TACTICAL games are tough to score. Liverpool set up solid and went about their business well. They knew what they needed to do and largely did it. For that they all deserve credit.
That said, you wouldn’t say anyone was outstanding. When everyone is a cog, sometimes standing out is difficult. These scores might seem low, but I’m certainly not unhappy. Up the professional Reds.
Simon Mignolet: 7
A couple of moments with his feet that gave the crowd the jitters, but if it was Brucie we’d have been purring over his coolness. Punched a mad one but was pretty dependable apart from that. Looked confident.
Nathaniel Clyne: 6
Fairly solid, fairly attacking, fairly Clyne.
Alberto Moreno: 7
Committed to the battle and the tackle. Was up against some tough opponents but more than held his own.
Dejan Lovren: 7
Seemed to be in the right place at the right time on several occasions. You sense he is thinking much clearer.
Mamadou Sakho: 8
Gives it away cheaply early in the second half, and I’m not convinced we see the ball again before the goal goes in. But aside from that he was formidable. A genuine game changer.
Jordan Henderson: 4
Looked out of sorts. He reckons his heel injury is much better, so who knows what was troubling him. Maybe the fact he gives it away any time anyone hurries him. That said, terrible news on the knee injury.
Emre Can: 6
Struggled first half but much better second. Coped with an early booking well. Makes it look easy one minute and impossible the next.
Adam Lallana: 6
Neat and tidy. Not sure what else to say. Has to do a job out there.
James Milner: 5
It was too fast for him. Again.
Philippe Coutinho: 7
Had their full back on toast, we just couldn’t feed him enough. At Anfield though….
Divock Origi: 7
Took his goal brilliantly and grew in confidence after that. But strangely didn’t do much of the dirty stuff he was probably picked for.
SUBS
Joe Allen: 7
Big change to the midfield. Won second balls and passed it well.
Roberto Firmino: N/A
Daniel Sturridge: N/A
Both subs showed good intent. Both showed good energy. But neither had time to contribute.
Sorry simply not having Sakho as an 8 need to drop down to a 6 or 7 at best, besides that spot on.
It seems his last ditch tackles and blocks are covering up for all his mistakes (i.e. giving the ball away that eventually leads to their goal).
Sakho was a heart attack on toast. I seriously cannot watch the lad without a sense of dread. Probably masks any objective view of the fact he always seems to do the right thing/get in the way of stuff/find a red shirt.
It should become law that him and mignolet are never allowed to pass to each other. ever. just don’t do it. I cannot deal with it.
I suddenly had a flashback of Migs passing the ball to Sakho under pressure just seconds after he had done his knee and limped back on the pitch. Seems to sum up that understanding.
Yep. That was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen on a football pitch (though Albie’s tackle last night runs it close). It’s why no matter how much he improves, Simon Mignolet should never be our number one.
Someone on Twitter described Sakho as ‘a drunk Baresi’
Pretty much sums him up.
Drunk Baresi? – i would say a blind Baresi. One time the ball was 90-10 in his favour and he decided to take out the player instead of clear it. Liability….?
True that. He’s had a real Can last night, who usually is the one to give away the ball needlessly.
i would agree but apparently Sakho is Boss according to the scribblers on here
I would have taken 2 off Moreno for ‘that’ tackle. Where he did it? Why he did it? Why wasn’t he sent off?
Spot on. Absolute madness
Couldn’t agree more. Brainless, utterly brainless. Imagine getting yourself sent off for a tackle in the part of the pitch (actually *off* the pitch). I just don’t think you can coach that out of him.
Didn’t even get a yellow for that. Mad.
You mean like Joe Cole’s red in his first match?
Moreno unfortunately is a real weak link in our side. How Dortmund failed to capitalise on that is quite unclear.
Not the first time he seems to act like a headless chicken; Simply nood good enough for me
It was breath-takingly moronic. Maybe he suffers from ADHT or something? Very lucky not to be sent off. He’s just not worth the stress.
He does give that impression.
You mean ADHD and it’s certainly a possibility. I have a degree in Political Economics from a decent school in spite of it. It can be treated. We assume players are robots and that’s silly. Here’s something interesting I read in Hogenstein piece about Klopp’s 10 rules for success…
Encourage criticism of strengths, not weakness
Klopp will only criticise weaknesses when a journalist asks him a question he doesn’t like. “What section do you work in, then? Animal films?” he once barked at a reporter from German TV channel WDR. But he never has a bad word to say about his players in public.
“Even within the team, analysing mistakes plays a relatively minor role. Instead, he prefers to teach the players how to make the most of their potential and go beyond their limitations.”
What’s striking about this is that this is practically from the DSM-V treatment guidelines for people suffering from major depression and anxiety disorders. In fact that is quite literally and openly the exact (and I do nearly mean word for word) way in which my own therapist describes her clinical practice. She also emphasis the acceptance of small improvements over rejection of anything but profound change.
Klopp is a hell of a lot smarter than he’s letting on, that’s research, you don’t just randomly stumble over applying cutting edge CBT techniques when dealing with the confidence of your players by accident. There’s more, it’s an amazing read.
Probably Henderson’s worst performance in a red shirt. Looked terrified on the ball out there, didn’t want anything to do with it.
Picking up a season ending injury as well makes this a night to forget.
Allen did really good, is he our super sub?
People up and down the country asked why he doesn’t get more game time after his latest showings for his national team. He seems like a man obsessed. More of the same please. And more game time.
Henderson seemed spooked even shaking hands with Hummels.
I think the Welsh Allen might be a busy lad between Hendo’s knee and Emre Can’s pile of yellow cards. I’d love for him to make himself undroppable, height be damned.
Where does this leave us for Sunday? Can is suspended for 2 games I think, Henderson is broken.
Allen and ?
Allen and Milner. And Firmino is fit again.
Where are Lucas & Stewart?
I thought Allen was very impressive. He’s transformed his neat and tidy but largely anonymous approach to something much more influential and progressive. He might yet play a vital role in our run-in.
I would have given Emre a 7, thought he was a great shield in the middle and considering what he was up against with a passenger in Hendo next to him for the first half.
Also thought Lovren stepped out of position for their goal and left Lallana exposed against Hummels but was great otherwise. Shame it’s his lapses that are costing us goals recently and Sakho has been fortunate that his errors have not.
I dunno about Lovren. Spurs was simply a good goal. Sometimes you have to accept that it happens. And Klopp has said that Lallana was asked to cover that area for their goal last night. Lovren was where he should have been so no blame there either.
My opinion on Klopp’s comments was to take the sole blame and not criticise any players. It was an overall great performance so no need to highlight any individual mistakes. My reason being that it’s crazy to ask just Lallana to cover that area. Lovren stepped forward and left the center exposed then found himself underneath the cross. The area Hummels comes into should have been his (in my opinion always).
After seeing the repetition of the goal we conceeded on telly I wondered why Origi wasn’t next to Hummels, but Lallana, who simply isn’t tall enough to mark such a tall player. Well, it was the manager’s order and pretty much out of order, too. Klopp surely is a great motivator, but a great tactician he ain’t.
Thought Milner had a decent game and Coutinho was kept very quiet by them – bar that mad 5 Neil talked about in his review.
I reckon Rafa would love Mama. Just arses about in the league games then gets into Europe and becomes a monster.
Starting to feel sorry for Milner, feels like he’s been told he’ll be a great player for us but he’s not really sure what that means. That said, he did get the assist with his head so maybe all the asking him to pass with his feet is where we’ve been going wrong.
Think gibbo’s dad should do the next match ratings!!
Guess the author doesn’t like Milner at all. He was at the right place at the right time so often to save our but last night that it seems quite strange to give him such a poor rating. Did a lot of defending, and very clever, too, when it mattered and others failed.
I thought Clyne had a very good game. Would definitely rate him higher than Moreno, who could have seen red. Although I doubt that came across in the ground and we’ve all got the benefit of TV replays.
Thought they were both fairly good; the sort of performances that make you think full-back is the least of our worries. And then Moreno does *that* tackle…
Moreno uses the ball considerably better than Clyne, though. That five min spell after they score when we batter them – Moreno is brilliant. Just fizzing ground passes into feet in and around the area.
Disagree on Milner, John, thought he battled & pressed really well last night and played a very important tactical role as the most advanced central midfielder. Perfect sort of game for him I suppose.
Moreno’s inability to even play a simple lay off with his right foot always boggles my mind though. It gets us into trouble time and time again when we are playing out from the back as he can’t play the simple pass with his right that is on inside to our midfielder and ends up doing that little roll and pass back to Sakho, who isn’t great on his right either and so he fluffs around with it for a bit inviting them on to us before either getting a risky pass off or kicking it back to Mingolet to clear.
There is quite a bit of Moreno’s game to like, mostly his blistering speed to get himself back into position. I don’t know why he can’t just spend the whole summer passing against a wall until he can play it on his right.
Me too. He was a threat going forward but those lapses happened on his side of the pitch…..
Hurry up with the match review, Neil. I don’t know what to think!
Thought Milner had a superb game. They couldn’t handle him at times.
And Allen was simply beautiful. I could watch him forever, the little welsh wizard…
I also wonder whether Jurgen can coach *that* suicidal square ball Moreno essays at least once a match because he won’t use his right foot.
Great game yesterday! Lets hope they finish the job next week!
Ludicrously reckless flying tackle by Moreno, near the opposition’s corner flag of all the stupid places. Can’t give him a 7 when the only reason he wan’t sent off was the referee didn’t do what he should’ve done.
In think Lovren deserves an 8 as well. He simply was immense with every tackle he made. What a different player he seems to be lately. And what a difference with a year ago.
I just have a feeling that Hendo’ has lost confidence as captain. Maybe it’s because Klopp doesn’t fancy him, or even that, that is just Hendo’s own perception. I He just has not been a very visible captain since his injury and Klopp coming in. We seem to see a lot more of players like Milner and Lallana in press conferences and articles coming from the club. Maybe it’s just me but he seemed a much more visible symbol of the club last season, and the beginning of this one. Good player, I hope he stays but I back our manager if he feels the need for change in the summer. Bad news about the injury, awful season for Jordan. Hope he recovers quickly, whether it’s with us or not I wish him the best.
Big Question:
Would you take 84 points in the league though?
I thought Milner had a better game than Coutihno, but apart from that I’d agree just about.
I would of given Sahko MOTM, I’d agree he is scary to watch a lot of the time but that dosent stop him from being great. If he played like this every game I’d be happy.
My favourite moment as a Liverpool Football Club fan was in the Spring of 2014 when Liverpool Football Club drew 3-3 with Palace.
True it meant our league ambitions were cruelly ended but I have never been more proud of the gang of lads in the Red shirts playing football for Liverpool Football Club.
They tried valiantly to win by such a huge margin that in our final game against Newcastle, Liverpool Football Club would have been in with a fighters chance of overturning City’s goal difference.
Failing is more beautifully heroic than winning sometimes. As fans of Liverpool Football Club we would have been in Excelsis Deo.
What a thing. A great set of lads.
If you believe the Twitter and the odd commenter on here, Klopp doesn’t fancy Hendo, Sakho, Moreno and so on… so why does he keep playing them when there are other options? Poppycock if you ask me. They’ll all be there and all be central to next year’s team.
As for the game… the gang o’ lads went to the 2nd best team in Germany and came away with a creditable draw – Gibbo gives some ratings (brave man) & cue the fume and rage… Christ alive!!
You’re either mad or blind of you thought Origi didn’t do the dirty work. He was on their holding midfielders throughout
Lovren deserves more than a 7 – was imperious, aside from his miss in the first half. Feel Clyne deserves more than a 6 too – had Reus in his pocket. Aside from the first 15 and last 15, thought Can was the best midfielder on the pitch.
On the other hand, Coutinho was dead quiet I thought, triple chance aside.
Agree on Lovren, Clyne and Coutinho. The save from Coutinho was brilliant but he had a lot of goal to aim at and should have done better, as should have Lovren. Can was poor for more than 15 in the first half. In general, most players could go up a point. Origi was excellent in my view caused problems all night.
On their goal, I haven’t seen how we set up while Hendo was on but wonder whether Lallana had taken his position instead of Allen.
Being in Italy I get to listen to comments people who actually know more about the game than the average punter, which is nice. Yesterday it was Capello who is good at pointing at why stuff happened – commentator: poor pass by Milner – FC: no that’s down to Clyne not giving him the angle. At one point he referred to this game between two evenly match sides. I’ll take that.
I think Gibbons gives these ratings before the game. He likes who he likes and slates who he doesn’t.
Milner had 7 tackles and 4 interceptions, double any other Red. Plus an assist, yet this eejit gives a 5 rating.
Stop doing the ratings, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Koolhand21, I happen to believe that Gibbons does an extremely difficult job very well. Assess the contribution of eleven, plus subs, and there is obviously going to be a difference of opinion on individual players. I agree by the way with your views on Milner, and I would have have awarded an extra one all around but clearly Gibbons was being carefully conservative given the drama of the occasion and size of the challenge. Yeah, I wanted effusiveness and praise for a job well done, let’s be honest, maybe one that even exceeded expectations, so he gave us a restrained assessment. Each week, I look for John Gibbons’ ratings before any other response to the game and am rarely disappointed. You, Koolhand, are clearly incapable of a measured response and should apologize for your uneducated excesses.
Oh, please. Here’s Gibbons: was too fast for him. Again.
That’s a quote, right, so how is my response uneducated? Milner had more than double the tackles and interceptions than any other Redman, as I said. How exactly is that a player who can’t keep up?
I’m happy for you that you like Gibbons. Please have at it. I think that if he’s wrong, someone should point it out.
Of course, John’s highly erudite response was quite illuminating.
It wasn’t John’s response. Why would he stop doing ratings? Because you say? That’s quite illuminating.
I also made some reference to ratings being rubbish but I think this could be fixed if we all had a nice long philosophical chat about what a ten is REALLY and has removing all that bloody goop from his hair added to Adam Lallana’s average score.
Answers?e
No.
On 60 minutes Mignolet screams at Lovren to leave it Lovren leans into attacker to hold him off and Mignolet rushes out to punch the ball clear. This is how it is supposed to be.
How it should be is ter Steegen yelling at Lovren.
The important thing to remember about the football match about Dortmund is the context. The context.
What is the context for the games of football played by Liverpool Football Club against one of the best European teams in 2016? Getting drunk and singing songs with your mates, bunking off work for a couple of days and high-tailing it to Germany to retrace the footsteps of our fathers? A football match? The Klopp Derby – and a celebration of all things Klopp by us and Dortmund? A chance to win silverware – and European silverware to boot – in Klopp’s first season? The first steps of re-building?
How you view last nights match will depend on your view of how you choose to view the context. That’s the main thing.
The other thing – the great big elephant in the room thing – is how fantastic the Yellow Wall was/is…and how jealous the Reds I was with were about the Dortmund atmos vs what we serve up at Anfield.
I have seen written in the various Liverpool Football Club twittersphere reference to how Dortmund’s home atmosphere is manufactured and not reactive an responsive – like it’s fixed or forced entertainment.
That is simply anti-German racism if you ask me.
These Dortmund lads, have made this thing, this beautiful bright technicolured thing – supporting their Club – into the biggest and best party there is.
Nothing can ever replace the joy of standing (we stand in 306) at the back of the Kop whilst the Red shirted lads hound and scurry and press and shithouse their way to victory over the Mancs…nothing will ever replace the support we all feel for Liverpool Football Club.
But. There’s a but because rarely do we have that atmosphere anymore.
Let’s get behind these lads when Dortmund come to town. Let’s show the travelling Yellow Wall the respect they deserve at Anfield. But let’s tear into them on the pitch – let’s have wave after wave of Reds tearing then apart like starved rats devouring a young mouse.
However you enjoyed last night, whatever the context was for you. The biggest thing – hell – the only thing is that Liverpool Footbalk Club win
As the TAW lads say, when Liverpool Football Club wins, we all win
Neil Atkinson light
However much the influence of post-Thatcher Britain and the shiny (and corrupt) Sky PL era have affected the wider fan-base of football – the ONE thing WE can control is how boss the atmosphere of Anfield is when the opposition come to town
We can put them in their place
We can show them what it means to be a supporter of Liverpool Football Club. To be a part of a Coub with the traditions and the heritage of Callaghan, Ian St John, Emlyn, Keegan, King Kenny, Souness, Rush, Barnes, Fowler. And the managerial genius and tactical acumen, and general Boss-ness of Shankly, Paisley, Fagan, Rafa
No other Club has the fabric of history that we have, nor as rich a heritage, no one has the “dreams and songs to sing” that we have – nor, endured the loathing and scheming from the wider British public through simple jealousy of our rich history as a Club and a People
We should give no quarter, not on the patch of green carpet where the theatre is played out, nor in the stands
I dread that the match will become a Klopp love-in, with half-and-half scarves and selfie sticks and people who don’t know what it is to be a fan of Liverpool Football Club
As a fan base, and as a Club, we should always remember our historical dominance and our values, traditions, history and heritage
We come to win
We Come Not To Play