Match Ratings Ratings vs Liverpool

Klopp's subs are all wrong in an anti-loch way

Amazed Dembele isn’t getting more of a mention. That was a clear 9/10 performance. First half Liverpool had to resort to fouling him, and was our only player holding onto the hall with any consistency. Second half was just incredible - starting off all our attacks with brilliant passing into the front 4. Class player.

BringBack_leGin said:

Totally disagree on the Salah goal, when the guy is jinking in and out with that much pace and power it's almost impossible to anticipate what he's going to do next, Vertonghen guessed wrong but it was a 50-50 chance whether Salah was going to cut in or push further into the area. Sometimes you have to appreciate the brilliance of the goal, not pick apart the defensive decisions.

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It was atrocious from three or four of them considering the play and where it started. Being too timid, not getting close, or a foot in. Vertonghen was the worst of the lot though, he moved off the spot so far that he was no longer goal side and just let him through. If that had been Sanchez doing that after his 90 mins I very much doubt people are sympathetic towards that bit of defending.

Atrocious first half. Deserve credit for turning it around second half, then nearly blowing it right at the end.
Think Dembele just edges Vertonghen for Man of the match with Davies also having another top performance.

BringBack_leGin said:

Totally disagree on the Salah goal, when the guy is jinking in and out with that much pace and power it's almost impossible to anticipate what he's going to do next, Vertonghen guessed wrong but it was a 50-50 chance whether Salah was going to cut in or push further into the area. Sometimes you have to appreciate the brilliance of the goal, not pick apart the defensive decisions.

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Actually it wasn’t 50-50, the smart money was on Salah cutting inside and staying on his left foot. But he’s taken his game on, and that’s why he’s so good this year.

thinktank said:

He's still young and got spooked by the early goal...which wasn't his fault tbh.

He needs to learn to remain composed in such situations and not let it rattle him.

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It was Sanchez and Trippier's dithering and failure to clear the situation that lead to Dier being forced into the backpass.

BringBack_leGin said:

I still haven't calmed down. When Liverpool's second went in I felt rage like none other I have felt this season, probably the angriest football has made me since Gabriel Jesus scored against us at the Etihad last season (thankfully disallowed). Luckily for us (and for Harry) the linesman was brave enough to do what was right, not what was easy, and Kane took his second chance.

A lot of good football from us today without much penetration, but we did control the game from roughly the tenth minute onwards and deserved to win. We started slow and sloppy, two players making irredeemable mistakes and their forward staying cool under pressure. Our players believed in themselves and in their instructions, continued playing the same way and got something out of the game when all seemed lost.

Credit to the manager too, he didn't bottle it in the face of tactic number one not reaping quick dividends, he had the courage of his convictions and his patience was rewarded with a good performance, a deserved point and if Harry had scored the first penalty, probably three points. Also, three substitutes came on, all three had a positive impact on the result for us.

Lloris was fine, he dealt with balls back to him well even when they weren't perfect, he couldn't do anything about goal number one and is would be very harsh to criticise him for goal number two, it was just brilliance from start to finish from Salah.

Trippier had a good game, not as good as v Man Utd but he was a constant outlet and he kept their left hand side pinned back throughout.

Sanchez had another poor game, bar United he's just been off form for a while. I like him a lot but he has had a sloppy spell and he seems to take an extra second to react every time, today it directly lead to Liverpool's opener. Maybe it's because he's just that confident in his pace, maybe it's because his anticipation just isn't great or maybe he's just not that mobile at the moment, I don't know the reason but he has to stop doing it as it exposes us every time.

Vertonghen was brilliant, where his pace lacks he used his body brilliantly to intercept runners, he won every direct duel and he played the ball out well on a number of occasions.

Davies, like Trippier, was a good outlet throughout the game and took a lot of responsibility for moving us forward. Also like Trippier, I don't remember him playing any particularly great balls into the box but his overall play was a huge part of our constant possession and dominance of the ball.

Dier was poor, too many passes straight to red shirts including a lovely through ball for Salah's first. Wasn't really tested once he went to centre back as we had so much of the ball.

Dembele was imperious, he took the ball in tight spaces constantly and drove us forward, even playing the ball down the channels on a few occasions. Good right footed shot too, I want more of that.

Eriksen grew into the game after starting on the fringes, I don't think the formation tweak helped him but the more he saw of the ball, the more dangerous we looked as he knitted things together. One of those games where you don't quite appreciate him until you see his heat map and maybe an Eriksen-cam highlights reel.

Dele got an idiotic booking for an obvious dive, that pissed me off. Other than this incident, I think he played very well, a constant threat and a positive force who spent the match trying to create something. I feel he's lost a bit of confidence in shooting, but he played Son and Kane into dangerous areas several times and kept the game flowing in the final third where so often it stagnates for us. He also dropped back to help spread play on a few occasions which I'd like to see more of, him and Eriksen sharing this duty would give us even greater variation.

Kane didn't have his best match, a lot of huff and always making himself available but one of those where it doesn't quite roll for him. This was epitomised in his first penalty, I texted my dad just before he started his run saying that he'd miss, and he did. Full credit to him though, he missed what would have been a winner, then we went behind and he stepped up to take a penalty under even more pressure to save the point, that speaks volumes about the man, as does his cool finish in the circumstances, exactly why he's hit his hundredth now in just over 3.5 full seasons.

Lamela came on and as ever buzzed in all the areas the opposition didn't want him, played a couple of nice passes and won the penalty for our eventual equaliser.

Wanyama, what a hit. He started the move with a nice dink out to Eriksen anyway and, considering how poor his shooting usually is, that was as sweet a hit as you'll ever see.

Llorente came on as our last throw of the dice and his presence to ruffle Van Dijk was vital in the build up to our second penalty.


Exhilarating game from which we deserved more, but I think we'll all take the point in the circumstances. Not our very best performance, but a good, dominant performance with tremendous character on show.

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Me, most televised games in the late 90s

Cravenspurs said:

Should have started: Hindsight is 20/20, but Vic should have been in that midfield to start. He might not be fully fit, but he showed in 20 or so minutes what he offers over Dier. There is no debate there.

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To be fair he probably won't hit a ball like that again for the rest of his career. Dier had a good game and was one of the only players looking to try and take some sort of control of the game when we were shaky in the first half.

Vertonghen my MOTM today. A nervous 10/15mins but after that he didn’t really put a foot wrong and it was very tricky for him today alongside a wobbly Sanchez

Very very lucky to take a point today after a fantastic 2nd half performance

A point was probably the least we deserved but as we all know you don’t often get what you deserve

Well that took us through the full smorgasbord of emotions didn't it. Anger, hope, elation, despair, relief and then finally, for me, sadness. Sadness that but for a little bit of tactical savvy, and a better penalty, we could/should have won that game.


I know the last hour of that game we played well, can take positives, but the problem is, we all knew how the first 30 minutes of that game were going to go, it's a well rehearsed script that has found us floundering before. And I believe Poch sent us out ill prepared for the inevitable.

I'm not buying into the total criticism of Poch's away at top4 form. Away results of most of the top teams is not great against other top teams. That's hardly surprising, you are away at top teams, they are the hardest games you will play. And generally speaking our performances have been fair to good at the Chelsea's, ManU's, Arsenal's under Poch. But Liverpool (and Guardiola's City) are very different propositions now, and Poch must adjust IMO.

I'm beginning to concur with a theory proposed by @heelspurs in the match thread, that the home game tactical pragmatism that dismantled Liverpool so ruthlessly was maybe accidental, because Poch hasn't used it since, specifically against the two away opponents for whom it would be best used, ManC and Liverpool. Even worse for me was that Pochettino not only didn't adjust to this very tactically specific opponent, he actually made things worse by playing the daft ManC 442 semi diamond which just seemed to confuse our players more than theirs. To add to this he played the high line with Dier and Dembele in midfield, two players that really hate to be pressed, two players that do not dynamically, metronomically keep ticking, keep offering options for defenders under intense press. Where Liverpool were already suffocating the middle, and Kane was struggling for oxygen, he added another body in there to suck up more in Son, a player who is a gold medal bumbler when he's put under this kind of pressure.

You know Liverpool will play a 433. You know they will fly out the traps. You know early on they will sucker you into playing the first ball out of defensive then swarm. They do this week after week after week and worse, they have done it to us before. As a result of this, and Poch's initial set up, we spent the first 20 minutes unable to string three passes together. The ball would go to the first defender, then the swarm, Dier put on his invisibility cloak, Dembele tried but was constantly getting caught taking too many touches, not helped by the fact that because of Poch's shape shift, nobody was in their usual place, and on the handful of times the ball managed to actually find it's way all the way to Kane or Son, they just choked on it and coughed it up.

I just don't understand why this seems to catch Poch out every time. Start the game ten yards deeper, maybe even play the 3CB to start (Dier can step out later if we want to switch to a more possession based game when Liverpool tire), make us wider, harder to get behind, play Eriksen in a CM3 to start with (like Dier, he can be pushed further up as the game changes if necessary) with Wanyama and Dembele or Winks. Start more pragmatically, don't try to play tippy tappy out of defence for the first 20 minutes, play on the counter, or even bypass the press and hit Kane, break their press gradually, then adjust as the game develops. If we get a goal on the counter we keep it up and keep suckering them on (like we did in the home game or against RM), if nobody scores and they start to tire of the press, we can begin to adjust to our normal game, eventually even pressing them higher and pushing up ourselves.

The worse thing that can happen did. We fell into the trap they set, as we have before, got flustered into fucking it over on the press and they go a goal up. You now know that whatever happens, no matter how well we play, we will have to come out and make ourselves more vulnerable, and even if we play really well, we will have to expose ourselves somewhat.

The last 20 minutes of the first half we started to settle, Davis's tenacity and Vertonghen,Trippier, Eriksen and Dembele's composure started to help us get on top, a superiority we extended considerably in the second half.

Just as the first half was a combination of our ineptitude as much as it was Liverpool's efficiency, the second reversed. We were so much more assertive second half, but part of that was that Liveprool's plan was to sit back, be more pragmatic, suck us in and hit us with their speedy break merchants, the way they love to do. The good news is that we are a better team than most they play, and they are not good enough defensively to do that every week and get away with it.

As much as we were good in the second half, I still don't really know why Poch persevered with the 2 up front centrally, it didn't help us at all, there was no Son inverting to create space for Davies to overlap into, he's so much better cutting in off that left side, running at the RB.

Eventually we got what we deserved, and I don't think I've screamed a goal home like Wanyama's thunder bastard since Stalteri's winner at Upton Park. It was that combination of immense frustration build up in the gut, we were comprehensively outplaying our closest rival in a three pointer at their place, but nothing was rolling our way, we still couldn't seem to create a good chance, then booooooomm. The mother load of footballing tension released.

Their now seemed like only one team would win this game, and when we got that penalty it looked like we were going to get what we deserved. Kane had had a poor game and this penalty capped off what had gone before. It was poorly hit, down the middle but too hard and low to give the keeper time to dive out of the way.

And just when you think things can't get worse than being cruelly denied such a valuable and rare win away at a big rival, they do. Fat middle eastern Messi goes and dances through our whole defence and still has the composure to dink the Limp Lloris biscuit. By this point I'd hit defcon 10 on the footballing despair-ometre, kicked the poof across the room (and this is not a bean bag poof, but one of those faux leather clad wooden things) launched the remote venomously into the sofa, from which it bounced across the room, sending the dog scuttling to hide behind Mrs BC in the kitchen, leaving me to incoherently try to assemble words like wankers, jammy, Scouse, ****s, fucking, bollocks, unbelievable into some kind of sentence.

Then the unbelievable happened. The best linesman in the world ever. Overruling the ref to give a justified penalty with 50,000 screeching Scouse baboons at his back was correct, but exceedingly brave. I don't even know what his name is, but I salute you Mr. Linesman.

Relief was palpable but swiftly followed by sadness. Because overall, despite his initial tactical faux pas, this was a game that we deserved to win, not handsomely, but definitely. We were bad for 20 minutes, tolerable for 25, largely excellent for 45.

I love what Poichettino has brought to this club. There is no questioning our bollocks and bottle any more, we play the best brand of football we have for half a century or more, and everything good about us is at his instigation, but I just wish he could show a tiny bit more savvy on occasions like this. He's very honourable, I just wonder if he's a cunning enough bastard at times.

Individual

Lloris - Piss poor. What the fuck he is doing on that first goal is anyone's guess. He actually steps backwards as Salah advances, giving him the whole goal to aim at, it's utterly baffling. Second goal I'm ambivalent about.

Trippier - This wasn't his best game in forward areas, Liverpool worked incredibly hard at preventing our fb's getting in behind and balls coming in, but only Dembele saw more ball and completed more passes today. His composure under the press helped us gradually get a foothold.

Sanchez - Revised opinion - He had a couple of really poor moments with the ball, but looking back on it, what went a bit unnoticed was how many times he also got a vital foot in or was aggressive in the deep press. His composure went a couple of times, but this was not an easy test and the CB's didn't get enough help from Dier who was supposed to be shielding them. Nobody tackled or intercepted more than him.

Vertonghen - I thought his ability to stay calm on the ball helped us through that tricky first phase and he also made a couple of vital defensive tackles. Very good game.

Davies - Loved his tenacity first half, it was his commitment that helped galvanise us that first half.

Dier - Really poor first 45. When the going got hectic, he went awol, but not before handing them a lead with a timid tippy toe. Games like this just don't suit him. Too fast, too furious.

Dembele - First 20 minutes was tough, but at least he didn't hide. He did keep taking a touch too many though. After the first 20 he was pretty composed and had a decent last hour.

Eriksen - Like others, found that first 20 tough, but gradually got to grips with things and was good for an hour.

Alli - I actually thought he worked hard again today and contributed. Yes, he's not as sure footed as some, but he's not hiding anymore, he's more involved generally, he's improving as player, even if his productivity is down. And he did set up the best chance of the game for Son with a great piece of vision and execution.

Son - Another pretty erratic and ineffective knock today. I don't think this role suits him, operating as a duo, centrally in the congestion of a game like this just doesn't give him the time and space he needs to get the fucking thing under control. Once he has control he can be devastating, but if he can't make that first leap - to control - he's next to useless and often more of a hindrance.

Kane - This was about as insipid a game as I've seen from Kane. Barely touched the ball, made about 5 passes all game, first penalty was poor - to fast to give the keeper time to get out of the way if he was deliberately going down the middle, but what happened next just epitomises Kane's whole "Kane-ness". Undaunted, dusts himself off and coolly slots home the equaliser under the most immense of pressure.

Game of one half really.
We dominated the game and played really well apart from most of the first half.
Amazing finale

Verts MOM.........8..........For overall consistency.
Dembele............8..........Two games running has impressed and not just strength.
Full backs..........7..........Pity about the crosses but they defended well and gave us width.
Dele...................7..........He's a silly boy but increasingly important today.
Eriksen..............7...........Gradually got into the game. Another hour and he would have been MOM
Son ...................6..........He's a trier but not much came off.
Lloris 6...............6..........Safe catching, poor distibution. At fault for 2nd. goal( SCPD in future)
Sanchez/Dier......5..........All sorts of errors, some crucial.
Kane...................5..........For overall play. +5 for scoring his 100th and the equaliser..

Poch 8 for the cunning substitutions.
We stole their belief and shoved it up their *rses second half.
Don't lets hear any more complaints about officials' decisions until next season

Univarn said:

2nd Half Linesman 10/10 - Love that man. Naming my 2nd kid after him.

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Me too. Gonna be fuming it’s for his 40th next week!

I think that might be your best review yet, B-C. Thank fuck we sold Walker.

BringBack_leGin said:

Totally disagree on the Salah goal, when the guy is jinking in and out with that much pace and power it's almost impossible to anticipate what he's going to do next, Vertonghen guessed wrong but it was a 50-50 chance whether Salah was going to cut in or push further into the area. Sometimes you have to appreciate the brilliance of the goal, not pick apart the defensive decisions.

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@mpickard2087 @Marty

To add to this (I need to watch it again but...) also I think he's conscious of Salah wanting to get it onto his left foot so errs that way. And also defenders have to be so careful in the bo when a player is jinking around like Salah was.

My thoughts having only really watched it while watching the game, and I didn't really get chance to watch the replays because I was too busy being incandescent with the injustice of them taking a lead with a couple of minutes to go, were that it was just a fucking great bit of jiggery pokery by Salah more than anything.

BringBack_leGin said:

I still haven't calmed down. When Liverpool's second went in I felt rage like none other I have felt this season, probably the angriest football has made me since Gabriel Jesus scored against us at the Etihad last season

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Agree with this. I haven't been this pissed off since Hazard's goal in the 2-2 title fucker.

...Davies lets Salah stroll past him for their 2nd, and he's anyone's MOTM?
COYS

MightySpurs said:

Sanchez and dier and Kane all had a shit game.

So sick of sanchez ALWAYS passes back to keeper- after our corner, and every spurs player in fromt of him, with plenty of options- pit us under pressire once again by his obsession with passing back.

Much better when he went off.

Better second half.

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Yep. I'm glad you said before I did, but FFS he's got to show more ambition on the ball. I know he's still young and I know he's new to the EPL, but there must be some other reason we bought him for that much money other than the fact he passes sideways and back to the goalie well.

I'm scared to grade today's performance, I think if I do, I'll have the whole message board after me...!

Basically, we stunk.

Spurslove said:

I'm scared to grade today's performance, I think if I do, I'll have the whole message board after me...!

Basically, we stunk.

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Vertongen motm.