Thats Entertainment

This topic contains 10 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by MrMakaveli MrMakaveli 7 years, 4 months ago.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #1309545
    mwake
    mwake
    Participant
    • :

    I love this team, love it more than Brendans team becasue there’s a real sense of unity and responsibility from all the players and they have surprised me by how much they have progressed so quickly. For example, Lovren week before made a mistake and then 5 minutes later scored a redemption goal. Im seeing things I never thought I see in a liverpool team.

    As a bonus were playing stellar attractive direct team football, its a joy to watch!

    However, as much as we are playing entertaining football and getting plaudits for it we have to keep focused and not get lost into trying to be the most entertaining team all the time at the expense of playing intelligent football when it matters. In an ideal world we would win games playing attractive football all the time but we shouldn’t aim to be Arsenal Mark II a team known for not having a plan B. The reason why leicester were so successful is becasue Raneriri kept them focused, he changed things when necessary and they won a few games by the odd goal and I hope that we can also develop that sense of adaptability to our game.

    Im not saying we should try to be boring and win games 1-0 but I’m saying we must be aware that sometimes you got to win ugly and try different approaches when plan A doesn’t work.

    In fact I could have saved a few paragraphs and highlighted the 3-3 draw with Crystal palace in 2014. We score 3 goals, and all we had to do was manage the game and see it out, but instead we were stuck in trying to play pretty football against Palace and we got exposed.

    I feel that better game management married with the flair that we have shown already will definitely get us 4th place and who knows maybe the title?

    Sorry if this has come across as a doom and gloom post I just reading a lot of news articles which are praising us and saying we are the most attractive team to watch (WHICH I LOVE!!) but I just conscious of how being the most attractive team doesn’t always guarantee you the title, as any Arsenal fan or Brendan Rodgers will tell you lol. Even good teams win boring sometimes, I’ve seen the odd dull Barcelona game!

    #1309716
    gabara
    gabara
    Participant
    • :

    I totally agree with what you said, but we don’t seem to do well sitting back, inviting teams to attack. To be fair, Klopp has brought on a defensive player near the 85th mins to see out the recent games. Also, the game against Palace isn’t a very good example. We needed to catch up on goal difference then.

    #1310205

    bofa
    Participant
    • :

    Mwake: Good post. I think we are managing games pretty well. The Chelsea game was a great example in the second half where we kept possession brilliantly after conceding.

    We’re not a West Brom who are happy to sit back and keep a lead but we can do it well through good passing and movement. This is the tactic we should use as it can also open up more opportunities and put the game out of site.

    I thought we managed the first half of the United game really poorly and showed no patience but other than that, I can’t complain. I also thought we were excellent against what is normally a very stubborn Watford side. Even though it took 27 minutes to score against a hard working team, the players just prodded and probed until the goal finally came. There was no panicking, just an expectation that it come good at some stage!

    #1310673
    mwake
    mwake
    Participant
    • :

    Haha I forgot about the goal difference issue on that Palace game thanks Garbara, although I still feel Brendan could have commanded his players more intelligently than he did. There was no need for Palace to claw back 3 goals…

    Dont get me wrong i’m not a Brendan Rodgers revisionist but but back then we were running on the skill and energy of Suarez. Now I see Klopp is a totally different level to Brendan, you can see that there is an intelligence to what klopp does when he makes changes. Your right Bofa that Klopp has done well this season to help us manage games. I just hope the players don’t get drawn into that extremely tempting trap of feeling that every goal and pass has to be exquisitely beautiful all the time. Ill not begrudge the odd long ball style goal from Origi if it gets us the title 🙂 peace!

    #1310718
    MrMakaveli
    MrMakaveli
    Blocked
    • :

    Ya, I don’t blame Rodgers for the Palace or Chelsea matches in the title challenge year. This really is a massive example of how hindsight can be 20-20 but at the time, I know I agreed with both scenarios. Goal difference in the Palace game and in the Chelsea match, we were continuing to play the way that had been breaking all the other teams apart. It just didn’t work that time. If Rodgers had not gone for the GD in the Palace game and we’d missed out, he’d have been slaughtered. The same will be said about the Chelsea game. If he had really changed his teams style of play for one match and not gotten the 3 points, people would have been furious.

    Sometimes, no matter what you do it’s gong to look like you’ve made a mistake. Sometimes all your reasonable options will end in failure.

    Because of that season, Rodgers ultimately got fired and is pretty reviled by many fans but I’m grateful for it. We played the 2nd best attacking/most exciting football that I’ve ever seen us play as a fan that season. Rodgers, Gerrard, Suarez and co all took a shot at the title and they didn’t get there but they made a damn good go of it. They gave it everything they had, 2 of them breaking down in tears towards the end, that says it all.

    For me that season wasn’t a failure and it’s still valuable today. It’s fresh in the minds of the fans , some of the staff, some of the players. It’s experience to learn from or to take heart from. Our current Captain has that under his belt, so it’s invaluable to us even today.

    As for our style this season Mwake, I wouldn’t change it to get a few clean sheets. I prefer the 5-1 we had the other day to a 1-0. It’s not that i don’t care about us getting clean sheets but I think that people and the press are really over-stating their importance. Yes, I was pissed off when Watford scored but once we can;t be princesses, we cant have every single thing going our way. WE win at Watford with +5 goal difference, this is a fantastic situation and maybe we should be asking ourselves if we should change anything, for fear of breaking up what we have right now.

    I want the team to continue playing the way they are, looking for those big wins. That’s what we do best.

    #1310757
    mwake
    mwake
    Participant
    • :

    Good post Mr Makaveli, totally agree with most of what you said, everything looks different with hindsight. However I still feel that Klopp would have managed those crucial 13/14 games differently with a successful outcome. And for me thats the difference Im seeing at the moment with game management with Klopp compared to Brendan.

    Dont get me wrong I want us to continue to score goals until the cows come home, I just want us to remain intelligent and adaptable too when the need arises. My family all supports Arsenal and so as you might appreciate I’ve had to put up with many of them screaming for a more direct approach. This is probably why I’m a little excited but anxious, however I probably should chill out and remember when klopp said he prefers heavy metal over Wenger’s classical music haha!

    Also, I agree I wouldnt change history for the world (for a start we wouldnt have klopp as manager)… you’re also right about Henderson and other players using that heartbreak as experience, and with Klopp’s support will use it to go one better over the next few years!!

    #1310910

    Lee Simpson
    Participant
    • :

    Yeh I think if we are gonna win the league there may be a spell where we need to keep some clean sheets although I cant see it happening at the moment. I’m hoping with more training we can try and iron these problems out as the season goes on. Its nothing to do with the attacking football we’re playing most of the time it will be mistakes like Lucas against Leicster, Lovren against Palace. The fact we have a coach that has experienced winning the title should give us belief hopefully. We just have to take it game by game. We’ve shown we’re capable. We just need to keep doing what were doing.

    #1310976
    MrMakaveli
    MrMakaveli
    Blocked
    • :

    Ya, I mean hopefully as the season goes on we’ll end up with a centre-back partnership that gel together and a keeper in Karius who can inspire confidence in the defence also.

    I see the team getting better as long as we can stay clear of any major injuries. our attack is almost certainly not going to dry up or have too much of a bad spell given that we use so many of our players in our attacks. We have goals all over the park and you cant expect more from them really. . we can expect a lot better from the back and I think we’ll see at least a little better in time.

    Klopp came so close to letting Lucas go and here he is playing first team football. I wouldnt be totally stunned to find out that he was at least looking at other centre backs. I like Lovren and he’s generally improved over the last year but I’m not sure that he’s exactly what Klopp wants.

    we’ll see.

    #1310979
    gabara
    gabara
    Participant
    • :

    The game against Spurs might be a better example. If I don’t remember wrongly, Spurs didn’t really put us under a lot of pressure, and on one of those rare chances, Danny Rose popped up at the 72th min to score the equaliser. That’s 2 points dropped for me.

    #1311393

    Sean the sailor
    Participant
    • :

    ye but gabara, last season we were 2-0 up in a host of games and either lost or drew so we have to be very happy that we are seeing out games. We are managing games a lot better these days

    #1311867
    MrMakaveli
    MrMakaveli
    Blocked
    • :

    That’s it Sean, our football was improving as last season went on but we didn’t have the mentality that we seem to have pretty much started this season with. We’ll need every bit of this new-found fortitude if we’re to succeed. It’s something that I don’t think I’ve seen from a Liverpool side in the PL but we’ve seen it in Europe.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

You must be logged in to reply this topic.