[Klopp_De_Klown]

Loved everything about this game.

Yes it was only Derby and yes it was only the cup and yes we should have had 6.

But the feel-good factor was back. Smiles were back. They looked like they were having fun. Was it perfect, no but it was so much more positive than we have been in the last month and the air of expectancy of Lingards opener and not a bad goal form Lukaku either despite a bad pass from Martial behind him. I feel we are turning the corner we all need to get on board and build on the last few games and Jose bashing the media despite their best attempts to blame him on something he did not say at all. Its almost SAF esque and that makes me happy.

But for me Carson was MOTM. No point telling lies and he deserves the respect for a great performance from him.

 

[Pearl of Wisdom]

Of course there will be people calling all sorts of things but that does not negate the fact that he does clutter up space. He should never be coming inside like that always. He always does that. He gets in the way of our players. To me our players are too bunched up.
Cruijff used to say, the best way for my team mate to help me is to move away from me and at the same time take a defender away with him so that creates more space. It is basic. What Mata does is exactly the opposite. He gets inside and too close to our players and also that meant bringing a defender with him and clogging up that space that was empty before.

I agree with you with regards to our play being too compact. But where I disagree is how it is achieved. I dont think you can create space when there are 8 or 9 opposition players in and around the box. Its too late by then, running in the opposite direction will only draw a defender out of position if they are being man marked, otherwise most employ zonal marking. It is much more technical than basic football.
The space MUST be created before they get back by either really fast sprinting and passing with genuine accuracy, or like the way we used to play and that is long, medium and short range accurate passing and moving the ball constantly until you open up the opposition later in the game with tired legs.

I honestly think Jose knows all this and how to easily achieve it, but to me, a layperson, it looks like Jose is trying to instill a battling mentality by the way he sets the team up and the way the team has been playing, especially the dark period we just went through. Maybe this is because he knows it will take him longer to get a team that can compete with teams who are mastering this system already so he is developing this break up type of football for when we need to mix it up? Its not pretty, but its advantageous.

 

[Foxbatt]

I agree with you with regards to our play being too compact. But where I disagree is how it is achieved. I dont think you can create space when there are 8 or 9 opposition players in and around the box. Its too late by then, running in the opposite direction will only draw a defender out of position if they are being man marked, otherwise most employ zonal marking. It is much more technical than basic football.
The space MUST be created before they get back by either really fast sprinting and passing with genuine accuracy, or like the way we used to play and that is long, medium and short range accurate passing and moving the ball constantly until you open up the opposition later in the game with tired legs.

I honestly think Jose knows all this and how to easily achieve it, but to me, a layperson, it looks like Jose is trying to instill a battling mentality by the way he sets the team up and the way the team has been playing, especially the dark period we just went through. Maybe this is because he knows it will take him longer to get a team that can compete with teams who are mastering this system already so he is developing this break up type of football for when we need to mix it up? Its not pretty, but its advantageous.

Yes it is advantageous if is done by fast sprinting but Mata is not for the fast sprint. This is the problem with him. Any defender could have half the distance to him and yet beat him. Seriously if you look at his most of his movement are coming in from the right and cluttering an already congested area. If he stays wide then if he has a defender with him, it is one less in the congested area. If he does not have a defender then he has the time and space to put in decent crosses.

 

[Acole9]

Took a while but managed to get the goals to see us through. Hopefully we'll get a home draw in the next round.

 

[IRELANDUNITED]

I'm struggling to find the answer to this, does anyone know what weekend the FA cup 4th round ties are secluded to be played?

 

[Raw]

I'm struggling to find the answer to this, does anyone know what weekend the FA cup 4th round ties are secluded to be played?

27th January.

 

[IRELANDUNITED]

27th January.

Thank you

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

And Matić got a rest. @R'hllor

A very good performance without Matic and he gets about 2 weeks off in total? Well done Jose.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

You can tell the confidence is not completely there, and with a bit more luck could have scored one at least. If the team keeps playing like this, then we will see a lot of the players improve and show their ability, which is very good.

Sometimes you just have to be a bit patient.

Well put. He has been hammering the post lately. Kind of like Pogba last year.

He will just get and better. I love his shot.

 

[marlowe78]

Friday I think was a good reminder of what Blind offers as a CB. Since he's a good reader of the game and very good on the ball, his distribution kept pinning Derby back in their own third. Thought he was excellent going forward. Rojo and Bailly can only do this in moments, not as a constant like Blind can. Lindelof looks like he has the ability to do this but we haven't really seen it yet.

Also a great game from Herrera. It was against weak opposition but probably his best game in quite some time.

I can agree that Rashford had an off game, but calling him terrible? He made some poor decisions but he was also ridiculously unlucky, should have at least scored once. People seem to be forgetting that he's a 20-year-old kid who was leading the line for one of the biggest clubs in football yet didn't at all look nervous or afraid - actually, he seems to be a little too much of the opposite. People have wanted to get shot of Lingard over the past season and Rashford IMO has twice the attributes that Lingard does.

And Mkhitaryan depresses me. It's clear as day that he's a talented player. What has happened to him?

Seemed like a great atmosphere. Wish I was there.