Iskaral Pust Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 Ole in! Three CBs against Tranmere is genius if they produce two goals and two assists between them. Liverpool’s kids have started with some good football again and Curtis Jones scored again. But we’ll have to see how they handle Shrewsbury leaving the boot in at every opportunity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 Fabinho looks very rusty, and Matip and Lovren not far behind. I guess it’s good they get this as a game to build sharpness, but it’s not helping the quality of this game. Origi has been losing the ball a lot as a left forward, and Minamino looks a bit lightweight as a false 9. Perhaps switch their positions in the second half to see if it helps. So far it looks like Mane’s absence will be a big loss in the coming weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 I imagine liverpool could do without a replay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 Well that was a rubbish performance from Liverpool, notably from the three senior players in Matip, Lovren and Fabinho. None of them look ready to slot straight back into the first team. Credit to Shrewsbury though, regardless of how Liverpool played that was pretty impressive for a league one side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 A replay during the supposed winter break is a disaster, but I expect the same second string and kids will play again. And possibly Fabinho, Matip and Lovren will have remembered how to play football by then. That was comically poor after the first 20 minutes. It’s a good outcome for the Cup generally, and the pundits love the story of mighty Liverpool being held by Shrewsbury. But it’s still a thrown-together team of kids and senior subs just returning from injury. All 11 players were rotated for today. Fabinho, also returning from injury, is the only senior starter there. A pity not to have some of the regular subs like Lallana and Milner to add some cohesion, but it was very sloppy and complacent all around. Both Jones and Elliott need to learn not to take so many touches. Shades of Jack Wilshire there. Their penalty occurred outside the box and should not have been given, but I think Shrewsbury earned their replay overall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redriver Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 But Lovren is such a donkey..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 God, Juve are so boring to watch. Just endless rotation of the ball that goes nowhere, painfully slow buildup and no width to their play. Napoli deserved to win despite not playing that well themselves. Matuidi has been unbelievably shit this season and Cuadrado not much better. Sarri is not doing a very good job considering the squad he has at his disposal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philokles Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 What an entitled dickhead. It’s one thing to rest your entire first team - though I don’t get the hurry to announce that before the date has even been set - but to not even bother turning up yourself, because you didn’t want a replay is just disrespectful. What better is he going to spend that evening doing? It comes across as a calculated fuck you to not just the FA Cup, but Shrewsbury and everyone else in English football who is not in the handful of clubs to have perpetual PL status assured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soylent Brown Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 That's not why they're doing it. The game has been scheduled during the winter break. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 10 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said: That's not why they're doing it. The game has been scheduled during the winter break. Much simpler solution to that problem - don't play terribly and give up a two goal cushion against Shrewsbury. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soylent Brown Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 Not so simple for our boys, evidently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 2 hours ago, Philokles said: What an entitled dickhead. It’s one thing to rest your entire first team - though I don’t get the hurry to announce that before the date has even been set - but to not even bother turning up yourself, because you didn’t want a replay is just disrespectful. What better is he going to spend that evening doing? It comes across as a calculated fuck you to not just the FA Cup, but Shrewsbury and everyone else in English football who is not in the handful of clubs to have perpetual PL status assured. The senior players were apparently promised a week break during the upcoming winter break to travel with their families (albeit still doing their own fitness training during that period). And Klopp is refusing to cancel their break for this replay. It’s completely in keeping with his stance on players needing breaks and the insane scheduling needing to respect the human capacity of the players. So if this will be a strictly youth team for Liverpool, then better to let the youth team manager take charge of the game. I think he’s right to stand up for his principle here. And Shrewsbury will complain no more than Villa did in the LC. My problem with this plan is that the team has done badly after prior mid-winter training/sunshine camps. There’s something about the loss of rhythm. But this team have earned themselves a break if they want one. If you didn’t notice, even lower league managers this weekend said that they would prefer a loss to a replay. Their schedule is very full too, and most of them have to prioritize the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mme Erzulie Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 Lovren & Matip = ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 The only mistake Klopp made was making his plans known to the media. With the winter break coming up the media need something to latch onto to create a storm in a tea cup for two weeks until the season starts up again. I also highly doubt anyone at Shrewsbury would be feeling disrespected. If anything I'd assume that they are rather happy - they've got themselves a lucrative replay at Anfield and going up against Liverpool's U21s gives them a huge opportunity to get to the 5th round and a bigger payday. I've also got no issues with clubs choosing to play a youth team in the domestic cups. It's a great and likely only opportunity (other than going on loan) for the youngsters to play against senior pros. I wish Solskjaer had made more use of some of our academy players in the domestic cups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 Cup replays need to be scrapped. I'm not sure how they enhance the tournament in any way. Other than giving small clubs a bite at another payday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Horse Named Stranger Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 I honestly wonder what Hasenhüttl will do now. He has expressed his displeasure about having to play a game during the winter break due to some silly rule. Klopp has given him (and other managers) some cover now. Of course, you can take the position that Klopp is disrespecting (not giving a toss about) the FA Cup. Which is probably true in terms of, it really ranking third on his priority list of competitions (after EPL and CL) at best. Perfectly fine position to take. On the other hand, I am also not particularly surprised. He (and the other managers at the top clubs) have complained quite a bit about the number of games simply being too much. So him deciding to take a stand on not sacrificing his precious winterbreak (as short as it is) to play yet another game is perfectly consistent with that. Maybe he even hopes that him running one of the big clubs might lead to a discussion about the point of having a replay instead of just going into extra time and penalty kicks. Curious to see whether Mourinho and Hasenhüttl will do the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 Replays should just be scrapped altogether. Semi final replays were scrapped from the 1999/2000 season, quarter final replays were scrapped from 2016/2017 and 5th round replays were scrapped from 2018/2019. This needs to be extended to the 3rd and 4th rounds as well. The FA should reward lower league teams with extra prize money if they get to the 3rd round proper and beyond. That way all lower league sides who make it that far would benefit rather than a select few who are lucky enough to get an away draw to one of the marquee premier league stadiums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 Rooney v Man Utd and Liverpool v Chelsea obviously the picks of the draw. Newcastle get a half decent draw so they will definitely fuck it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 Looks like we finally made an offer Sporting would take seriously for Bruno (at least most outlets are reporting it so), but personal terms still to sort out so I'm still expecting it to crash and burn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 55 minutes ago, polishgenius said: Looks like we finally made an offer Sporting would take seriously for Bruno (at least most outlets are reporting it so), but personal terms still to sort out so I'm still expecting it to crash and burn. Apparently personal terms with Fernandes on a 5 year contract was agreed a while ago already. It's only a question of whether Sporting will agree to all of the add ons but people like Simon Stone and Kristof Terreur seem quite confident that the transfer is just about done and they don't make such firms statements without solid information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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