Lallana in Pyjamas » Thu Jan 03, 2019 11:13 pm wrote:As you appear to be struggling it was the Napoli game when they played together
As per normal you put blinkers on and focus on one area of fault -Milner shouldn’t have played but you could see why Klopp would go to him for this game
But other players on the park were way below their standard -Lovren , Mo , Gini , Mane and Firmino were very poor , we are away to City , it’s going to be tight and when they have the chance to get on the ball they need to ensure it’s meaningful - when they did we create chances but it wasn’t enough
It shows how far we have gone though - that was a very tight game , stats show it tight and on balance of chances we maybe shaded it
But we are still top we plenty games left to go yet
The front 3 were poor because they were so isolated, they were having to chase hopeful punts upfield for most of the night. Lovren was poor too but he was put under pressure by Trent who couldn't handle Sane at all. Just about the only players who emerged from the game with any credit were VVD and Robertson. Our midfield wasn't just poor it was garbage.
The game was lost the moment Jurgen handed the team sheets in, I can understand why he tried to play it cautious but it was never going to work against a City side who were always going to throw the kitchen sink at us, as far as they were concerned the league was on the line last night.
We have a decent record against City over the last 10 years but all our good performances against them have come in games where we have had a right go and put them on the back foot, by trying to play it conservative Jurgen played right into their hands. I wouldn't mind but they had a makeshift back 4 who had never played together before.
What's done is done and we can't change anything now, we are still in a good position, we are 4 points clear and we don't have to play City (or Arsenal) again. City can't stop us winning the title, they need other teams to do them a favour, it's out of their hands.
I'd like to see us sign a quality CM this month, it could be the difference between us winning and losing the title.