{"id":1072,"date":"2017-10-17T21:38:09","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T21:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=1072"},"modified":"2017-10-17T21:38:09","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T21:38:09","slug":"maribor-0-liverpool-7-match-review-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/maribor-0-liverpool-7-match-review-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Maribor 0 &#8211; Liverpool 7: Match Review &#038; Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019d believed the press before the weekend\u2019s game against Manchester United you\u2019d think that Liverpool were in the relegation zone and that J\u00fcrgen Klopp had said he wanted to manage Everton. Never mind the press, actually, you might have believed that if you\u2019d read some of the Liverpool forums. The season hadn\u2019t got off to a flyer, yet by the end of the game against our old rivals we were level on points with Chelsea and just two behind Spurs, so it\u2019s hardly been a disaster. It seemed as though our entire season was being judged after seven games because we probably won\u2019t win the title.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Adam Lallana can&#8217;t return soon enough. We&#8217;re missing his breaks from deep, his pressing and mostly the goals\/assists he brings to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2bR0TSZUhB\">pic.twitter.com\/2bR0TSZUhB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 THE LFC POLL (@TheLFCPoll) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheLFCPoll\/status\/919932707551043585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 16, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s something that won\u2019t please most Liverpool fans, but we simply can\u2019t judge every season on whether or not we win the title. That\u2019s especially relevant considering that Manchester City look as though they\u2019re going to have it tied up by Christmas this time around. The Reds have been playing well all season long and the side\u2019s domination in every match, apart from at The Etihad, has meant that we wouldn\u2019t have been flattered if we\u2019d won them all bar the City game. What we\u2019ve needed more than anything else is a confidence boost, something to give us a shot in the arm and remind the forwards what it\u2019s like to score a goal. Step forward Maribor\u2026<\/p>\n<h2>This Was Exactly What We Needed<\/h2>\n<p>As I\u2019ve just said, we\u2019ve been dominant in every game bar against Manchester City so far this season. We\u2019ve had vast swathes of possession and put opposition sides on the back foot from pretty much the word go, but we\u2019ve also been lacklustre with our finishing and given away far too many easy chances at the back. The results haven\u2019t been reflecting our play and supporters have, somewhat inexplicably, bought into the press reports that we\u2019ve been a club entering a period of crisis. There always has to be one and, prior to Arsenal\u2019s loss to Watford at the weekend, it was us. J\u00fcrgen Klopp has been quick to point out that we\u2019ve only lost two games, one of which came after Sadio Man\u00e9 was sent off at The Etihad and the other was a makeshift team losing to Leicester in the League Cup.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Well in redmen!! Convincing win! Just what we needed! Carry that in to the weekend and hopefully we can build from there! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Michael Gates (@jakeeboforce) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jakeeboforce\/status\/920389099105767425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 17, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>If you watch the highlights but remove the goals, there\u2019s no way that you\u2019d believe that the Foxes knocked us out of the cup, such was the brilliance with which Liverpool played that night. Even so, the longer we kept missing chances at one end and giving them up at the other, the more the players would start to buy into the narrative that they weren\u2019t playing well. Thankfully, the manager has far more confidence in both his tactics and his players than some of the club\u2019s supporters do, so he\u2019s been happy enough to stick rather than twist. For those of us that are able to take a step back from the anger at the results, that decision is an obvious one for the manager to make. After all, we\u2019ve been close at absolutely smashing a team before tonight so it makes sense to let the players keep going at it and see what happens.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_288\" style=\"width: 543px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-288\" class=\"size-large wp-image-288\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Firmino-and-Lallana-Discuss-Mid-Game-533x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Firmino-and-Lallana-Discuss-Mid-Game-533x400.jpg 533w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Firmino-and-Lallana-Discuss-Mid-Game-267x200.jpg 267w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Firmino-and-Lallana-Discuss-Mid-Game-65x50.jpg 65w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-288\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firmino<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Sufficed to say, Maribor couldn\u2019t cope with the Reds tonight. The extent to which that\u2019s because they\u2019re not very good is up for debate, given that they lost three-nil to Seville in Spain at the end of September. Then again, Seville lost 5-1 to Spartak Moscow who weren\u2019t very good when we played them and Maribor drew 1-1 with Spartak when the Russians visited Slovenia, so who knows what we can tell from previous results? Ultimately you can only beat what\u2019s in front of you and if anyone is saying \u2018it\u2019s only Maribor\u2019 then they hopefully also said \u2018Jos\u00e9 Mourinho\u2019s the best defensive coach in the world and Manchester United have spent half a billion since Alex Ferguson left\u2019 when we failed to break down the Red Devils on Saturday. After all, you can\u2019t pick and choose when the level of team matters, and Maribor had more shots against us in the first-half than United did in ninety minutes.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">If this was a five-a-side game, one of the Maribor lads would suggest swapping some of the players around<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sachin Nakrani (@SachinNakrani) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SachinNakrani\/status\/920370223370395648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 17, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>So far this season Liverpool have done two things on a regular basis: been wasteful in attack and given away stupid chances at the back. It\u2019s probably fair to say that we did neither tonight. The forwards were pretty clinical, getting a goal ahead almost immediately after kick-off and not relenting from there. I was also really pleased to see the defence staying concentrated right the way up to the final whistle, jostling and harrying Maribor\u2019s attackers when the referee was likely to blow his whistle at any moment. United didn\u2019t threaten much, but even so our defenders showed that they can limit the opposition\u2019s attacking movement when they\u2019re fully focussed on the task at hand. We went into this game feeling apprehensive that we should have given a team a hiding before now, but now that we have I\u2019m confident that we\u2019ll grown and develop from here.<\/p>\n<h2>Klopp Got The Team Right<\/h2>\n<p>Many people felt as though J\u00fcrgen Klopp should have been rotating heavily going into this game. I can understand why and, had the manager done so, I certainly wouldn\u2019t have complained if he\u2019d rung the changes. Given the sheer number of games we\u2019ve got to cope with in January, some players are being pushed to the edge of their limit already. Others, such as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Daniel Sturridge, haven\u2019t been given many minutes yet and have looked a bit rusty when they have then been called upon. The manager said ahead of the game that he wouldn\u2019t be resting many players and that Maribor were a tough opponent. I\u2019m not sure he believed that, instead thinking that the majority of his first eleven could do with gaining some confidence.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Interesting experiment at LFC: is Mo Salah an unbreakable cyborg programmed to start every match and run the most HI distance in Europe?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dan Kennett (@DanKennett) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanKennett\/status\/920348380907364352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 17, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>If you speak to the majority of fans and pundits they will say that they\u2019d always rather see a manager select his strongest team and then rest players from about sixty once the game is won. That\u2019s precisely what the German did this evening, with Philippe Coutinho the only one of our most important players given the full ninety minutes. Trent Alexander-Arnold played well in replace of Joe Gomez at right-back, topping his decent performance off with a goal. Though perhaps the best \u2018cameo\u2019 appearance came from James Milner, with the former Aston Villa midfielder displaying real maturity in the centre of the park. I still don\u2019t want to see him there against fast teams like Tottenham at the weekend, but he\u2019s shown he\u2019ll do a job when called upon.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_184\" style=\"width: 318px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-184\" class=\"size-large wp-image-184\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/James-Milner-player-of-Liverpool_EUO_almonfoto-shutterstock-308x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"308\" height=\"400\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-184\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">almonfoto \/ shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Otherwise, though, it was a night for the first-choice lads to prove their ability and get themselves back on track. Certainly Spurs won\u2019t be delighted by our performance tonight ahead of the weekend, especially given how much they had to put into their 1-1 draw with Real Madrid at the Bernabeu. As Liverpool were essentially engaged in a training match for the best part of ninety minutes, Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s team were putting everything into their game against the Spanish giants and will be unhappy to see that we\u2019ve found our shooting boots heading into the game at Wembley. Klopp has been criticised for his decision making in recent times, most notably his substitutions, but he got everything exactly right tonight. Had he rotated too much it might well have rested players, but we needed a big win to kick-start our season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">What a start. &#x1f525; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mJBGxocUx1\">pic.twitter.com\/mJBGxocUx1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Liverpool FC (@LFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LFC\/status\/920363668344393731?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 17, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Managers will always live and die by their team selections, which is bizarre when you consider that they can get the starting eleven exactly right but still be undone by a random bit of fortune. Nevertheless, Klopp had to make a choice tonight and I can completely understand the decision he made. He\u2019ll likely be willing to rotate a little bit more against Maribor at home in a fortnight, perhaps giving Andrew Robertson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain the starts their previous performances have merited. With \u2018easier\u2019 matches against Huddersfield and West Ham coming up in the league in the coming weeks, you can see why the German may feel as though he\u2019ll have chances to rest the big names soon enough. January will be the crucial period for us, but by that stage both Adam Lallana and Sadio Man\u00e9 will be coming back into the fold and will hopefully be raring to go.<\/p>\n<h2>I\u2019m Delighted Oxlade-Chamberlain Scored<\/h2>\n<p>It is genuinely bizarre that some sections of the Liverpool fanbase were so eager to write-off Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as a waste of money, despite the fact that he had played less minutes for us than teenager Trent Alexander-Arnold. J\u00fcrgen Klopp wants his players to play in a very specific style and it is, in many ways, directly opposed to the way that Arsene Wenger asks his players to play. Chambo arrived at the club in the middle of a pointless international break and has had to go away for another pointless international break since then, so it\u2019s little wonder that he doesn\u2019t yet appear to be a player at the same level as his team-mates. Even so, apart from his performance against Leicester in the cup, he\u2019s looked good when he\u2019s come on. His cameo against Manchester United was really exciting.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oxlade- Chamberlain 6-0. A record breaking away win for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> in Europe!!<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Scarlett Mae (@LFCfootball2) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LFCfootball2\/status\/920385741741592577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 17, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Not only has he barely had time to work with Klopp on the training field, thanks to the relentless nature of our fixtures since we signed him, he\u2019s also had no time on the pitch to get to understand his new team-mates. The rush from some to declare him to be a poor player was odd, so I\u2019m really pleased that he scored tonight and might just be able to shut some of them up. He is an excellent addition to the team and will prove himself to be a handy player to have as the season progresses and the games start to come thick and fast. There\u2019s a reason why Arsenal were desperate to keep him, Chelsea wanted him and Liverpool were willing to pay \u00a335 million to get him. Hopefully his goal tonight will allow him to settle down and stop trying to force the issue. He\u2019s a talented midfielder who scored a well-taken goal to round off a record breaking night for the Reds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019d believed the press before the weekend\u2019s game against Manchester United you\u2019d think that Liverpool were in the relegation zone and that J\u00fcrgen Klopp had said he wanted to manage Everton. Never mind the press, actually, you might have believed that if you\u2019d read some of the Liverpool forums. The season hadn\u2019t got off to a flyer, yet by the end of the game against our old rivals we were level on points with Chelsea and just two behind Spurs, so it\u2019s hardly been a disaster. It seemed as though our entire season was being judged after seven games [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1073,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072\/revisions\/1073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}