Jump to content

Football: A New Hope


Iskaral Pust

Recommended Posts

Transfers are done and the opening game of the PL season is tomorrow. 

Liverpool have Norwich at Anfield, which is admittedly a kind fixture but promoted sides can be very tricky in the early games while they’re an unknown quantity and still full of piss and vinegar.  Pukki must be the main man for Norwich this season, but hopefully Liverpool will be sharp after the Charity Shield.

Chelsea/United sounds like the game of the weekend, with two unproven managers and a newfound focus on youth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Norwich have been good but getting into an open game doesn’t seem likely to work out for them. Still, they should be fun to watch this year.

Liverpool still don’t look entirely on their game in defence.

ETA: Shit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hopefully Alisson’s injury isn’t too bad. If he misses a significant chunk of the season that’s going to be a problem.

Norwich were all over Liverpool for periods of that half and you have to admire bravery to pass out from the back the way they did but they’ll need to be tighter in defence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Norwich have some defenders out injured.  It’s a bit unlucky for them to be playing this fixture without their first choice defense.  But they obviously expect to play some football and they can create chances.  They’ve stuck to their system and style tonight, which causes some short term pain, but hopefully they’ll do well longer term.  I’d much prefer to watch their games than Burnley, for example. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nothing like the new season - fresh paint, the smell of cut grass, and Soylent moaning about Wijnaldum.

 

There are some good signs for Norwich despite the result. They were more than deserving of their goal, and even at the back Godfrey looks like at home in the Premier League. Lewis was decent and Aarons grew into the game. Replace Hanley for Zimmermann/Klose and probably Fährmann for Krul and you have a decent enough defence. Especially when three of them are 21 or younger and will only improve with more exposure to top flight football.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Positives and negatives today for Liverpool.  

The attacking play looked very sharp and could have scored more, they played through Norwich with ease and swarmed all over them for long periods, regaining and recycling possession.  Firmino and Salah were much less rusty than a year ago, and Origi did well as a back-up.  Henderson got into some good attacking positions and should have scored.  Fabinho’s tackling was good too.

Biggest negative is obviously the injury to Allison.  Hopefully Klopp’s mention of a calf injury means it’s not the knee or Achilles.  We’ll hear more soon.  Next negative is the shaky defending, especially with Norwich able to play several through balls behind a high line (Robertson kept Pukki onside for the goal).  None of the defenders were terrible but the coordination wasn’t there, plus Gomez pushes up a lot and Trent doesn’t cover back as much as he should.  Another reason for the bad defending was that we were susceptible to Norwich playing between the lines (just as City like to do to us), partly because Norwich kept numbers forward while Henderson and Gini were roaming.  That meant that both sides had more opportunities to attack, but on balance that favored Liverpool.  A minor negative was that Fabinho misplaced quite a few passes; he needs to be sharper next time. 

Overall a very good victory and there’s no real problem in lowering the tempo at 4-0 up.  It’s smart to save energy ahead of a midweek game in Istanbul.  I’m surprised Klopp didn’t make a midfield substitution though.  Keita or Ox would have benefited. 

Norwich are clearly committed to their approach.  They have good attacking play and just need to be sharper about taking chances.  They also have some talented youth: Cantwell and Lewis caught my eye for their skill and composure on the ball.  And Krul made some good saves.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Origi doesn't look too bad on the left wing. The drop in quality isn't as big when he plays on the wing compared to him playing through centre. He is decent 1v1 so it probably works well down the wing than down the centre where he would be swarmed. Still not as good as Mane but definitely serviceable. I expect he will play down the wing a lot more to rotate with Mane, as Shaq will rotate with Salah (or to play Salah centre).

Trouble with our right wing was that both Hendo and Trent are aggressive, which results in good attacking play but also leaves us quite vulnerable to counters on that side. Compared to when Gini plays on the right, where he is good at shielding but does hinder the attacking play as he doesn't make the runs into the box or into space on the right wing or simply passes backwards. None the less, good to have different attacking/defensive options.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Need to tighten up defensively, but we look really dangerous going forward. Bobby looked razor sharp, and both Mo and Sadio looked lively. Divock showed he can be effective on the wing if he's given space to run into.

Thought Fabinho and Gomez struggled at times, and Trent still needs to work on defensive positioning.

Hoping that Alison's injury isn't serious. Adrian looks great, but Alison is world class, and I think he might have stopped Pukki's goal had he been on. Saved us many points with huge saves and challenges last season, and if he's out for one or more big/close games, could be the difference.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

Some interesting results on the cards. I thought Southampton and Watford would be good sides this year but they're both on their way to fairly comprehensive defeats.

Yeah, those are big surprises.  Both Burnley and Brighton were expected to struggle for goals too.

City are a machine.  Ominous start to the season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I watched the second half of Spurs/Villa and I must have arrived too late to see Villa’s good use of the ball.  Their defense made lots of good blocks and clearances, but they conceded possession so quickly and cheaply every single time that Spurs were able to attack in constant waves, and benefit from Villa being slightly flat-footed as they tried to push out and then had to immediately chase back again.  Grealish looks so confident on the ball but was one of the worst at having his passes intercepted, and then he got caught in possession on the edge of his box to set up Kane’s first goal.  It’s amazing it took as long as it did for Spurs to score. 

Spurs had three goals very well taken, plus some good shots well saved by Heaton.  But they also had many crosses easily headed clear by Mings, and Kane seemed to drifting into wide areas for most of the second half.  Once Kane returned to a central position he scored two goals within minutes.  Spurs were more dangerous making low crosses behind the defenders (created Ndombele’s goal), and especially with Eriksen showing much greater quality in crosses and passes.

Villa tried to do a Burnley, but were too careless with possession to sustain their defense.  Spurs labored to score the first goal against a deep defense and then only got the winners when high pressing finally paid off.  They need to be able to score when the opponent doesn’t cough up easy turnovers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...