I knew it would be a tricky game,we were below par and sloppy defensively but as usual,we worked hard and ground out the win and overcame a Leeds team who were right up for it today.
Bielsa has had weeks to gather all the info on our team,aswell as watching us play for the last few years,to get a game plan to nullify our strengths,he man marked us all over the pitch and used Costa and Harrison high up the field to pin back Robertson and Trent for large parts of the game,to stop our wide play.
Not only that but he’s installed a winning mentality into Leeds from last season,i doubt it would have been hard for him to get them fired up to play against the title holders at Anfield,plus show the rest of the premiership that they are up for a fight.I just hope Bielsa shows as much attention to detail in beating the rest of the league,as he did today trying to beat us.
I also hope now that any of todays defensive complacencies will be worked on in training and get back to our normal solid back 5 ASAP,it is only the first game back so you can’t be to harsh on them and atleast those errors have come during a win.
Watched the full replay this morning knowing the result. Good way to kick off the campaign. Highlights for me we’re the front 3 seem to have that click about them already, No doubt it will disappear at times during the season but I like the way the started off. Bobby did some good work, hassling creating, should have scored. Mane was a menace, Salah superb.
Midfield 3 did well, no surprise after Hendo went off that we lost a bit of control. Keita looked good in the first half and Gini did what Gini does throughout.
Jones a bit slack coming on and felt like he should have followed the runner. You can see before the goal he tells Fab to sit but he doesn’t track, something to learn from.
The defense, yes we conceded 3 but overall I don’t think it was that bad. Virg trying to be too cool, class finish from the Leeds fella, no surprise that our right side is the side they target the most. Trent probably not a 100%.
One thing I will say is that even though the stats probably show the opposite is that I feel Matip is a better fit next to Virg, Gomez for all his quality is more similar to VvD and I prefer Matip alongside him.
Keita pet in some great midfield animation, I was surprised he was taken off. Admittedly defensively he was wanting but that midfield setup had some real tactical problems niether Gini or Keita looked the part.
Cracking game of football that. Doubt we’ll see a better first half all season. Don’t know about everyone else but I absolutely love the fact that we can play well within ourselves and still come away with 3 points, time after time.
I do not want to be overtly negative so I’ll just summarise into negative points and then positive points
Negatives=
We carried our pre season defensive frailties into this game. Trent and gomez especially for the first goal, Harrison made them look championship level with that effort.
Despite the scoreline. We got two penalties (100% pens) and mo and virg scoring. Firmino had chances he should have put away and we didn’t get to see taki today either which given how we were leaking at the back. I can understand it.
Gonna cut virg some slack for the blunder but alisson positioning wise and form wise did not help himself today. I thought the Bamford goal was avoidable had alisson stayed his line that one point.
Positive=
Captain hendo got some game time. Good to see him have a run out and try and catch up for the rest of the season. God knows we will need him at his fighting best.
Mo salah keeps proving that form is temporary, while class is permanent. At some point last season people were entertaining selling mo and saying mane was better and what not. But I would argue mo is our best attacking player. Its not just the goals either. It’s his touches and his presence that makes defenders fear. Which is also why mo has a license to shoot and Jurgen knows. If we need goals, if we need a x factor to overwhelm opposition. Mo is there.
We got one of our goals through a set piece and big virg showing once again, he is a dominant threat in corners. It’s also good that we won this game without our wingbacks being a major factor.
We won and this image is the most important thing. Anfield must remain a fortress. No. Matter how these inferior sides come and fight us, we cannot lose here.
how many times have we said this last season “Woo! That was close. Did not play to our usual standards, but we dig our heels and won”
I hate to say that in the last 30 years during the Ferguson era, the scums did not dominate the PL by playing great football match in match out, but somehow always pull themselves over the line. And that kind of stubborn resistance to not losing, not dropping points is how you chip away at the competitor’s resistance because they are going to tear their hair out at how we will ever drop points.
Not going to give excuses. Winning in the last minutes through a penalty, dropping 3 goals at home to a newly promoted team, mistakes by our best defender VVD etc, are going to haunt us if we do not find more consistency but the difference between dominating for an era requires a team to win when we are playing well and still win when we are playing shite and we are doing exactly that.
Defensively we did look a bit off but i can see Leeds do that to many teams this season.4-3 is a win and therefore a good result but a draw wouldn’t have been an unfair one.
Again no pitch time for Taki when Bobby was awful - Even the chance from 6 yards in 2nd half that was blocked by Leeds defender was going wide.
I kinda get why bobby was kept on as he works hard off the ball but he was terrible all game.
VVD - sloppy but he’s been immense since he got here - what’s that, about 3 awful games in 2.5 years? I’ll take that.
Gomez was awful. I’d have preferred Matip to start but maybe Klopp thought Gomez pace would be needed.
Leeds targeted Trent in first half and got a lot of success.
Alisson - what the hell has happened to him? Been mingolet like since restart. I have no confidence in him saving a shot. Leeds had 3 scored 3.
Fabhino came on and couldn’t get into it. Settled a bit in last 5 mins.
Thought Keita played well and was suprised to see him come off.
Thought Salah and Mane were excellent. Salah first touch and strength is so underrated. Mane was every where and is so important to us.
Good hour for Hendo after injury. Gini played well first half but faded 2nd but didok.
Robbo was good as well.
Leeds - really liked their approach and hope losing doesn’t change their way of playing. We don’t want them going to our rivals and changing their approach.
I LOVE how the pundits have predicted LFC to LOSE the league. No RESPECT for the defending Champs!
In CASE you MISSED it, Mohammed Salah is a World Class SUPERSTAR!
Hat TRICK! Get IN!!
A very satisfying win to start the season. Our defence needs to get sorted but I’m confident Klopp can coach them up to standard once he gets more practices in with the lads.
Yes we can use more squad depth, but the fireworks can still go OFF at any time!
Yeah and they had the functionaries in their pocket too. Not to mention all the media moguls, the police, the mafia, the wine growers and distillery owners, the…OK that’s emough.
That’s right… because all those people were needed to ensure that United got a dodgy penalty every week, or that Scholes never got sent off for his late challenges. or that their opponents would have a perfectly good goal disallowed.
An absolute shitshow of a defensive performance. Every time Leeds pumped the ball up we looked vulnerable. Trent , Gomez and Virg just weren’t at the races.
wtf is wrong with Bobby in front of goal ? He’s supposed to be a striker and he looks scared to shoot at times.
With Salah in this form , we should go 4-2-3-1 and drop Bobby deep.
Great game , but fukin 'ell we made it hard for ourselves.
Need to tighten right up against the chavs next week.
From the Leeds performance we should drop Firmino.
Then again last time I said that he gave an improved performance in his next match so perhaps we should wait and see and I should say how crap I thought he was more often.
