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Solskjaer’s no-win conspiracy
I really pity Ole, it seems he needs to win the premier league with a record number of points, win the champions league three consecutive times, all while constantly beating burnley, crystal palace, sheffield united, and the likes 5-0, before anyone acknowledges him as even being as good as Tuchel, and by the way, the style matters too, if they play like man city, that won’t cut it, playing like liverpool is not accepted as well, you must play like man utd traditionally play, whether that means a playing style focused on wing play, speed, power, infact, just whatever they want on the day, and also, in case I forget, having less than 60 percent ball possession shall not be tolerated no matter who the opposition might be, not being deadly on the counter will not be forgiven, having less than 20 shots per game further highlights his status as a P. E teacher and allowing the opposition more than 5 shots per game leads to his own doom, let me add, they must press more than leeds united, Ah, lest I forget, buying Sancho and Haaland to achieve this will not appease people like Pablo who conveniently ignore Ole’s suberb record at developing young promising players like Rashford, Shaw, and James among others, no, buy a player from the championship and develop him, you do not need a 75 million euros defender or the most expensive goalkeeper until a certain Kepa came around, only Klopp is allowed such royalties while still being called a coach that develops players with the ‘right coaching’ though I am paraphrasing, I am sure it can be forgiven. So Ole, no matter what happens in the end, if it is not the desired, just know that it was your own fans and the entire football world that brilliantly conspired against you.
Sa’ad, Abuja
FEATURE: Will Real Madrid sacrifice Odegaard for Haaland?
Neil, Glasgow, who wrote in about quick forward passing, is basically just describing counter attacking football. Which we have been great at under Ole and explains a number of our results against the teams who come out to attack and, therefore, leave the space in behind to play quick forward passes. Where we struggled in the past (and admittedly sometimes still do if certain players aren’t having great games) is with teams who sit in, like Granada did during the match on Thursday.
The reason why we are now better against teams who sit in is because when Bruno came he started to take risks and pass between the lines, others then started to follow (look at McTominay’s improvement at passing and driving forward for instance). Bruno’s passing percentages are low because he takes risks. But sometimes patience is needed to shift the defence for gaps to open and that’s why we recycle the ball (or pass sideways or backwards as Neil puts it).
Also notice how we pass out from the back, taking risks sometimes to a fault where we lose the ball in our defensive third – that’s a tactic Ole uses to purposely draw the opposition out to leave gaps to hit the long forward passes and catch the other team on the counter.
Our main problem recently has been a lack of movement at times which can be frustrating to watch. I have no doubt Ole would like us to play counter attacking football every game, it’s an exciting style of attacking football when it works, but it’s not always possible because teams bed in and defend deep. Regardless, we’re second in the league and second top scorers – so we must be doing something right.
Garey Vance, MUFC
Transfer workings
For Chelsea, having a German international who would go back to Germany probably willingly to save you 40-60 million in a transfer for a more ideal striker seems like the right idea. Would you take Mbappe at Liverpool for 40 million and Mane? I bet you would.
The ‘failed cb experiment’ you mention at city actually took place at Liverpool this season. City bought probably the player of the year and an excellent back up at cb this year. Last year they didn’t and the year before they won the league with Fernandinho successfully filling in. Liverpool may have won the league in part to a Man City mistake in not replacing Kompany, only to go and make the very same mistake yourselves.
Why Claudio Bravo gets a mention from a Liverpool fan I don’t know. He is a ball playing keeper that failed, pretty poorly. Natural order would be to go get someone who can do better and they did. Didn’t Liverpool break the world record for a keeper…? Oh never mind that fact actually.
My point was to explain the viable options for a Haaland transfer. The media mentioned Liverpool, as they did Chelsea, United and City. I just wanted to point out which options were actually viable.
There was no point about how Liverpool sign potential and coach them or how that philosophy is good or bad. I guess this is ‘par for the course’ for a Liverpool fan. Getting upset when some mentions your team in a real manner that doesn’t glorify.
Clubs have budgets and they can spend them however they wish. The higher you go the more sense it makes to spend. To be the best you must have the best and then make it work. There was a reason Allison and VVD were signed after all.
Saying you wouldn’t want it is silly too. The pool have been linked with Mbappe for some time now and if they lodged a 120 million bid would you be excited? Would you want him in? Or would you scream and shout and complain that Jones isn’t getting his shot?
Finally, to say to a United fan wouldn’t enjoy players coming in and improving is a bit rich. Rashford, McTomz, Williams, Greenwood, Henderson… not one was paid for and all have been given their chance and improved by ‘super coach’ Ole. And you know what? We LOVE IT!
Fernandes isn’t bad either and cheaper than an Allison. But Fernandes is a ‘name on the sheet’ and Allison was ‘coached’ probably.
Just because none of them is a goal machine (Bruno aside) doesn’t mean we shouldn’t go for the best one available that we can afford. Much in the same way again, with what Klopp did with his team, he needed a cb and goalkeeper and broke two world records getting them. And had Klopp had gotten Brandt over Salah as he wished, would Brandt have fired you to the title?
Things work out sometimes.
Calvino
Chelsea’s front three
Was that our most dominant attacking performance of the season under Thomas Tuchel? Quite possibly, well at least i enjoyed it, i penned this as the Ed Quoththeraven Derby and for Chelsea fans it was truly good derby day, but you could argue Crystal Palace did alright, they had a 100% shot to goal ratio, 1 shot, 1 goal.
Christian Pulisic, Kai Havertz and Mason Mount for me is our best front 3, they looked on the same page, they looked in sync and offered huge creating potential and attacking threats in the box and in transition.
A little more on Captain America, Pulisic was great, both on and off the ball, after that game i cant see sadly how Tuchel can bench him and play Timo Werner instead, i will always defend Timo because of his work rate and i do want to see him do well, but Pulisic looked hungry for goals and seemed to spend less of his time trying to take on players and instead used that lightning pace to get into a position that threatened Palace in an equal manner.
Whoever picked the Man Of The Match on Sky Sports were in a no win situation, it couldve easily been any one of Havertz, Mount or Pulisic, for me I would edge toward Christian Pulisic.
Next up it is back to Seville.
Mikey, CFC
Harry Kane – the English tryhard…
Football 365- “His header, pouncing on a rebound off Emiliano Martinez’s save from Andy Robertson’s stinging half-volley, took Salah level with Harry Kane in the race for the Golden Boot, which is quite remarkable when you consider for how long Liverpool have fired blanks at Anfield.”
Another way of looking at it is to say how shit is Harry Kane, even when Salah, Mane and Aubameyang are in a triple threat to see who is the biggest fanny the saviour of England and the Universe who isn’t called Haaland can’t even outscore them.
I hear the cries of “But he’s playing in a defensive team Jose etc etc” But another way of looking at it is this, if Liverpool are so shit and haven’t scored from open play at home since December how come Kane isn’t miles ahead? I thought he was the best striker in Europe?
My ringpiece. Kane isn’t anywhere near big boy level. Never mind the bleeding obvious with Mbappe and Haaland, would any non-Spurs fan say that right now Kane is a better striker than Aguero, Suarez, Lewandowski? All three of them in the last two years have done things with a football that is like Chinese Arithmetic to Kane. Jesus, Danny Ings wants a word as well.
England captains get a massive ride we get that, but if the aforementioned strikers are having a bad year, Kane must be Pele in Escape To Victory. Oh what? He isn’t? He’s just another Conveyor belt English tryhard forward??? Nooooo….it’s Harry Kane, football Superstar, Andy Carrolls slightly augmented cousin.
Johnny Ironballs
One-sided refereeing and VAR
I’m writing this at 82 minutes, and I’m usually a fairly placid football fan.
But this is one of the most shockingly one-sided, inconsistent refereeing performances I can remember seeing.
Coopers tackle was a full blooded tackle that resulted in an upgraded card when the previous week George Baldock escaped any punishment for a horrendous lunge on Tyler Roberts
Sterling has stamped on Meslier and Raphinha, Philips has had his legs taken from him multiple times by Silva and Fernandinho with no censure.
If we hold on for a draw, I’ll consider it an excellent result. But the refereeing leaves a really sour taste.
Mat, Leeds fan.
The laws of the game and their interpretation do baffle me sometimes, Liam Cooper attempts to make a tackle, gets to the ball and yet is booked and the yellow subsequently turned into a red as his challenge is “reckless” and could endanger an opponent, Peter Walton unsurprisingly supports the decision but considers Cooper ” a little unlucky”.
Fernandinho on the other, makes no attempt to tackle, deliberately and maliciously hacks an opponent down, yet is only booked.
One could “possibly” cause injury, the other is almost an actual attempt to do so as contact is intended, yet the former is considered worthy of more serious punishment. Just odd!
Howard (Rafinha to Anfield please!) Jones
Why can’t we change the VAR rules to only permit the ref to watch incidents in real time? Every single ref, player and pundit acknowledge that challenges look worse when slowed down.
And yet, for 99.9/100 challenges, the refs have to decide in real time, with one viewing what the right call is.
So, VAR can exist, but only in real time. Same for offsides.
It’s fundamentally preposterous that a game determined by the interpretation of laws by a human is inconsistent even in how it does that.
I’d love to see viewership figures after a terrible VAR decision. Maybe seeing how many turn off the match would finally get the real power brokers to do something.
Ryan, Bermuda
In some respects I’m glad that VAR isn’t the main talking point because the result wasn’t ultimately affected by it but my goodness; how bad is VAR? It’s not about the offside law anymore, it’s genuinely down to how the refs are managing the game. The difference between English and Champions League refs is so stark; in both offside calls so far this weekend the European refs don’t draw any lines because it’s too tight to be considered clear and obvious enough to get involved.
Mané spent very little time on the pitch but was a real concern. I’m not entirely sure that he managed to find a team mate with a single pass and he got tackled two or three times or just ran the ball out of play the rest of time. Klopp has to try different ways to manage players but it hasn’t worked out this week with Mané. He’d probably be better left on the bench against Madrid as our front 3 that started today looked strong.
There are positives thankfully to look at today. Trent’s glorious goal was coupled with a lot of outstanding defending. The way he sprinted back to cover others mistakes showed that he knew he had something to prove. Long may it continue. Thiago also looked great today. His passing and movement was genuinely what I had been waiting for since he signed and it was nice to get a glimpse of things to come hopefully.
Minty, LFC
Leeds the hipsters’ choice?
Do you reckon Leeds Utd are the global choice of foreign football hipsters?
Somehow the thought of foreign football hipsters trying to outdo each other, by arguing over the relative merits of the Wilkinson and Revie title-winning teams of the past, to show off their hipster credentials about the Bielsa outfit, tickles me.
Anyway, as you were.
Gareth (LFC)
PS – more so if all the while trying to affect a thick Yorkshire brogue
“Ah Jean-Paul, les Leeds sont exquis, et des biscuits tin tin tin”
Sorry, I’m over thinking this and desperately trying to distract myself from Liverpool’s impending implosion against Villa…
Trent…
Amazing goal from young Trent….no doubt sections of the media will now bore on about Southgate not picking him. Fast forward Real Madrid scoring, Trent being at fault.
It seems like the media and I include f365 have literally nothing else to talk about ( apart from Kane will he / won’t he leave spurs)
Can we just stop this bloody game by game analysis of who is good and who isn’t !
Shall we just find a bit of common sense ! Let’s judge players on a season ( so, no Jesse no euros for you )
Trent is clearly brilliant going forward, needs to concentrate on defence and find balance. I will just be happy that when Liverpool lose midweek there isn’t dedicated articles about TAA.
Ah….. feel better
Ade ( still proud of Liverpool despite the constant knee jerk fans )
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