{"id":1591,"date":"2019-08-15T10:58:18","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T10:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=1591"},"modified":"2019-08-15T10:58:18","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T10:58:18","slug":"super-champions-but-what-did-we-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/super-champions-but-what-did-we-learn\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Champions, But What Did We Learn?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There was a moment last night when the clock struck eighty minutes when I didn\u2019t care whether we won or lost. The fact that there was extra-time looming has already been commented on for its ridiculousness, yet the stark reality of meant that I would\u2019ve been equally as happy for Chelsea to score in order for us to not have to play it. Instead, the match went all the way to penalties and the full time whistle was blown less than seventy-two hours before we\u2019ll kick-off our game against Southampton on Saturday at three. Of course, I was just thinking about things in the black and white footballing sense. I already wasn\u2019t looking forward to the trip to St. Mary\u2019s well before events reached their climax in Istanbul, so the idea of having to face a Ralph Hasenh\u00fcttl side that will be smarting from a disappointed loss to Burnley in less than three days\u2019 time isn\u2019t making me feel any more excited about things.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">In case you missed the trophy lift, you shouldn&#8217;t. Liverpool back on their perch as the most successful club in England with 43 major trophies. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LIVCHE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LIVCHE<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/iKTwxqwqaW\">pic.twitter.com\/iKTwxqwqaW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Enganche (@srijandeep) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/srijandeep\/status\/1161765764346441728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 14, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Then we won it on penalties and I understood the importance of doing so from the point of view of the footballers. Don\u2019t tell me it didn\u2019t mean something to each and every one of them. If you think you know someone who is a bit competitive then that\u2019s as nothing to what professional footballers must be like. To be able to lift the trophy after playing really poorly for the best part of one hundred and twenty minutes will be a real confidence booster. They\u2019ll be tired against Southampton, there\u2019s no doubt about that. But a combination of changes from the manager and the boost the players will be feeling from becoming European Super Cup champions will hopefully give us enough to get over the line. The question, though, is how we\u2019ll play. The result against Norwich covered some cracks that were exposed last night, so what will J\u00fcrgen Klopp have learnt?<\/p>\n<h2>Roberto Firmino Is The Integral Cog<\/h2>\n<p>If ever anyone had any doubt about what Roberto Firmino brings to this Liverpool team then surely last night will have put them to bed. The Brazilian missed out on the first-half, which was also when the Reds looked the most disjointed and there didn\u2019t seem to be any connection between midfield and attack. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain being asked to play in the front three didn\u2019t help matters, given he\u2019s at his best when he\u2019s got the game in front of him and space to run in to, but even so something wasn\u2019t quite right.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1419\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Firmino-533x400.jpg\" alt=\"Firmino On The Kop\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Firmino-533x400.jpg 533w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Firmino-267x200.jpg 267w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Firmino-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Firmino-65x50.jpg 65w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As soon as Firmino entered play you could see exactly what that \u2018something\u2019 was, given that he was immediately involved in the action and was a massive part of the first goal. You could also see why the manager decided to play him in the Champions League final despite him clearly not being fit, such is the difference that he makes to how we play. Given the lack of transfers we made during the summer I\u2019m very much of the hope that Michael Edwards spent the entire time trying to find a player than replicate what Roberto Firmino offers this side, because when he\u2019s missing you really can tell.<\/p>\n<h2>Sadio Man\u00e9 Is Incredible<\/h2>\n<p>As much as Firmino might be the cog that gets the entire machine ticking, Sadio Man\u00e9 is the live wire that can provide the spark when it\u2019s needed. We all know how good Mohamed Salah is, but there\u2019s something predictable about the way he works even if there\u2019s not much that defences can do to stop him. There\u2019s very little about Man\u00e9 that you\u2019d put into the \u2018predictable\u2019 bracket. The player himself doesn\u2019t always seem to know what he\u2019s going to to from one minute to the next, so how on earth will opposition defences be able to prepare for it?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1587\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Mane-On-The-Kop-533x400.jpg\" alt=\"Man\u00e9 On The Kop\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Mane-On-The-Kop-533x400.jpg 533w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Mane-On-The-Kop-267x200.jpg 267w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Mane-On-The-Kop-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Mane-On-The-Kop-65x50.jpg 65w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s infuriating at times, of course. We\u2019ve all seen him hit the ball straight into the defender\u2019s legs rather than find a pass. Yet he\u2019s looked bang up for it in his cameo against Norwich City and in last night\u2019s game, so when you remember that he barely had a pre-season and didn\u2019t have much of a break because of the AFCON tournament it suggests he\u2019ll be absolutely sensational when he finds his rhythm. It\u2019s easy to forget that he was joint-top scorer with Salah and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and he managed that without taking penalties. What a player he truly is.<\/p>\n<h2>VAR Is Far From Perfect<\/h2>\n<p>Everyone who has read any of my stuff knows that I\u2019m massively in favour of the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee. I believe that it will be good for football in the long-term because it will help referees get the big decisions right more often than not. Yet that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s perfect. Ultimately the system is only as good as the person using it. I can easily understand why St\u00e9phanie Frappart thought it was a penalty against Adri\u00e1n in real time as I did too. I cannot for the life of me understand why the VAR didn\u2019t overrule it. Perhaps it\u2019s one of those things where it\u2019s a case of us not knowing how it works or is used, therefore getting annoyed over it doing what it was supposed to.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-353\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/football-referee-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/football-referee-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/football-referee-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/football-referee.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve seen people referring to it being \u2018inconclusive\u2019 whether there was contact or not, so perhaps that\u2019s the point of view that the VAR team took and therefore decided that it wasn\u2019t a clear and obvious error from the referee. After all, most of us are saying that if they have to look at an offside five hundred times in minute detail then it can\u2019t be clear and obvious. Maybe, falsely, that\u2019s what the officials were thinking last night. We\u2019ll never know for sure as it won\u2019t be explained to us, but sufficed to say that even very good systems aren\u2019t perfect yet.<\/p>\n<h2>The High Line Is Asking For Trouble<\/h2>\n<p>I\u2019ve seen a number of people defending Liverpool\u2019s use of the high line because it caught Chelsea offside a number of times last night. That\u2019s definitely true, with the system being confused slightly because of the assistant\u2019s instruction not to raise their flag until the end of the movement. Yet the London club also cut through time and again, following a precedent set by Norwich in the Premier League last Friday night. It\u2019s worth having a look at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanKennett\/status\/1161897749706682368\">Dan Kennett\u2019s tweets<\/a> to see how the defence is seemingly a lot more vulnerable this season than in recent times.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20160604_AUT_NED_8876_2-278x400.jpg\" alt=\"Ailura, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT [CC BY-SA 3.0 at (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/at\/deed.en)]\" width=\"278\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20160604_AUT_NED_8876_2-278x400.jpg 278w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20160604_AUT_NED_8876_2-139x200.jpg 139w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20160604_AUT_NED_8876_2-768x1105.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20160604_AUT_NED_8876_2.jpg 773w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 278px) 100vw, 278px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Whether this is just something we\u2019re experimenting with in certain games and it will settle as the players get used to it or is the new way we\u2019re going to play and opposition sides getting through on us time and again is the new normal remains to be seen. I don\u2019t think the system was helped by Virgil van Dijk and Fabinho having their worst games for us since they signed. That Jordan Henderson and James Milner seemed to have been asked to play as wingers and Joel Matip wasn\u2019t sure what his job was didn\u2019t help either of them, of course, but ultimately this high line looks like an experiment that isn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There was a moment last night when the clock struck eighty minutes when I didn\u2019t care whether we won or lost. The fact that there was extra-time looming has already been commented on for its ridiculousness, yet the stark reality of meant that I would\u2019ve been equally as happy for Chelsea to score in order for us to not have to play it. Instead, the match went all the way to penalties and the full time whistle was blown less than seventy-two hours before we\u2019ll kick-off our game against Southampton on Saturday at three. Of course, I was just thinking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591"}],"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=1591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1592,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591\/revisions\/1592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}