You know you’ve had a bad day when you’ve played 70 mins vs 10 men, ended up losing from 1-0 up and find yourself whinging about not being able to play against 9 men.
Two games in a row now Liverpool have gone down to 10 men and Szoboszlai has stepped up and basically done the running of two players in midfield. The guy is an absolute machine.
Klopp has taken Liverpool to the CL semi finals for the first time in a decade with a 19 yr old academy product at RB, an £8.5m LB from Hull and Gini Wijnaldum in defensive midfield, knocking out the most expensive squad in football history. Man’s a genius.
Richarlison whipping his top off, shushing the crowd, doing the “pigeon” dance and then having his big Anfield moment ripped away from him two mins later is incredibly, incredibly funny. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke.
No Salah. No Firmino. Shaqiri's first start in over four months. Robertson off injured at HT. Fabinho on a booking after 10 mins (for a perfect tackle). Henderson playing with injections in his knee. It gets overlooked just how many mitigating circumstances there were that night.
🚨Ange Postecoglou 🔛 VAR:
🙄"The first penalty was so clear & obvious it only took them 3 minutes to make the decision."
😤"VAR picked up everything EXCEPT for one tackle that might have cost me another player!"
📺[
@HaytersTV
]
#THFC
|
#COYS
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#BHATOT
17% possession, one shot on target, less than 100 passes completed and more time spent rolling around on the floor than trying to score, but sure, not the result Everton deserved. Interesting assessment.
People saying this should’ve been a pen: you’re forgetting a basic, well established rule of Premier League football. You can do whatever you like to Salah, especially in the box.
Comes across as incredibly insecure about the general lack of interest in City’s achievements. The plain and simple fact is that “state-funded club with virtually limitless financial resources on course for fourth title in five seasons” isn’t an interesting story to most people.
Guardiola speaking to
@CarrieBrownTV
: "Everyone in this country supports Liverpool, the media and everyone. Of course, because Liverpool has an incredible history in European competition, not in the Premier League - won one in 30 years..."
Once again, Liverpool remain the only big club on the planet to consistently treat the transfer window like an inconvenience rather than an opportunity to strengthen.
Jurgen Klopp announces Liverpool will not sign any other player in January: “Nothing will happen in this transfer window, not at all”. 🚨🔴
#LFC
“It's all good with this squad”, Klopp added.
England fans booing Gomez tonight for getting attacked by his own teammate (and not retaliating at all) is beyond pathetic. Absolute gang of weirdos. And people wonder why so many Liverpool fans disassociate themselves from the national team.
Alisson, assisting Salah, before gliding across the entire length of the pitch like a 6ft 3in Olympian sprinter, is an iconic moment for the ages. A normal goalkeeper holds on to the ball in that scenario. But he isn't normal. He's the best there is.
Mané always puts in an incredible shift, but that was something else today. There isn't an attacking player in world football who tracks back as well as he does.
Big Joel Matip: an understated hero of this season. Doesn’t get any of the headlines but he’s been absolutely immense alongside Van Dijk. Assist in the final as well. What a free signing he’s turned out to be.
Doesn't seem to get much attention but the loss of Van Dijk and Gomez has been far, far more damaging to Liverpool's build-up play than it has been in a defensive sense. Takes so much longer to progress up the pitch without them.
There is nothing sweeter than beating a team who spent the entire game time wasting to an astonishing degree with a winning goal in additional stoppage time added on precisely because of their incessant time wasting.
I think this is the most proud I have ever been of a Liverpool performance. Absolutely unbelievable achievement. This will rank right up there among the greatest moments of Klopp’s reign. Heroic doesn’t even do it justice.
Only in England could so many people not rate a guy who has won literally everything there is to win in club football and get annoyed when he consistently gets picked at international level.
Pedro Chirivella has been at Liverpool for over six years now. Only one Premier League appearance in his career. Yesterday he came up against an Everton midfield pair with a combined 459 PL apps and looked an absolute cut above. A class act.
Since when did it become normal for players to give interviews praising the “character” of a referee after they’ve just benefited from a pretty blatant officiating error?
"He could've crumbled but that shows his experience, that shows his character"
Kyle Walker praises Michael Oliver's professionalism over Liverpool's penalty decision ❌
No one is "rattled" by Kane getting awarded the goal. They're laughing at a professional footballer swearing on his daughter's life and publicly campaigning to have a goal against Stoke taken off his team mate so that he could be 4 behind Salah in the golden boot race.
If Liverpool don’t win the league this season, which is pretty likely, it won’t be because they only got a point vs City at the Etihad. It’s the draws against Brentford and Brighton from winning positions, and the limp defeat to knackered Leicester side, that will sting.
A word for Dejan Lovren, who, despite the final result and the usual stick he gets, was absolutely exceptional in the biggest game of his career up against one of the greatest players of all time.
Liverpool bench for Klopp's first game in charge (Oct 2015):
Bogdan, Toure, Randall, Teixeira, Allen, Sinclair, Ibe.
Yesterday: Karius, Fabinho, Clyne, Henderson, Lallana, Shaqiri, Sturridge.
Complete rebuild in the space of 3 years.
So you can stop play and go back two minutes to award a penalty but you can’t stop the game to give an actual goal that’s already been given by the VAR. Great.
Fully expecting the FA to hit Newcastle with multiple suspensions for players swearing at the referee. The precedent has been set, so I’m sure they’ll continue apply the same standards with total consistency. Definitely.
Defensive statistics this season (league games only)
Tackle success:
Trent 57.9%
Walker 54.3%
Trippier 43.9%
James 38.8%
Dribbled past per 90:
Trent 0.71
Walker 0.74
James 1.14
Trippier 1.16
Ball recoveries per 90:
Trent 9.97
Trippier 8.87
Walker 8.66
James 8.18
Via
@fbref
Really glad Liverpool threw an entire season down the drain waiting for a specific midfield target, refusing to compromise on alternatives, only to decide they can’t afford him anyway, when everyone knew he’d cost a huge amount of money all along. Superb.
No Van Dijk, Gomez & Matip for the vast majority of the season. Henderson, Thiago, Jota & Ox out for 2+ months. Fabinho, Kabak, Milner, Keita all missing a major chunk of games through injury.
To finish 3rd is a quite remarkable achievement in the face of enormous adversity.
Yet another transfer window in which Liverpool have chosen not to address their biggest weakness. Whether it comes down to FSG not supplying funds, not having a proper shortlist of viable targets, or Klopp being happy with his current options, it’s an abject failure. A farce.
Really, really doesn't feel like Liverpool have won four of the last six in the league without defeat in over two months. Taken more points than both Man City & Chelsea in this period. Somehow.
Pathetic really, and all part of the problem. If your team benefits from such an egregiously poor refereeing display, at least have the integrity to acknowledge it. Presenting what happened yesterday as “just part of the game” is just disingenuous bullshit that helps no one.
🗣 "We need to understand that errors are part of the game"
Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou sympathises with the officials following Luis Diaz's incorrectly disallowed goal against his side ⚪🔴
So, it turns out Salah got subbed due to a hamstring issue while Firmino & Coutinho were rested due to advice from the medical team. Almost like Klopp has more info when making team selections than people on Twitter.
Wild how people have forgotten that only a couple of months ago Liverpool became the first team in PL history to score a goal that was reviewed and given by the officials and the scoreboard wasn’t updated.
The idea that Liverpool might not be able to complete a deal for a player they like with a €70m release clause, having signed ONE senior midfielder in five years prior to this window, is pretty farcical.
🚨 Liverpool exploring move for Dominik Szoboszlai of RB Leipzig.
#LFC
met his camp this week; latest attacking mid to be considered. Unclear if it develops due to price but is desired profile. Unrelated to potential Carvalho loan
@TheAthleticFC
#RBLeipzig
Liverpool players have handled themselves with grace and dignity after losing the title race by the finest of margins. That their fellow professionals apparently feel the need to sing about them in such distasteful terms speaks volumes.
Painful watching Matheus Nunes make mince meat of Liverpool’s midfield there knowing Liverpool actively chose not to sign him last summer because they only wanted “the right player”…before signing Arthur Melo on loan deadline day.
Fabinho has played three full games at CB now for Liverpool (Bayern & Brighton in 2018/19, Chelsea yesterday). Zero goals and only three shots on target conceded across those 270 mins.
The time period between Villa collapsing from 2-0 up at the Etihad to full time in the CL final in Paris was beyond brutal. Mentally checked out of football for a good while after that.
Jordan Henderson with a true captain's performance tonight. Battled, pressed aggressively, set the tone, used the ball intelligently. Don't let anyone tell you he's not a leader after that. A performance to be immensely proud of.
Big mention for Joe Gomez there. Thrown into an incredibly tough situation and was absolutely immaculate, huge factor in holding the defence together. Delighted for him
Thiago hasn't started a single game in midfield alongside Fabinho or Henderson since the Goodison derby in October. One of the biggest shames about this season that Klopp never got to build around that midfield trio. It had absolutely everything.
It’s mad how many Liverpool games are made to feel a lot more precarious than they actually are because of offside passages of play being allowed to run on and result in chances for the opposition. Commentators speak as if they were actual chances that Liverpool got away with.
City’s ability to evade stonewall penalties is quite remarkable. That Grealish handball was as blatant as they come. Once again, VAR not recommending an on-field review despite a clear officiating error.
Since May, Liverpool have gone 1-0 down in...
3rd min vs Villarreal
3rd min vs Aston Villa
13th min vs Southampton
3rd min vs Wolves
16th min vs United
5th min vs Napoli
4th min vs Brighton
1st min vs Arsenal
4th min vs Leeds
Chamberlain is brilliant. Mocked for his transfer fee, slated by Arsenal fans. Reaches the CL quarter-finals for the first time in his career in his debut season at Liverpool and scores a 25-yard screamer, while they're sat 6th in the table and playing Europa League football.
Don’t think I can remember a great team falling off a cliff quite like this before. From the brink of a quadruple to this horrendous mess in the space of a few months. Never seen anything like it.
That was the performance of a side who know they’re the best in the world. Most complete display of the season, no doubt. One of the best ever under Klopp.
Delighted for Shaqiri. First start of the season (first league start since January), slotted in brilliantly. Lovely goal, but that aside his use of the ball was so intelligent, so calm, and was really diligent in his work out of possession too. Exactly what you want to see.
This idea that the league is particularly poor this season...
Average points after 25 games over the last five seasons:
1st- 60
2nd - 52
3rd - 50
This season:
Liverpool - 73
City - 51
Leicester - 49
What was there to “accept” in that game? All the major decisions were indisputably correct (other than Spurs should’ve had red cards even earlier than they did). He has no reason to feel aggrieved by anything.
The Jota non-penalty vs Spurs, when he was completely wiped out by Royal, was as nailed on as they come. Ref didn’t even check the monitor. There have been multiple other similar ones not given too. Can’t really be bothered with the vociferous outrage about that one being given.
Why does Darren England flat out shut down the very logical suggestion that the game should be paused, knowing that a horrendous error has been made? Doesn't even give it a moment's thought. Just dismissed it from the off. Find that very, very strange behaviour.
Losing two of the best players in the world for a prolonged period – both in the absolute prime of their careers – to severe knee injuries, both directly inflicted by completely unnecessary, horrific challenges by opposition players in the same match. It really is sickening.
Something I've observed about Arsenal over these recent games is how regularly and easily their players seem to go down and then spend half the game whinging. Odegaard being the worst culprit. Gets brushed aside constantly. Tantrums left, right and centre.