Liverpool (A) - Pre Match Thread

[Damanino]

Worst is the 2 weeks international break after this game if we lose tomorrow. I hate that thought.

But I cant see how we gonna win given their form and our away record there. Letting them 9 points away would be criminal tho, so worst case has to be a draw for us tomorrow. Nobody really stands up to them so they wont lose odd points this season.

Problem is I cant trust this defence we have, high up the pitch loss of ball would immediately cause easy chances for Pool with the speed of Firmino, Mane , Salah.
Other problem is in the air, with all the crosses, corners free kicks they cross in, wijnaldum, firmino, Mane, Van Dijk, Fabinho all very good in the air, Robertson, Alexander Arnold Milner making great crosses...

We cant have only a slow Gundogan playing front of the defence not in this game.

 

[kippaxwarrior]

For me there are 2 critical things we must do to win.

First is to not concede in the first 25 minutes. We know the crowd will be rabid so the longer they take to score the quieter they will become and the more anxious they get. That rubs off on the players.

The second is nullify their fullbacks as that's the biggest threat they have. That's why I think Pep will go with Sterling and Bernardo out wide as they have the most energy as they will have to press constantly. That will force Liverpool to play the long ball as they know they can't play though the middle as our midfield is much better than theirs.

Do that and we can control the game and turn the screw. They will start getting desperate and we have the quality to pick them off.

I also hope Bravo has the game of his life to shut up the doomsayers.

3-1 City

 

[come-on-barney]

Last 3 meetings? Are you for real? You will rather have a small sample size than one with broad perspective? That's a weak rebuttal. Try again, this time take your time.

[/QUOTE]

you are a ‘slippy’ fellow

 

[Craig]

Bravo
Walker
Stones
Otter
Mendy
Ferdy
Gungo
Kev
Berny
Aguero
Sterling

If sterling, berny and the fullbacks can keep taa and roberson pushed back the scouser only other tactic is hoofing it over the top.

Keep mane off the the ball (and off the floor) we should be able to get something

Frightening playing Utter against them.

 

[Fordyboy46]

Bravo
Walker
Stones
Ferna
Mendy

Gundo
KDB Bernardo

Marhez Sterling
Aguero

think that’s what he will go for

Most probably, but I'd still rather see Foden in for Gundogan, Otamendi for Mahrez.

 

[stonerblue]

For me there are 2 critical things we must do to win.

First is to not concede in the first 25 minutes. We know the crowd will be rabid so the longer they take to score the quieter they will become and the more anxious they get. That rubs off on the players.

The second is nullify their fullbacks as that's the biggest threat they have. That's why I think Pep will go with Sterling and Bernardo out wide as they have the most energy as they will have to press constantly. That will force Liverpool to play the long ball as they know they can't play though the middle as our midfield is much better than theirs.

Do that and we can control the game and turn the screw. They will start getting desperate and we have the quality to pick them off.

I also hope Bravo has the game of his life to shut up the doomsayers.

3-1 City

Yep, full backs and wingers are the key. Arnold and Robertson do a hell of a lot for Liverpool. We need them kept back in their own half. Sterling and Bernardo will need to put big shifts in.

 

[urban genie]

Frightening playing Utter against them.

Aye tbf we can play ferdy at he back and add an extra attacker (foden for me) to push them back also would be tempted to go three at the back and play mendy and cancelo as wing backs and both stikers up front

3-5-2
Bravo
Walker
Ferdy
Stones
Cancelo
Mendy
Gundo
Kev
Berny
Aguero
Jesus/sterling

 

[hammocity]

Aye tbf we can play ferdy at he back and add an extra attacker (foden for me) to push them back also would be tempted to go three at the back and play mendy and cancelo as wing backs and both stikers up front

3-5-2
Bravo
Walker
Ferdy
Stones
Cancelo
Mendy
Gundo
Kev
Berny
Aguero
Jesus/sterling

Like the team but for added control in midfield I’d leave Sterling (think this fixture gets to him) and Jesus on the bench and put Foden in there. It’s still a fluid attacking formation but we could dominate possession.

 

[Craig]

Aye tbf we can play ferdy at he back and add an extra attacker (foden for me) to push them back also would be tempted to go three at the back and play mendy and cancelo as wing backs and both stikers up front

3-5-2
Bravo
Walker
Ferdy
Stones
Cancelo
Mendy
Gundo
Kev
Berny
Aguero
Jesus/sterling

Agree, under the circumstances I think 352 is our best option for this one. It's a way of getting Walker closer to their front 3 to give us some much needed pace. Also Sterling never really stays wide on the left anymore and if he had to because of Arnold he'd be wasted as he rarely takes anyone on from there. Play him centrally with license to drift and get running at them. The scum played 352 against Liverpool and despite them being absolutely shite the tactic worked well for them.

 

[CC1]

So he didnt get the man. What happens if the guy didnt dive?

Bravo is on the floor 40 yards from goal with a striker clean through.

And you think that's not a fuck up! Unbelievable.

Dive/no dive, contact/no contact he has fucked up.

Get a life

 

[Bill the Blue]

Look at the Rags team that were 5 minutes from beating the Dippers, can anyone name 3 or 4 Sheff U players off the top of their head?

They we're unlucky not to beat them, never mind take a point off them..

No disrespect to Sheff U (the rags can get fcuked!), the team Pep puts out will contain much better players, all more than capable of putting in a performance and winning this game!!

Late penalises against Leicester and Spuds and an even later winner against Villa which came about by lumping the ball in the area and hoping for the luck of the bounce...

Fcuk me, the Dippers are not unbeatable, they've been shaky as fcuk for weeks...

Whatever team we put out it will contain players with a winning mentality.

They will know what's at stake and whatever the result, will not let any of us down..!

There's every chance at the end of the game that we could be 3 points behind with a better goal difference, the Dippers having to come to ours and us still have a further 25 other games to play..

I heard Bingo saying that they have to be brave on the ball, we're f'kin brave every game...

You can smell their fear..!

 

[Withnail]

Like last year's game at Anfield, I hope Pep has a plan to frustrate them. It will be interesting to see if the Scousers throw everything at us and go all out for the win, after reading Klopp's comments it sounds like they may adopt this approach and that will possibly leave opportunies on the counter attack for us to exploit. We must not concede an early goal and if somehow we can get to half time level or only 1 down we still have a chance.

Not confident at all, but the Dippers performances recently have not been great and let's hope this continues tomorrow.

 

[urban genie]

Not arsed if a scouse twat want to come on here trying to get a rise, that is football rivalry
He is still a bellend though ;-)

We need to not act like them and get precious over the wankers and what they do fuck em, we are the best team in the country, holders of the three domestic trophies and it's november, even if we lose, we will be chasing them down and winning the league.

This fella has it right

 

[domalino]

Get a life

Fucking amazing how people cant just say, "yeah he fucked up, gubdo put him in a tough situation, hopefully he wont do anything like that tomorrow"


Instead you have to do incredible mental gymnastics to excuse him of all blame and then if that fails, resort to insults.

 

[Easy]

Would love to see Foden but can’t see it happening.

My preferred front 6:

Jesus.....Aguero.....Sterling
...Bernardo....De bruyne
.........Gundogan

Jesus and Sterling are our best wingers defensively. Like Mahrez but he has been hit or miss lately so wouldn’t risk starting him.

 

[blueinsa]

Not arsed if a scouse twat want to come on here trying to get a rise, that is football rivalry
He is still a bellend though ;-)

We need to not act like them and get precious over the wankers and what they do fuck em, we are the best team in the country, holders of the three domestic trophies and it's november, even if we lose, we will be chasing them down and winning the league.

This fella has it right

No mate, he doesnt have it right at all.

Imagine for one fucking second Liverpool getting greeted like this at an away ground and the sheer fucking outrage that would pour from it with demands of point deductions, bans for fans etc etc.

They are a fucking cult, hell bent on creating yet another hostile reception for the team on the bus and it will yet again lead to similar scenes of the bus getting bottled as they attempt to paint themselves as some sort of Ultra fanbase, the English Galatasary.

Not a single lesson has been learnt or even listened to by them, their club and Merseyside police, not one.

 

[domalino]

I wonder if the Bravo/Ederson change will make Pep alter his other selections.

Bravo is much weaker at coming for crosses and Liverpools main form of attack is crossing from the fullbacks.

That forced change might make Pep play Otamendi next to Stones for his aerial ability or switch to a 3 to just increase the number of bodies there to help out. If he comes at it from another angle, he could go even more attacking on the flanks to push back Robert's and Alexander-Arnold even more and try and take the crossing out of the game.

I think Eddie's injury is probably the most disruptive one yet in terms of needing to change our style as a result.

 

[mosssideblue]

Fucking amazing how people cant just say, "yeah he fucked up, gubdo put him in a tough situation, hopefully he wont do anything like that tomorrow"


Instead you have to do incredible mental gymnastics to excuse him of all blame and then if that fails, resort to insults.

That's easy Dom, because in the eyes of the majority, he didn't, its only the minority, including yourself who are hellbent on trying to convince others he did

 

[alexmcity]

Look at the Rags team that were 5 minutes from beating the Dippers, can anyone name 3 or 4 Sheff U players off the top of their head?

They we're unlucky not to beat them, never mind take a point off them..

No disrespect to Sheff U (the rags can get fcuked!), the team Pep puts out will contain much better players, all more than capable of putting in a performance and winning this game!!

Late penalises against Leicester and Spuds and an even later winner against Villa which came about by lumping the ball in the area and hoping for the luck of the bounce...

Fcuk me, the Dippers are not unbeatable, they've been shaky as fcuk for weeks...

Whatever team we put out it will contain players with a winning mentality.

They will know what's at stake and whatever the result, will not let any of us down..!

There's every chance at the end of the game that we could be 3 points behind with a better goal difference, the Dippers having to come to ours and us still have a further 25 other games to play..

I heard Bingo saying that they have to be brave on the ball, we're f'kin brave every game...

You can smell their fear..!

While I'm optimistic and believe strongly in this team (I think we will have a great season even if we lose badly tomorrow), comparisons with other games and teams is generally pointless. Those games were away from home, not at Anfield, and were far from being as important as this one. Liverpool, with the help of the crowd, will be much more up for it than they were against other teams at their grounds. At the same time, we will be up for it as well and we have the players to hurt them: a front 4 of Kevin, Bernie, Raz and Kun/Gabby is something which most teams can only dream of. Pep has analysed Liverpool for a long time and will hopefully come up with good tactical solutions. We know how they are going to play. They don't know the system Pep will use this time around: whether we are going to press them in their half or defend deeper and counter attack them.

 

[domalino]

That's easy Dom, because in the eyes of the majority, he didn't, its only the minority, including yourself who are hellbent on trying to convince others he did

It's not a debatable thing, he made a mistake.

He came out and didnt get the ball. Either he fouled the guy and it's a red card or he didnt and he just slapped the ball away from a goalscoring opportunity and it's a red card.

To quote Pep yesterday. "Its a team game and sometimes you make a mistake".

Pretending the mistake didnt happen doesnt make it true.