Joining Neil Atkinson for a post match Watford demolition reaction show are Phil Blundell, Philippa Smallwood, Stu Wright, Michael MacCambridge.
Liverpool 5 Watford 0: The Post Match Show
by The Anfield Wrap | Mar 17, 2018 | Podcast, Post-Match Show, TAW Player | 9 comments
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Nice articulate contribution from our American friend. Good radio voice :) loved the general comment ‘how do we beat this lot’ ? Essentially route one I guess but even today we were much more intense on the second ball. Really enjoyed Ings cameo.
Michael should be a fixture. Can we not get a feed from the US from him?
Salah is killing it but I’m worried Real Madrid are gonna start sniffing around Robertson:-)
Great show as always. .. what do you do with SALADONNA THIS FELLA IS THE BEST…. after LUIS I didn’t think we would see better for a few years. Is MO better already??…..
Didnt like picking the worst player, just coz Mo was the outstanding candidate for MOM. Weve just won 5-0.
Great show guys and fitting tribute to our phenomenal Mo. As the team played so well, it was humorously unusual to go pick who possibly had a worst game as Mo was obviously MoTM. But to pick out Jordan for special mention was frankly amazing, given that it was he alone that provided the platform for that display to pulverise Watford.
Too often, we look out for special SG passes, which he had given at times (including the one that just overran Mo a few minutes after Mo’s first goal. But it’s never about the passing only with Klopp. It’s the game control- the instructing to every player in the team of where they should be passing, inviting the ball and using it to set up the next move. It’s about telling VVD to give it to Robbo, telling Robbo to send it back to Karius to tell him to send it to Gomez, then taking it back to move it to Mane, to send to Robbo, to drive down the side and cross it to Mo, to tap it in and goal scored, job done, regroup and go again, and again, and again. Yet it’s Robbo’s cross and Mo’s finish that get all the attention and the credit. On replay from behind the goal, as the ball goes into the net- I found it interesting that Hendo ran immediately to Mane to congratulate him on that super pass to Robbo – that’s true Captaincy, gibeing Mane his due and keeping his confidence up when his fellow forward is getting the deserved adulation for another goal- while Mane’s goals are so much lowers than Bobby’s and Mo’s. That’s the things that Klopp noticed too but many others miss.
During Milner’s first 15 minutes after coming in for Can, he outpassed Can’s total number of passes in his 26 minutes. Yet this isn’t noticed because we’re winning. Last Saturday, we lost primarily because Can was incapable of controlling our game and our forwards finished up coming into midfield and defence to get ball- making our most potent line redundant against the bus parkers, and being bullied and manhandled outrageously as the tried to break into the firing line positions. That’s nit what our makeup is about- we’re about stretching and moving and swaying over and back until the space is afforded to let our forwards chase one on one against a suddenly stretched defence. We lost and Henderson wasn’t on the field. If we’d lost with him there- the outcry would’ve been meltdown proportions again, as he’s everyones favourite scapegoat. Yet Can escapes this outcry, because he’s not noticed. He’s always got his Get Out Of Jail Card because he’s not the readymade focal point for derision when things go wrong. In fact, on your MU Review Show- only Paul Cope could rightly recognise that Can was the source of our ineptitude and Sean and Neil didn’t give it due consideration as they only saw the errors of Defence as the reasons behind our defeat.
While I’m not blind to Jordan’s shortcomings, and the odd error he makes- I find it bemusing to observe such repeated focussed attention on them compared to others and at the same time, such little recognition of the fact that when he plays, and when he plays well, our team is capable of beating anybody in this League or the Chsmpions League. Yesterday was such an example of what we can do when the players have him in our side.
Maybe it’s time his ‘puppet string-pulling’ was recognised more, because even our greatest midfielders of all time, often made a few misplaced passes that were ignored with their overall contribution to making us a greater team than the individuals.
Just saying…., Peter YNWA
Hi Peter, great comment re hendo. I must say mind I was sat next to Neil in the Watford game and we agreed that he (like a few others in the team at the moment) were unsung heros just because the goal scorers – salahdonna in particular (phenomenal form)- were dominating the headlines.
Hi Morgan, thanks. In fairness TAW does recognise Hendo’s contributions more vocally and I know Neil and the others often single him out for praise to the recognised (impossible) 6 role Klopp has him dong, that no one else seems capable of.
I suppose I’m particularly cut up about Can’s performance more so last week, as I was at the game at OT, sitting on our hands surrounded by the enemy, expecting to teach them how football is played, and was so disappointed we never got into our groove- even with the 2nd half improvement. Not bothered if he’ll ever sign that contract for us at this stage either.
Really good guys and gals.
I picked up on Henderson’s 10 minutes….
It was as if he was going through a reboot for ten….
Once the software had updated he was back on it.
I’m one of his worst critics…happy to admit that.
But I have to say , bar a couple of games this season, he has been immense.
I think he has learnt “nouse”….
Knows his role completely in the team.
He can collect his ” Im a fully paid up member of the number 6 holding role” badge now.
He’s been great.
The loss to United showed that we need his “nouse”