That first half was shocking, in a very real sense. Our players looked like they’d been sent out without any plan, and I don’t believe that was the case. At least Klopp got them righted for the second half, and I think Thiago made an immediate impact when he came on.
We have anther shot at this.
NEVER GIVE UP.
Id love our form to suddenly exist at the soulless Anfield but I’m not holding out hope.
We could transfer our return game to Prenton Park, and play on the potato field there. That would possibly unsettle the Real players. Or play the game at Kirkby, which is probably more realistic.
An empty Anfield is poison for us.
Or get it moved to Budapest.
Geez the Liverpool journos are proper sticking in the knife…
They can all fuck off, then
I agree an empty Anfield does nothing to make me feel positive, that and our abysmal defending. I can’t wait for some fans to return.
It was abysmal. If they were carrying out instructions, it would seem to be contradictory:
Front three: Your job is to heavy metal press. And they did. Look at the first 30 mins. Mane, Jota and Salah would SPRINT to the keeper, and to the wide defenders.
Speaking of which, the wide positions of RM was to force us to go through the middle. Without Thiago, we couldn’t get past their block. In fact, we were so poor that we hardly strung together passes in the first half.
But the instructions to the midfield: I have no idea. Seems to be not in sync with what the front three were doing, as if we had Plan A given to the forwards and mistakenly given Plan B to midfield, with the two plans being diametrically opposed. There was no pressure on the ball in midfield, allowing RM once beating the forward press to dictate the play (and the forward press was simple to beat, as it was just the individuals).
If the midfield was told to do that, then the forwards should have dropped off, and we become more compact. Instead the forwards would rush forward, the midfield would idle about in midfield leaving gaps all around the defence.
TAA could go forward, with the RCM Keita there to …oops.
Then add in basic individual errors and the game was taken away from us. Until Mo scored, and then ………… we switch off again due to errors from a basic throw-in. The breakaway 2 on 2 just before the third goal should’ve been a wakeup call. Instead we fell into the trap like a zombie.
Mane: out of form, with ref giving nothing. 5 subs allowed, yet Klopp keeps him on. Anyway. We are Liverpool. This is Anfield. We score an early goal, and RM may panic due to the aura we’ve build up from comebacks.
I don’t trust any Liverpool team that doesn’t have either Milner or Henderson in it. There is never the same level of focus, commitment or intensity. It’s OK if things are going well but as soon as things turn against us you can see the heads drop and the belief evaporate. If JK is going to stick around to build another great Liverpool team then finding players who can set the same standards as those two do on the pitch is going to be his biggest problem.
Yes, the inclusion of Keita backfired. He tried to throw Zidane a curveball there and it didn’t work but I don’t think it was crucial to the outcome. This is not a great Real team but this is a really poor Liverpool team right now and they were a cut above us all over the pitch last night. Gini and Fabinho were terrible in the first half. Trent stinking the place out again. Long ball over the top down the right hand side catching us out yet again. It was an appalling performance and the only reason it looked better in the second is that Real dropped off and settled for the 3-1.
Injuries and no fans have obviously hit us hard but just as bad is the disastrous form of players who have looked like world beaters for us in recent years. Trent and Bobby are obvious examples but Mane is now another. Not long ago I was writing on here that he had a genuine claim to be the best footballer in the world. Now it looks like we’ve chucked a new born calf on an ice rink. He is comically bad. How he stayed on ahead of Jota only JK knows.
Terrible in the first have, better in the 2nd.Had we been able to keep it to 0-0 in the first half we’d not have needed to chase the game and could have had Madrid on the back foot.
We need to start the 2nd leg as we started the 2nd half of the game last night.
Just read on the official website that there was racist abuse against our players on social media last night. Not sure what. I’d rather not look.
I’m disappointed about the game last night but I can really do without that shite. I watch the football as an entertainment and exactly how abusing individuals is going to help the team is anyone’s guess.
All is not lost, but in truth Real are a different beast to Barce, and I’d be staggered if they allow us back into it, especially at an empty Anfield.
Keita’s inclusion for a crucial match, after little football in three months, was a strange one. Let’s remember that each outfield player represents 10% of the outfield set up, so at the highest level one player who is off it can make a huge difference. We also lost 2-0 with him on the pitch, at drew 1-1 after he’d gone off.
That said, Keita was only part of it, everyone else was poor too, although I do think that the Saturday night PL, Monday travelling, Tuesday night match, also impacted us.
We also do need to remember that we are playing a rookie central defence, which impacts the rest of the side against sides of the highest level. Phillips has done great, and I really like the lad, whilst Kabak shows promise, but having two lower pecking order centre backs against such opposition is a huge deal.
Real might not be what they were, but they’re still at the top end of their league, they have depth and they have know how. Their midfield ran the show, their defence was solid, and their forwards were clinical.
It is a blow, but the way I look at it, next Thursday morning we either have a CL semi to look forward to, or one match a week to try and secure top 4.
We definitely need to freshen up this squad in the summer, that much is clear.
I’m very worried that Robertson is going to see Firmino style career impacting burn out, after three intense years and a summer international tournament. Resting him has been impossible this season, given Kostas’s injury problems and the issues at centre back.
Central defence needs an overhaul, we need a new number two to VVD who can stay fit, and a further two or three back ups to be kept on from Gomez, Matip, Davies, Phillips and Kabak.
We need to freshen up the forwards, and it’s worrying that the likely departure will be Salah, who is the only one other than Jota who gives the forward line any consistent quality these days. I’d push Oxlade into Shaqiri’s squad role, let Origi, Shaqiri and possibly Minimino go, and sign another quality forward.
Personally, I think we need a different playing option, whereby in addition to the current one of 433 and attacking full backs, we also have another style that rests TAA and Robertson by playing more defensively minded full backs (perhaps centre backs who cover full back like Gomez and Davies), then pick a more expansive midfield.
There was a 3/4 minute cameo mid second half that summed up our performance last night. R.M.passed the ball around for maybe three minutes and we couldn’t get near them. Finally Fabinho intercepted the ball and with none of the RM players near him he gave it right back to them.I’ve been watching Liverpool for nearly sixty years now and can’t remember a first 45 minutes as bad as that last night. Keita was poor as were the rest. In fact Thiago’s first pass when he came on was straight across the box to one of the Madrid players. Not great but an improved second half where we managed to keep it to 1-1. Thought Allison’s positioning for the first goal wasn’t great and as one of the top keepers in the world should have done much better with their third goal.Couldn’t understand why when we were looking for a second goal Jota who I thought was our best forward was taken off. Putting Fabinho back into central defence and taking Kabak off was another strange decision. The only positives I can take from the game is that we still have a glimmer of hope for the second leg and they could have doubled the score last night and put the tie to bed.
Burned out and lacking confidence. An underappreciated aspect of systematic high pressing is how badly it falls apart with 1 weak link in the chain. And once a single player suspects there might be they start second guessing themselves and end up not fully committing and everything compounds. If you’ve got some players fully committing at a moment and some being more conservative to protect against the press being blown, then you become this horrible disjointed mess.
What I see is a side who still wants to press, but we’re knackered, lack confidence in the players behind them and have a bit of PTSD from how the season has gone.
That bit that Rio said imo is rubbish when you see where they where against Real. for example only Nat wass coming to help out <trent whiche was really stretching us. What I see is that the distance between midfield and attackers is too great which means the space is too great between midfield and attackers. Let’s face it Salah was helping out Trent more than any of our midfield that says a lot.
Might depend which phase your talking about last night our midfield was none existent so it doesn’t matter the problem was there.
I’m not so concerned about pressing it’s the marking and tracking back we aren’t doing correctly.I sometimes feel Klopp is too much of a purist wants us to play out from the back yet a player like Nat needs to be told to put the ball out under even the slightest pressure and there really is nothing wrong with marking a player like Benzemza with 2 men particularly when you know how he plays (going round behind the defender (Nat just hasn’t the nous to deal with that and we saw that a couple of times).
Anyway Rio is a thick as shit. 
IMO we should have started with a Gini-Fabinho-Milner midfield, or the one against Arsenal (Milner-Fabinho-Thiago) last night.
Isnt that exactly what he’s saying? The midfield is compensating for the lack of faith in the defense by sitting deeper, creating more distance between them and the front 3.
I was wondering as I thought the pitch Real had us play them on was very wet and very narrow, the very narrow would possibly upset us and some of our players kept slipping over. Does anyone else feel that was a strategy from Real?
He was saying the midfield was too deep I’m saying the attack is too advanced particularly last night where the attack was pressing up.
Difficult to judge from last night as the midfield were soo poor but where not helping the defense.
It’s similar just the proposed solution is different. Most of the 1st half we had our backs to the wall yet the midfield wasn’t picking up their palyers or pressing they were all over the place except where we needed them.
I said to my lad right at the start the pitch looked very narrow but that may have been down to the position of the camera. I’d imagine UEFA would have some minimum requirements in that respect.
