Absolutely brilliant. 4-0 against a very tricky Leverkusen side. Diaz the obvious motm but lovely to see Curtis Jones play so well too.
I don’t know what to make of it all. I am waiting for us to have a bit of a slump as we have a new manager and he is shaping it to what he wants. BUT as he does that, we keep knocking over all comers and are top of the CL and top of the Prem.
It is brilliant, but my instinct tells me the best way to be confident is to be quietly confident.
Well done you mighty reds. And well played Arne Slot. His star is rising, in his own understated way. But we see you Arne. Very good. Very good indeed.
If the Forest singular defeat is as bad as is gets this season, I will take it!
We are going very well. I am enjoying it. Probably says more about me than anything else, but I don’t fully trust it. I half expect some adversity is just around the corner. Hope I’m wrong and it’s just unnecessary worrying.
One thing I’ve noticed with AS… besides never seeing him panic, he sets the teams up to play the tactics he implements across 90mins, as in a first and second half - like two acts of a play, both different to each other.
Leverkusen were very easy on the eye last night, their passing numbers middle of the first half, were way ahead of ours… yet no real threat to our goal.
It was as though we absorbed what they threw at us, then second half, upped our tempo… they were left flat footed at this point and couldn’t hold onto our coat tails…!
That was a very good BL side we put to bed last night…
Thought Leverkusen looked dangerous in the first half.
The commentary team did my head in going on about how “poor” the first half was. It wasn’t poor at all - it was 2 good sides sizing each other up and being a bit cautious. Do they expect goals goals goals every half?
2nd half we stepped it up and they couldn’t live with us. Great all round performance from everyone.
I think Arnie has defo worked with Tsimikas and Trent on their positions and defending as defensively they have improved so much. Normally after 2 games of Tsimikas we’ve seen enough and cant wait for Robbo to come back but not this season. Think he has been immense defending and going forward. Will say, Trents defending has been so much better but his passing as gone a bit wonky of late.
Woooff… that’s really a statement of intent. So, so good… I never expected something like this.
Now, it’s all about being able to maintain that high level over the season. But Klopp left us with such a well balanced squad in terms of talent and mentality, and Slot is obviously able to make the most out of it.
It’s still far too early to start counting chickens, but this is a really competitive group of players we have here, and I really hope that everyone stays together until next May. Because if that is the case, this could be a good season for us…
After the first half, I was thinking 0:0 would be a great result. I can’t even place what changed. It’s not as if Leverkusen didn’t have options off the bench either - they brought Andrich on who has been looking great for Germany, frightening goats off the bridge or whatever it is that he does.
The first goal was such a thing of beauty that BL were shell shocked and immediately conceded again.
Once they missed the header it felt like our night.
Arne just seems to have the wind in his sails at the moment. Long may it last!
Anfield last night was tremendous and very happy to see we beat Leverkusen 4-0. Very much deserved!
We started very slowly in the first half. Leverkusen was marginally better and showed with intricate passing (Xabi ball?) how dangerous they could be. I was relieved their goal was disallowed.
The slow start I notice is something that Slot does often. Our backline would keep the ball longer to lure the opponent forward and then we’d sent an accurate pass over the top to either Mo, Lucho or Cody. At the same time, it eats into their stamina. Then we regroup at half time, Slot would tweak his tactics and try to pounce in the second half.
The second half was so much quicker, better, more efficient and wow 4 goals . This together with the opponents tiring and we were firing!
My top3 is: 1) Lucho because he scored a hattrick. 2) Curtis because he was everywhere and gave the important first assist (just wow). And 3) Ibou because he made so many blocks and was immense. Anfield was rocking singing the Diaz/BellaCiao song.
Further bonus of course when I came back from Anfield is to learn that both City and Real lost. Not just lost but they both lost badly. What a great night. What a great week so far. YNWA.
It was fun listening to it on the surround sound once I got the stadium noise working. Particularly when I heard someone shout “Knobhead!” from the rear left speaker.
Thats true but the space afforded to Curtis Jones that allowed him to put Diaz through (what a pass by the way) was completely at odds with everything in the first half.
I thought it was the control, especially in the first phase of the build up. Better control in 2hf from a combo of pushing a little higher and connecting the lines/passes better, which allowed Jones to find the pockets of space behind the BL press.
. This together with the opponents tiring and we were firing!