{"id":806,"date":"2017-02-04T18:06:28","date_gmt":"2017-02-04T18:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=806"},"modified":"2017-02-04T18:06:28","modified_gmt":"2017-02-04T18:06:28","slug":"hull-2-liverpool-0-match-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/hull-2-liverpool-0-match-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Hull 2 &#8211; Liverpool 0: Match Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The draw with Chelsea on Tuesday night as good as confirmed that we aren\u2019t going to be able to win the title this time around. Even if we\u2019d got three points it would have been hard. Instead we remained ten points behind them and needed to win against Hull just to stay that far behind, given the Blues won their London derby with Arsenal. The league may be beyond us but getting into the top four is vital if we want to sign the sort of players that can push us on in the summer.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">1 &#8211; Hull City have lost just one of their four previous home PL games against Liverpool, winning the last two (W2 D1 L1). Belief.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OptaJoe\/status\/827889203308535809\">February 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>We took Hull for a ride when they came to Anfield in the reverse fixture earlier in the season, so could we do it again at the KCOM Stadium? It was a different team we faced back then, of course. Even the Hull manager has changed and Marco Silva has done an impressive job of tightening up an extremely leaky defence. Having beaten and then drawn with Manchester United in their last two games, it was clear this wasn\u2019t going to be a walkover for the Reds. So what were the main talking points?<\/p>\n<h2>Make Mistakes, Wash &amp; Repeat<\/h2>\n<p>There are plenty of things that J\u00fcrgen Klopp can\u2019t do much about. The form of the players is a clear issue and one I\u2019ll come onto in a minute. There are also refereeing decisions that have gone against us that the manager can\u2019t change. One of my biggest worries moving forward, though, is that the German doesn\u2019t seem to be doing anything about the fact that we\u2019re making the same old mistakes time and again.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Dominate possession, create nothing, give away a needless corner and go 1-0 down via horrible defending. Rinse and repeat.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Joel Rabinowitz (@joel_archie) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joel_archie\/status\/827906752331005953\">February 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>I can understand why the manager went with the side he went with today. Given Dejan Lovren\u2019s absence due to a knee injury the German probably thought he needed to put Emre Can in instead of Gini Wijnaldum because of the former\u2019s strength and height. That the Dutchman didn\u2019t come on suggests he may well have had a knock, too. Klopp must also have seen the number of goals we\u2019ve scored when Adam Lallana, Philippe Coutinho, Sadio Man\u00e9 and Roberto Firmino all start together and figured it would be silly not to stick with what was a winning formula.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_232\" style=\"width: 576px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-232\" class=\"size-large wp-image-232\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Adam-Lallana-player-of-Liverpool_EUO_almonfoto-shutterstock-566x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"566\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Adam-Lallana-player-of-Liverpool_EUO_almonfoto-shutterstock-566x400.jpg 566w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Adam-Lallana-player-of-Liverpool_EUO_almonfoto-shutterstock-283x200.jpg 283w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Adam-Lallana-player-of-Liverpool_EUO_almonfoto-shutterstock-140x100.jpg 140w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Adam-Lallana-player-of-Liverpool_EUO_almonfoto-shutterstock.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 566px) 100vw, 566px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-232\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">almonfoto \/ shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The old adage of \u2018if it ain\u2019t broke don\u2019t fix it\u2019 might well be a valid one, but if things are quite clearly broken it would be sensible to make some attempt at fixing them. Simon Mignolet, just like against Chelsea, showed why he isn\u2019t good enough to be our goalkeeper. There\u2019s precisely no defending him for the first goal. He\u2019s weak, he\u2019s indecisive and we are essentially a goal down before kick-off if his name is on the team sheet. Klopp needs to drop him and put Loris Karius in for the rest of the season so that the German is up to speed with English football for the start of next term.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Football is hard enough without literally giving the other team a head start. Pathetic. Can giving the corner away as bad as Mignolet&#8217;s flap<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Philip Blundell (@PhilBlundell) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PhilBlundell\/status\/827925637583081472\">February 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>He isn\u2019t the only one, of course. Emre Can has his admirers and he produces good performances on occasion, but far too often games completely pass him by. There is zero point in him starting matches against sides that are obviously going to sit deep as he doesn\u2019t have the speed of thought or body to move the ball quickly enough to cause those sort of sides problems. He is, for me, the sort of player who defines the difference between stats lovers and those who don\u2019t care about numbers. Stats guys tend to love him, people who judge games without stats don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_279\" style=\"width: 543px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-279\" class=\"size-large wp-image-279\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Emre-Can-In-The-Centre-Circle-v-Rubin-Kazan-533x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Emre-Can-In-The-Centre-Circle-v-Rubin-Kazan-533x400.jpg 533w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Emre-Can-In-The-Centre-Circle-v-Rubin-Kazan-267x200.jpg 267w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Emre-Can-In-The-Centre-Circle-v-Rubin-Kazan-65x50.jpg 65w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-279\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Emre Can In The Centre Circle v Rubin Kazan<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lucas Leiva managed another stay of execution in January when it looked for all the world like he was off to Inter Milan. Plenty of Liverpool fans celebrated that because he\u2019s been such a \u2018loyal servant to the club\u2019 and they want to see him get his testimonial. That\u2019s fine, but he\u2019s not good enough to be starting matches for the club and having in the squad means the manager will often be tempted to turn to him. If, as some journalists have reported, we haven\u2019t signed defenders so as to not block Joe Gomez\u2019s route into the first XI then why didn\u2019t he start today alongside Joel Matip?<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Once again the opposition sit deep, block up the centre, work hard and wait for us to beat ourselves. So many pathetic, soft goals conceded.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dan Kennett (@DanKennett) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanKennett\/status\/827907248554909698\">February 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The manager has had numerous chances over the last month to do something about our horrendous form and has chosen to shy away from that. He has stuck rigidly to his system when its weaknesses have been exposed and has not rotated his players even when their form has dropped off a cliff. I am a firm believer that J\u00fcrgen Klopp is the best manager for Liverpool Football Club in the long-term, but that doesn\u2019t mean that he\u2019s immune from criticism. He should have looked to change things up on more than one occasion and perhaps then we wouldn\u2019t look like we\u2019re going to concede every time there\u2019s a counterattack against us or a ball into our box.<\/p>\n<h2>Players Lacking Form<\/h2>\n<p>Just as the manager isn\u2019t immune from criticism, so too the players need to take their share of the blame. Klopp put his best team on the pitch today and they weren\u2019t good enough. As much as absences from the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Jordan Henderson and Joel Matip through injury and Sadio Man\u00e9 because of the African Cup of Nations have hurt us and disrupted our rhythm, the fact that other players\u2019 form has dropped off a cliff hasn\u2019t helped. The manager\u2019s decision to convert James Milner into a left-back was an inspired one, yet the truth is he\u2019s been poor for some time now. Problematically the only man who could replace him is Alberto Moreno and he doesn\u2019t have a brain.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Awful set-piece delivery from Milner. Liverpool have wasted so many of them today.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 James Pearce (@JamesPearceEcho) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JamesPearceEcho\/status\/827917600684384256\">February 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Much like Simon Mignolet isn\u2019t the only player who isn\u2019t good enough to play for Liverpool past the end of this season, so James Milner isn\u2019t the only one whose form has disappeared lately. Roberto Firmino may well point to trouble in his personal life as a reason for why hasn\u2019t been at his best and that may well be entirely fair. After all, how many of us could perform at our best level after getting done for drink-driving and having our house burgled? Even so, the former is a problem of his own making and you can\u2019t take your troubles onto the football pitch when your team-mates need you for inspiration.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_430\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-430\" class=\"size-large wp-image-430\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Philippe-Coutinho-of-Liverpool_EUO_mooinblack-shutterstock-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Philippe-Coutinho-of-Liverpool_EUO_mooinblack-shutterstock-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Philippe-Coutinho-of-Liverpool_EUO_mooinblack-shutterstock-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Philippe-Coutinho-of-Liverpool_EUO_mooinblack-shutterstock-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Philippe-Coutinho-of-Liverpool_EUO_mooinblack-shutterstock.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-430\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">mooinblack \/ shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Philippe Coutinho\u2019s injury won\u2019t have helped him at all and it came at the worst possible time. The Brazilian was absolutely flying when he was ruled out for more than a month and he\u2019s struggled to get back up to speed since his return. The problem with a player of his nature is that when he\u2019s on form he\u2019s absolutely unstoppable, but when he\u2019s not he can stink the place out. His passes today were erratic if you\u2019re trying to be polite, consistently awful if you\u2019re just being honest. He\u2019ll come good again, but right now he\u2019s not the player he was three months ago and we\u2019re suffering as a result.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Lallana&#8217;s form has absolutely plummeted. Shadow of the player he was before Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Henry Jackson (@HenryJackson87) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HenryJackson87\/status\/827919085522522113\">February 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Adam Lallana is another player whose form seems to have nosedived. The England midfielder was almost unstoppable in December, scoring goals for fun and being the creative genius we needed game after game. The manager\u2019s decision to move him into the final third to cover for Man\u00e9\u2019s absence was a poor one and he hasn\u2019t been the same player since. If we are to have any hope of salvaging our season then we need him, as well as Coutinho and Firmino, to be back to their free-wheeling and high-scoring best as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<h2>Not Testing Weak Defences<\/h2>\n<p>In the second-leg of the EFL Cup against Southampton the Saints were without Virgil van Dijk. Instead they had to bring in an inexperience centre-back named Jack Stephens and pair him with Maya Yoshida in front of a goalkeeper in Fraser Forster that I think is bang average. The Reds had just three shots on target for the entire game. Southampton merely packed the centre of the park and pushed us out wide, encouraging us to sling crosses in that the dealt with with ease. Hull might well have watched them, because they did exactly the same thing today.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">45 Liverpool crosses directly led to two Liverpool shots. 15 Liverpool corners directly led to one Liverpool shot (one of those crosses).<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 \u00f6h yo\u00fc bea\u00fcty (@natefc) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/natefc\/status\/827924616614141954\">February 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Eldin Jakupovi\u0107 may have been the Man of the Match in the Tigers\u2019 game against Manchester United on Wednesday night, but he looked dodgy on numerous occasions today. He spilled the ball, flapped at crosses and looked as though he could have been put under some pressure. Michael Dawson, the Hull captain and defensive leader, had to be replaced when he injured himself in the warm-up and was replaced by Andrea Ranocchia who was making his first start for the club. Surely the Reds would put him under some pressure?<\/p>\n<p>The stats say we had five shots on target but I can only remember one that asked anything of the goalkeeper and even that came from Jordan Henderson when we were already 2-0 down. They were let off the hook and given an easy ride because we decided to fling in 45 (FORTY-FIVE) crosses despite the fact that none of them led to us looking like we were going to score. It\u2019s inexcusable that across 180 minutes against two teams with makeshift defences and poor goalkeepers we\u2019ve failed to test them at all.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Nearly all the goals scored against Liverpool this season are from directly in front of goal mouth (heat is chance quality, ring is goal) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZWkaPeB3IF\">pic.twitter.com\/ZWkaPeB3IF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 David Sumpter (@Soccermatics) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Soccermatics\/status\/827911101404819456\">February 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Since the end of December we have time and again produced nothing of any noteworthiness against lesser teams whilst simultaneously giving them chance after chance to score against us. This looked as though it might be a slight slump that we\u2019d turned the corner of after the result against Chelsea. Now it looks like a full-blown crisis that our manager is going to have to use every ounce of his experience to drag us out of. Given he\u2019s getting paid \u00a37 million a year it\u2019s entirely fair to say, \u201cOver to you, J\u00fcrgen\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The draw with Chelsea on Tuesday night as good as confirmed that we aren\u2019t going to be able to win the title this time around. Even if we\u2019d got three points it would have been hard. Instead we remained ten points behind them and needed to win against Hull just to stay that far behind, given the Blues won their London derby with Arsenal. The league may be beyond us but getting into the top four is vital if we want to sign the sort of players that can push us on in the summer. 1 &#8211; Hull City have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":258,"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\/806"}],"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=806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":807,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions\/807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}