Putting the last 2 results aside in what were comfortable 3-0 home victories for Liverpool, one concern must be the lacklustre opening 45 minutes in each game. Albeit playing at home to considerably weaker opposition, I think it does come down to attitude against the team you play against because Liverpool were poor in the first half in the last 2 games I think.
It can't happen against West Ham. Putting their home league form and Bilic's future aside, they have quality within the squad and they've got a strong 11. If they get it right and Liverpool perform like they have in the 1st half, they could well see themselves a goal or two down at the break against the Hammers. The first 45 minutes has to improve imo on Saturday evening or I think Liverpool will lose.
Lack lustre/Mediocre
posted on 3/11/17
comment by The Welsh Xavi (U15412)
posted 57 seconds ago
To be honest I think it's a bit of a myth we struggle to break down busses. We scored in 33/38 pl games last season and have scored in 8/10 so far this season, it's just our defence isn't good enough to grind out 1-0 wins consistently.
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I take the point but in the majority of our games we shouldn’t be in a position whereby a defensive lapse hurts us.
People point to the defence (with some justification) but most games we’ve played this year you’d argue on balance of play we should be looking at a 2 goal (+) cushion. Not all, but most.
The defence has impacted our results because we’ve allowed the game to be changed by a single goal.
posted on 3/11/17
To be honest I think it's a bit of a myth we struggle to break down busses.
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It’s a good point....I think it was the consensus offered as an explanation of why we had a very good record against the top 10 last year, and a bad record against the bottom 10.
(We’d over-stretch to break them down, and concede on the break).
But the dynamic has changed, a bit. More teams are parking the bus against us this year...it’s kind of the received wisdom of how you should set up against us.
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it's just our defence isn't good enough to grind out 1-0 wins consistently.
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Yeah, I don[‘t think it is, but I don’t think we’re ever going to be set up for that, under Klopp.
Even if we manage to improve the defence, I don’t think we’re ever going to grind out long sequences of 1-0 wins.
We’ve already conceded 16 goals away from home this year, which is obviously terrible, but 12 of those goals were in 3 games. We’ve kept a clean-sheet in a third of our games, so the defence isn’t consistently bad, it’s just that when it’s bad, it’s fvcking atrocious.
posted on 3/11/17
There hasn’t been a rule really.
We have had a couple of games we clearly should have won had we been more clinical (Burnley and Newcastle), but where poor defence meant we didn’t nick a 1-0. Games where the defence let us down badly (Watford and Spurs), a game clearly affected by a red card (City). A game where we have nicked a 1-0 (Palace).
It’s been a very mixed bag with no rule that keeps appearing. The only consistent has been goals conceded away from home. No clean sheets. We have still taken 5pts though and played two of the best teams in our 5 away games.
It’s a fair bet we will concede tomorrow, but the only away game we haven’t scored was City, and we really should have scored before going down to 10.
Basically we are not far away from being a very very good team, but also not far away from being left behind by the top 4/5 if things go the other way.
I’m always an optimist though and prefer to see 3 defeats in 22 league games as signs we are moving in the right direction.
posted on 3/11/17
That's a good summary, Righteous, and more or less how I feel about it, at the moment
posted on 3/11/17
comment by selbstgerechtein (U7048)
posted 9 minutes ago
There hasn’t been a rule really.
We have had a couple of games we clearly should have won had we been more clinical (Burnley and Newcastle), but where poor defence meant we didn’t nick a 1-0. Games where the defence let us down badly (Watford and Spurs), a game clearly affected by a red card (City). A game where we have nicked a 1-0 (Palace).
It’s been a very mixed bag with no rule that keeps appearing. The only consistent has been goals conceded away from home. No clean sheets. We have still taken 5pts though and played two of the best teams in our 5 away games.
It’s a fair bet we will concede tomorrow, but the only away game we haven’t scored was City, and we really should have scored before going down to 10.
Basically we are not far away from being a very very good team, but also not far away from being left behind by the top 4/5 if things go the other way.
I’m always an optimist though and prefer to see 3 defeats in 22 league games as signs we are moving in the right direction.
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Is nick the right term for winning 1-0 in a game where you should be winning based on chances and % possession?
Our defence has let us down badly
1-1 v newcastle
1-1 v burnely
3-3 v watford
but then you might say a more clinical attack as you allude to would cover this up.
if we say ok... add 4 points from that lot back and suddenly on 20 points beside the "awesome" spurs.
Now.. we can admit we are not up to the top clubs cos we got handed our heads as they punished us when we messed up (lovern v spurs, mane v city) but it really is fine margins and i think no small amount of belief that's the issue.
4 points...... 3rd v 6th. manager under pressure, manager being lauded as great.
We just need to make more out of these positions and get the results.
posted on 3/11/17
Also Watford we did get done by the ref not just the defence as their equaliser was offside.
We also arguably should have pens against Utd and Burnley (probably would have missed them mind in recent form )
As you say, it’s fine margins.
I’m relieved with how we have bounced back from Spurs though. Sure the opposition have been kind but we have had two comfortable wins with few moments of panic. When have had bad runs before under previous managers there hasn’t been much comfortable going on. That makes me think that the City and Spurs games are aberrations rather than a sign of things to come.
Watford is a bit of an outlier to that theory but I put that down to opening day which is notoriously difficult performance wise.
posted on 3/11/17
comment by selbstgerechtein (U7048)
posted 36 minutes ago
Also Watford we did get done by the ref not just the defence as their equaliser was offside.
We also arguably should have pens against Utd and Burnley (probably would have missed them mind in recent form)
As you say, it’s fine margins.
I’m relieved with how we have bounced back from Spurs though. Sure the opposition have been kind but we have had two comfortable wins with few moments of panic. When have had bad runs before under previous managers there hasn’t been much comfortable going on. That makes me think that the City and Spurs games are aberrations rather than a sign of things to come.
Watford is a bit of an outlier to that theory but I put that down to opening day which is notoriously difficult performance wise.
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The main worry for me is last year we topped the top 6 mini league. This year we are 1-1-2 so I think we will be 6 points down minimum there.
We need to improve v the bottom half and this west ham game is for me must win.
posted on 3/11/17
Yeah I’d agree with that.
A drop off in top 6 form was inevitable, but we need to improve against the rest to pick up the slack.
posted on 3/11/17
The main worry for me is last year we topped the top 6 mini league. This year we are 1-1-2 so I think we will be 6 points down minimum there.
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Yeah, that needs to be compensated by better results against the bottom-half teams (which, so far, I think we are achieving, just).
Not sure we're six points down on the top 6 mini-league, though. I think we drew at Spurs and City, last year, and at home to United, and beat Arsenal at home.
So we're a point down each on City and Spurs away = 2 points.
posted on 3/11/17
Yeah that’s correct.
We drew at home to Chelsea too, and Chelsea at home is our next big game.
Win that and we will be level with last seasons points from the same games.