ABSOLUTELY battered them 2-0. First to the ball, and better with it. If it wasn’t for their goalkeeper they’d be writing new records.
Instead we go to Old Trafford without a tie-winning lead at this stage but with a commanding one nevertheless. Also with an air of dominance. Let’s see if they can create a chance there.
Simon Mignolet: 7
Largely just watching for the second home game in a row. Is it me or is his distribution better? Seems more relaxed.
Nathaniel Clyne: 8
Up against pace but comfortable as anything. Barely hit a pass wrong either.
Alberto Moreno: 7
He’s a mad bastard. Let’s do the negatives first. His free kicks were shite and he did that daft jumping tackle when he’d actually overtook his opposite number. But much of his play was impressive. Lots of good interceptions and attacked with purpose.
Dejan Lovren: 7
Just a Steady Eddie tonight. Did what was needed.
Mamadou Sakho: 9
His mate though. He’ll paint your house and pass your head off. Complete centre-half performance.
Jordan Henderson: 8
Well better from the captain. Don’t know who was in midfield for them but he battered them. Especially impressive considering a harsh early yellow .
Emre Can: 7
Two bad passes in a row early in the second half. But becoming a real presence in the middle for us.
Adam Lallana: 8
Yes, lad. You feel a bit sorry for him in this league because his main skill is keeping the ball in a league where teams don’t want it. And his second skill is pressing in a league that doesn’t want it. But days like this he’s a king among men. Cool as you like for the second
Philippe Coutinho: 7
Turned and ran and frightened them to death. Should score first half but we’re all still mates.
Roberto Firmino: 9
Clever, tricky, brilliant with his movement. Then he kicks it in the goal. Again. Turning doubters into believers.
Daniel Sturridge: 6
Obviously felt he had a point to prove on the penalty. Quiet other than that, but you take a goal from a striker on his way back.
SUBS
Joe Allen: 8
An incredible sub no-one else in the ground would have made. Led to a great period for the Reds. Won about 17 headers.
Divock Origi: 7
They were scared to death of him. Great for tired legs. And we sang his name.
Loved it. Well done Redmen well done. if it hadn’t been for teenwolf it would have been 5 or 6
Teenwolf- fucking hated that movie.
Lots to enjoy there. Firmino. I’m developing a bit of a crush. He really deserved his goal. I laughed out loud when he went through two men. Lovely.
I really hope we won’t end up regretting not putting away more chances.
Proud of the lads.
Spot on Gibbo. I thought Lovren and Sakho were immense tonight. Lovrens new simple approach to defending means I’m not shitting myself every time the ball goes near him. Every man did us proud and the feel good factor seems to be back. We schooled the Mancs. Good times.
Was it just me or were United scared to press, confront or challenge Sakho when he had the ball? it was like he had a force field around him in the first half, he could have walked it up to the half way line and beyond and they were just standing off him!
Yeah agreed. Should make him our 9 when we play them next week!
It seems to be pretty common when doing a press to pick one player to let have the ball unpressured to save your players legs – usually the defender you feel is least threatening or most likely to misplace a pass. I’ve spotted this done to Sakho a few times since he joined and it tends to go badly for the opposition, presumably because his passing is widely underrated.
Spot on there La!!
Yeah, he’s really pretty good at passing it out when he’s given time. Can get caught if pressed through over cofidence in the ball.
‘on’ not ‘in’. sorry.
Sakho for new midfield role!! He can pass and paint. It Lucas can take dual roles so can Sakho!! :)
Fantastic win, especially with a clean sheet. Best performance, so far, under Klopp. Clyne and Firmino batting for player of the season, for me.
Sturridge’s performance the only slight disappointment.
Looks like we could play Dortmund, at some point!
Mad how Dortmund made Tottenham look a championship side. The premier league is pathetic.
…a completely depleted Spurs that was…. (I am happy BVB won, but still)
Pleasant surprise to see Lady all positive..
Want to use us not putting the tie to bed tonight as an excuse to not be happy (Coutinho tried to not score there, didn’t he?) but honestly made up. Well in, everyone.
There’s going to come a time when De Gea has got off to Real Madrid and then we’ll win a lot of games against these scruffs at the very least 4-0.
Mig had another clean sheet and zero error. And we won, and overall play was convincing enough to keep me happy for a week!!! :)
Got to agree Gibbo with your ratings, right on. Would just add to Migs – Is claiming the ball in the box with lots more confidence.
Gibbo was a bit more generous than usual.
I was really relax whole match because MU never looked like scoring. And Mig will grow in confidence and the fans (and team) will grow confidence in him too. The punch, I wish, was against Fellini’s head though :)
An 8 for Henderson? Our worst player on the night and he gets an 8? He your new Lucas John. No matter how poor he is, you give him an extra 2 points. Can ran the show in midfield and carried Henderson for the fifth game in a row, but only gets a 7?? Baffling.
Also, only idiots ever doubted Firmino.
“Also, only idiots ever doubted Firmino”.
Aye, they’ll be the same ones who fail to acknowledge Henderson’s influence and just how much work he puts in to allow others to shine.
I don’t remember us winning many games when he wasn’t playing.
So I checked the PL record this year
Hendo Plays: 9 wins in 15 = 60%
Hendo Doesn’t Play: 3 wins in 13 = 23%
He clearly has influence. We clearly miss him when he doesn’t play.
Spot on J & Cha,
The new Ron Whelan.
Credit when due. Hendo played well, much better than previous matches. He controlled the midfield tempo better. Oh and Sprint and cross for the 2nd goal was the usual 2013/14 Hendo.
I could see Hendo-Can partnership is growing!!!
Hendo easy an 8, he bossed it.
I’d swap the Lovren and Sakho marks. Loving the new model Dejan. Love Sakho too, he’s a great fella, but, after a woeful start to his Liverpool career, Lovren’s starting to look the real deal. Solid, unfussy, effective.
A big fat zero, do not pass go, do not collect 100 pounds for which ever half and half wearing idiot started that “stand up if you hate Man U” song.
Couldn’t hear from where I was but I had a sick feeling that was getting sung. Embarrassing.
Still, doesn’t even come close to being a blot on a fantastic night.
Sakho finally got some appreciation outside of TAW and the LFC fan base last night. Ok, I dunno if Joey Barton, Collymore and Lineker on twitter count as mainstream media, but it’s a start.
Joe Allen match winning substitution.
Spot on. They were penning us in until he came on: game changer.
Great tactical substitution by Klopp and his team.
Yes yes yes… it was the tactical change that made the difference.
Certain Twits all on about how amazing Allen is and how much better than Hendo he is (he isn’t tho’) completely failing to acknowledge that following their switch to 3 at the back, Hendo & Can needed a little help. TBH, just a re-shuffle would probably have done it, but Allen knows that role well thus enabling Can to sit deep, which in turn released Hendo… ooh, and then he’s free to dash up the right… ooh… goal!!
Joeallen’s just great (did he win a header against Felliani or have I just made that up?) will be a sad day if we bounce him out in the summer because Klopp prefers bigger lads.
He did indeed beat Fellaini in the air! Joe was class last night
Was getting a bit restless when MU started to have more possession. AND Joe came on, I was at peace with myself…just so confident that Joe would control the match for us, and he did. (Klopp mentioned a few times already that he felt bad Joe didn’t get to start)
Did anyone notice Ojo was in the bench? (possibly be scored hat trick for U21 and Klopp show faith just in case we need a wide player)
Was amazing how scared they were of Origi’s pace…maybe a indication of an approach for the away leg?
Loved the Welsh Pirlo last night. Game changer – beat Fellaini in the air for fun. Legend!
Awesome night… Absolutely brilliant, Up Klopppo, up Kloppo’s reds.
Mostly I’d agree on the ratings but want to make to make a couple of points on two individuals and one on style of play.
There were two moments from two players who have habits of having a moment.
Moreno in the first 30 seconds. How does he not clear that? We were very lucky not to be 0-1. I d give him a point less for that and l don’t think we can be what we want to be, long term, with him as our number one, even given his many attributes.
Sakho mid way through the first half with his swing and a miss and then high risk manoeuvre on mata. Very easily could have resulted in a goal. Probably should of. To me it feels like one of those every game. I love him, but it’s not good enough long term and I imagine matip replaces him. Again, like Albi, he has many attributes but they are defenders first and foremost.
Last comment … I think we need to get a player in who can find the runners from deep. First half in particular there were countless times one of Lalanna, hendo, emre, firmino made attacking runs but who ever was on the ball, usually in our half, didn’t have the vision nor the ability to ping the ball in, a la Stevie or Xabi. I really think we missed this. Hendo used to have but seems to not be trying that ball and I think it limits us.
Just a point, looking ahead. Don’t mean to sound too negative because it was obviously s hell of s performance and bodes so well.
Up the Reds.
Good points nicely put Tom,
Agree on all.
Agreed. Much as I love Sakho he seems to have one of those moments in every game: he gives you a chance. Lovren (fingers crossed) seems to have cut that out of his game, as has Kolo. Not sure Mamu will. You’re right about Albie and the midfield too. We’re playing one too many piano carriers at the moment: Lallana or Milner with Coutinho spraying balls from deep.
Wish life had a Michael Owen mute button, fuck he’s annoying.
It was a pen cause the ref gave a pen.
Phil should score.
Firmino gets a 10 every time for me just for his nature. He often floats around in his own world but when his chance comes he takes it with ease.
An awesome team performance. Utd were shit but our defence is starting to have defensive qualities, which is nice.
Spot on ratings there
Gibbo’s ratings have been dead brilliant lately. Keep it up!
As someone who’s been going on about the Welsh Allen for the past two months, I wanted him on the pitch but I was baffled that it was for Sturridge. Klopp with a masterstroke. Reminded me of the 3-2 against Man City in the title run. They were in the ascendancy until Allen came on and shut them down. Get the man a contract! He wins headers against Fellaini and, frankly, he starting to look like some sort of mad man!
Spot on here Gibbo,
Clyne was my motm but impressive all over the gaff.
Felt like Klopp bought a +15 team passing and dribbling upgrade. Our pass completion felt like 90% as a team and we dribbled through them like we were 11 Neymars out there
Allen was mustard.
The Allen sub was in response to Man Utd putting on Carrick and getting much more possession than previously. So Klopp was spot on by throwing on Allen for one more body in center-midfield and we wrested some control back after that.
Origi too was introduced to run at Carrick which is an obvious mismatch on pace. We won a corner and kept Man Utd worried at the back because Origi chased every ball we lumped forward at the end.
Great subs by our German manager!
https://theredsoliloquy.wordpress.com/2016/03/12/liverpool-versus-david-de-gea-liverpool-2-0-man-utd-europa-league/