THE grinding it out Reds, who knew, who are these people, playing shite and winning, who are we? Manchester United?
Lesson worth learning, though…
Simon Mignolet: 7
Doesn’t make a save, has little chance with the goal, makes a couple of proactive decisions that he doesn’t make last year and punches well.
Leaves Gini Wijnaldum hanging on a back pass but apart from that, sound.
Nathaniel Clyne: 5
Wants to do more, forever looking for an option and often doesn’t have one.
Switches off as much as anyone for the Burnley goal.
Joel Matip: 7
Solid enough, leads out well but needs to vocalise more, takes responsibility with his play but could and should be grabbing them by the scruff of the neck.
Ragnar Klavan: 5
Had a torrid first 30, couldn’t make a right decision and looked absolutely petrified, was on a two otherwise.
Improves second half, as did everyone else, but still not brilliant.
James Milner: 6
Kind of left alone to get on with it and not found often enough, especially first half, a bit more second half too.
Got targeted early on but did well enough that Burnley switched.
Emre Can: 2 and 9
Splitting this.
First half — I can forgive anything on a football pitch apart from being a coward and hiding.
Watched him for 10 minutes deliberately putting himself in a position where he couldn’t receive the ball because he didn’t feel confident enough to be on the pitch.
Second half — Not brilliant but immeasurably better than what went before and then scores the most enjoyable goal of the season if only because it made a twat of Atko.
Adam Lallana: 6
Didn’t function in a stretched midfield at all first half, didn’t have the surety of touch in the second either.
Georginio Wijnaldum: 8
Don’t see him at all, and then he puts away the calmest finish since Beth buried Trevor Jordache under the patio.
Sadio Mane: 6
Ropey. So good at what he does, he’s unstoppable and always a threat, but off it today.
If he was a little bit better at one or two things we’d be looking at the next world star.
Philippe Coutinho: 4
Must have been carrying something, not even anywhere near his minimum today.
Divock Origi: 7
Massive admiration for commitment and getting involved today, says a lot about him and, dare I say it, his character.
Desperately needs a goal and his touch isn’t there, but got battered from pillar to post today and put everything in.
SUBS
Ben Woodburn: 9
Such a sure touch, please let him be as good as he thinks he can be.
Think Lucas Leiva would have just got off had he scored.
Lucas Leiva: n/a
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Can went missing? He was trying to do the job the two CBs were supposed to be doing ie out muscling 2 lads under 6 foot! He was awful first half though……got some balks though to be fair to him
Blimey, I think Neil needs to update his profile photo to a more recent one. :-0
Coutinho has been absolute shite since signing a new contract.
If Can was hiding first half, then Phil was up the back of Can’s shirt. He deserved a 2.
And what the fuck does he practice on corners? That’s not down to injury.
Must have been carrying ‘something’ as it speaks volumes that he’s hooked on 60 mins for a 17 year old.
Hope he gets his mojo back as wee have been carrying him for 6 weeks now.
No way the brookside reference is your gag. Borrowed that from crazy bob?
Coutinho is really off his game. Hasn’t been the same player since coming back.
Mixed feelings on the second goal. Exhilaration with the parting of the clouds of dread mixed with dread of supporters forgetting how poor Can has been for far too long. Still would rather change our shape, either to accommodate him or to displace him.
Woodburn looked deadly, still would have pushed Coutinho into the midfield and had Wijnaldum take over for Can. The Wij is fast becoming my new cult favorite now that Sakho and Allen have gone the way of Maxi and Meireles.
What is wrong with Coutinho? Llalana? Clyne?Origi? We are currently carrying redwood.
Can is having 10 because he scored the goal which one us the football match, thus saving us from what would have been the most boringly familiar of footballing post-mortems.
The goal had an element of anger to it. ‘Fuck right off and get into that corner’ is how I felt when it hit the net.
Up until then we had enjoyed all the usual boringness:
. The pre-match stat detailing how Burnley had scored 2 goals in 87 away games.
. The obligatory mention of Burnley not winning at Anfield since 445 AD
. The tiresome fast Burnley start and inexplicable surprise at this from the commentators
. The snooze-inducing dialogue about how Burnley ‘don’t look’ like a team with such a bad away record
Oh it was all there in spades. Every boring, predictable event one could have imagined.
And then, and then, Emre Can smashed the football into the bottom of their goal and not one moment of it mattered.
We won that matters more seeing as to who we play next.
The team played ok. Nothing to gloat about considering the opposition.
Coutinho is overrated as far as I am concerned. Some worldies and through passes helped him gain the support and earn a nice contract, but he is average.
Origi though has something to prove but can’t seem to get out of second gear.
Lallana seems content with the new contract as well, so expect less from him every now and then.
Clyne is not an intelligent player. Runs fast and stuff, but he is no Danny Alves, Roberto Carlos, etc.
Grandpa Milner, well would love to see him play his natural position to see if he still has it in him before he retires. Nice to see him take out a player or two.
Woodburn needs more game time to be sure. Right now he’s the media darling, until he fucks up. So please don’t fuck up kid.
Can, can’t and then can. Lovely goal, stuck one into the Kop for their ever grateful adoration for him. So bow down and kiss his arse now or at least till next weekend.
Mane tries too hard to do something simple. He is still a good player. Could have scored.
Gini, cool as you can be in that situation. Did better than average. Hope he doesn’t go missing away to City.
Migs digs in and does the job.
Matip went to sleep briefly otherwise did ok.
Klavan? Err..no idea.
Lucas, ah yes the loyal player. Does he mow the grass after matches as well? He will be forever around Anfield might as well make a flag with his mug on it.
Jurgen you have a week to get the team prepped for the oil baron’s mercenaries. Please, less talk and more walk!
That’s all for my ratings or something of the sort.
Up the Reds!!!
My ratings are close the the same across the board, give or take a point.
The midfielders really let the attack down today. Every time they pressed inside, the Burnley defense collapsed on them. In basketball, that’s when the forward kicks the ball back out to the sides, where a guard is ready to pass around and find the open player. Here, a pass back out to Clyne or Millie would have given them those opportunities to provide a crossing pass both of them were craving to do all day. Instead, Mane, Lallana, Coutinho, and Wijnaldum always opted to be creative and tried to drive inside, through the defenders. Almost every time, the ball wound up being taken off their feet.
we don’t need to perform ,we need the three points thats enough for us
Why is it that Coutinho is ‘carrying something’ yet Can is a coward? Links to Barcelona look laughable now. He’s the worst ‘best player’ we’ve ever had. If he form carries on he needs bombing out and replacing
Games like this that are going to be a physical battle with tackles flying in then I’d rather see Milner in the centre midfield and stick Moreno at left back…I know Albert can be an accident waiting to happen but it’s not like we keep loads of clean sheets anyway.