seems like others are seamlessly slotting in until they can reshape

Mignolet - in truth didn't have much to do, and even though he made a great save on Aguero (and had no chance on his goal) Lovren was there to head the ball away if necessary, still not convinced he can backstop us to a title/CL but he's doing ok
Clyne - could have done a better job...maybe one of his worst games for us (though to be fair he had to deal with Kolarov and Sterling alone a lot of the time)
Skrtel & Lovren - both played really well, good pressure, good positioning and held their ground
Moreno - he actually had one of his better games for Liverpool I thought, especially defensively, obviously Clyne and Moreno didn't attack much this time (by design IMO)
Lucas - he pretty much took Touré out of the game and forced the substitution applying constant pressure there but also snapping back and covering when necessary...took a tactical foul since Skrtel would have been done in by Aguero there and ultimately had another great game
Milner & Can - very similar jobs on two different sides of the pitch...found them both to be a bit meh outside of Can's backheel although the energy and pressure was good
Lallana - I thought he played really well. A couple times he could have had a better end product/pass but ultimately he was extremely lively, caused the City defence fits and was all over the place helping in defence and attack...he's really been something under Klopp so far. Hopefully he can stay healthy.
Firmino & Coutinho - what a masterpiece from these two! They were all over the pitch, linking up well, making great runs, and just having a ton of fun out there. They are developing some great chemistry and if it continues with their own natural progressions they are going to completely terrorize the EPL for the forseeable future. Coutinho especially really impressed me with his ability to link up the play and pull apart the City shape...even if he wasn't making the last pass or scoring himself he was creating the space with a run, dribble or 2nd last pass to cut open City.

Benteke - I thought he was ok. Should have scored his chance but again Hart made a great save too. Not sure if he really fits in as a first choice option with the way Klopp wants to play...could end up being a 'different option' bench player. Still think he's quality though.
Ibe - looked fantastic in a short cameo. Kept the pressure on, dribbled well and made some nice decisions too. He's starting to learn to use the space he creates with his runs/dribbles on the ball really nicely. If he started the game I'm sure he would have had a goal/assist or two.

Exciting time. Will be interesting to see how Klopp plays with Sturridge and Henderson fit. I would imagine that Can becomes a cup/bench player with Milner and Henderson playing with Lucas. Obviously rotation will be key anyway but with Sturridge, Benteke, Coutinho, Firmino and Lallana we need 3 or 4 at a time which provides good depth for a 4-3-2-1 or a 4-2-3-1. On to the next!

Also, special mention for Lallana's dummy that Firmino failed to convert. My god that was a beautiful play. If Firmino had scored that it would have been even better than the backheel link-up goal.



At 3:30...by gawd.