Blog by dedlfc (David
Douglas)
It felt like deja-vu. We entered the match with apparently legitimate
thoughts after having beaten a top side like Arsenal in our first game we
needed to follow up with a convincing or at least another win against with
respect to a Burnley a side there for taking to show our potential to do
something major this season.
Pre-match: Unsurprisingly
makeshift fullback James Milner replaced woeful Alberto Moreno's place at
left-back. Excellent to see our main striker Daniel Sturridge back in action as
well, though it's a shame that it's because of an injury to our pace and power
package Sadio Mane who alongside Coutinho was our spark last weekend.
GOAL (Vokes 2 mins) Before
you could even blink we were already one nil down with Mignolet again getting
beat with the first shot that came his way before we even got a chance to get a
foothold into the game.
Our wobbly back line, the usually reliable Clyne with
loads of time inexplicably gave the ball away which led to Vokes thumping home
past Mignolet from long range for a cheap goal to gift Burnley the perfect
start to the match.
Liverpool began the first ten minutes of this match in the
same way that they did against Arsenal last Sunday, with the back foot and
with very little intensity which was especially disappointing at the pressing
game was not evident.
Once we settled into this game, after conceding a stupid
goal we got nearly eighty per cent possession putting together some good
attacks, but with no cutting edge and not having Mane in the side today was a
big miss. All our shots were mainly from long range with Coutinho hero of last week’s
victory having numerous efforts off target.
GOAL (Gray 37') Totally
horrendous from us. Burnley builds the world's slowest counterattack after 30
straight minutes of away possession. Sturridge loses the ball in our attack and
then doesn’t try to regain it. Impressive
debutant Burnley midfielder Stephen Defour intercepted Sturridge’s pass and
then going forward the Belgian International capped a solid debut by providing
an assist to Gray. Klavan failed with a last ditch tackle before the striker
skipped past him to dispatch his shot beyond Mignolet. Our defence is
embarrassing. Burnley had two goals from two attempts.
Welcome back, to reality guys. We are again losing to a
side just promoted from the Championship we have a seasonal habit of losing
these games and until we can address this problem we will not get anywhere in
this league.
Halftime: At
2-0 down we have got it all to do in the second half, but Klopp still has
some tricks up his sleeves with Can and Origi on the bench.
The second half went very much the same way as the first
half. Lots of Liverpool pressure (this time closer to 85%), zero result.
The only glimmer of hope was a shot in the 52nd
minute from Firmino which was pushed away by Burnley keeper Heaton.
Origi replaced Sturridge in the 64th minute,
who still looked to be shaking off the rust. Still no sign of our best
midfielder Can.
Alberto Moreno comes on to change the narrative from last
week and heroically save this match in the last fifteen minutes. I'm assuming.
(Nope, never mind that’s me dreaming again!!!)
Marko Grujic also came on after 78 minutes to provide some
sort of spark for the midfield with an excellent long range shot which was
parried away well by Burnley keeper Heaton.
Fulltime: Our
first defeat at Turf Moor since Boxing Day 1973.
That was a very frustrating and ultimately disappointing
90 minutes of us not being able to break through Burnley's average, but
disciplined defence. We have got to find a way to get results in these types of
matches or this season is going to be very long indeed – our inconsistency is
at times a complete embarrassment.
Our midfield pairing of team captain Henderson and
Wijnaldum is just not going to work for us long term as they are steady players
but have no craft between the pair of them.
Henderson as the captain is not cutting it for me – there
is just no fight or fire in his belly on days such as this. The sooner we change the captain to someone
with more passion and more determination to push the team onto change bad
results into good wins we will continue to be inconsistent.
Henderson is at best a squad player should not be leading
the side out week in week out if he is not the best player in his role.
Totally omitting Emre Can and not starting with the pace
of Origi were Klopp mistakes which ultimately cost us points in this game.
Wijnaldum has so far shown a lack of taking ownership and
has been so quick to pass the easier square ball or ball backwards to a team
mate rather than taking a game by the scruff of a neck – Klopp needs to find
his rightful position in the side as so far in the current midfield role in my
opinion he has been a disappointing addition to the squad.
Sturridge looked distinctly off the pace (definitely not
match fit) and he had a bad habit of dropping short to play in the attacking
midfielder role rather than playing on the shoulder of the last defender as our
main striker – being our main striker is his main game he needs to return to
doing that or there is no purpose him being in the side as we have so many
attacking midfielders capable of doing what he did today.
Klavan was outpaced by Burnley forward Gray on quite a few
occasions and looked like the 4th best centre back at the club – we
now need to unleash Matip as our main centre back signing is yet to play for
the club.
The sooner Karius is fit to make his LFC Premier League debut
the better, as Mignolet never seems to pull off unexpected saves.
The honeymoon period is finally over for Klopp he needs to
stop being everyone’s friend (players included) and whip this team into shape
so that we can at the least compete for a top 4 spot because if we are
inconsistent like this current yo-yo side we will struggle to finish 8th
let alone get into the top 4.
We have no excuse of having European games to distract us
so Klopp has a whole week (most weeks) to work on our problems which are mainly
defensive and also finding another player apart from steady Lucas that is able
to play the defensive midfielder role midfielder before the transfer window
closes.
We face top four contenders Spurs away next week and it
wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if we again raise our game and get points
away to Spurs as that is exactly what this team does, beat top sides and does
not have the nous to break down organised defences of average teams. Extremely
frustrating start to the season.
Liverpool: Mignolet;
Clyne, Lovren, Klavan, Milner; Henderson, Wijnaldum; Lallana, Firmino,
Coutinho; Sturridge
Substitutes: Manninger,
Matip, Moreno, Stewart, Grujic, Can, Origi
Man of the Match: I
refuse to give a man of the match for this performance as to get over 80%
possession and lose a game 2-0 shows a distinct lack of a cutting edge and this
needs to be addressed by Klopp or this is going to be another very
disappointing season.
Attendance – 21,313
Referee –
Lee Mason
Editorial comment:
What irks about this performance was the fact that nothing really
changed throughout. We dominated and
Burnley were happy to concede possession and it seemed it was pre-planned. Without Sadio Mane, the decision not to play
Sturridge as an out and out striker was folly.
While, he may have lacked sharpness his ability in front of goal will
always make him a threat and that is something we generally missed.
I am yet to
be persuaded that Jurgen Klopp is totally convinced of Sturridge’s ability to
lead the line in a pressing attack.
The defence
is struggling, but even so I was disappointed to see Alberto Moreno dropped. Either,
sell him or instil the confidence in him to keep going. Love him or loath, having James Milner at
left back may put a steady Eddie in situ, but we lost incision down the left
had side. A quality holding midfield is the cry, but to
be honest and I would be happy with a dominant and powerful central midfielder.
One loss
does not suggest the end for any player least of all Wijnaldum,
but the team above does needs leaders, players able to pick games up by the
scruff of the neck and against Burnley and while we had plenty of ability on
show, whether we had enough out there to do the dirty work is open to
debate. Almost at every counter-attack Burnley
hit the Liverpool backline without much trouble which suggest the Liverpool
midfield was porous in the extreme and Klopp may have his work cut out to provide
protection to his defence from these group of players.
It was disappointing Klopp was unable to change the ebb
and flow of the match and it’s a storyline we’ve seen all too often replacing the striker rather than a
change of formation and it’s disappointing that with the injury to Mane there
isn’t there isn’t another pacey wide man to fill the breach in his absence.
The days running up to the close of the transfer
window will be fascinating and hopefully we will be busy, but unless the board
are willing to lift the wage structure it will be difficult to get in any top
class acquisitions at this late stage.
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