Terrible defensive performance including the midfielders. They were able to get to us too easily.
Think people are being overly harsh on Alison saying they only had 3 on target and scored 3. Don’t think he could have done much with the 1st or 3rd goals. 2nd goal he didn’t need to be in that position but for me the fault lies with Virgil. Not sure what he was trying to do.
Leeds showed great desire and attitude and didn’t let us settle. They’ll do well this season with that mentality regardless of the gifts we presented them.
We got the win against a hungry, energetic well drilled team despite not playing anywhere near our best. We’ll play better this season and lose, shit happens in football! 3 points is the important thing and a week to work on the defensive side of things.
First game of last season a Norwich side far inferior to this Leeds side caused us even more problems defensively. It looks a comfortable score line in hindsight, but defensively it was miles from being comfortable. They cut us open repeatedly and it was only poor finishing or Ali bailing us out that kept them to just the 1, several of which at times when the score was still close.
I would have far more cause for concern if this defensive performance came as a result of players who were untested (maybe they wont be good enough here?) or older players (maybe they got old quickly), but they weren’t. We know how good this group can be individually and collectively. Coming off the back of a very abbreviated pre-season, the liklihood is now we’re back to business, they return to regular form pretty sharpish.
We haven’t been good defensively since restart. City could have scored 8 or 9 against us. I was just glad when that game was over. Chelsea scored 3 and could have scored more. Now we have Leeds carving us open.
It’s not just about this game. If it was isolated (like Norwich) I’d just put it down to rustiness but something is not right. Usually our defensive line is a thing of beauty but there is no synchronicity there right now and the pressing from the midfield is not intense enough. When we’re that high up we’ve got to keep up the pressure and we’re not.
Obviously it will be sorted. Klopp always finds an answer, but it’s just concerning to me that we are suddenly so open after two seasons of near defensive perfection. We became the best team in the world on the back of being hard to score against. Now we’re looking like we might concede every time a team attacks.
I am bit worried, to manage to win the league again, it will be very difficult, and then getting of to a good start is probably important. But hopefully we will sharpen up and tidy our organisation at the back very quickly. As long as we somehow manage to get 3 pointers, we can of course also play ourselves into form, but it will be difficult then not to lose points of course.
But on the positive side, Leeds played a very aggressive style, we won’t face that often and Chelsea has new players who may not have glued fully yet. I am hopefully and somewhat confident that we can manage to raise our game and play even better against Chelsea
I’ve been critical of Alisson, and I think it’s true to say that the Alisson in his first season saves at least one of those Leeds shots. The near post one you’d expect him to do better with.
But that’s because he is an exceptional keeper who we’ve seen pull out incredible performances.
Think there’s a little tendency to overstate Leeds performance.
In many ways their goals, their ability to hang in there and overall novelty, dominates the post game narrative and kinda overshadows how dominant LFC was in terms of the decisive moments of the game.
Still think we could’ve done more to control the game in MF…
It’s kind of ironic that our fans have been mocking our rivals for having weak defences. Surely we will improve soon, and VVD will be back to his imperious best, but that needs to be against Chelsea, because they have serious attackers.
If that wasn’t a visionary post, then I don’t know what is.
I missed the game and really regret it, but glad that our lads have found a way to deal with this dangerous Leeds side. Glad also that Mo, who looked average at best during the pre-season games, found his scoring mojo when it mattered. Brilliant!
Everyone is saying how good Leeds looked, and I don’t disagree, but I can’t help thinking that we made them look a tad better than they should have with our defending.
I feel optimistic because our defense is always our strong point and we just have to sort that out going forward. Leeds played a high tempo game and put pressure on our guys, and that’s always going to be an issue for the first game of the season.
It’s probably a good thing that we’re playing Chelsea early in the season, before their new guys get in the groove (if they ever do…), 3 points is 3 points, and we still have our 3-pronged attack firing on all cylinders. It’s going to be a good season. YNWA!
The issue is that much like us, Bielsa’s approach requires them to move the ball really quickly. When it works, it has the potential for making a high pressing side like us look like tits. Their second goal is a great example of that. Twice we had players completely taken out of the play with a really clever aggressive touch from a Leeds player. Christ, the first one was from a full back (I think) with the outside of his though.
Trent just comes back from a longer injury lay-off and basically no pre-season training. Rustiness all over him. The other lads obviously weren’t at 100%, but that’s all to do with that ruthless pre-season training Klopp imposes on the players imo. I’m sure that as soon as the players start to recoup a bit of their mental and physical sharpness, we’ll start to see much better and more coordinated defence again.
Game had me on edge at first as our defense seemed a bit rusty, but I was very pleased to see Virgil score and Mo get a Hat Trick. That was needed as he appeared to be getting frustrated towards the end of last season. I was surprised Mane didn’t score at all. I sometimes wonder about his personality, not his playing abilities which are great, but, he doesn’t seem to mesh well with the core of the team with his outward displays. Maybe it’s just me? Anyway, good start to the season, but,it looks like it’s going to be a tough go until all cylinders are firing in harmony again. GO REDS!
Found the below interesting. Kind of compliments what you are saying that these teams open up themselves as well giving us a lot of score to score few ourselves. All four of the below teams sort of play with that quick tempo.
Makes you wonder if that’s a good strategy against us? Seems a high risk high reward strategy to me.
Exactly the right match at the right time in my oppinion. Leed’s effort and workrate cut out any hints of complacency right there and then.
Unusual error by Virgil looked odd but who cares - Mo was on fire, the game a cracker to watch and the result was the right one.
Tyler is a dick btw. Even practiced to pronounce Koch’s name correctly - I was sooo looking forward to them squirming around mentioning him:
“Cock blocked” , “Cock rises to head out” , “Cock slides in to tackle…”
Party poopers!
