I think the whole poor display narrative vs City last Sunday is overplayed. Two heavyweights at their best, so a drop off in performance is magnified, especially by amateur pundits who spend most of the time in a criticism mode anyway.
Klopp recognised this slight drop off, but he wasn’t overtly critical. Of course the first half was bit harem scarem, but then it was vs City in the Ethihad, and we drew.
In matches like this the performance isn’t always the major issue, its always the result though.
By reading some accounts you would swear we were hammered by City. Its actually annoying to read criticism of the likes of Fabinho, Salah, Hendo because we were supposed to go there and hammer them.
Fabinho was below his norm, Salah didnt score, Thiago lost the ball…all fodder for negativity…
Maybe the narrative should read that at 95% of our usual best we drew away to a team that has all the riches in the world funding them. And at 95% we possibly could have won the match. Maybe a bit of credit and support when expectations are not met.
Massive tomorrow. Last week I couldn’t think of this match as I was consumed by the league match. Now this is fucking massive, and the nervy feeling has consumed me again.
We shouldn’t focus on KDB and Walker being out. They have enough on the bench to get over that. Of course KDB is a massive loss but they will adjust.
I just hope we find the extra gear, the slight drop off we experienced in a few recent games is bridged and we get a massive Wembley performance.
All very exciting at the moment.
What does a 10 bring away to City? A draw, a narrow win?
If thats it, depending on how City play then “not at our best” wasn’t bad on Sunday.
Poor would be around 2 to 3 out of 10?
We were not “poor” on Sunday.
Pep has played this card so many times now. Top Red Kev will be playing on Saturday. If he isn’t, happy days, but we should be planning for him being in the line up.
I think we beat any other team in the league with our performance last week.
Football fans always make the mistake of thinking their team is the only one with any agency in proceedings. We weren’t quite at our best at the Etihad, but City did have something to do with that.