The Review has a fantastic game to take a long look at Liverpool’s victory against Porto. The Reds blew the Portuguese side away and romped home 0-5.
But what did they do so well? How difficult a game was it? How was the shape different? And what was the manager looking at – if anything – with the Joel Matip substitution?
All this and more from Neil Atkinson, Paul Cope and Sean Rogers.
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Such an excellent and interesting show the review, thanks lads, good stuff.
On Karius, I know the prevailing view is that we will go in for another keeper in the summer but, surely if he keeps improving and developing along with a (reasonably) settled back-line, then that becomes less of a priority? I only say this because we obviously have a defined budget (supplemented with the Barca’ cash) and that money could be spent elsewhere, another midfielder for Can (we’ll still be a man down with Keita arriving), another centre back, and possibly a largeish bid for Pulisic. I s’pose I just really want Karius to become the keeper we all want, with Danny Ward as back-up. It is now very noticeable how different we are shape wise at the back with Karius instead of Migs’. We’re just able to position ourselves as a whole, 15-20 yards further up, which then affects our whole speed of transition. On another note, it was great to see us take our foot off and do the whole ‘resting in possession’ thing last night. It seems as though the squad as a whole is maturing and growing into the identity of our style of play.
Best wishes.
For me, its up to Karius to not lose the shirt. Keep developing, keep mistakes down to a minimum (all keepers do make them), grow in confidence and we’ll not sign one.
I think its important for us as fans to let him grow now. Constant sniping at him in the ground wont help.
Pps:- A bit (very) random I know, but it is The Wrap after all:-
I was wondering if anyone had heard ‘Odyssey and Oracle’ by The Zombies (1968). It’s one of those truly great ‘lost’ albums. I’d only ever heard the singles ‘Time of the season’, ‘This could our time’ etc, until about ten days ago…..now I can’t stop playing it! It reminds me very much of both ‘Pet Sounds’ and ‘Sgt Pepper’s’ at times, which hopefully gives an idea of the quality.
Anyway, it completely blew me away, and I’m a music nut, from Johnny Cash to The Fall, by way of ‘Exile on Main Street’ and ‘The White Album’.
As I said, please excuse the randomness of this comment, but I know I’m among my fellow TAW subscriber, Reds lunatic friends, and I wanted to bring it up just in case, like me, you had not heard this stunning album. Thanks.
probably a comment to add to The Rider…
Good shout. It is a seriously decent album, well, either that or I’m having a mid’ life crisis. :)
Great show once again lads, some really astute observations made, not least the Wijnaldum assessment.
I’m a little worried about the amount of revisionism thats going on with regards to Loverns liverpool career at the moment. It might have reached its zenith when Paul Cope tried to rationalize his Spurs at Wembley performance as him being hung out to dry by the errors of others.
Honestly I’m all for giving players the benefit of the doubt but that couldnt be further from the truth.
Lovern was the architect of his own downfall on that occassion, just as he was against Sevilla, spurs (@anfield), Everton, and Burnley. Also his injury record makes him extremely unreliable.
Yes by all means give him another chance but lets not rewrite history. He’s had ample opportunity at the club (100 games) and in general been found more than wanting. He has his strengths but it will take a prolonged run of consistent performances before he can be truly relied upon.
The revisionism is baffling, post match after the Spurs thrashing Andy and Craig said that Lovren should never play for Liverpool again.
Is it baffling? Or it is based on what you’re watching?
To be fair, it would only be revisionist, if they tried to pretend he’d Always played well. This is a new thing, it’s called developing your opinion based on current evidence.
:)
Come on, credit where due, the lad’s made a start at claiming the shirt, surely.