Football News: Arsenal Vs Liverpool: A Liverpool perspective

Arsenal are the in form team at the minute, we are decidedly out of form, so this always promised to be a tough game. The result was not in anyway undeserved I think Arsenal, overall, played better, created better chances, and deservedly won. We had spells were we looked very good, but 10 minutes of positive play per half is rarely enough to win you football games. The fortunes of the teams look the polar opposite of what they were last season and, if we don't find a solution to this soon, we are going to be in serious trouble this season.

Arsenal

They looked like they had a clear idea in mind, were full of confidence, and were defensively solid, and that was the big difference. Gabriel but, in particular, Saliba made things difficult for us and stopped us having more attacking threat. Partey was excellent and constantly broke up play but in general they were aggressive in the press and that meant we were under pressure and it was pressure we did not handle well. Their movement and interchangeable nature of their front line made things tough for us and, when they hit on the break, always looked threatening. They were also helped out by a soft penalty, but it's hard to feel too hard done by because they deserved the win.

Liverpool

Alisson - Made a few very good saves second half and could not really be faulted for their goals. Not at his absolute best but certainly played well.

Tsimikas - Did not make any impact going forward, also did not defend that well. Saka was pretty lively all game and he struggled to deal with it. Positionally he seemed a bit all over the place, Robertson is missed.

TAA - was pilloried again but did not think he did much wrong. His distribution is below his usual standards but he was OK. Injury seemed to end his game early.

Van Dijk - another poor game, did not seem assured at all, was caught up the pitch for their second goal. The biggest issue is his calmness, which helps steady the backline, seems to have betrayed him. His relaxed attitude is also not helping us at the moment, he needs some fire in his belly.

Matip - all over the place at times just very unsure of himself. Distribution poor, defending haphazard, like most of the team looks off it.

Henderson - the mind is willing but the body is not what it was. He does not have the energy or intensity anymore and it means that his influence is reduced. I thought he was at fault for their second goal.

Thiago - he was constantly under pressure as they had a functioning press which meant he never got too much time on the ball. The teams poor play isn't helping but he can do much better.

Salah - incredibly poor like he has been all season. All hunger he seemed to have has dissipated.

Diaz - our best player until going off injured. Excellent work rate, asked questions of their defence, set up Nunez for his goal. Was a pity he had to go off as he was making lots of things happen.

Jota - for the first 30 minutes or so he did nothing. Literally nothing. He plays the number 10 role really poorly. When Diaz cane off and he was moved over to the left a significant improvement. Played a great ball in for Bobby but also had a lot of times when he gave the ball away. Hit and miss.

Nunez - superb first half tireless off the ball, great movement, scored a goal, kept them busy. Did fade second half, but a decent game.

Subs:

Firmino - got a goal, worked hard, typical Bobby performance. He is playing well though he and Nunez do not seem to have a good understanding (yet) .

Gomez - he did play well and, defensively, did look more solid, but we played more defensively second half for long periods, so he was not tested by counter attacks (like Trent) .

Fabinho - a few smooth passes but doesn't seem to be providing more cover for the defence, not great he really needs to up his game.

Konate - replaced Matip, looked nervy. What he has which Matip doesn't is size, he cannot be bullied. Needs games.

Elliott - came on late but didn't do anything noteworthy.

Klopp - there were big problems with his strategy in my opinion. Sitting back after scoring wasn't the correct choice: we did it twice and invited pressure we eventually succumbed to. Our seeming lack of crosses, which were once a staple of our play, is bizarre given we now have a real threat in Nunez. Playing 4 "attackers" who have seemingly no defensive obligations made our midfield very easy to bypass, it was not particularly successful. More generally there is no snap in our play, no pace, players look leggy and/ or disinterested, defensive organization is non-existent, Klopp has a lot of things to correct. We're playing now like we played in the first game of the season, it is a big concern. How to change it? I don't know.

Conclusions - a game which typifies our season: leaky defensively, decent in attack, but no real control over the game. I often felt last season that we'd just strangle games with possession, probing, and wearing teams down. We look mentally incapable of doing so right now so we need to either go all out attack, or become more defensive/ counter attacking. We cannot keep conceding first, conceding three goals a game, etc etc.

Liverpool's Problems

This hasn't been a good start, in fact it's been about as bad as I would of imagined. So what is going on? A few possibilities:

1) Salah's new contract has affected the dressing room - maybe other players are unhappy, maybe it's created a rift, maybe it's taken some of his hunger? I can only speculate, but something is different this season.

2) Key players, bad performances - all of our best players of the past few seasons have, this season, been poor. Salah, Fabinho, TAA, Van Dijk, all of them have been way below par and out of form. When all of your key players are out of form the team will inevitably suffer. Solution? Drop out of form players.

3) The midfield - it's been spoken about at great length but high quality options do appear to be at a premium. Injuries and form are making the situation look worse than it is but it is an area that needs adding to.

4) Squad age/ decline - this may be the biggest issue. We have a number of very important players whose best years are behind them. We are relying on them maintaining standards but, sooner or later, they will decline. Maybe it has already happened for some? Klopp's job is to identify this and adapt accordingly.

5) Burnout - last season was hugely demanding physically and mentally, players may not have recovered. The way they are playing does look like this but it's hard to say if it's the definitive reason.

6) World Cup - some have suggested that, as we have a strange WC time this year, that some players want to avoid injury and so are playing within themselves. It's possible but seems very unlikely, and you would expect to see this trend across the league (which we don't) .

It's been a few years of pure joy being a Liverpool fan, now we're going through a blip. I hope Klopp is given the time and support necessary to get us out of this. The manager and players are more than good enough, so surely it is just a matter of time. City next week - it might be the game that kick starts our season, we will see.

Written by Seano_ October 09 2022 20:32:25