Archive for August, 2017

So Arsenal didn’t turn up?  That’s how it sounded when the media summed up the game.  Maybe Arsenal turned up, saw what was coming so got out the way?  Anyone would give a Juggernaut a wide berth!  We looked brilliant almost from the off and it was more about the fact Arsenal just couldn’t handle what we were doing – I doubt whether too many other sides would have handled it either.  Had this been one the Sky TV darlings playing the way Liverpool played the likes of Martin Tyler and Gary Neville would have been creaming themselves, as would the rest of the media.  Arsenal were pummelled and left Anfield reasonably happy because the score was only four.  Hoffenheim wilted under the same onslaught in the first twenty minutes in midweek and nobody questioned their desire.  Then again, it’s open season for the Wenger abusers.  Our second and fourth goals came about as the result of brilliant football not Arsenal’s lack of fight and first and third weren’t too bad either.  When it comes to poor defending we’re experts but Arsenal were battered and that’s a difference.  The fact we didn’t concede might suggest Arsenal’s front men weren’t up for it, but you’ve got to have the ball to be able to do things and they rarely got the ball.  Karius still worried me though.

The puzzle isn’t solved.  At one end of the pitch Liverpool look like classical composers [forget heavy metal] with all kinds of orchestral manoeuvres in the dark even if their supposed conductor has gone AWOL – or doing a bit of swinging the lead.  At the other end Liverpool just looked in the dark and although the history books won’t show it, the Germans could have hauled themselves back into the game such was the uncertainty of our defending.  It’s not just the full backs, or the central pairing it’s the whole combination including those in midfield who are supposed to be giving a bit of cover.  At times they look too casual other times simply incompetent but if nothing else it made for a very watchable ninety odd minutes of football.  The first twenty minutes would be shown countless times had it been Real Madrid or another English team regardless of whom and what the opposition constituted.  It was as good as the first twenty minutes against Arsenal a few years back and three could have been six.  The pace we had upfront was almost unfair on the Germans and Emre Can looked world class during the opening salvo of brilliance.  If Barça want to pay us £130m [see latest quotes] for Coutinho, how much for Manè should a bid ever come?  In the end the fourth best team from England beat the fourth best team from Germany and that’s all we really wanted.