Player ratings: Chelsea 2-0 Liverpool
Our slump in form continues them, as we lost our third game in four matches and had it not been for Fabianski’s best Karius impression, we’d have lost all four. Let’s take a look at how the lads fared in our latest fiasco.
Adrian (5) – A real mixed bag for Adrian as he pulled off a couple of stunning saves but he simply had to keep their first goal from Willian out. I won’t be too critical however. We can’t expect a keeper we picked up as a free agent in the summer after he couldn’t find a club to be the second coming of Yashin but still… that was a howler.
Williams (7) – One of the few highlights of the game was another confident display from young Neco as he joined in with the attacks at every opportunity, putting a couple of decent crosses in and not afraid to shoot and get stuck in where required. That ball over the top down his side was on all night long though. Needed more protection from midfield but his positioning was also suspect at times. Promising again from the youngster though and gets this week’s McMOTM.
Gomez (6) – Not a terrible display from Joe but just seemed to let Barkley run and run while I’m screaming to bring him down as soon as there were other players around him. You can’t back off a player who likes shooting from distance like that. Was surprised to see him start ahead of Matip having been withdrawn from the previous match squad.
Van Dijk (6) – A bit like Gomez in as much as he wasn’t terrible but for some reason the normally unflappable Van Dijk has looked really nervous these last few games. Slow to react to danger, playing others into trouble when playing out from the back and Giroud even bested him in the air a couple of times, including in the build up to the second goal. I’d think he might be carrying a knock but surely if he was, he’d have been rested last night.
Robertson (6) – Quite a difficult game to score Robbo on as he didn’t do anything particularly good or bad, probably as the game seemed to be focused on our right flank. Chelsea’s tactics were obvious, they started attacks down our left and then switched to right with a ball over the top at the first available opportunity so between that and the lack of chemistry between Robbo and Origi, it was a fairly quiet night down our left flank.
Fabinho (4) – One of his worst displays in a Liverpool shirt. Clumsy, flustered and his passing since he came back from injury has been absolutely abysmal. We know there’s a great player in there so we need to be patient as he finds his way back but the ‘just back from injury’ excuse only lasts so long. We really need him to find a bit of form in Hendo’s absence.
Lallana (5) – This was the version of Lallana that has so frustrated the fan base over the years. Lots of silky touches but zero direction with it, running around like a headless chicken and giving away silly free kicks in dangerous areas.
Jones (6) – Virtual passenger in the first half but started the second half very strongly with some nice dribbling and clever use of his body shape to deceive players. Was just starting to get a grip of the game when Jurgen took him off. Strange decision I thought.
Mane (6.5) – Looked by far our most dangerous attacker and if anyone was likely to do the damage it was Mane, although he did manage to miss from about a yard out. Needs the other two members of our feared attacking triumvirate to up their game in the next few weeks though.
Minamino (6.5) – By far his best display to date as he started to show us fans what he’s about which is good movement, link up and clever flicks and backheels. It would help if the rest of the team passed to him from time to time though. Not sure what’s going on with that but they don’t seem to trust him which is a bit of a worry.
Origi (5) – Origi has really struggled when he’s started games this season and is soon going to be reduced to the role of impact sub, which is what he seems to excel at. Too often shows nice skill but holds on to the ball too long at lacks awareness of his surroundings. Should a decent offer come in this summer, I suspect we’ll take it.
Subs:
Firmino (5) – Did he even get a touch?
Milner (6) – Joe Gomez take note of Milner’s foul on Pedro. Sometimes that’s what you have to do to stop an attack.
Salah (N/A) – Game was effectively over by the time he came on.
Klopp-watch (5) – I thought Gomez over Matip was a strange decision, don’t know why he never plays Origi through the middle and I thought taking Jones off when he was the only decent looking player in the side at the time was strange as well. Needs to find a way to stop the rot.
Summary:
For a while now, I’ve felt like we’ve been slowly losing our identity. We stopped roaring out the traps some time ago but we’ve been so ponderous in games in the first half. I mentioned the other week that I felt the team was becoming too reliant on Klopp telling them what to do at halftime but I feel it’s more than that.
Much has been made of how adaptable we are and our ability to find a way to overcome and that’s true but I feel like we’ve started waiting to see how the other team is going to lineup and trying to overcome that, rather than just imposing our own will on games and if that doesn’t work, then trying to overcome.
We became this successful because teams simply couldn’t live with our counter-pressing machine, or our counter attacking brilliance. We’re doing neither of these things now. The Leicester game we won 4-0 was one of the most perfect counter-pressing displays you’ll ever see and they just couldn’t deal with it, which has been the case for the vast majority of team we’ve come up against in the last couple of years so what’s happened to it? I read somewhere today that teams have ‘figured us out’. No they’ve not, we’ve just stopped playing the way we have been.
Anyway, if we were going to have a slump, we’ve done it in the most salvageable point of the season. All eyes will be on the return leg against Atletico now and it would be a real shame if this landmark season sort of just whimpered out. League tied up with weeks to spare and nothing else to play for, although we’d all have bitten your hand off for that at the start of the season.
Bournemouth on Saturday then, a team that managed to draw with Chelsea the other day. Great… In all seriousness, it’s a good game to be getting back to winning ways and we should have too much for them. We need one of our players to lift us now though, whether that’s a Salah hot streak, or Keita stepping up, or Firmino going on a scoring run… Whatever, we need some inspiration. Starting on Saturday. YNWA
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