I think we played well, but so did Villareal. Like I was saying after the Dortmund game, this was going to be a completely different style of football, much more of a stereotypical "continental game" with a lot of passing and few real chances. Overall, I think we've passed the test in terms of the performance – we were patient when needed, made Villareal uncomfortable with our pressing and overall I thought we were mostly in control, which is not easy to do in an away game against a more than decent Spanish side.
Coutinho had a very subdued first 45 minutes; I wonder if he was feeling ill or something like that, hence the substitution. I thought Firmino did quite well, actually, despite being left isolated by teammates for parts of the game. Not the best game for Lallana; I really wanted to see Sturridge come on for him and was very surprised by Klopp's decision there. The only 2 explanations I can come up with are that 1) he plans to build the game around Sturridge in the home game and doesn't want Villareal's defenders to get used to playing against Sturridge at all; even a few minutes would "spoil a surprise", and 2) Sturridge didn't train well or has some attitude issue – really hope that's not the case.
Shame about conceding the injury-time goal, but I'm still optimistic for the 2nd leg. Let's not get into the mood of reflexively bashing the players and the manager every time we don't get a good result and support the team instead. I thought Allen, Lucas, Kolo, Milner, Clyne, Moreno, Lovren and Firmino all played quite well and Mignolet made a really world-class save on Bakambu. We almost earned a very good result, but lost our heads in the end; now we need Coutinho and Sturridge to produce some magic at home.
Coutinho had a very subdued first 45 minutes; I wonder if he was feeling ill or something like that, hence the substitution. I thought Firmino did quite well, actually, despite being left isolated by teammates for parts of the game. Not the best game for Lallana; I really wanted to see Sturridge come on for him and was very surprised by Klopp's decision there. The only 2 explanations I can come up with are that 1) he plans to build the game around Sturridge in the home game and doesn't want Villareal's defenders to get used to playing against Sturridge at all; even a few minutes would "spoil a surprise", and 2) Sturridge didn't train well or has some attitude issue – really hope that's not the case.
Shame about conceding the injury-time goal, but I'm still optimistic for the 2nd leg. Let's not get into the mood of reflexively bashing the players and the manager every time we don't get a good result and support the team instead. I thought Allen, Lucas, Kolo, Milner, Clyne, Moreno, Lovren and Firmino all played quite well and Mignolet made a really world-class save on Bakambu. We almost earned a very good result, but lost our heads in the end; now we need Coutinho and Sturridge to produce some magic at home.
