Liverpool v Arsenal

A mid-week round, we host Arsenal on Wednesday night.

Injuries dominate the pre-match news as Sakho, Toure, Henderson and Ibe are all doubts - and Sturridge, but he's always a doubt, even if he was fit in the match day morning. Skrtel, Lovren, Coutinho are definitely out, I suppose.

To balance it out, Arsenal are still missing Sanchez, Cazorla and Coquelin.

And, well, I don't know what to expect. The last time we beat a team comfortably was when we handed Manchester City their asses at the Etihad. After that we have lost three times and drawn once and gotten three unconvincing 1-0 wins against mid-table or relegation-battle sides, apart from Leicester. Here's hoping that Arsenal suit as well as opponents - but they might also deepen our Premier League worries.

Liverpool is turning up against the bigger teams. It's the smaller teams which have been a problem.

Our football style, and insistence on not playing any other way, will play into the hands of Klopp.

You're right about our injuries, but we've somehow managed to cope with them for the first time in a decade or something. Your injury woes on the other hand............

Don't know about the result, but I sure as hell expect a very entertaining game.

Liverpool are inconsistent and now have 12 first team players out. I just hope we don't lose badly

11 men back, Play for a draw.
As long as one center back plays and we don't have 4 full backs as CB's.

What's the worst we can expect???


Maybe Lucas dropping back to take one of the CB spots and Milner getting into the squad.

I'm very confident of a win in this one. Klopp plays exactly the kind of style needed to unsettle Arsenal, and to be honest if we're smart we double up on Ozil and their whole attack seems to fall apart right now. Take Ozil out of the game and there's a very good chance they'll struggle mightily to come up with anything (easier said than done obviously).


Have Ibe coming off the bench as he's slated to return. Smith is more of wishful thinking to have him start over Moreno since he's, IMO, a better player and right now is also working to prove a point so his effort levels are top notch. If Klopp is feeling Ballsy I could even see Ojo/Kent starting over Milner there (and would almost prefer it).

Either way I'll be watching this game with a bunch of gooners so a bit win is in order for us!! YNWA

Hassle Ozil by chasing him like angry gf and you have Arsenal by balls. Very confident with this one tbh

Curtinho wrote:I'm very confident of a win in this one. Klopp plays exactly the kind of style needed to unsettle Arsenal, and to be honest if we're smart we double up on Ozil and their whole attack seems to fall apart right now. Take Ozil out of the game and there's a very good chance they'll struggle mightily to come up with anything.

Word.

Vibe wrote:Reading Caulker can't play because on his first training session...

He pulled his hamstring

Unique wrote:

Vibe wrote:Reading Caulker can't play because on his first training session...

He pulled his hamstring

is it for real!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm pretty confident he was joking.

Not sure how to feel about this one. Great to get that late equaliser, but on the other hand we were twice leading but couldn't win. Arsenal weren't anything special, either, we pretty much gifted Giroud two goals. Both his finishes were superb, but should have defended better.

Firmino has to be MOTM for his two goals, but it's not like were playing great flowing attacks with him up top, either.

Our midfield shape was all over the place at times, but I guess that's understandable given how little those guys have played together this season. Henderson was playing pretty deep, I'm not sure how to feel about it. I felt his role prevented him from making those smart runs forward.

These players are good enough for top 4. Take Mignolet out of the equation and we win that game handily.

Quick notes for now:

- Allen has been, by far, our best midfielder under Klopp and should be starting...I don't really care over who, but I feel we should be playing a midfield 3 of Lucas, Henderson and Allen.
- Mignolet (surprise surprise) costing us points again. He is absolutely awful and needs to be replaced. It's a joke that there are people that actually think he's an ok keeper for us.
- Can and Moreno (Smith is better and should be starting) were awful today too. Provided almost nothing aside from one nice shot from Can early on that led to Firmino's first goal...Can especially was a trainwreck...slow to make decisions, losing the ball a lot and generally just poor. Allen starting over him should have been a given especially after his performance against Stoke.
- Sakho had a game to forget also. Not as bad as Can and Moreno but still very poor.
- Allen better start against United.
- I thought Firmino, Henderson and Kolo were great today. Clyne was solid but unspectacular. Ibe and Lallana had their moments.

Definitely thought we were the better team but unfortunately we had Mignolet weighing the rest of the team down. If they actually sign him to a new contract I don't even know what to think. They can't be watching the same games.

Can was one of our best players out there today. He was not awful.

Firmin was our MOTM.

I don't think Mignolet should be blamed for the goals. Ramsey's finish was perfect. Not Mig's fault. Giroud's first looks bad for Mig, but when there's a touch or deflection - how ever small - so close to goal, it's always going to be tough to make the save. Nothing he could do about Giroud's second, which is also the biggest reason why Kolo did not have a great game, he can't keep his balance and stumbles, letting Giroud to take that shot.

Henderson also wasn't great, he's not at his best yet.

Toure and Lallana wouldn't be starters if Skrtel and Coutinho were fit. I'd mention Sturridge, too, but that lad can't be expected to play more than 15 games a season.

But I do think our squad is good enough to reach top-4, especially in a season like this where Chelsea have the biggest title hangover ever and United are trash. Therefore it is very frustrating that we seem to be missing out on that chance even now.

United don't have a better squad, a lot of their big names are past their prime and some newer acquisitions aren't all that they made out to be, like Schneiderlin and Depay. But United have more money and pulling power than us, they're in a better position to strengthen.

Kolo had a great game. Giroud's second goal was just a touch of class. He made a great play and would probably score there against most defenders (I won't even get into Sakho's positioning in this game, stumbles, and giveaways).

I don't know how anyone could think Can was one of our best players with how often he gave the ball away (especially in the second half, seemed like every time he touched it he was getting stripped or misplacing a pass). He is also slow as hell on the turn and made our attack a little slow when we were having some good spells of possession. If he can't speed up his game I really think he'd be better suited to the DM role though I know he likes to maraud forward.

Henderson was everywhere and put in some really nice balls (like the ball in that Benteke knocked down for Allen to score on for example).



Mignolet was at fault for both goals. The one Giroud touched was going in anyway. No excuse there it should have been saved. Even if Arsenal had scored on the rebound that would have been more excusable but Mignolet has no clue what he's doing. On the first goal there was no other angle for Ramsey to score unless he beat our defender one on one that shot was pretty much his only option given the angle and where the defender was and Mignolet was still slow to react. Cech would have saved that 10 times out of 10. There were a couple other points in the game where he was just awful and we didn't get burned by it but if anyone thinks we're going to go far with Mignolet in net they're dreaming (unless we put together a squad that is miles better than the one we have now and can just make up for his inability).

Joe Allen better be starting every game he's available now.

Same here.. Though Emre won the ball back couple of times he immediately lost it with terrible passes. Over all he added little imo, a much better ball playing CM should be paired with Henderson.

Kolo was too slow to react on first goal and third goal.

Thought Sakho had a decent game despite dominated by Giroud. Arsenal was playing hoof it to Giroud football and was a difficult job to stop him. While he failed on that job but he had lot of crucial interceptions off his line. Over all decent game.

I think can was top class in the first half.