Has Richarlison come out and said that Diego Costa is his idol or should we just understand it based on how he plays? Milner’s foul was never a yellow, but his scream and knee grab drew it from Dean’s pocket.
The least he could do is grab the right body part. On that last one, he grabbed the knee instead of the fouled ankle.Has Richarlison come out and said that Diego Costa is his idol or should we just understand it based on how he plays? Milner’s foul was never a yellow, but his scream and knee grab drew it from Dean’s pocket.
At least Mane went down clutching the correct body part. Am I doing this right?Not sure how Mike Dean's seen that as a foul on Digne, seemed like a pretty perfect sliding challenge on Mane
Nope.Didn't feel like a derby. That's all I got.
Granted and there will always be one or two over 90’ right? but for the rest of the match he shut down the best attacker in the pitch.Ignoring Mane’s nutmeg turn on Coleman already? That was so filthy it would have put Mane in prison in most countries.
All it takes is one... Just lucky his one or two misses didn’t end up in the back of the net. Most outlets rated Mane pretty highly, right behind Keita. I don’t think Coleman shut him down in any sense.Granted and there will always be one or two over 90’ right? but for the rest of the match he shut down the best attacker in the pitch.
One nitpick - Liverpool would have been better off playing with 10 than bringing Lovren on.Nope.
If the same game happens with the Goodison crowd there Everton wins.
Of course if it's not a COVID-circumstances game Klopp doesn't have enough subs to bring in Lovren, which put us in control of the game.
Coleman hands down MOTM.
View attachment 31988
Davies almost scored the winner; Gomes did well to deflect it onto the post.
I'm a Davies fanboy, wanting him to come good but he hasn't yet. To be fair, he's been jerked around by Martinez/Koeman/Allardyce/Silva and has never had a settled midfield role and set of teammates. His performance today encapsulated the fan debate. I thought he got forward better and played good through balls better than anyone else in Everton's midfield (not saying much, Gomes and Iwobi were awful and the kid Gordon did OK in his first start but couldn't be relied on for much). He stayed disciplined in his center-mid position and while Liverpool had more of the ball, especially from 45' - 70' or so, they didn't get through him much. The knock on Davies is he loses the ball too much but he kept it today. But the fan reaction on the boards ranged from rating him 4/10 to MOTM. The latter might be a bit much but he was there with Coleman and Holgate as Everton's best on the pitch IMO.
That's where I was.One nitpick - Liverpool would have been better off playing with 10 than bringing Lovren on.
More seriously, it would have been makeshift, but they have played 3 at the back a few times under Klopp. Bring on Salah for Matip, play Fabinho-VVD-Gomez in the back, and go all out for a goal. Would have been something.
I agree with all of this.That's where I was.
A recurring theme that I didn't see coming was that the five subs appear to be more of a hindrance than a help. I had absolutely no appreciation for the importance of continuity within a match, but we're seeing evidence of it in all of the leagues as they adapt to the new availability. You can't change out half of your outfield players and have a cohesive gameplan. Liverpool have a ton of talent, but they don't have a ton of interchangeability. Players were asked to step into roles that they either couldn't plug or forced a change in tactics that didn't organically trickle down to the rest of the side.
I think Klopp watched the matches ahead of his and developed a strategy based on his side's health, the seeming fitness issues league wide, and his additional subs. It backfired spectacularly. Salah had some sort of knock, but could clearly go a short time. He was plugged in as the match-ending super sub for a late goal. As you stated, the Matip swap to Lovren was just wrong. Lovren is past any potential usefulness. Klopp needed a goal. Salah had to come on, regardless. Fabinho and Henderson could shield a back three of VVD, TAA, and Gomez. Any one of those three would have dealt far better with Diego Richarlison.
Looking at the individual subs...
Milner had to be swapped when his hamstring went pop. No issue there.
Ox for Minamino made a lot of sense. They fill a similar role, though Ox was more advanced than I would have expected. Minamino was absolutely dreadful- no fathomable clue how he made the starting eleven. He couldn't get the ball out of his feet, he took ages to do anything (the long windup for a blocked shot from a great area sticks in my head), and he couldn't pick the right pass or place. He absolutely took goat of the match for me.
Taking Keita off for Gini hurt my soul. Wijnaldum absolutely needed to come on, but Keita has been rightly rated as MOTM in his 65 minutes. I have no clue why you'd take him off. This disrupted Liverpool more than anything else Klopp did. I think Gini had to come on for a completely rusted-over Firmino, then move Keita to a slightly more advanced role. This does lead into...
Origi for Firmino. Bobby had to come off. His style is going to decay more than most- he relies on quickness that he clearly couldn't get in training. Losing Keita and Firmino at the same time, however, left a gap at in front of Fabinho that they never figured out. This is the strongest evidence to me that the additional subs left Klopp scratching his head. If he'd had only three available, I think Ox starts and Gini replaces Firmino at 65'.
Lovren for Matip was just realtime stupid. Nobody liked this at the time given the situation. If you want three points, Salah has to come on here. In fact, if you want a single point, Salah has to come on. Lovren is just too much of a liability. It was said tongue in cheek, but LFC are a better side if there are four subs and they play with 10.
agree with most of this .. I don’t think Minamino was all that bad .. certainly not great though. I think the two injury subs .. Milner and then Matip scuppered any advanced plan to bring on a fresh Salah. What Klopp sees in Lovren is beyond me .. and Rodgers before him for that matter.That's where I was.
A recurring theme that I didn't see coming was that the five subs appear to be more of a hindrance than a help. I had absolutely no appreciation for the importance of continuity within a match, but we're seeing evidence of it in all of the leagues as they adapt to the new availability. You can't change out half of your outfield players and have a cohesive gameplan. Liverpool have a ton of talent, but they don't have a ton of interchangeability. Players were asked to step into roles that they either couldn't plug or forced a change in tactics that didn't organically trickle down to the rest of the side.
I think Klopp watched the matches ahead of his and developed a strategy based on his side's health, the seeming fitness issues league wide, and his additional subs. It backfired spectacularly. Salah had some sort of knock, but could clearly go a short time. He was plugged in as the match-ending super sub for a late goal. As you stated, the Matip swap to Lovren was just wrong. Lovren is past any potential usefulness. Klopp needed a goal. Salah had to come on, regardless. Fabinho and Henderson could shield a back three of VVD, TAA, and Gomez. Any one of those three would have dealt far better with Diego Richarlison.
Looking at the individual subs...
Milner had to be swapped when his hamstring went pop. No issue there.
Ox for Minamino made a lot of sense. They fill a similar role, though Ox was more advanced than I would have expected. Minamino was absolutely dreadful- no fathomable clue how he made the starting eleven. He couldn't get the ball out of his feet, he took ages to do anything (the long windup for a blocked shot from a great area sticks in my head), and he couldn't pick the right pass or place. He absolutely took goat of the match for me.
Taking Keita off for Gini hurt my soul. Wijnaldum absolutely needed to come on, but Keita has been rightly rated as MOTM in his 65 minutes. I have no clue why you'd take him off. This disrupted Liverpool more than anything else Klopp did. I think Gini had to come on for a completely rusted-over Firmino, then move Keita to a slightly more advanced role. This does lead into...
Origi for Firmino. Bobby had to come off. His style is going to decay more than most- he relies on quickness that he clearly couldn't get in training. Losing Keita and Firmino at the same time, however, left a gap at in front of Fabinho that they never figured out. This is the strongest evidence to me that the additional subs left Klopp scratching his head. If he'd had only three available, I think Ox starts and Gini replaces Firmino at 65'.
Lovren for Matip was just realtime stupid. Nobody liked this at the time given the situation. If you want three points, Salah has to come on here. In fact, if you want a single point, Salah has to come on. Lovren is just too much of a liability. It was said tongue in cheek, but LFC are a better side if there are four subs and they play with 10.
We'll see what happens when the fixtures start to pile up. I wanted Everton to sub eariler just to match Pool's fresher legs (if I have one quibble with Carlo it's that he waits too long to sub IMO but then I am Internet Guy and he is Carlo). Everton's bench is so thin with all of our injuries that I'm worried about running the XI (such as it is) into the ground with a fixture every 3-4 days.I think the smarter managers should be planning their sub strategy in advance and preparing the tactical changes in training, Five subs is a major weapon if you use it right and the best managers should figure out how to take advantage of it.
It’s fair to say that I completely regret everything about this post.So I know I shouldn’t do this. I’ve deliberately avoided posting about Palace this year since saying I would have taken 17th place before the season started, because I was pretty sure they were going down. The last time I was this excited about them they were in like 5th place near Christmas under Pardew and we know what happened there.
They still have a bunch of tough games left. Liverpool next week, among others. Most are teams above them in the standings. That could be bad, but also allows them to catch teams ahead of them in 6-pointers. In the anything could happen world of Project Restart, could they have a chance at Europe? Especially if the Man City ban is upheld?
Please readjust my expectations, because between this and Union surviving the Bundesliga, I’m starting to actually be optimistic about this sport, and I know that is dumb dumb dumb.