Round Table: Hosepipeīs Chelsea 1 - Kloppīs Liverpool 3

Posted by BabuYagu on November 2, 2015, 11:59:20 am

How good did that feel? Be honest!
At 1-0 were you worried about the result? Be honest!


I knew we were going to beat these. With every fibre of my being. I actually thought it would be an absolute pasting and still believe if we had not started the game slowly, it would have been. So at 1-0 my reaction was "come on Liverpool, wake up, get into these".

The co-commentator on my stream, at 5m 40 seconds of the game said:-
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"Already Klopp needs to change things to fix the mistake he made"
He was, of course, alluding to 'playing without a striker'. You can't do that in English football. Playing with just 1 striker used to be taboo. Pundits would go after the foreign managers who didnīt get our game with pitchforks every time for that. Except when they won. So this playing with just a false 9, that will be the stuff of witch burnings. Unless we win.

Thankfully, Klopp changed nothing. Then Terry almost scored. That was the moment we woke up, then we did get into them and we just blew them away. Even at 1-0 Chelsea looked scared. They retreated into their half. They were so terrified of losing the game they forgot they still had to do something to win it. To lose 3-1 at home and commit only 9 fouls in the game would worry me. And almost half of those were just from Diego Costa being a shithouse. Liverpool on the other hand contested everything. From the 7th minute, no Chelsea player had an easy second in that match.


Something people havenīt quite grasped yet is, one of the jobs of Lucas Leiva is commit fouls. When his side is vulnerable to a counter, when he gets caught out of position when we lose the ball, when the other team is building up momentum. Your destroyer commits tactical fouls. That is why itīs such a hard position to play when you are already on a yellow card. Lucas is a wily old pro at it now of course and knows he can get away with just 1 more after a booking. Klopp was worried about Allen in that position carrying a yellow card and hooked him, but he trusts Lucas out there. He knows his game management is outstanding.

And so Chelsea win the ball and look to counter. Lucas knew if he didnīt make that foul, Ramires had just broke through our press and both him and Can has just failed to stop the ball carrier. We had at least 1 full back ahead of play too. We were fucked, to be frank. He also made it look clumsy and apologetic while doing it, almost as if to say "Iīve nowhere to go ref, Iīm going to collide with him and there is nothing I can do". Bollocks Lucas, you knew exactly what you were doing. And I love you for it. It was a cynical foul. A yellow card worthy one. He disguised it just enough to get away with it. Well played sir. Well played.

In contrast, Mikel made 1 foul all game. In the 66th minute. On the left wing. And was booked for it. It was a harsh booking but in fairness to the ref, he must have thought like I did at the time "there is no way this is your first booking. You are the sides destroyer and your side is getting overrun." Nope, he was right. It was his first foul. That is how little fight this Chelsea side has these days. That is how little Mikel wanted to "take one for the team".


Those goals though? They were all beautiful. Donīt get me wrong, if Peter Beardsley picked up the ball and threw it into the goal against Chelsea, it would be a thing of beauty in my eyes. Iīm a biased twat like that when it comes to that lot. But all 3 of those goals were REALLY beautiful finishes. Mostly, because you can see the difference Klopp has made in every one of them. Pre-Klopp, we were snatching at chances. We werenīt scoring goals from open play. In fact we werenīt scoring at all for the most part. Coutinho must have fired shots into a defender right in front of him about 5 times every game on average. Not anymore. Pepijn Lijnders talked about making better chances. Not quantity but quality under Klopp and now we are seeing it. For all 3 goals, we shift the ball to lose the nearest defender, then again to make a better angle, then BANG. Goal.


Finally, a word on Sakho. Go check out his stats and heatmaps for the game. Honest to god, they almost looked like Alonso at Liverpool. He was so high up the pitch and had 90 touches of the ball. NINETY! Almost as many as Chelseaīs central midfield combined. Iīm not suggesting stats define a player. However, I believe Sakho is judged first on how ungainly he looks with the ball. Some never get past that either, which is a shame because we have a genuine playmaker at the heart of our defence. The fact he is an absolute beast too is a bonus.

On 88 minutes the co-commentator announced:-
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"Klopp got everything right today. A tactical masterclass"
We have 1 more believer.

Questions
Lovren - our new DM? :D
Skrtel - his best performance this season?
Shape - we looked much more dangerous in 4-2-3-1 than 4-3-2-1. Is the former for high pressing/counter-attacking, the latter for containment first?
Ibe - flashes that his form is coming back?
Benteke - not the team player Origi/Firmino is but just unplayable in this mood. Is starting with him on the bench something we will see more in big games like this?
Mourinho - Iīve nothing to say.

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