{"id":998,"date":"2017-08-20T13:34:23","date_gmt":"2017-08-20T13:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=998"},"modified":"2017-08-20T13:34:23","modified_gmt":"2017-08-20T13:34:23","slug":"liverpool-1-crystal-palace-0-match-review-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/liverpool-1-crystal-palace-0-match-review-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool 1 &#8211; Crystal Palace 0: Match Review &#038; Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was tricky to predict how this match was going to go ahead of kick-off. On the one hand Palace have won at Anfield three matches in a row, with the Reds not having won against them at our place since 2013. On the other hand, the Eagles were beaten 3-0 at home by newly promoted Huddersfield on the first day of the season. Which Liverpool team would we see? The free-flowing one that took Bayern Munich apart at the Allianz in pre-season, or the one with a backline seemingly made of blancmange that conceded three against Watford last weekend? Would muscle memory kick-in for Palace as soon as they ran under the &#8216;This Is Anfield&#8217; sign, or would they play the way the play against other top teams and simply roll over?<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Liverpool v Crystal Palace 19\/08\/2017 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/lfcprog?src=hash\">#lfcprog<\/a> first home league match of season &#8211; programme and team sheet <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ovCzL9ymGa\">pic.twitter.com\/ovCzL9ymGa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Andy Marsden (@marsdea2) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/marsdea2\/status\/898972801641656320\">August 19, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>If the Philippe Coutinho saga was hanging over the team during out match against the Hornets then the spectre of Champions League qualification was heavy in the air for this game. A 2-0 win at Hoffenheim would have been preferable, but 2-1 is not a bad score at all in a European match. Yet Klopp will know that it all could have turned out so differently if the Bundesliga side had been more clinical. He will want to take no chances on Wednesday night, so he shuffled his deck for this match. That led to a slightly more disjointed performance than we might otherwise have witnessed, but the manager put faith in his squad to get the job done and they repaid him. It wasn\u2019t pretty, but it was enough. Here&#8217;s my look art the major talking points.<\/p>\n<h2>Robertson Adds To Pride Of Youth<\/h2>\n<p>For a time last season it genuinely looked as though James Milner was the best left-back in the league. He was solid at the back and offered some experience going forward, meaning that many of us were surprised at just how accomplished the midfielder was in a position that he\u2019d never played before. There were always limitations to his game, though, so no one was surprised when rumours emerged that a specialist left-back was high on Klopp\u2019s list of priorities this summer. In fact, the only surprise was that Alberto Moreno wasn\u2019t moved on the second the window opened, with the Spaniard having seemingly burnt all of his bridges with the manager thanks to being a brainless idiot.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Delighted for Robertson. Yeah, it&#8217;s taking ages to get players in. But the ones we&#8217;ve bought so far are dead good.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tom Cullimore (@tom_cullimore) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tom_cullimore\/status\/898949602199601154\">August 19, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Two starts in a row is suggestive of the fact that Moreno&#8217;s race might not be run just yet, however. My guess is that Klopp was hoping to have brought another midfielder in by now and the fact that he hasn\u2019t&#8217;t been able to, alongside the injuries to Coutinho and Adam Lallana, means that Milner needs to return to the middle of the park and the manager trusts Moreno a modicum more than Andy Robertson for important matches. If that is the case then the German might well be considering his position on the matter after yesterday\u2019s performance. The Scot looked accomplished in his performance, playing in three or four excellent crosses that we should have at least scored one from. Joel Matip has been particularly guilty of squandering good chances recently, adding weight to my theory that players have grown accustomed to poor crosses.<\/p>\n<p>Putting in decent balls from wide areas aside, I was pleased to see Robertson also get involved with some nice little interchanges with the likes of Sadio Man\u00e9 and James Milner as the match wore on. It demonstrates a game intelligence that we\u2019ve been sorely lacking from the left-back spot for some time now and it leaves me hopeful that we\u2019ve finally solved a problem position. He will face far sterner tests to the defensive side of his game than Crystal Palace, of course. That\u2019s especially the case considering that the Eagles were without Wilfred Zaha who has caused our defence numerous problems over the last couple of years. Whatever else, though, it was a joy to see someone in the left side of our defence that neither looked as though he was running through treacle nor seemed as though he might at any moment be distracted by something shiny.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">On his <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/PL?src=hash\">#PL<\/a> debut for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LFC\">@LFC<\/a>, Andrew Robertson created more chances (3) and had more touches of the ball than any other Liverpool player (134) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Bcmv5zoKzi\">pic.twitter.com\/Bcmv5zoKzi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Premier League (@premierleague) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/premierleague\/status\/899021172087676932\">August 19, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The former Hull player is still only young, so there\u2019s a long way to go before we can start to think of him as a regular first-team player. It was a delight to see him looking so assured, however, and the combination of him and Trent Alexander-Arnold over the last two games has left me with a feeling that our fullbacks are sorted for the next few years. If you wanted to look on the negative side then you might say it\u2019s a slight concern that our best player in each of our last two matches has been an eighteen-year-old and a twenty-three-year old, each of whom has been making their debut for is in that competition. I\u2019m always very much of the opinion that my glass is half-full, though, so I\u2019m going to say that it\u2019s a solid reflection of J\u00fcrgen Klopp\u2019s management that two malleable players have put in such solid displays.<\/p>\n<h2>Is Our Defence As Bad As We Think?<\/h2>\n<p>Sometimes, when I hear criticism of individual players or the squad as a whole, I wonder whether people honestly expect a football team to never put a foot wrong. Don\u2019t misunderstand me, I\u2019m not saying that our performance in the league against Watford last week was wholly acceptable. Yet no club in the history of sport has ever gone a full-season without conceding a goal. It simply doesn\u2019t happen. Sometimes that is because the opposition side plays so well that they cut you open, whilst on other occasions it\u2019s down to an individual error. Often, though, it\u2019s little more than bad fortune. Against the Hornets last week you could say that we saw all three of those things in play, of course. Here\u2019s a stat for you to mull over, though: we\u2019ve kept five clean sheets in our last six games in the Premier League.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Stat: Liverpool have kept five clean sheets in their past six Premier League games, as many as in the previous 21. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sgJqlZ3A5T\">pic.twitter.com\/sgJqlZ3A5T<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The30Duke (@DukeLFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DukeLFC\/status\/898968501142028290\">August 19, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s right. This Liverpool team, that is &#8216;defensively terrible&#8217; and &#8216;underperforms so badly&#8217; at the back that there\u2019s a large selection of fans who would happily see Mamadou Sakho return to the starting eleven despite his numerous indiscretions, has only conceded in one league game out of the last six. Is there, then, an argument that we&#8217;re not as bad at the back as some people seem to think? The system isn\u2019t perfect, the personnel aren\u2019t the best we\u2019ve ever seen and we\u2019re prone to our fair share of brain farts at the back, but you don&#8217;t keep five clean sheets in the top-flight without having at least a little bit of nouse about you. It\u2019s also important to acknowledge that you don\u2019t get the exciting, attacking football offered by Klopp\u2019s side without offering up opportunities.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_318\" style=\"width: 543px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-318\" class=\"size-large wp-image-318\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/P1000421-533x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/P1000421-533x400.jpg 533w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/P1000421-267x200.jpg 267w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/P1000421-65x50.jpg 65w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-318\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jurgen Klopp watches over Christian Benteke in training<\/p><\/div>\n<p>On another day Christian Benteke would have scored, having been on the end of a golden opportunity in the second-half. Still, the Reds generally managed to limit the number of chances Palace were given and restricted the attacking players to feeding on scraps. A big part of the improved performance at the back did seem to be the absence of Dejan Lovren. The Croat is nowhere near as bad as some supporters make out, but he\u2019s at his best when he doesn\u2019t need to think about anything except his own game. He\u2019s never allowed to do that when Alberto Moreno plays, such is the Spaniard\u2019s lack of consistency and tendency to lash dopy challenges or merely not deal with the simplest of balls.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/lfc?src=hash\">#lfc<\/a> have conceded only 0.75 goals per game with the Matip\/Klavan pairing. Matip\/Lovren is 0.86. Lovren\/Klavan (look away now) is 1.33.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Andrew Fanko (@afanko) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/afanko\/status\/899156166189748225\">August 20, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Ragnar Klavan might not have impressed at times last season, yet the Estonian is actually part of the most stable partnership at the back that Klopp currently has available to him. He is a no-frills defender who works best with a partner who is willing to go ranging up the pitch as Joel Matip is wont to do from time to time. Again, the fact that Moreno didn\u2019t play and a more dependable left-back allowed the left-sided centre-back to focus on what he needed to do and what he needed to do was deal with Benteke. As I said at the start of this segment, there\u2019s no pretending that Liverpool\u2019s defence doesn\u2019t have a few dodgy moments. The stats suggest, however, that we\u2019re nowhere near as bad as some people are determined to make out. If we sign van Dijk then we\u2019ll be even stronger again.<\/p>\n<h2>Shaking Off The Negativity<\/h2>\n<p>There was a bloke behind me on the Kop who genuinely sounded like he might burst a blood vessel shouting abuse at Jordan Henderson. &#8220;Worst captain I\u2019ve ever seen&#8221;, he said at one point. &#8220;Shouldn\u2019t even be in the team&#8221;. This was after the England international had tried to play a pass but misunderstood where the player on the receiving end was going to be, so it went out. Never mind that he had played several sensational balls before that or continued to do so afterwards. He made one poor pass to the abuse rained down from the stands. There was a similar moment when half of Anfield seemed to be furious with him for not playing a really tricky pass, even though we were 1-0 up and there were only ten minutes left on the clock. Henderson was on the receiving end of negativity that seems to be building amongst all of our supporters.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">All Liverpool&#8230; yet you feel Palace are gonna pinch this&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 John Jones &#x1f1ea;&#x1f1fa; (@JohnJonesDOD) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnJonesDOD\/status\/898927057056518148\">August 19, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes the negativity is less obvious than the moron on the Kop. It\u2019s more subtle, merely a feeling or suggestion that Liverpool will &#8216;do a Liverpool&#8217; and throw a game away. We all do it from time to time. It\u2019s natural. Yet it\u2019s not the sort of thing that teams that win regularly have to put up with from their supporters. Manchester United fans don\u2019t look at Swansea away as a tricky fixture but rather one that they\u2019ll win easily. Sometimes that attitude might backfire, but more often than not the team does what the supporters expect. We need to develop a similar attitude. Yes, Palace have won a few times at Anfield and they\u2019re a difficult team to face, but they lost 3-0 on the opening day of the season as the players try to learn Frank de Boer\u2019s system. Surely we can go into a game like that feeling some belief in our side to get the job done?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was tricky to predict how this match was going to go ahead of kick-off. On the one hand Palace have won at Anfield three matches in a row, with the Reds not having won against them at our place since 2013. On the other hand, the Eagles were beaten 3-0 at home by newly promoted Huddersfield on the first day of the season. Which Liverpool team would we see? The free-flowing one that took Bayern Munich apart at the Allianz in pre-season, or the one with a backline seemingly made of blancmange that conceded three against Watford last weekend? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":999,"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\/998"}],"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=998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1003,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998\/revisions\/1003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}