- Jun 7, 2004
- 18,106
- 45,030
The whole thread seems to be about "who made a mistake". It's a pinhead's view of football analysis.
If anyone were interested in discussing the actual performance of our team, we could consider how Liverpool are high-quality opponents who move the ball - and their opponents - about with craft and skill, we could note how the match could have gone either way, until our rather overworked midfielders began to tire and their replacements lost any semblance of grip on possession during the last 15 minutes. Then we might actually have a productive discussion.
Instead, it's a "debate" about whether Rose's error, Lloris' error or Dier's error was the most egregious and cost us the match.
We didn't lose the match because individuals made specific errors. Individuals made 10 other errors that didn't result in goals. Individual always make errors. It's a diversion and a misdirection to obsess about individual errors. We don't learn anything.
We lost the match because the replacements for tired players, especially Paulinho, did not win or retain possession, which resulted in our defence gradually drifting deeper, which resulted in pressure, which resulted in Lallana creating a chance that led to a freshly introduced striker outfoxing a young, very tired defender.
If we had cleared that chance, the narrative would be different, but the performance would have been the same. Focusing on individual errors just obscures what actually happened.
If anyone were interested in discussing the actual performance of our team, we could consider how Liverpool are high-quality opponents who move the ball - and their opponents - about with craft and skill, we could note how the match could have gone either way, until our rather overworked midfielders began to tire and their replacements lost any semblance of grip on possession during the last 15 minutes. Then we might actually have a productive discussion.
Instead, it's a "debate" about whether Rose's error, Lloris' error or Dier's error was the most egregious and cost us the match.
We didn't lose the match because individuals made specific errors. Individuals made 10 other errors that didn't result in goals. Individual always make errors. It's a diversion and a misdirection to obsess about individual errors. We don't learn anything.
We lost the match because the replacements for tired players, especially Paulinho, did not win or retain possession, which resulted in our defence gradually drifting deeper, which resulted in pressure, which resulted in Lallana creating a chance that led to a freshly introduced striker outfoxing a young, very tired defender.
If we had cleared that chance, the narrative would be different, but the performance would have been the same. Focusing on individual errors just obscures what actually happened.
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