18 Oct 2016 00:15:24
Can't wait for the media to jump on Jose' back again tomorrow. He can't win really. We play open expensive football against city and lose the match. Today Jose set up a tactical masterclass against the inform side in the league, in their own back yard, a team who have been scoring goals for fun recently, and totally nullified them. A point is a good return and I would of taken that before kick off. Had zlatan taken his chance which he really should have, we could be coming home with 3 massive points. The single most important thing tonight was not to lose the game and fall 6 points behind them at this early stage. Considering how well they have played recently and the apparent "crisis" some people like to think we're in, 3 points behind is not the end of the world.
Nearly all pundits, new reporters etc and 95% of Liverpool fans thought they were going to put 3 or 4 past us tonight. Now we'll hear the usual park the bus rubbish, but at the end of the day our managers here to give us the best chance of a result and this was how we had to set up. We used to play this way against the big sides and away in Europe under Sir Alex, I didn't see many complaining then. I actually thought Zlatan had a poor game tonight. Could help but think if we had pace in the number 9 position there were oppertunities to put the ball in behind the Liverpool CB's, but obviously you need pace to do that. Martial would have been handy.
Ander Hererra was fantastic again and I'm glad he's finally nailing down a starting role. I have raved about the lad for some time now and he's proving himself to be an important player for us. If we can get Mikhitarian fit and firing, along with Martial back to his best and Pogba improvement we have a good side.
I really don't want to slate or bring up Rooney again but have to say he worried me when he came on. Within 5 minutes he had let Milner run off him 2 or 3 times and could easily have been punished for it.
Just one quick thing I want to mention. In the post match interview Klopp was singling out occasions and players where they should have done better, and i quote "sadio should have played in Clyne". Now I have no problems with this, he's pointing out the obvious. But a few weeks ago Jose was lambasted by the press for saying that Shaw should have closed his man down quicker, again pointing out the obvious. It was pathetic the way the media made a huge story about it and I can see why Jose gets so pissed off with it from time to time. Will the press jump all over Klopp now for saying what he said? No of course they won't. the media love in with him is frankly embarrassing.
All in all a solid performance today, a good point away from home at a good side, and a tactical masterclass from our Jose. Some will call it anti football or whatever they want. But the bottom line is we went there with a game plan and executed it near perfectly.
18 Oct 2016 00:51:59
i think most people expected a tight match ( outside people bigging the game up for sky )
jose has played that way for 15 year .
as for the press united are the biggest story in town, it sells papers.
18 Oct 2016 00:53:53
Sorry, Stand, I want football, not anti-football. I don't care who the manager is, or what the team is. This is the sort of performance I would have been slating Jose for, when he was in charge of Chelsea.
18 Oct 2016 01:04:56
The people saying anti football have got no clue. Sure it wasn't pretty but if United went toe to toe with Liverpool they would've got smashed. Mourinho said it best playing for the draw allows united to stay close to the pack.
18 Oct 2016 01:06:36
First 15- 20 mins I thought we dominated. Second half we dropped right off when Firmino moved to false 9. Must admit I was stunned by the possession stats - but only LVG would care about that.
I actually enjoyed the game, it felt like high stakes football and we did well in our rivals back yard.
18 Oct 2016 01:20:20
why would we of got smashed?
we can put out a very strong 11.
18 Oct 2016 01:33:21
also i think its the points behind city that count .
18 Oct 2016 06:26:03
Nou was it anti football when fergie did it too, because yesterday was more or less the template for all our games at anfield under fergie, defend for most part try and nick a goal later, we lacked the goal part as our striker couldn't hold up the ball for more than a second so made counter attacking an impossible job.
18 Oct 2016 07:22:57
Complete rubbish if the press wants to write it up that way. I thought, We played excellent at an away fixture that most teams would have been smashed. These are the points that win you the league come end of the season when you look back. They did nothing themselves and had 9 behind the ball when we were attacking.
Hope we put in a similar performance at Chelsea.
18 Oct 2016 08:25:20
What? A similar performance, Shahram? And get another point? We're in 7th place, not second. We need to be thinking of winning games, not drawing. The hypocrisy on here stinks. Everyone lauding, 'a great point', or, 'excellent game plan', were the same ones crying on here when Jose's Chelsea came to town and did the same thing.
18 Oct 2016 08:51:37
And why would we have been smashed, Dilakh? Were we not all on here before the game, claiming player for player we were better than Liverpool? Did our combined XI's not include more Utd players than Liverpool? We had world stars out there on the pitch, not 11 kiddies.
18 Oct 2016 09:50:59
To me it doesn't matter how far we are off top spot this season it's how close we stay to top 3/ 4 and hopefully how far clear of 5th we are. Remember we've some of Fergie, Moyes, LVG and Jose players, it takes time to gel, even more so when players are so used to playing certain ways. Even tho it was a defensive display, a very good one, we still always looked to play the ball forward which in itself is an improvement. We play well v Leicester and we happy, we play well v Stoke and draw and it's not enough, we open v city and lose and it's shocking, Jose can't win then can he.
18 Oct 2016 14:08:15
sorry noucamp mate this ain't FIFA were player names or individuals carry any weight. Combined XI has nothing to do with how a team set up. Liverpool have had much longer to gel as a team and play the way Klopp wants them to play. Mourinho on the other hand has had 8 games were your team has looked disjointed for most of it. Football is a team game and right now Liverpool are playing better as a team. If united had gone toe to toe with Liverpool last night, it would have played right into Klopps hand and you most likely would have lost. Having world stars mean nothing if they haven't gelled as a team yet.
18 Oct 2016 16:31:30
Good post that dilakh.
18 Oct 2016 20:31:54
Nou
At the end of season not after 8 games do they hand out trophies mate. I will take a home win and away draw against the top 6 all day and let's see where that leaves us at the end of the season.