Relive every moment of every first team game since the beginning of the 2005/06 season. Our archive of matchday threads originally posted in the General Discussion Forum.
When you play a team who are comfortable regularly putting 20-30 passes together it really helps if you don't keep giving the ball away needlessly on a regular basis.
bit of a missed opportunity really. Whenever we put them under pressure they made mistakes and gave us chances. You could see their confidence was probably even lower than ours. In a way the tactics worked great, really frustrating Liverpool. A few inches on the Bowen offside and things could have gone different. Its a difficult balance dropping off into that shape then being able to spring forward at pace with numbers. unfortunately i wasnt surprised when they scored. i don't think you can rely on giving a team like Liverpool that much of the ball in those areas and not expect them to score. The bigger disappointment is that the same players have done the majority of another 90 minutes and will probably be that bit more fatigued Saturday.
Hockley Hammer wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 9:50 am
When you play a team who are comfortable regularly putting 20-30 passes together it really helps if you don't keep giving the ball away needlessly on a regular basis.
This is our biggest weakness.
By a mile our biggest weakness. It’s hard to fathom how bad we actually are with the football, even against Bournemouth we was giving it away at will. The lack of movement is a big problem, but we have so many played uncomfortable in possession. Last night if we could have strung a few passes together when they pressed us they would have thought twice about pushing so high up. It’ll be the same the weekend though, I hate that we’re happy to give up so much possession.
Thought we played well last night, back line were very good and Soucek had his best game in months.
Night and day between Antonio/Benrahma and Ings/Cornet. That’s where the game was lost, bided officiating aside.
On the subject of refereeing, I’ve said for a long time it’s not the big decisions with the refs that’s the issue (though obviously impacted us last night). It’s the subtle cheap ones that are done to break up play, sway momentum and control the speed of the match. That is the biggest problem and what goes unnoticed because they aren’t “big” at the point of giving them.
Also, why was a substitution announced and the players allowed to waste time, only for the subbed player to turn around and come back on the pitch and the substitution was then cancelled?
Liverpool quite literally could do what they wanted last night.
Diogenes wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 9:41 am
I enjoyed the game and played pretty well throughout. We certainly didn't deserve to lose and Liverpool were very fortunate to walk away with all 3 points.
Our goal was a thing of beauty and will live long in the memory. They got themselves back into it with a scuffed daisy cutter that Fabianski should have done better with and our marking for their second was criminal. Overall, for all their possession, we had by far the better chances. Bowens goal was very, very marginal and the non penalty incompetent officials. Cast iron, 100% penalty. Everyone in the Stadium could see it.
We didn't deserve to lose?
They had 3 x more ball than us
3x more shots 2x more shots on target we were completely outplayed for long periods of the game, passed around us with ease and missed two sitters.. I don't understand how anyone thinks we didn't deserve to lose. They were simply better than us
I wonder if the amount of time the ball stayed in play after the handball might have worked against us.
Had the ball gone out straight away and the game stopped, they may have been forced to send the ref to the screens. Really frustrating, but we had one go for us earlier in the season when Soucek pulled off a great save in the box.
JohnnyLyall wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 9:58 am
We didn't deserve to lose?
They had 3 x more ball than us
3x more shots 2x more shots on target we were completely outplayed for long periods of the game, passed around us with ease and missed two sitters.. I don't understand how anyone thinks we didn't deserve to lose. They were simply better than us
All those passes, all those chances, those missed sitters.. you claim, yet they only scored two.
Given we should have had at least one penalty, that would made the score 2-2 , then It's a fair assumption to say we didn't deserve to lose.
I believe more often than not you get what you earn and deserve in football. If you are exceptionally bad at retaining the ball, if you retreat to the edge of your box and say we dont mind you having it and dont create anywhere near as many chances as your opponents then you can expect to lose 8 out of 10 games, especially when you come up against the good ones. We didnt play bad in terms of it being a game of the usual Moyseball....but that tactic is still fundamentally floored if you wanna win more football matches than you lose
JohnnyLyall wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 10:15 am
Not my point the penalty claim aside they were the much better team..
They had lots of possession (partly by our design and partly due to the fact that we look knackered) but I don't recall them creating so many chances to warrant calling them the much better team. Fact is we came close a few times end of first half, had a goal disallowed by a fine margin and a clear penalty not given. Also, if our final ball had been better we may have created more - see Bowen shooting when through on goal for the second time in the second half instead of laying it off
JohnnyLyall wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 9:58 am
We didn't deserve to lose?
They had 3 x more ball than us
3x more shots 2x more shots on target we were completely outplayed for long periods of the game, passed around us with ease and missed two sitters.. I don't understand how anyone thinks we didn't deserve to lose. They were simply better than us
IMHO, no we didn't deserve to lose. For all their possession, most of the time they did nothing with it. As I say, they got a daisy cutter goal and I agree they had a couple of chances, but we had better ones. We also scored a very marginal offside goal and had a 100% cast iron penalty denied. You are taking self effacement to a new level.
The ref was diabolical. Almost reffed with disdain for us. A lot of fouls let go, including two handed shoves in the back.... and in no way consistent. Maybe we're too nice.
Italian Hammer wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 10:18 am
They had lots of possession (partly by our design and partly due to the fact that we look knackered) but I don't recall them creating so many chances to warrant calling them the much better team. Fact is we came close a few times end of first half, had a goal disallowed by a fine margin and a clear penalty not given. Also, if our final ball had been better we may have created more - see Bowen shooting when through on goal for the second time in the second half instead of laying it off
20 shots to 7 is what their extra possession got them.
4 shots on target to our 2 we both scored from half of them, if we'd had more possession and more shots maybe we would have still scored from half of them and got something. So yes they were the better team..
Morocco Mole wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 10:22 am
Funny how having less possession against Bournemouth was lauded but last night against a far superior opposition it’s suddenly no good….
Be nice if we dominated the ball though wouldn’t it? Surely the more you have the ball the more likely you’ll win more games no?. Against Bournemouth we exploited their weakness superbly with them being really poor at dealing with crosses.
Diogenes wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 10:22 am
IMHO, no we didn't deserve to lose. For all their possession, most of the time they did nothing with it. As I say, they got a daisy cutter goal and I agree they had a couple of chances, but we had better ones. We also scored a very marginal offside goal and had a 100% cast iron penalty denied. You are taking self effacement to a new level.
I would say we definitely didn't deserve to lose, but looking as objectively as possible they probably have a little more justification for claiming thesy deserved to win than we did
A few new players in the summer and I think Liverpool could be competing again next season.
Much like Paqueta and to a lesser extent Aguerd, Gakpo and Nunez have needed this season to adapt. Factor Diaz back in and they'll be pretty formidable up front next year.
Last night felt a little like one game too many for a few of our players - completely understand why Moyes stuck with the same line up, but we were clearly running out of steam after 60 minutes.
