It's like the Real Madrid - Atletico game - after the first goal went in - we packed it and basically went into cruise control. Pretty embarrassing.
our next 4 subs coning on, looks like the average age is 12. includes Duncan and the kid we signed yesterday.
Brewster nice turn and shot, blocked, a sign of life in the 89th minute. Wilson great shot, great save. Gomez good shot, another good save.
Indeed, no. This is pre-season and just an opportunity for us to overreact. We’ll probably lose to City but that’s not going to define our season.
This has been the preseason game in recent times where we hit form. We had some big wins over Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and last season Napoli. Today’s match was nothing like that. The last 30 minutes (when all the subs came on) was way better than the first 60. If Salah and Firmino aren’t available against City, I hope Klopp has a better solution up front than the front 3 we saw today. Ox is not great in the front 3, and we also miss what he offers in midfield. Allison will make a big difference at the back, but our defense needs to pull it together. That was our first choice back four and midfield and we were all over the place.
Everyone still sure Ox is going to "feel like a new signing?" Should we be concerned that our defense (consisting of mostly starters) has shipped in 10 goals since the Dortmund game?
I'll be worried if Liverpool doesn't lead Norwich 2-0 at the half. It's early days. Missing most of the attacking players puts a whole bleedin' lot of pressure on a defense.
today we had our CL Final starting back 4 -- who defended like a pub team. today we had a midfield 4 who started a ton of games together last year - and played like they'd never seen each other before. up front, Ox and Origi accomplished zero. zero. neither of them beat a defender even once and between them created not a single chance. Napoli were well organized, played neat quick football, cut us to pieces often and could quite easily have scored 5 or even more. we had no rhythm, no stability, no understanding. nothing. their goalie had literally - literally - eff-all to do until the last 3-4 minutes. the season starts in less than 2 weeks. worry? what's to worry about?
Yes, given he played a handul of minutes in the league last season and was unavailable to be picked for 98% of the season. The phrase used by Klopp is pretty common players out on loan or missing the previous season are often referred to in that manner. We have a very, vry good option we did not have last season, in effect like a new signing. In the opening 20 minutes he layed on a beaut thay Milner was not able to put away but the entire team was blindsided but the defence having a 'mare. We did. VVD and TAA returned to training much later than the rest of the squad and it shows, they are still focusing on their fitness. The travel back and fourth to US was not great for them getting back up to speed. We'd never really played this way before. At times it was a 4-4-2, 4-3-3 and 4-2-2-2. These guys may have played together before, but they've never player a competitive game with no Salah, Mane or Firminho. As such we had multiple times Ox backtracking like he was a deep midfielder instead of the attacker he was, we had Milner and Henderson constantly taking up similar areas of the pitch. It was a poor game, but this is what friendlies are, Klopp is getting ready for next week's City game. Well that is wrong.Milner should have scored from Ox's incredible through-ball. Origi did OK, but it is clear that he was playing in a 4-3-3 and the midfield players who were meant to be supporting were not clear on their roles. The summer tournaments and the US tour have took a toll to our preseason, it also has not helped that every decent team is more motivated beating the current Champions League holders than they normally would be in a friendly. I'm sure there would be a lot more confidence in our team if our last two games were against Kitchee SC and Yokohama, like City's were, but we instead have picked decent teams to play against for a start to the campaign.
Yep, I think the US tour has taken a bit of a toll on the squad . Rather than being an effective way to quickly achieve fitness for the squad the compressed nature of the tour ie three games in a week combined with the travel , times zones and horrendously hot weather has drained the energy from the players. They looked baffed out today , didn't press well , passed poorly , no tempo to the game etc .
As with every preseason Klopp's main focus is on fitness. He had the team doing multiple sessions the day before the US games and a session the morning of the games. That takes a lot out of a team. Add the heat and the travel and I'm not surprised the team is looking lethargic.
I think, with hindsight and not disparaging the USA-based fans (who probably felt a bit short-changed themselves, anyway) this is a tour we could have done without making. But these tours are arranged well in advance, I suppose.
Another factor is that everyone else’s season ended 3 weeks before ours. While Liverpool and Tottenham were preparing for the biggest game of their lives, a lot of our rivals were already on break. Those 3 weeks are a longer break than Mane is getting in total this summer. We also had 4 out of our 5 best players participating in major tournaments. I doubt the African Cup or Nations and Copa America has as great of an impact on any other club in Europe.