Few words on 4-0 against LASK of Linz. Goals by Gakpo (2), Diaz and Salah (his 199th for Liverpool). Their fans were spectacular

Let’s dwell on the Fulham game - xG 2.7 to 1.5

Were Fulham difficult or did we make it easy for them? 1-1, 2-2, 2-3. Neil Atkinson said the game was defined by what Fulham did (4-3-2-1 without the ball, asymmetric with Paulinho, Jimenez and Wilson in different positions).

Trent was on, best Tsimikas performance (or did Fulham leave him alone)? Fulham attacked Virgil interestingly - he wasn’t have any of it - won 7 of 10 duels.

Lot of people seemed a little off (e.g. Darwin, Gravenberch, Szobozlai?). Kelleher? Diaz - did he lose his pace with the injury?

Great goals - favorite? ‘Where’s your famous atmosphere?’

Title winning teams win games like this? Surely depends on what happens next

Joel Matip ACL

Having read about their performance at Burnley, there was definitely something different here - snapping into tackles, very (overly) aggressive, press numbers are up, pass completion is 47% (didn’t want the ball).

Were we too passive last night - xG 1.80 to 0.80? Team set up not to concede?

Salah - the 200th goal preying on him?

Endo, Joe Gomez, Szobozlai better performance? Kelleher save.

Fouls around the goals? Trent’s response to you’re just a shit Kyle Walker.

2 points behind Arsenal, 4 points ahead of City and 7 points beyond 5th place

Team selection 

Jet lagged performances? Ali - ‘he needs to be stronger’, 4 missed passes

Overall reflections on the Reds

City goal - 1.3 xG is some defensive performance 

Trent (with his new boots), observations and performance - midfield excitement. 9 possessions recovered.

Our second half performance with Diaz and Gravenberch

A few words about the cheats - League One? The crowd?

No Jota or Alisson for the next few?

Doak against LASK? Chambers? Jones at right back? Endo to start a couple.

Less than 72 hours to Fulham, just over 72 till Sheffield United

Fulham and Sheffield United - the threat? 

Fulham did draw at Brighton but have looked a bit toothless overall. They play the Wolves tomorrow.

Sheffield United will be up for it. Did draw at Brighton, lucky to beat Wolves, but if we score early, they have shown that they will wilt. Face Burnley next.

Formations and predictions

Everton’s punishment

Chelsea sequence 4-1, 4-4, 1-4. Reece James record.

We can contend for this, can’t we? Kyle Walker - ‘not even close’

Arsenal and Villa win, United and Newcastle also, Spurs 3 loses in a row. 

xG - 1.5 to 1.5 on average. Liverpool’s post shot xG was over 3 (under 2 at Luton last week)

Brentford - coming off 3 wins, more center halves than a team really needs. Tierney - arrogant performance?

Our formation against the height and physicality

Fit and firing - VVD, Alisson, and Darwin

Stepping up - Joel, Diogo

In the spotlight - Endo and Kostas Tsimikas

Our home form seems to have gone unnoticed by the wider pundit community. Again it wasn’t on TV in the UK.

Reflections beyond the immediate - oh no, the wheels might be coming off

Looked very open in Toulouse, bearing in mind this was probably their game of the season (and maybe a few seasons). VVD not available

Luton - just don’t think we stepped up the pace at 30, which we did against Brentford.

Season so far - 12 games 27 points, good return compared to most seasons - 34 points from 12 in 2019-20 season being one outlier. Jurgen says let’s look at where we are in March/April. After City we have some very winnable games.

City next - haven’t won there since 2018, but Darwin and Mo have some good history against them. An imperious VVD and Allison Becker. Formation and prediction? Away form generally - giving up breaks and chances from set pieces.

Elsewhere - Spurs regression, Chelsea surprising? Arsenal haven’t been exceptional. Man Utd are not there

Luiz Diaz - libertad para papa

Bournemouth game was a battle with the elements

xG - 3.04 plays 0.81. We have 6 big chances to their 2. Also had 74% possession and were only given 7 fouls with 13 against.

Penalty shouts - VVD is dragged down from a corner - nothing given presumably because they don’t often give these unless you play for an oil state team (and then it’s nailed on). The handball, don’t love it but we’ve seen enough of them given,

Darwin looked dangerous, but in the end, he makes one of the chances he has, we win 3-1, 2-0 like we had discussed.

Dom wasn’t quite as on it as usual (midweek in the storm?). Mac Allister - had his moments. Is it worth discussing starting endo in PL matches. No Curtis:(

Gravenberch

Defense - VVD awesome as usual, Gomez at left back?

Subs? Good bad indifferent?

Carra. Do we agree with his assessment of us needing additional help? Is this a potential title winning season for us? (Lotta “experts” writing is off as a result of today’s match). Doesn’t it always look worse because of the cheats?

Toulouse 

Win and we’re in. 

Do we play the kids? Do we try to get the rhythm back? What mix/blend do we opt for 

Brentford next Sunday 

They have 2 wins in a row

What threat do we think they pose?

Predictions?

First weekend where the stratified didn’t play out the way we expected (Brentford, Villa, us). 

The fraud that is Mikel Arteta?

United are back - ha ha. Ten Hag. By the way Gary, 3 penalties in 10 years doesn’t suggest even handedness back then.

Luis Diaz

xG was at worst 2.95, with Forest 0.48. Most of that coming in the last 20 minutes when the game was pretty much won. Daz said 2-0, I said 3-1 - could have been either depending 

Virgil and those defensive numbers (they are good)

Mac Allister and of course Big Dom, and Ryan Gravenberch - this is cheating isn’t it? The interplay between midfield and forwards is unbelievable - looks like there’s been an elevation since the start of the season

Salah watch - 196th goal for Liverpool

Won all 39 games Jota has scored

Darwin - overhead kick at 41, his ceiling is so high - hit and miss said the commentators

Wasn’t the commentary shite?

First 30 - looked like we were looking to figure out the gaps in a really smart way (haven’t found it easy to break down Forest said the commentators)

Terrible error by Murillo they said for the first goal…. 

Claiming Darwin didn’t know much about his finish - yawn…

Team selection - strong (Salah, Szobozlai)

Weather - absolutely ridiculous 

Darwin - loved that they cheered when he didn’t get the ball first time. Goalie at fault?

Elliott - close control

Klopp’s smile, Cody Gakpo, 8 teams left and we got West Ham at home (I am sure they are thrilled)

Beyond plastic pitches and chaotic games (80s references). Xabi and the 5-3

Luton’s form - are they firmly part of the bottom strata?

Line up and predictions

United have lost 5 of their first 10 games and ETH says they are on their way up!

Spurs have a more difficult run coming up - let’s see what happens in the next 6 fixtures

We need a red card and a penalty to beat this lot - not great for a team with title ambitions OR solid win given the international break

The key decisions - which hardly feel like the 12 against 10 argument that we’ve heard. 

Interesting approach to Everton set pieces - 4 breaks in the first 20, could have picked better passes

Everton had an xG of 0.29, if we’d played the final third of the match with 10 (again) do we really think they would have offered much? We had over 2 and that doesn’t take account of most of the breakaways.

Also bizarre that the Guardian’s report decided to single out this game to talk about poor officiating.

Young - first player to get 2 yellows against us since 2015 (Sadio Mane) - are the Tomkins/Beesley messages about refereeing bias seeping out there? Penalties at Anfield, fouls on Salah, and now 2 yellows. 

Sean called out the liability that Young seems to have become and we talked about if he gets a yellow in the first 20 for the cynical foul he usually commits, it will limit his ability to foul. That bit wasn’t quite right, as the late challenge on Diaz wasn’t great.

Tsimikas should have had a yellow - to be fair, if Pawson had a better view of his 3rd foul it probably would have been a yellow. He just commits too many fouls.

Konate should have had 2 argued Toffee TV. I didn’t think the 2nd was a foul real time but on the replay it’s clear that Ibou clips Beto. The first yellow did seem a bit soft though (and one wonders whether the Jota 2 yellows and the admission that the first should not have been given, played into this decision).

The penalty is thrown in there as if it wasn’t absolutely blatant - but there were 2 non-calls that Marcus Rashford may have been given (one of which the TV didn’t even replay). 

Some bright performances - Gravenberch, Mac Allister and Szobozlai. Salah did not seem very sharp (but still has the most goal involvement in the Premier League), but Jota and Luis Diaz were bright at times. Darwin looked sharp when he came on.

Briefly on Toulouse:

 Weaker line up than against USG. Some great performances - Gravenberch, Jota, Endo

Definitely using these as training games - will be even more so for the next 3 you feel.

Forest 10am on Sunday (thanks to the UK clock changes) - what do we expect?

Forest have dropped points against Luton and Burnley. Won at Chelsea, lost at Man City - 3 straight draws.

Awoniyi has been out and they’ve had to rely on Chris Wood. They were potentially unlucky not to beat Luton (highest XG, most shots of their season).

Reds will have Gakpo back but not Curtis, Tsimikas will continue at left back we assume.

Strata beginning to develop - where are Forest? 

Predicted line up and scores

Bournemouth in the EFL Cup  - Europa League game

Only Mo Salah corner - 7 goals, 4 assists - 144 PL goals for Liverpool in 227 appearances - 195 altogether for Liverpool - well past King Kenny and Stevie G on the all time list. Billy Liddell with 228 in 4th spot is next.

Mane is 14th and Firmino 16th in that list.

13th time we’ve had this slot since Klopp arrived, nearest to us is 6. Actually does this just tell us that the Reds are really well supported in Asia and Oceania.

Everton had nobody traveling or did they? Pickford, Patterson, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Onana.

Andy Robbo injury - 10 weeks minimum James Pearce is reporting

Tsimikas…. Lacks a lot of things, can we compensate or should we be looking at Joe Gomez in the bigger games?

Jet lagged South Americans (they were on Liverpool’s video), Gakpo had one training session.

How did our boys do on the break - Darwin, VVD, Dom big contributions?

Jones suspension hurts - we have won every game he has been on the field

Biggest problem is the inability change things from the bench

Formation (especially in view of the training game on Thursday?)

Prediction

Next week Nottingham Forest on the Sunday - still no Jones but should have all 5 attackers available. Winnable games follow.

Referees in the UAE…. do they not care? 

Schedule difficulty increases for some - Chelsea-Arsenal; City-Brighton 

United's financial transactions

Let’s dive right in to the refereeing masterclass:

Jones red card (Kovacics)

Diaz goal that wasn’t - good process

Jota 2 yellows (Kovacics)

Hooper - refereed the game well said Max Rushden - beg to differ mate… Salah, Robertson cards 

Gakpo goal was well taken - tackle on him could be the worst of the game

11 v 11 thought we were controlling it and about to take over the game

11 v 10 - lost a bit of control at the start of the second half but then were asserting ourselves until

11 v 9 - did absolutely great. Unlucky to concede but obviously a feature of the way Hooper had affected the game.

Lots of fellas getting 45 minutes here - it was great to see Gravenberch, Salah, Diaz and Jota getting a nice run out.

Think we’d have had Endo for 90 if it hadn’t been for the Mac Allister meet up.

USG clearly a level below. Only question, will it take more than 3 games to lock up the group?

A word for their fans - really delightful 

First 20 seemed a conscious effort to conserve energy and not give too much away (having had some recent bad memories at this ground). The set up with Pascal Gross as a third in the backline was a challenge for a while.

Absence of 3 potential game changers really showed here. 

Commentators sure talked up Brighton. Didn't seem to me they created too much after 20, certainly not after 30. Felt like we started to get more of the second ball - almost got in a few minutes before we did - out of nothing they said. xG 2.2 to 2.5 (Understat). 2 attempts between 40 and 70 from Brighton.

The penalty - Gross literally drags him down and then acts horrified when the penalty is given. But Taylor is pointing to the second challenge.

More difficult game than Spurs I feel. Gravenberch chance was really big (53). Pressing was good in moments as was theirs. Gravenberch looks someone to be excited about. Andy Robbo seemed a little off, Gomes wasn’t great.  Atko though Diaz was terrible, felt that was harsh. The set up with Pascal Gross as a third in the backline was a challenge for a while.

Taylor gave them fouls aplenty - 20 actually. Yes, he rates positive on big decisions but he gives so many of the half fouls against us (including the one that led to their second goal), and I’ve lost count of the number of games where the Liverpool player gets the first yellow (usually for less than he’s let go).

xG Liverpool 3+, West Ham just over 1. Revisit predictions. Not a bad team,

We didn’t start particularly great again - Ali save (Szoboszlai foul), Antonio header.

Felt like after 20 minutes we had figured them out. Surprising approach from a Moyes team - more open and intentional. Although I think the Bowen goal is unexpected 

Salah penalty. He was awarded 3 fouls in the first half, apparently since 2017-18 he has been awarded 4 five times and he actually had 6 in the 7-0 against United. That’s 6 games in 5 years where he’s had more than 3 fouls in a Premier League game.

Darwin - goal every 141 minutes for us - Only Mo Salah at 134 minutes beats him in the current team. 

Salah ties Henry’s premier league record for goals in European competition at LASK.

Is the Mac Allister at 6 experiment/move one for all matches? Or just for use when we are expected to have the lion’s share of possession? Helluva ball for our second.

Second half, more like 2019-20. Controlled possession, West Ham had very few chances to get out, Antonio ends up being withdrawn. Screw was slowly turning from 50 through 70

Guardian weekly podcast devoted not very much time to Liverpool, but enough to observe defensive frailties. One pundit suggested we might be going under the radar. It’s weird. 

A word about LASK

Top of the championship, new coach. Could be tough with a rotated squad?

Quick line up thoughts and predictions

They’ve started well - some surprise that they’ve started so well without Kane.

 Maddison, Son, Brenan Johnson?

This will be a test for us, but potentially a bigger test for them. 

Team selection, predictions

Defense had a few bad moments OR was it overall a bad performance

Quansah had some good moments

‘Terrific stuff by Wolves’ said the commentator at 10 - once again it felt like a few moments. After 20, it felt mostly us to me.

Various attempts to have Gomez play the Trent role. Obviously wasn’t effective

Mac Allister - why did he play? I counted 7 giveaways. Card was super soft.

xG 0.54 to 2.83 (according to Understat). Didn’t include the Cuhna miss at 34 minutes.

Darwin is an absolute handful

Salah (leads the league in big chances created (6)), Szoboszlai, Matip and Gomez front foot defending kept Wolves penned in the second half.

Bad news for Everton - Burnley looked OK at Forest

Chelsea continues to look like a team of strangers (happy for it to continue)

Man United crisis - the backdrop shows an absence of ethical compass, the foreground shows a collection of mismatched players - Rashford and Fernandes are less effective at pressing than Weghorst, Ronaldo and Elanga.

Champions League first round just started - Europa League tomorrow and hopefully the road to Dublin - any takeaways?

League Cup against Leicester who are 2nd in the Championship and have only lost one game.

They have looked better this season than last - what does that tell us about Declan Rice?

Three wins, a draw at Bournemouth and a defeat against City. They’ve won at Brighton and Luton.

Less than 72 hours after LASK but not the biggest concern

Everyone available? 

Formation. 

Predictions?