Gallowgate Toon

Think I'm mostly annoyed that we didn't even lock down for the draw. Fair enough, they have a lot of quality going forward so it's conceivable (not acceptable) that they equalise if we don't take chances, and a point would've been an improvement from last season. But to fucking lose it from there Not felt like this after a result for a long time. Managed to shake the Cup Final off after a sleep but this one still rankles.

Think he'll be benched for Brighton. 10 touches and 5 attempted passes is absolute madness. His pressing felt very flat to me as well. Maybe Howe told him to stay and occupy the CBs but with how packed they had the centre that just felt like a total waste of his talents. He rarely seemed to move out of a zone but he's meant to be one of our key links for play in-and-around the box. Feel like if that's not Liverpool then Howe keeps him on with Wilson to find another route to score.

He definitely was losing the ball quite cheaply for a spell. He didn't look tired though and his positioning was still great - felt like if we'd have persevered then he'd have got a second wind.

It's too simple to say we win today just because you put Maddison in for Miggy though. We lost because we didn't do the basics of what has made us so good over the last year - aggression and movement. The latter would've been needed for Maddison to do what he does best but it just wasn't there. Very few decoy runs, over/underlaps, little player rotation. In fact, Trippier even tucked into CM for a chunk rather than help stretch the pitch. We tried to play it safe and it didn't work. It was mentality rather than quality. Also, ultimately, today is one game very early on in the season. The squad proved last year that they can rack up goals.

Real shame in that he's looked to have generally gone up a level so far this season. As a silver lining, maybe this can be our Isak/Wilson moment to get an athletic CB in.

Thinking back, we got into loads of good positions but then refused to get the ball in the box on many occasions. We've never been great controllers under Howe and maybe he's trying to introduce more balance to the side as part of the next evolution but it felt off.

Tbh, it'd even be nice to try something different there with the current options. Was canny surprised Murphy didn't come on.

We saw against Man U and Spurs that we're incredibly effective once we go for it at home though. City to a degree too. Arsenal was tricky but that's fine margins. I don't see why we wouldn't have that mentality today. Maybe Liverpool did a mental number on us last season so we became self protective.

If that was any other team, bar City, I just can't imagine us not going for it once up a man.

We've got to figure out more backup plans for Isak unless he's absolutely gassed. Or at least not make him play like a traditional #9 unless the game demands it.

Think one of the big weaknesses of his when we signed him was that he didn't attempt many dribbles and/or wasn't very successful at it either but he's been the opposite this season.

Anderson should've been on before Longstaff, if any changes had to be made.

Not so sure about that. I'm not an xG tells the whole story person but by many stats we were a creative side last year. High xg, loads of big chances created, most hits of the woodwork. We felt more profligate than anything. Perhaps we're not classically creative though.

The pass for their goal wasn't as bad as I thought, watching it back, but there were some poor mistakes 10 minutes prior to that but he did loads of good stuff up to that point. Maybe it was Tonali going off leading to more gaps or perhaps he's not up-to-speed fitness wise so lost composure.

Isak had 10 touches and made 5 passes. He's our main man in the final third - that's really bad.

This happened a few times before the goals as well. Led to a series of corners. It's like we got caught between 2 styles. Not gung go and blast them but rather slow but still high enough to expose our backline when we made cheap turnovers.

Aye, we accumulated decent xG through lots of half chances. We've been so good over the last year at creating space through movement but we rarely did that today. Infuriating as fuck. This one's going to hurt for a while.

There's maybe an argument to keep Isak on for 'magic' but he was honestly poor today. Didn't do enough to get involved and did very little when he did. I'm actually a bit disappointed in him for the last 2 games, he can do a lot better than that.

Thinking of the other scouse game in 21/22.

He knows the score but it's a bit worrying that this message didn't transfer to the players, like. Disclaimer: he should be under no pressure whatsoever.

Thought he was poor for the first 25 but then picked it up and won loads of physical battles. Again, seemed weird to take him off.

Not the first time we've fucked up against 10 with Howe either. Christ, I'm fuming

Objectively, we controlled the game fine for 95% of the second half but it felt so not us that you could tell it was off. I thought we needed to keep it controlled for the first 10 of the second half and then go through the gears again. We did the first bit but then just kept that tempo which was strange. Just utterly unprofessional from everyone involved in that second half.

He was canny loose at times but it was stupid to take him off especially as Longstaff has looked rubbish so far.

Didn't deserve to be on the losing side. Tragic that he was subbed off.