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Villareal v Liverpool Europa League Semi Final 1st Leg

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Klopp getting a bit of stick in some quarters for his tactics but I think he got it right. We were just undone by a lack of concentration. We looked comfortable the entire game.

Milner and Allen were superb tonight. Ibe is shit and Moreno's positional sense is abysmal.

Disappointing obviously but I didn't see anything from them to worry me. They were celebrating at the end like they'd won the cup. I reckon we'll do them good an proper at Anfield.
 
Sheik Yerbouti said:
Klopp getting a bit of stick in some quarters for his tactics but I think he got it right. We were just undone by a lack of concentration. We looked comfortable the entire game.

Milner and Allen were superb tonight. Ibe is shit and Moreno's positional sense is abysmal.

Disappointing obviously but I didn't see anything from them to worry me. They were celebrating at the end like they'd won the cup. I reckon we'll do them good an proper at Anfield.
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whatever allen did. he's a cunt.
 
Sheik Yerbouti said:
Klopp getting a bit of stick in some quarters for his tactics but I think he got it right. We were just undone by a lack of concentration. We looked comfortable the entire game.

Milner and Allen were superb tonight. Ibe is shit and Moreno's positional sense is abysmal.

Disappointing obviously but I didn't see anything from them to worry me. They were celebrating at the end like they'd won the cup. I reckon we'll do them good an proper at Anfield.
Click to expand...
This with bells on.
 
Sheik Yerbouti said:
Klopp getting a bit of stick in some quarters for his tactics but I think he got it right. We were just undone by a lack of concentration. We looked comfortable the entire game.

Milner and Allen were superb tonight. Ibe is shit and Moreno's positional sense is abysmal.

Disappointing obviously but I didn't see anything from them to worry me. They were celebrating at the end like they'd won the cup. I reckon we'll do them good an proper at Anfield.
Click to expand...

I don't think the tactical approach was wrong at all, but the in-game thinking was. As the game unfolded it was obvious that if we were a bit bolder we might get something from the game, more than the 0-0 draw we'd have been happy with at the start.

I'm not sure why people are jumping on the defensive every time Klopp gets a bit of criticism, he gets rightly praised more often than not by practically everyone, because he usually gets it right. Tonight I don't think he did, and if we want proof that there's some logic to the idea he didn't make all the right decisions, have a look at the scoreline, we didn't score and by trying to keep it tight, we still let them nick one (which let's face it, is bloody predictable).

Ibe gave the ball away constantly and I'm not really sure what the point of the token Benteke sub was at the end. Your best player goes off ill and your other best player is sat on the bench, both of whom are your teams best "out of nothing" goal threats. It was a no-brainer.
 
Sheik Yerbouti said:
Klopp getting a bit of stick in some quarters for his tactics but I think he got it right. We were just undone by a lack of concentration. We looked comfortable the entire game.

Milner and Allen were superb tonight. Ibe is shit and Moreno's positional sense is abysmal.

Disappointing obviously but I didn't see anything from them to worry me. They were celebrating at the end like they'd won the cup. I reckon we'll do them good an proper at Anfield.
Click to expand...
This is what I was getting at with my not that bad a result comment. We're very much in this tie, probably the favourites, and whilst a stupid lapse of concentration in the last minute has made it a little harder for us, we'll still feel like we should be going through at Anfield.
 
1:0 away is definitely a bad result, but there was nothing wrong with the performance. The only question I have is about Sturridge being left on the bench, waiting for an explanation for that one (I assume Coutinho was ill or injured).
 
mark1975 said:
I don't think the tactical approach was wrong at all, but the in-game thinking was. As the game unfolded it was obvious that if we were a bit bolder we might get something from the game, more than the 0-0 draw we'd have been happy with at the start.

I'm not sure why people are jumping on the defensive every time Klopp gets a bit of criticism, he gets rightly praised more often than not by practically everyone, because he usually gets it right. Tonight I don't think he did, and if we want proof that there's some logic to the idea he didn't make all the right decisions, have a look at the scoreline, we didn't score and by trying to keep it tight, we still let them nick one (which let's face it, is bloody predictable).

Ibe gave the ball away constantly and I'm not really sure what the point of the token Benteke sub was at the end. Your best player goes off ill and your other best player is sat on the bench, both of whom are your teams best "out of nothing" goal threats. It was a no-brainer.
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I don't think our failure to score was Klopp's fault. We had several good chances including a 1 on 1 as well as hitting the post.
 
rurikbird said:
1:0 away is definitely a bad result, but there was nothing wrong with the performance. The only question I have is about Sturridge being left on the bench, waiting for an explanation for that one (I assume Coutinho was ill or injured).
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BT Sport said he was unwell. He didnt look to good either.
 
Hansern said:
BT Sport said he was unwell. He didnt look to good either.
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Yeah, pretty obvious – he wasn't playing like himself at all. Too bad Ibe didn't do any better, he was really timid and it's as if he's at the other extreme now – instead of hogging the ball he is now afraid to take players on (which is by far his biggest weapon).
 
I think most of us feel like shit because the game was there for the taking and Klopp didn't want to risk it.
 
Not getting the away goal would be cause for concern even if we were defensively solid at home but we're far from that this season in Europe.
We've conceded home goals to Sion (1-1), Rubin Kazan (1-1) ,Bordeaux (2-1), and Dortmund (4-3) and if any of them scorelines was replicated against Villareal we would be eliminated.
Only in the 2 home games against Augsburg (1-0) and Utd (2-0) have we kept clean sheets.
In the league it's not much better as we've conceded home goals in 12 out of 17 games this season which is decidely average.
The only time Villareal looked dangerous tonight is the odd time on the break so it'll be tough at home when we have to commit players forward and possibly leave gaps at the back but If we play Sturridge and Coutinho is feeling better then we still have a good chance but let's not kid ourselves that that was a good result tonight as it failed in two big areas of getting beat and not getting the away goal.
We seem to specialise in making things hard for ourselves but we're still in it.
 
Sorry lads - everyone is more confident on this site about going through - so next game against them at home - I say we are going out.
 
Look guys, it's fucking perfect. It's the hope that kills you, so if you quite fancy we're going out you'll not be panicking as we go on to fucking destroy them with two late goals.
 
I thought against Dortmund we had a very tight and effective little team. Not good for next season but the chemistry seemed right for this run. Then we lost our most industrious, mobile and consistent striker, our most important central midfielder and one of our centre backs. The spine of the team. If people expected that to leave us still likely to get through to the final you're far more optimistic than me.

As far as the team last night was concerned, I didn't feel that strongly about it either way. I'd expected Sturridge to feature at best as a sub, because he's not been mobile or imaginative enough since he came back from injury, and my faith him is pretty weak at this particular time. I felt whoever played up front was going to be a gamble, but Firmino made sense. With Coutinho going off, it denied us the one really creative player we had, and the bench was so weak we had Ibe as a replacement. In spite of that, we almost got a 0-0 draw, which was the kind of result away from home Rafa routinely got plaudits for (often by the skin of his teeth) achieving. The mistake (not that the truly great internet managers ever allow such offensively messy things to enter into their tactical paradigm) at the end turned that into an excuse for a torrent of ludicrous retrospective knowitalls to pipe up, but that's just what happens in such woozy forum rantfests. I look at the second leg with the usual sense of ambivalence. It could go well, it could go badly, it's rare these days, these decades, that one can be truly sure either way. No doubt at about 9.50pm the real experts will either graciously rubber stamp the performance or explain, along the lines of the old Irish joke, why they wouldn't have started from there.
 
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