This match was a real battle and test. Bournemouth were on us like a pack of hounds. One slowed us down and the rest piled in. This lasted 30 minutes and really knocked us out of our stride and comfort zone. Despite that we held strong and they hardly got a wif of our goal. We put enough pressure in midfield on them that we forced them to make errors as well and our defence mopped up.
Considering who our players are I think we should be pleased with that.
From the stats given by the broadcaster we dominated!
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How many times did the ball hit Michael Oliver during the match? Was it 2 or 3? It’s actually understated, because he is constantly getting himself in the way and preventing passes.
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He’s just useless!
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Also it’s pretty cool to have a coach who sees us 1-0 up away at a club who almost finished above us last season and his reaction is to turn to 21 year old Lewis Koumas and 19 year old Trey Nyoni. Not because he didn’t have other options but because he trusts them to do a job (which they did).
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Wirtz must not keep coming deep. His best plays always starts from right outside the box. It is the onus of the midfield pivots and the defence to get the ball to him.
Wirtz was instrumental in Isak getting that tap in yesterday. His run into the box forced the opposing defender to slide in leading the ball to ricochet off Wirtz and Isak had a tap in. If Wirtz ain’t there, the opposing defender has no incentive to slide in as there was no pressure on him at all.
Any other player other than Wirtz wouldn’t even be in that position at all.
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Thought Flo had his poorest game, by far, for us this season. Still contributed more than Dom though.
Very nice away win against a tough opponent, who were playing a bit harder again, due to losing their manager to us. They were desperate to put us in our place, but even as a work in progress we got the win.
Now it’s a boring international break, but it’s very much a glass half full for me so far, as we are unbeaten. There’s more to come in midfield and up front, but defensively it looks much more solid than last season, which is the typical bedrock of any team trying to compete.
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New Head Coach grinding out results, getting us looking better defensively and using the subs really well in his first season…
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Yeah Id agree on that. We struggled quite badly getting close to Fulham, but this was much much improved. At least until Isak started tiring. There was a 15 min spell early in the second half where it looked like the most dialed in Iraola inspired performance we’ve put in yet. It’s ponderous progress, but it is real tangible progress.
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The way the media is talking about Wirtz is pissing me off, no lie.
We won a tough game away, got a clean sheet, and went into the break with the most positive vibes we’ve seen from this team since…early last season?
And instead of seeing the positives and the growth, you’ve got people choosing simply to trash Wirtz.
He isn’t where he needs to be. There is no doubt. But there is absolutely no reason for this to be the focus at the moment. He wasn’t terrible or selfish or team-destroying. There’s no reason for the focus to be on him.
And now we’ll have weeks of this nonsense.
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…and we also have folks here piling on him at the same time. 
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I think Gomez is. Just he´s always injured.
I agree on the ball but I think he´s also very solid. He´s just injured a lot. Fantastic player though
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I just did a routine liverpool search on YT to see if there are anything interesting, limited to the following search term (liverpool -agenda -espn -talksport -husam) and only for the past 24 hours, it’s really disgusting in the Wirtz bashing, on top of the usual garbage. Some of them are from our own “supporter channels” (I would not count Anfield Agenda and Don Husam as LFC supporters). That’s the age of social media for you.
People are sheep. You have a pundit shouting loud enough to criticize a player (Carragher, you are a shite), the plebs will say yay.
(You can tell I am pretty angry about this.)
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The trouble is, that, as we know, bile creates clicks, and that’s all that matters online. Reasonable voices are drowned out by shrill hysterics and common sense goes unheard.
It’s horrible, and I hope Flo isn’t being affected by it.
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Absolutely. He played his worst game under AI and had a couple of mis controls and misplaced passes but he still contributed more than others. We paid a huge price for him, sure, but his attitude and workload are spot on and you can see in so much of his play that others are just not quite on the same wavelength as him (yet). He’s going to be our star. Longer term I don’t see a place for Dom, who seems to get much more favourable coverage due to his 1 in 30 or 40 free kick wonder strikes. Personally I think Dom isn’t running enough this season and either needs to be further forward (but he wouldn’t take Flo’s place for me) or playing at RB. Ultimately I am thinking AI will manoeuvre him out next summer as the midfield gets tweaked.
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I think we do need to draw a line between calling it as it is. Wirtz is hardworking and has a good attitude, he doesn’t complain which are key qualities when it comes to been a favourite. To me just like Lucas, even if he does not become a great success, he will be welcomed and remembered fondly. But of course as far as performance in key metrics, it is unfortunately not working out for him so far. Yet.
The line has to be drawn when names like useless, waste of space, trash etc that had been thrown around in the internet sphere. They can be performing badly but they are as humans as we are and are not useless or waste of space.
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One thing that amazed me about the Bournemouth game was the fact that I was able to watch it live, even though at that time I was flying in an Emirates plane at 36,000 feet. Live sporting events can be watched on their in-flight entertainment set-up.
I don’t know if that’s possible with other airlines, but I just thought I’d put it out there for the benefit of anyone who might be flying on a matchday.
I ignored the ManU game but just kept an eye on it with glances to the screen on a nearby seat.
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Are you suggesting we book our flights based on the LFC fixture schedule? Is that eco friendly or economically viable?
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Not exactly, but now that a certain former poster is no longer around, these things can be said without being told off.
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Before the season started, I’d have snapped your arm off if offered the Newcastle, Ipswich & Bournemouth results.
Not so happy with the Forest & Fulham results, but then good wins against Atletico Madrid and Spurs in the cups were encouraging.
Kinda glad I chose not to watch the game on Sunday, based on the MOTD highlights, but a good win nonetheless.
The level of hole picking in the team and individual players after a good win at a tough venue is sadly a reality of how important and relevant people think their coaching/tactical knowledge is these days.
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