I think the hissy fits are very much coming from others. He was a 6 out of 10, bang average. But I have faith that a poor performance or two doesn’t mean that everything is fucked, that FSG are shit, Klopp is shit, that Virgil is now bang average.
But I accept people want to make it all doom and gloom all the time. To what end, I’m not really sure.
Its a wonder he didn’t make a ‘joke’ about klik/koch…boring man…
I thought I played pretty fine for a season-opener 
You need to have the odd shot yourself bobby. 
Compared to what? A constipated donkey? 
As far as I’m concerned the only thing that matters on opening day is the win. You don’t want to be chasing City from day 1, mistakes will iron out, the defence will tighten up, but you can’t get back the 3 points if you lose.
Win the opening game, that’s all that matters.
Not sure whether I agree with the criticism of Firmino. He wasn’t clinical… but he created a few opportunities that we should have scored from. In fact, having scored 4 goals and having additional goals disallowed I don’t think that you can really fault any of our attacking players so early in the season.
Given that Henderson and TAA were just back… there was probably some rustiness but our midfield and defense were generally poor.
In this situation, you would hope we had other players to push our current ones. But we really only have Jones and Grujic who might be options and outlier options at that.
New site, new season, same old 3 points despite not playing perfectly. I enjoyed most parts of the game, except after scoring when we relaxed a bit as if to say " this is easy, we are so much better than them". I’m glad they forced us to ramp it up and take all the points. It will be a valuable experience going forward. we are the Champions and every team will want to claim our scalp. Hopefully CFC new signings won’t be settled by next week, they picked up some quality and will be a threat.
If that is Bobby firing on all cylinders I dread to see him have a poor game. 
I tend to agree with “Limie”. our biggest problem was handling Leeds man for man tactics. It meant that when they attacked they always had plenty of men forward and it was difficult for defenders to support each other . Our back 4 was overloaded a lot because the midfield did not stay with their markers when Leeds had attacked. On the other hand their style helped us because it often left Mo in one on ones which he rarely gets these days.
For me another aspect is the atmosphere.
Whilst the Kop is a home advantage. A big aspect of our players is dealing with what is highly stressful situations. Its a key strength.
For my money its why so many fantastic young prospects fail. Its easy to shrug off a mistake in youth football or playing in the reserves. We have all seen that lad on the park, who has the talent to be professional but never made it.
The mental toughness to ignore the crowd (even home fans), to not let errors play on your mind, to try something audacious, is something top players have (I would argue some of our players even thrive under it). Playing in front of an empty stadium adjusts the balance.
It reduces a competitive edge we tend to have. Because of it, I think we might find defending our title more difficult than it ordinarily would have been. Some opposition players who are not that great ordinarily will seem better.
Yeah, I’ve been thinking along the same lines when it comes to our defensive performances pre- and post-lockdown. I think rustiness and the fact the title was sewn up so early after the restart are just part of the issue.
Under Klopp, the fans help to both wring an extra few % out of our players, while cowing opposition players, without them its much easier for visiting teams and we see our lads drop off just a little bit.
Every team is facing this issue its not purely us, And for us to even think about using that as some sort of excuse is nonsensical. Performances on the pitch is dictated by training and preperation, the other thing would be various x factors such as tactical nous and flexibility, or player talent and ability. These things factor into the outcome of a match.
Fans are a big part of football, but during these times , we need to adjust and win , thats what champions do. We cant keep making excuses . The players on the pitch are earning high salaries in the premier league its proven thats where the share of our revenue goes towards, so they need to be professionals and execute regardless of the crowd.
Yup, in my book, the absence of the Anfield crowd means that we won’t be as strong, consistent and sharp as during the two last seasons until March. And that won’t change before at least a part of the capacity crowd will be allowed into Anfield again. Away from home, it will be the same, and of course, other teams will be affected too, but not to the same point, due to how Klopp set up the squad’s mentality, and also due to our history and level of support in the game.
It’s still good to see that our lads found a way to overcome the opposition. That hopefully sets up a pattern for the rest of the season, fingers crossed! 
Bielsa picked up on this pre match saying it would not be like playing at Anfield without the crowd. He thought this was an advantage for Leeds.
There was a time when teams came into anfield and they upped their game because of the anfield atmosphere. Now its some advantage that the crowd isnt there. It can work either way on any given day. Some teams shrink from it others rise to the atmosphere against us, this is normal.
If your telling me the crowd impacts our games especially those big european nights, then i completely 100% agree with you. However, this is the premier league. Unless you are saying we are technically inferior to other teams and need the crowd to win our games, which we all know is NOT true. They need to find hunger and motivation from within , like how every other team will be using the chance to beat us and take our title away from us as their motivation.
I am not making an excuse. Just highlighting an important aspect.
Take Lovren as an example. He is a decent defender. What stops him from being a top-class player is his own mental insecurity. I remember seeing an interview, where he described his emotional swings while playing (from world-class to idiot).
Because of that he was always a level below top tier.
The league is full of players like Lovren. Players were an emotional maturity that would make all the difference. This is more weighted towards the weaker PL teams, than the stronger ones.
Its not an excuse for not performing, but highlighting for me it will be more difficult this year for us.
All crowds are not equal. Under Klopp at this time, ours helps to raise our players’ games while it can also overwhelm opponents. That’s just a fact.
At other grounds you can get home crowds that are either largely silent (like Arsenal) or who turn against their own players at the drop of a hat and boo them.
So no crowds DOES take away an advantage of ours. Of course, as a visiting team we will also benefit at the grounds that can also be cauldron-like for opposition teams, we shall see.
At this level winning or not often comes down to the slimmest of margins, and even the smallest % difference can affect the outcome.
But is there another club in the league where the bond between players and support is so strong? I’ve never seen another team be hauled over the line by their supporters like our has been in the past.
It’s not excuse making to have an honest discussion about the impact of crowd absence, and I’m personally a bit sick of our less calm fans crying excuses when there is an interesting conversation to be had.
