Post Match: Liverpool v Southampton (EPL 27/11/2021 3pm)

Happy to see us rotating Konate and Matip and keeping clean sheets. Anybody know what happened to Joe?

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Injured

Focusing on who scored the goals tells us next to nothing about how well Sadio and Mo played, imo. It gives a hint to what other things they were doing.

Mane was on fire. The give and goes in the build up play. Him and Mo occupying the back five. Mo was playing like many scream for him to do - he was unselfish for most of the 90 minutes. The build up play from both was top quality.

Mane with a goal chalked off for centimetres, and Mo with Jota nipping in front once for the goal, but then a second time when blazing over, with Mo a tap in away both times.

At 60 minutes we eased off, especailly when Marriner decided to start to favour Southampton in every challenge. Case in point, in around the 65th minute, we’re on a break, with Jota wriggling away, The Southampton player does a “take one for the team” foul. A yellow all day long (unless you’re you know who from Shitty). Marriner just speaks with him, keeping his card in his pocket.

That was the extra signal to the team to ease off. Mo got one free kick out of the countless times the fullback had wrapped his arms aroud his neck. At four up, with the ref in that mood, it makes sense to turn it into a training session and just probe for the goal.

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Thought Robbie was on fire, wanting to show what we’ve been missing. Our defence I think will get better once Konate gets into playing with our rhythm more.
Good to see Ox coming on and putting in a proper shift both in defence and attack. The best outcome was no injuries and our key players get subbed out once the game was won.
YNWA

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Despite not scoring today, Salah and Mane were excellent, especially Salah. VVD was incredible at the back also as usual. He needed to be as we can only play the gung ho style we do because of him. We attack with 6 players. We saw the good and bad of Thiago today. Lapse in concentration almost cost us a goal at the start but Allison bailed him out. Other than that, he was excellent. And Allison - what can you say about him. In my opinion, he is the best goalkeeper in the league. I would not swap him for anyone. An amazing performance but stressful to watch as we are so vulnerable on the break. Winning by one goal isn’t enough for us - it seems that we need to smash them. Lets hope they kept a few goals for the bluenoses on Wednesday

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This last week we’ve been helped by playing three games at home against teams we always do well against and 2 of them (Arsenal and Southampton) played right into our hands with their tactics. I didn’t expect Southampton to be so gung-ho but they fancied their chances and got twatted, like many others will this season. I can’t see Everton and Wolves doing the same so those two games will tell us more about whether we’re back to our consistent best.

We were great going forward but Alisson is still a bit too busy for my liking. Three top saves in the first half and the first, after Thiago lost it on the edge of the penalty area, was crucial. There was a lot of sloppiness in possession in that first 20 minutes or so. Southampton can’t score goals so didn’t punish us but other teams might.

Robbo was superb. He relished all the space they gave him. Great to see him playing so well again. Konate struggled in the first half and was slow to react to danger, but it’s a good learning experience for him with no harm done. Virgil’s performance seems to have gone under the radar but I thought it was one of his best since he returned from injury. Really calm and assured throughout and took his goal well.

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I have now seen the match.
I really like Klopp’s hybrid 4231-433 tactic with Hendo starting infront of Thiago and Fabs, it means Jota can play his natural center 'forward game (AOC and Keita can also play in the Hendo role as perhaps can Minamino). It means we don’t miss Bobby whilst he’s out and makes us a damn sight more dangerous going forward yet also a bit more solid defensively.
Salah was excellent as were both Mané and Jota. Hendo looked like he was really enjoying himself as did most of our lads. Konaté is a good strong lad and I can see why we brought him in now (still loses a bit of concentration now and again, the problem with young defensers).
I didn’t notice us get caught on the counter like we have been doing yet Alisson still has to show his greatness it’s just one of the downsides to how we play but we play so well and with such joy it’s worth it imo.
I don’t know about the rest of you but i think this match could be a turning point for the better this seaon and onwards. Klopp has found a way of integrating his prefered 4231 formation and the players love it and thrive on it.
Onwards and upwards! :smiley:

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Mane must fucking hate VAR.

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And refs. They never give him anything.

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To be fair he needs to start timing himself better if he keeps getting offside, the Everton one was a joke but with the new lines it’s marginal timing.

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What is that?

I think he means timing his runs better

Yep, Mo and Sadio were decent enough. I’m not unhappy with their performance at all. I saw Sadio’s sharpness too, while Mo, for my tastes, hung on to the ball a little too much, desperate for his goal. It happens, and without his ruthless dare-I-say-it selfish streak, he would not be the striker he is. It’s all good.

Even when our main two goal scorers didn’t hit the net, others weighed in with goals and we won 4-0. It’s a good sign.

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I wish I could do that, back in a minute! :cry:

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The small change in tactics helps to keep the players on their toes as well as making it difficult for the opposition to plan ahead. We have hit a lot more low crosses the last two matches. Pity we did not do that against West Ham , still, water under the bridge and all is well. Fingers crossed we can keep it going.
Lfc is certainly a very entertaining team to be supporting at the moment, long may it last.

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He is not the only one but both VAR and refs treat him badly both in Europe and in England. Those studs landing on his shin on Saturday would have seen us get a red but not for Marinner

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Apologies in advance but I enjoyed doing this in the Man Utd thread so going to point out some more bad defending, this time from our match and starring Mohammed Salisu.

So, clip number one and Salisu is in an unenviable position of having Salah running at him 1v1. The space to the left of Salisu is the immediate danger as it gives a clear run on goal or a chance for a pass across to Mane in the middle. Salisu was put in this situation due to a breakdown in possession so this is not on him at this point.

At this point Salisu has done well. He successfully stopped Salah bursting into the space behind him and he held him up enough to force him to cut back onto his left foot rather than to the byline, which has removed some of the urgency from Liverpool’s counter attack. Salah is obviously very good on his left foot but Salisu can expect help here from Romeu. So far so good.

Less than a second later and we can see the effect Salisu had. Salah is completely boxed in with Romeu removing his route inside and Salisu nice and tight (but not too close) to prevent any kind of turn in the box. Salah’s only option is to play the ball back to Henderson in midfield. At this point all Salisu has to do is take a step to his right to cover the area between himself and the number 4. Once he does this, the Southampton backline will be well positioned to see this attack cleared…

Oh dear. I can only assume Salisu got a rush of blood to the head. Instead of retreating back into the defensive line, Salisu decides to hare out to Henderson who has collected the ball in a relatively harmless position (Salah, Mane and Jota would all have been tightly marked had he stood still or moved to his right). As we can see with the fuscia coloured line, Salisu immediately charged down Salah’s pass and this has allowed Salah to find himself with that clear space to run into once again. This time Salisu won;t be able to slow him as he has taken himself out of the game.

Henderson immediately spots the mistake. As Salisu continues to charge out, Henderson plays Salah into the space and nutmugs Salisu with the pass, the add insult to injury. From this position Southampton can only hope Salah miscontrols or messes up the finish.

Henderson’s pass is actually slightly overhit forcing Salah to cross it but Livramento, number 21, never got goal side of Jota - who immediately presses the space at the back post. Mane makes a shallower move to the front post which draws number 25 towards him - out of the line of the cross - which leaves the space for a good cross from Salah and a simple finish by Jota. Highlighted in red, look at Salisu’s positioning. His decision to charge out at the pass back to Henderson has, in the course of four seconds - taken him from single handily stopping an attack 1v1 with Salah, to being the 7th deepest defender and completely out of the game.

Number 25 is in a horribly difficult position here. He would love to have been in line with the cross on the six yard box but felt obligated to track Mane who intentionally stayed a few yards deeper. Jota took two steps compared to number 21 (who took one) and increased his time and space. Salah’s cross leads to an easy tap in.

Overall Salisu takes prime responsibility here. He had done really well to hold up a Liverpool attack singlehandedly but his decision to charge out of the penalty area rather than just hold shape led to Salah getting into the crucially dangerous space. Livramento also didn’t cover himself in glory, he failed to get goalside of Jota at any stage and was beaten in a footrace at the end. Both of these players are youngsters, Livramento just 18 and Salisu only 22. I would expect both of them to tidy up some of their weaknesses that led to this goal.

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These are really good. Love such tactical analysis. So many small details missed out in a play that happens within seconds. Also shows how intelligent and quick thinker Hendo is to spot that mistake and the pass.

And this is just one example. Klopp and the staff would have hundreds of such clips worked upon my multiple analysts and all not just to improve our play, but also to spot weaknesses in the opposition.

There’s so much more to football than what meets the eye.

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On the reply I thought he looked offside myself. Only very slightly mind.

Huh?