Doms Corner was perfectly floated and landed on Virgils Head. Absolute Clutch from the Hungarian Captain so far this Season. Wirtz looked pretty darn good too - his telepathy with Isak and Ekitike will blow up soon. Grav man of the match . Isak is absolute Gravy man - showed glimpses of his class too
We’ve been a little lucky, but this goes beyond luck. No matter how little time is left, and no matter what has happened before, this team still believes they are going to win. That belief is only going to grow the more times it happens. It must be so demoralizing to the opponents, and will serve us so well all season.
It was coming I had no doubt. I had meetings for the last 15min and then my Slack blew up. I’m with @Lemmyfaith my heart really can’t take this shit. Some say we’ve given away 2 goal leads. Others say we’re still mentality monsters.
We really should've put this game away early but it has to be exciting. Wirtz created quite a few chances. His best game to date, I think. I keep complaining that our corners need to go to Virg and not be played in front of the keeper... They're finally listening to me.
I think we were unlucky not to score more given the number of chances we spurned today. All told I'm actually quite pleased with the performance . The team showed real signs of beginning to click and for spells we were cooking.
I just want to pipe in here, that when Klopp took over we first saw the uptick in offensive production, but were also wildly open at the back at times. We then were able to tighten up at the back later, with a bit of a loss on our pointed offensive capability. I think if you are bedding in a new system - and new players - that you probably first see the offensive production. Only after you get the defensive positioning hammered into the DNA of the team do you see the defense become more stable. Probably this is because offense can be successful while also being sporadic. It just takes one decisive incursion to score. Defense relies on sustained positioning and no one making a wrong decision. What we clearly have, even if they aren’t hitting on all cylinders right now, is an incredibly talented set of offensive tools to hammer our opponents with. But even that is still clearly a work in progress…. This is likely only to improve as we move forward. The key will be to get our positioning and decision-making hammered out so that we don’t open ourselves up to comebacks so much. Is it great that we are relying upon individual efforts to win these games? Probably not. But keep in mind it’s always someone different who provides the winning goal. This points to a surfeit of game-changing talent in our team… As worrisome as our tendency to give up goals is right now, take heart that (with the right coaching) this is likely to subside. In the meantime, try to enjoy the rollercoaster, and look forward to just how powerful our offense is likely to be when we get all these individual parts working smoothly with one another!
I’d also like to point out that for large portions of this game Liverpool were running Athletico off the field. They literally had no ability to stop us from passing and moving wherever we wanted. We just didn’t take advantage of this to generate goals as well as we might have….
Ball was moving at speed, with a bounce off the turf. He did well to get over the ball, just got over it too much and it ended up going over the goal.
Atletico equalized with a lucky deflection out of nothing. Didn't really threaten us otherwise. We should have been 4-1 up by the time they equalized. Another game where pundits will be all over us, people will be talking about how lucky we are. But we've absolutely bossed every opponent we've had and have been let down some periods of lack of concentration.
Thing about the d is, yes the first goal today was very poor, but 2nd one was a great strike with an even better (or worse) deflection. D is looking better. Konate looking better, Virg and Alisson doing their normal thing. Once Kerkez is more plugged in, feeling good about the defense.
I disagree. He was quite good. The goal is fluky - he couldn't lunge at the player in the box - it really didn't seem dangerous - but instead a ball bounced luckily off Konate's back perfectly - and then Mac's deflection took the ball away from Alisson who had already stepped to save.
Yeah - it could have been played a little more in front of him, but conversely, he could have gone to groundwith a swinging strike to meet it. maybe easier for me to say that though as I'm about 5 inches shorter than the kid..... Salah's miss was worse, but as I pointed out about Nunez many times, these things happen with the frame of the goal - as many times it just becomes your guidance system.... nice game though overall. Good to see Salah more extensively involved.
and will continue to be...... that and a third rate Fernando Redondo and 2nd rate Juan Sebastian Veron
Devil's club strikes again!! Imagine if it was the opposite, imagine if we had played basically the same but only had 4 points in the league and started Europe with a home draw, having given up leads in three of the matches. The vultures would be out, the pundits would be going through their draft folders looking for the "Slot's not up for it" story they had ready at the start of last season and never got to use. But we're not, quite the opposite all of the new guys are having the time of their life and are dreaming of winning it all. What an awesome start.
Well I’d argue that Wirtz and Kerkez aren’t quite having the time of their lives, but I take your point. Everyone seems to be buying into the team effort, wherever that goes… If there is one thing I’m still a bit worried about… is what exactly is the identity of this team? Last year it was still Klopp’s team… Slot just niggled at the edges of that (made them a bit more patient, and solidified the defense). This year I’m not yet sure what I’m seeing. I do see a team which is extremely talented in ball control, and we’ve brought in a ton of attacking talent. But I haven’t yet seen exactly how they plan to enforce their style of play on the other team. That’s what I’m looking for going forward this year…
No argument with any of this. But Wirtz hasn't rally found a home in the offense yet as the players keep changing and positions rotating. Yesterday was the first game Mo has looked comfortable and involved and that's a good sign. Plus Isak looks like he's going to give us a presence up top - consistent scoring from our striker is something we've lacked. I've been surprised at our lack of dynamism in midfield so far this season, but have been putting it down to Sboz playing RB and Mac's slow return to fitness. Bradley coming back will mean someone will have to sit if Dom returns to his spot in MF. But who? Stay tuned, more adjustments by Slot to come.