Let's do this. Let's hope that our guys see the other results on the weekend and come out motivated to move up the table/consolidate our position with a definitive win.
I think all of our remaining games fall into that must win category. Quite the battle for top four now.
This will be a challenging fixture, mainly because Burnley would be satisfied with a draw and can play for that. The Clarets are conceding about 1.5 goals a game, but on the road, they have not won and only have two points from two draws, a scoreless tie against Sunderland and 1-1 against Hull. They had a convincing win against the Reds at Turf Moor earlier this season, and who can forget the FA Cup tie in 2005 on that goat pasture.
As Stilts said, their away form is nothing to write home about - they haven't shown much solidity when playing away from Turf Moor.
bizarre to say but true - a game vs Burnley is more of a test of our skills, character and tactics than the games against Arse or Spurs.
Without a doubt. These are the games we haven't been able to master tactically or psychologically. Gonna be a real test of how far we've come.
should be the same team as Arsenal - but a few people have made the shout that against this bus parking lot maybe add in a Moreno and/or Origi - because they aren't going to need to be counterpressed as they will happily let us have the ball. The Moreno shout seems to be coming from the idea that his pace can help us as well as keeping width, and Origi can be the battering ram/target that Arsenal and Chelski do with Giroud and Costa (and Man U with Ibra) against these types of teams. I don't buy the Moreno idea personally - but Origi in place of Firmino may be something that works. Who knows.
Any time Moreno's name gets mentioned as a solution, you know people are desperate. We need a rerun of this...
It's a bizarro situation, Liverpool outplay the better sides yet somehow crumble v the lesser teams.....surely it's a matter if time before Klopp gets it right on both ends
It's true that we've stumbled in some games v lesser sides but during the first half of the season we rolled over the vast majority of them without much trouble eg Leicester 4-1, Hull 5-1,Palace 4-2, Watford 6-1. While we've proven we do know how to beat them and we've also shown that we tend to struggle often whenever our best players do not start. Without Mane,Matip,Coutinho and Hendo for much of Jan we looked disjointed and woeful at times. However,we should be close to full strength this weekend , able to start all of our important attacking six and I think we'll be too much for Burnley.
The 4-1 v Leicester was an open game as I recall with The Foxes playing pretty average.....the palace game was another open game with both sides creating chances and the Watford game was one way traffic.....none of those three sides were defending from the front in a double decker formation With a full strength side, the team will be better no doubt and key players will always be missed
for me i think our struggles against the bottom are attitude. against the top 6, we come out with a higher intensity looking to score early. against the bottom, there is less urgency, and emphasis on patient probing, eventually get one and then we'll get a few -- which does work and worked in the first half of the season - burnley away aside. what has happened in second half of the season is that in the midst of the patient probing, we get hit by a cheap goal on the counter, a keeper mistake, a set piece goal and then we panic and get too urgent and then start making mistakes all over the pitch. long shots, etc. i feel like we need a steady but harsh pace right off the bat -- not necessarily the brendan rodgers blitzkrieg that leads to a burnout.
While I agree with most of this, I find that the first half "patient probing" play is frustrated by packed-in defenses, leading to rash decisions, regardless of scoreline. Missing key pieces -- Can instead of Hendo, for example -- passing lacks finesse. Your comment about attitude is on point. I think players fall into the "here we go again" trap.
The defeat back in August was a very strange game. Burnley created three low-quality chances and managed to score two goals. We created 26 low-quality chances and didn’t convert any of them. Anyway, Dyche was an absolute bell-end after that match, so I hope we humiliate him today. I agree that these Moreno rumours seem counter-intuitive – pace tends to be less effective against teams that are happy to sit back all day, as there’s unlikely to be much space for quick players to run into. Indeed. If Moreno's the answer, people are probably asking the wrong question.
Shame about Moreno really. When he first came on showed how quick he was and scored that great goal I thought " this is the guy" but then he started showing lack of judgement. Staying up to far, relying on his speed to get back and defend. Often gettin on the wrong side of an attacker and fouling. He makes an interesting sub at times but he still scares me. I thought Klopp would have been able to control him and use that speed. But he isn't changing.
Mingolet Clyne Matip Klavan Milner Can Lallana Wijnaldum Mane Origi Coutinho Subs: Karius, Moreno, Lucas, Gomez, Arnold, Woodburn, Wilson No surprises. Nice to see another youngster, Harry Wilson, make the bench. Hopefully we can get a lead so they he has a chance to make his debut. Not much on the bench to change the game if it's not going our way.