Liverpool FC Forum

Well we made that harder than it should have been at the end but we did our job in the first half. Didn't expect Pep to do us a favor by selecting such a weak team, but I guess he didn't want to risk his advantage in the league, had to rest players somewhere.

Anyway, top performances by Mane, Thiago, Diaz and Konate with his third goal in a row. I was surprised to hear that Konate's goal was our 16th goal from a corner (or was it set piece?) this season. I felt we were quite poor at scoring from corners until 2 or 3 months ago, must have improved drastically recently.

City can't complain, we simply outplayed and out hustled them in the first half then denied them the ball for most of the second half. Great performance from Thiago, Sadio and Konate, Mo again looked suspect. Well done Reds. I see United let Norwich put a couple past them......

Klopp is the first manager to beat Pep 10 times.

Well done REDMEN onto the final, great first half performance, could've easily won that by a bigger margin. Thought we had some great performances in Konate, 3 consecutive goal. Thiago played well and Keita gave us the drive which we certainly needed.
Mo needs a goal, I hope his saving his goals for the rest of the campaign, he just looks off, his finishing is not crispy. The usual Mo would've bagged a couple today.

Final will be interesting, hoping Palace somehow beat Chelsea. Any team on their day can raise their game however, Chelsea have got quality that can't be ignored. They just about came short against Real and in the league cup final they carved us open at times with will. 

So up next United, going to be very tricky as they have two motivators now, aiming for UCL spot and always trying to stop us from glory. We ain't got any easy run in, teams we face have got their own objectives also, Spurs UCL spot, Everton survival. IF we win all of our remaining games in EPL it will be an amazing effort.

Eagle » Sat Apr 16, 2022 5:57 pm wrote:

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Sat Apr 16, 2022 4:52 pm wrote:

devaney » Sat Apr 16, 2022 4:43 pm wrote:Yakka apart from a few minutes at the end I think we did beat them quite easily. Brilliant first half performance. Sadio, Thiago and Fab excelled.Wonderful to beat webuyanytrophies.com   

Not sure about that mate, the second half felt pretty nervy for me pretty much from the moment they got their first.
Thought Keita was one of our best players and I thought we lost something when he went off.

Keita is quietly having a very good season as a squad player. Generally playing well when he starts and a couple of stand out performances in big games against Utd away, League Cup final against Chelsea, Benfica away, and today.

I like the trio of Keita, Thiago and Fab, great balance and they work cohesively well.

Why has Keita suddenly started playing? 3 years of shlte and the last 4 games he puts in a proper shift - then he leaves.

Eagle » Sat Apr 16, 2022 4:48 pm wrote:Thiago and Keita ran that game from midfield. Mane and Diaz were great up top. Another trip to Wembley!

Yes Keita has more thrust than Hendo But Hendo coming on when we have a lead is not such a bad strategy

As for Mo…. Pep put Cancelo on the right this time instead of his usual left even though he had Mo in his pocket at the Etihad. Tells me Pep was more worried about Diaz than Mo, it’s like he didn’t want to waste his best fullback on Salah, he probably knew that Mo could have been handled by his second string full back which he was. Imagine, one of the best left backs plays out of position even though the top scorer in the PL is playing on his side. I hope Mo noticed that Pep was not worried about him on his current form.

Since the AFCON Mane came back with some real bite but Mo came back half the player he was. Yet if the rumors are to be believed we are negotiating with Salah for a new contract but not negotiating with Mane.

To be fair to Mo he was having a phenomenal season up until the AFCON and players do go in and out of form, that's part of football.
All the speculation about his future plus other peripheral stuff like Egypt losing the AFCON final and then failing to qualify for the first world cup held in the Middle East has probably been weighing heavily on his mind.
ATM you sense he is almost trying too hard to make something happen, he is snatching at things and getting frustrated with himself instead of just relaxing, going with the flow and playing his natural game.
He just needs a goal or two to lift his confidence.

Diaz was fouled every time he got the ball, none of the officials protected the lad. What a player though, Pep moved Cancelo from Wednesday's left side marking Mo to the right sto mark Diaz.

The ‘Under strength’ City starting XI cost around £30m more than Liverpool’s starting eleven.   

To be fair Canelo is naturally a Right back played at left back to accommodate Walker. Walker got injured Wednesday so Cancelo went back to right back and Zivchenko came in at Left back which is his natural position.

I don't think Pep tactically did it... it was forced upon him.


We played well first half and got the job done.. we coasted the second half and let them do all the running. Just a brilliant performance and everyone is still fit to go ready on Tuesday.


City had a tough game and were forced to make changes... I kinda felt Pep prioritised the League game on weds over the Semi final as he could have ended up losing both if not being smart with his line up.

And Fernandinho should have seen red, he had 3 bookable challenges.

Reg » Sat Apr 16, 2022 10:59 pm wrote:Why has Keita suddenly started playing? 3 years of shlte and the last 4 games he puts in a proper shift - then he leaves.

His contract is nearing to an end and he needs a new one, either here or somewhere else. Once he gets it he'll likely be back to his old self. Lallana did pretty much the same a few years ago.

I agree with the comment above me, I don't think that Pep switched fullbacks because of us, he did it because he had to. That's his usual tactic when Walker is out, he switches Cancelo to the right.

So Chelsea it is then, 2-0 victors over Palace.

This may be Chelsea’s last trophy for a while so we should expect kamakazi type motivation, they probably want to give their ex sugar daddy a parting gift, especially against us. They still sing the Gerrard slip song as if it’s some kind of victory. If they stopped us winning the quadruple they will probably come up with another song.

History beckons! It could be we end up playing the best Caraboa cup team in City, the ultimate FA cup team in Chelsea, the most prolific CL team in Real and beat the best PL team in City. If we can do it, it would be done the hard way and worthy of the record books.