‘It’s the beginning of the end for Costa, he’ll be gone by summer’

Mark Scott
Diego Costa: Now 'happy' at Chelsea

Diego Costa: Heavily linked with move away from Chelsea

Manchester United fans are critical of Paul Pogba, while Liverpool supporters think they have a big chance of winning the title. Also, more fall-out from Sunday’s crunch clash at Old Trafford, Diego Costa and Manchester City under Pep Guardiola.

Pogba – big game player?

Have to admit that I’m becoming increasingly concerned about Pogba’s ability to shine when the spotlight is well and truly focused on him. He was notably absent in yesterdays game, was bullied out of the midfield and missed one obvious chance that if he didn’t score he should have at least gotten on target but fluffed wide.

I’ll admit I haven’t seen him in many big games but the other one I saw him in was the CL final against Real for Juve when he also was more of a bystander. Admittedly this was a few years ago and he has matured since then but the same thing happened yesterday.

The question is, have we got ourselves a player who can dominate the lesser teams but goes absent in the big matches?

killyboye

You make a very important point mate. Pogba is 23 now, although he is young (especially for a creative central midfielder) he does have a bit of a reputation for being a big match bottler. He was poor yesterday, poor in the CL final, and also poor in the Euro 2016 final.

I am of the belief that his sheer talent level will eventually correct this but I must admit it is worrying and he will need some guidance from Mourinho and Deschamps. I saw a player trying to grab the headlines yesterday instead of a player who was playing his normal game.

Hatters

Give him time – hes still new to the league so it does take time to get up to speed for some players. Next year you will see an improved Pogba

As Hatters said hes 23 – fairly young for a midfielder and i wouldn’t expect him to dominating games right now, doesnt matter how much he costs thats irrelevant

Just think his best years – 24-27 are still ahead of him. Once we get the right partner for him in midfield things will settle down. Carrick has been a great servant but you saw yesterday when teams press he hasnt got the legs anymore.

Carrick is good when teams sit back and dont pressurise him, unfortunately not many teams will do that

RS83

Liverpool still in the chase

I think we can win the league.

We’re in a very difficult situation though by being 7 points behind Chelsea but we’re getting some players back, we’re bringing Chelsea to Anfield soon. It’s very difficult but it is possible.

I wonder if we might have the best head to head record against the other top teams this season? None of the top 6 have beaten us right? Ifs and buts situations are ugly but we threw away some really valuable points in spectacular fashion.

There are 51 points to go though, I’m not throwing in the towel yet but we’re going to have to win our next few matches. We’ve got to beat Chelsea without dropping any more silly points before and after too.

Mr Makaveli

17 league games left this season for Liverpool and 10 of them are at home.

We’ve suffered just 3 defeats in 37 matches at Anfield under Klopp, scoring 69 goals.

The last defeat at home in the league was Jan 2016 and Liverpool have won 23 of a possible 27 points at Anfield this season.

Is it possible for us to win the league?

Yes, yes it is.

gingerlfc

An honest assessment

My two cents:

De Gea – did well all round, penalty was extremely well taken so can’t blame him for it.

Valencia – was his usual good self down the line, if only he could improve his crossing a little.

Jones & Rojo – I don’t know how people are saying they’re not good enough… we didn’t exactly play a League 2 side today – we played the Highest Scoring team in the league and suppressed them to only two real chances, which both came after we fell behind and Mourinho had to change tactics (including putting a winger as left back and removing Carrick who was the cover for the defence). They were both fine – good play from both throughout.

Darmian – as usual, didn’t really offer much, his lack of desire to get down the line and cross the ball with his left (since he can’t use it) means that we have one less weapon in our arsenal.

Herrera – I thought he had a good game – set up a great chance, got stuck in against a very energetic Liverpool midfield.

Carrick – Was poor compared to his usual standards, other players weren’t moving around enough up front so when Liverpool pressed his obvious weakness came to the fore. Wasn’t a total disaster though….

Pogba – Abysmal. Atrocious. I can put a million more. And it wasn’t skill or just being unlucky – it was stupidity. It was egotistical ignorance. He has all the natural talent you want but his poor mentality will see him fall short of reaching the highest levels. He needs to get his head down and focus – forget twitter, instagram and his god awful hairstyles and play the game.

Mhkitaryan – Does one thing very well then ruins it all by giving the ball away cheaply. The kind of performance where you know you have a good player on your hands but you just don’t know if he can handle it.

Martial – I thought he started very well however it was obvious that Klopp instructed his team to help their young right back by double marking him. Was right to be substituted as his style of play wouldn’t have helped tactically when 0-1 down, however wrong player to come on.

Ibrahimovic – Did what he needed to do – score. People saying he needs to be constantly in the play creating things obviously don’t know what he’s all about – he’s there to win the headers and put the ball in the back of the net. No one in our squad (and few in the world actually) would have managed to score that header.

—-

Mata – Like Ibrahimovic he doesn little most games then pops up with a moment of brilliance, however he didn’t produce it today.

Fellaini – Incredibly, one of the better performers when he came on, it shows he has confidence at the moment.

Rooney – What more is there to say about Rooney? He’s obviously past it, doesn’t contribute to anything except dodgy control, face palming-ly bad dribbling, poor shooting and barely any movement. United will do well to sell him on to China in the summer, I honestly don’t even think he’ll beat Charlton’s record by then at the rate he’s going.

Overall – our first real test in this winning run and we (sort of) failed it – expected much more from quite a few players but ultimately the team was undone by Pogba’s utter ignorance; if we continued at 0-0 I think we would’ve played much better overall but such is the way of football. getting the draw was a big moment – the team will believe that they can keep this unbeaten run going, which is important coming into the busienss end of the season.

Sympathy for the Devils

Beep, beep

Any of you guys see the scousers tactics during the second half, sit in their own half and hit United on the counter.

I wonder if they will get the same treatment as United did after the game at Anfield. Difference was today unlike the game at Anfield, United took risks and tried breaking the bus up, Liverpool went for the safest option at anfield and refused to take risks.

Klopp is a media darling, so you will not hear or read much about it.

CM

I thought Liverpool were overly defensive in both matches. They were happy to pass the ball around on the halfway line in both matches.

Yesterday’s match lacked something, it lacked quality – which was our fault – and it lacked a second team looking to attack. They came for a point and they got it.

They’ll be much happier than us with the result.

Alfie07

Same old Arsenal

I wish I could share sentiments about going up gears. Too many games recently would support your statement but also go against it. We have looked comfortable in so many games recently only to allow the team back in, score and then we have either lost or drawn!!

fortunately we are entering the part of season now where results typically pick up for us, we go on a run and everyone ‘believes’ again. Last season at this point saw us become the form team for the 2016 (pretty sure that’s correct) last 17 or so games we were awesome!!

The Hulk

Beginning of the end

I suspect this will get sorted out one way or another over the next few days the players aren’t back in until Tuesday anyway.

Given how Conte dealt with the questions on Costa post match it looks like there’s something in the China story.

This is the beginning of the end of Costa at Chelsea imo and he will probably be gone in the summer despite his obvious talent these problems keep popping up with him on a regular basis.

What we have to do now is to get him focussed on giving his all over the next few months. Forza Conte.

Nine Nine Nine

Going backwards

For goodness sake City….go and get a LEADER at the back and buy a new defence…..have seen lower league defending better than ours, or I should say absent defenders….but this is the plan and it needs to change.

We’ve lost any hope of the title, you can expect one/two teams to drop points but not them all and City will certainly drop more points. pPep has to do better than this Spurs, Chelsea, Leicester, now Everton all show how easy we are.

I want Augero in the middle and he needs Silva KDB Yaya to feed him. We do not want Sterling and Iheanacho clogging the middle. I do not mind be patient Pep but we are going backwards.

Brian Blue