Liverpool FC Forum

What I loved and hated at the same time last season was how we could end a game in the first half by absolutely destroying our opposition. Great thing to be capable of doing but we basically got to watch only one half. Like yesterday, I was absolutely bored out of my mind during the second half to be honest. Happy, but bored

However, while we were capable of blitzing other teams last season, we were also very capable of dropping silly points because we didn't know how to deny opponents from scoring. This season we've done exactly the opposite, sacrificing the high tempo and heavy metal football for a very compact defence and midfield, which has worked well so far. But looking at yesterday's game, we're obviously still capable of that high tempo football, it's as if we can turn it on or off at will. So now teams don't know what we're going to do, are we going to be compact and concentrate on not conceding, which we are very good at, or are we going to go straight at them and try to score as many as possible, which we are also very good at. That must be very scary for other teams, they just don't know what to expect.

Against City, I guarantee we'll see the exact opposite of today's game. We'll try to be more compact and concentrate more on not conceding than scoring. But considering we're obviously extremely good at both, we just can't know for sure what we'll do. And that's amazing.

Reg » Sun Dec 30, 2018 7:49 pm wrote:Interesting post Damjan, and good points. So in this particular scenaryagainst Citeh is the priority to deny them 3 points in the defending strategy you mention it to go for 3 points (what people call a six pointer)? Go for the goals hoping thoback four can stand firm. I see David SILVA opened the scoring today against Soton , he’s a key player to take out if the game on Thursday. Forcing a draw is better than losing... but if we play a negative game we might play into the hands of Guardiola...

Did you have a bit to drink there mate , your post is a bit all over the place.

I get what you're saying though. I'm not saying we play negative football a la Mourinho, we don't do that. When I say we play more defensively I basically mean we don't go all gung ho guns blazing at them, we play more compact and more cautious, pack the midfield with an extra player instead of having 4 attackers etc. For most teams that's just normal football playing. Parking the bus isn't our thing. Against City, I think we'll see the more balanced approach we've gone for for the most part of this season. The heavy metal football worked fine against Arsenal, and it was amazing how we could just switch it on after not seing it for the most part of this season, but we also left a lot of space for them to exploit and made plenty of mistakes. Arsenal were just not good enough to capitalise on them but I don't think we'll gamble on City being unable to do so. I don't think we'll be looking for a draw like you say, we'll still want to win, but I think we'll go there with thoughts that a draw would still be a pretty decent result.

Anyway, my main point was that our team is now capable of both; either play a more safe and compact game or go straight at them and try to score as many as possible. We are very good at both and that's a unique and powerful weapon.