ljkeane Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Hopefully Casillas is ok. I'm not entirely convinced by Liverpool's team for tonight's game, it seems a bit negative. Presumably Firmino's not fully fit but dropping Henderson and Alexander-Arnold to the bench and, I'm guessing, going with a midfield diamond feels like a bit of a backward step. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Firmino, Henderson and TAA all on the bench. Firmino is a big loss. I understand not wanting to risk an injury but it definitely weakens our ability to close down Pique and Busquets as they try to play out from the back. I don't understand Milner getting the nod ahead of Henderson. I can understand Gomez over TAA, who I think is our defensive weakest link (even Cardiff had a lot of success against him), but it does reduce our likelihood of scoring. Let's see how we do, but my expectations for snatching an away win have now dropped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Both sides looking fairly ragged when they're asked to defend. Keita's probably done for the season if his groin's gone here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 2 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said: I'd forgotten how much of a cunt Suarez is. Jesus. Hope he loses his head in the 2nd and gets a red. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Wijnaldum was useless in the Firmino role. Basically down a man that half. Need to sub him out for Firmino or if he isn’t fit enough then Shaqiri. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Liverpool unlucky to be 1-0 down. I thought they were the better side in the 1st half and created more dangerous situations than Barca did. Robertson and Mane have Sergi Roberto and Pique on toast while Salah has Alba on toast - if only he had TAA to help him. Barca are having problems against Liverpool's press which is why they are resorting to playacting and gamesmanship. Messi is also having to drop deeper than he'd like - he's had some good dribbles but otherwise his influence on the game has been restricted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Sounds like we edged it on balance of play but they took their one chance and we missed ours. Plus we're carrying Gini as a passenger completely out of position. Klopp's team selection decisions haven't really panned out well. It might be better to sub off Milner for Firmino and move Gini back to MF. We might not have expected Milner to play a full 90 minutes but Keita's injury forced us to make an early change. Just like PSG in the group stage, I'm tired of referees indulging the play-acting and gamesmanship of our opponents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 5 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said: Klopp's team selection decisions haven't really panned out well. People keep saying things like this as if Liverpool weren't having a ridiculously good league season and one step away from a CL final. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 2 minutes ago, polishgenius said: People keep saying things like this as if Liverpool weren't having a ridiculously good league season and one step away from a CL final. A great season doesn't mean he can't make a bad call tonight. Losing Firmino was a real blow but it doesn't seem like Gini as a replacement has worked out at all. Gomez/TAA might be more marginal, but we could definitely improve with moving Gini out of the false 9. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Just now, Soylent Brown said: Gomez/TAA isn't marginal though. Gomez is fucking shite at RB, and TAA has been the best in the league. How is this even a conversation? Utterly ridiculous. Gomez doesn't seem to have the match sharpness needed for this game. But we don't know if TAA would have struggled too -- he has looked vulnerable to the counter attack in a lot of games and has looked pretty tired lately. I could have gone either way on that decision. Gini was the riskier decision and so far his high pressing hasn't been good enough to offset his drag on attacking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Well fuck. I think that's the tie done. Bloody hell, Soylent rein it in a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorshach Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Okay. This Messi dude - I think he can go places. And how on earth did Liverpool fail to score there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 2 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said: Fuck off. He's done this in a ton of big games this season, and we've been piss poor because of it. It's the reason we were beaten in every away game in the group stage. And he doesn't fucking learn. Mate we're in the Champions League semi finals and going to get in excess of 90 points in the league. That's nowhere fucking near piss poor. Get a grip. That's definitely tie over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Terrible result. Barca just gave us a lesson in being clinical. It's not like how we got outplayed by Madrid in the CL final but is another instance of us not being quite at the races against the toughest opposition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Yeah Messi was always going to score whatever but Klopp got it wrong today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Oh well. It got a bit ragged at the end there pushing for an away goal but I don't think that was actually a terrible performance. Basically we weren't clinical enough with our chances while we were on top and Barcelona scored two really good goals and one slightly fortuitous one. Ultimately we've lost away to one of the top two or three sides in the world who happen to feature the best player to ever play the game. Shit happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 Unbelievable that Liverpool did not score a couple of away goals. They had Barca on the ropes but let them off the hook every single time. Lacked that incisiveness in the final third. Since Klopp is copping a lot of flak for his team selection, I'd also like to point out that Valverde seems to have a blindspot for a couple of players as well viz. Sergi Roberto and Coutinho. Semedo should be the 1st choice right back as he is both much better defensively and much quicker. Coutinho has no business starting ahead of Dembele as the latter has been much better this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philokles Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 That was a weird game. Neither manager’s decisions seemed to come off - Wijnaldum and Gomez for Klopp, but also Vidal didn’t offer in midfield for Barcelona, Semedo looked much more comfortable at RB when he came on and Dembele was perfectly suited for their second half gameplan and should’ve come on much earlier. First half was pretty well matched, then Liverpool took over and should’ve scored a couple as Barcelona struggled to get anything going. But two goals from nowhere - the first incredibly scrappy and the second one part genius from Messi, one part good luck with the slight deflection off Gomez. Only then do Barca start actually doing what they intended too, with Suarez and Dembele having golden chances to finish the tie. So despite being the better side, Liverpool lose 3-0 and miss out on the away goal that is pretty crucial these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Winged Shadow Posted May 2, 2019 Share Posted May 2, 2019 Total gut punch that scoreline. What a shit thing to wake up to. Gonna be depressed all week now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted May 2, 2019 Share Posted May 2, 2019 47 minutes ago, The Winged Shadow said: Total gut punch that scoreline. What a shit thing to wake up to. Gonna be depressed all week now I don’t know if it makes it better or worse that they actually played pretty well and deserved at least a draw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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