Post Match: Midtjylland vs Liverpool |(UCL 9/12/20 6pm)

Have at it…not sure what the bee in Klopp’s bonnet was.

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Well , not a stellar match this , but I didn’t expect us to roll out the big guns in a dead rubber.

Thought Clarkson was great , Williams was very good , Kelleher still decent despite 2 wobbly situations.
Koumetio head a rough debut right from the off of the 2nd and was pretty shellshocked after that - don’t really blame him - would be a miracle if every single youngster would hit the ground running at every debut.

I was a bit disappointed with Naby today - looked very restrained as if afraid of injury which would be understandable - but still , a passanger tonight.

Taki had a decent match but was sold short a few times with shit passes to him , he had to fight for everything tonight - and he did - just to get robbed by VAR in the end.

Very suspect officiating on this occasion - but who gives a shit in this match.

Valuable gametime for youngsters and squaddies - I take a draw from this.

Edit: MOTM poll disallowed by VAR today. Robbed again!

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Robbed by var tonight, we didn’t get beat so not all bad. Onwards and upwards.

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The VAR decisions were all correct but took an excruciatingly long time.

Klopp shouldn’t have used all the senior players and will be told to be quiet next time he complains about fixture congestion.

Kelleher and Williams did OK. Clarkson was poor in the 2nd half. Koumetio similarly was poor. Would have been nice to see what Millar, Cain and Stewart would have done.

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No injuries to our regular players I presume, so all good. Couldn’t care less about the result and VAR decisions as the game wasn’t of significance. Next!

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Just reading that Jon Moss was on VAR tonight. :flushed::joy:

Clarkson had a good first half. 2nd half he was terrible. Probably tired.

Taki was crap and has been in every game I’ve seen him play for us. Not strong enough, I don’t think I’ve seen him win a tackle in his LFC career. He decision making is poor, his passes are too soft. He even nearly didn’t score his offside goal.
Jota and TAA’s passing poor.

Billy looked lacking in confidence. The difference between him Williams was glaring. He carried on his poor form.

Don’t get all these amateur fitness gurus presuming to know the why’s and wherefores of Klopp’s decisions on who plays. I get the questions, like that seems strange Mo got 90 mins? etc but the blanket statements like ‘Klopp can’ t whinge now about fixture congestion blah blah.

Good 1st half for us, terrible 2nd half. I thought their goal was offside and their disallowed goal was onside, so maybe they cancelled each other out. At least Origi actually ran around today.

Did I mention Taki is crap?

Not an enjoyable dead rubber match. Too many VAR interventions. Also the rough housing from Midtjylland for a meaningless match, that was poor form. I also thought that the referee was poor. Our boys, particular in the middle of the park plus Big Div, were poor. Takumi once again disappointed…lots of energy but it seemed to be like a chicken with its head chopped off. I had so much expectations from him. Clarkson is still very green, he was good in the first 10-15 minutes, but then I think without help from the senior players to guide him to progress (until Hendo came on), his confidence level seemed to have dropped during the match.

I no longer have words for Big Div, I was hoping and praying that he would impose himself, but we got nothing, nada. He wasted a perfectly good chance as well.

I could not believe that we have another injury, Tsimi! Please be ok.

There are some outstanding moments by a few of the players, and as a result, I am picking them as the 3-picks (Don’t care that the poll is not available):

  1. “Kevin”: Yes, he lost the clean sheet, but he guessed where the penalty was heading, not too far off to save that ball. And what about that save against the header close to the end of the 2nd half.
  2. Fab: At the right place at the right time. When our keeper was not able to block the looper, Fab, with his long pair of legs/tentacles, kick the ball off the goal line. Rhys Williams also played better with him as partner as CB.
  3. Rhys Williams: Other than the back of his shorts prevented the offside, thus gave the Midgetland the pen, he did well, and it is becoming expected from him.
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As I haven’t seen the game I won’t comment on that. But what I can comment on is that I agree with the subs Klopp made tonight.

It seems to be assumed that a bunch of kids can go out, get smashed, and their confidence in the near future won’t be shattered. I think us 30-40+ year olds on an internet forum should try to imagine walking in the shoes of a 17yo footballer playing in a CL game.

Mixing youth with leaders was absolutely the right thing to do. That sort of mix makes it difficult for players like Keita or Minamino to shine. And as the scoreline shows made for a tight game. But I’m 100% behind Klopp on this. Don’t potentially damage a young player’s career to spare an older player 45 mins of football.

In an FA cup or LC game, it’s usually not going to be a blowout when playing a 3rd or 4th tier football club by fielding a youth team.

I’m happy that there were no injuries. Happy that we got a draw, and happy that no young players were exposed. Great night. I’m also a little glad I couldn’t see this one.

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Personally didn’t understand and I wanted to on the thought process behind the selection and subs, and this rationale does make sense. Cheers.

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MOTM Fabinho, held us together commanding not just the defense but the mifield as well. When he went we suffered badly. Our midfield just couldn’t defend noone covering passing lanes noone hassleing and none could tackle just a few points that need developing.
When we had possession I quite liked Clarkson I have no idea what level he will finish at though I feel hewill at least make a good championship midfielder. He struggled defensively tonight those big strong lads he was up against just being too much for him however he can learn to deal with that.
If Keita knew he wasn’t going to play a full match he could have made an effort for the time he was on.
Jota took a pounding hope he’s ok.
Draw is fine I can live with that but if Jota has picked up an injury i will be pissed off.

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You young whippersnappers… :roll_eyes:

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I don’t know if that’s Klopp’s rationale, and likely he will get asked a question in the post match presser related to that so we’ll see. Just my guess.

Not a great game.

What I’ve learnt.

Fabinho is our second best centre back after lord Virgil.

Keita was invisible as usual.

Youngsters did fine tonight

Thought Klopp subs were poor didn’t need Mane, Hendo.

Minamino doesn’t give me hope. Everyone else was decent

Funny the comments about Minamino on here.
I thought he did ok tonight, has to learn how to cover passing lanes and hassle players rather than try to jump tackle them (what ever that is?).In possession he did well lots of movement the right passes. Then again perhaps he just looked good because Keita was fucking crap.

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He is not good enough mate. Shirt sales for the Asian market. A good looking lad to boot.But he seems to play the game at the wrong tempo to the rest of the team.

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Best about this match, no injury’s for the key players

Doesn’t help that he arrived mid season and two months before everything got shut down for six weeks or whatever it was.

He’s also been asked to play wide and in midfield when he’s clearly more of a central striker. When he does get opportunities in his preferred position it’s usually with Origi plus one other either side of him.

Admittedly I’d have liked to have seen more from him so far but he still looks to be lacking in confidence and the chances he’s getting to play aren’t helping him.

I’d certainly persevere with him instead of Origi at this point as he seems completely disinterested.

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Klopp was complaining specifically for the lack of recovery time with the noon kickoff and the five subs. Well, he had 5 subs at his disposal tonight and more than 3 days to prepare for Fulham. His selection might have made fans uneasy but it did make sense.

And in any case, he and the club as a whole are not in the business of giving games away, dead rubber or not.

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The team was stronger than I expected, and as such, slightly surprising not to win. But it is difficult to muster much passion or concern over a dead game. We were top no matter what. They were bottom.

I want Naby to start to make his mark here. We’ve not really seen much of the player we thought we were buying. But I get it, coming back from injury, etc.

The whole thing was a bit meh, but if no players were injured I will take it and move on.

It would be nice to get a little run of Prem wins from now into the new year and see if we can be clear at the top in January.