leffe186

Hate to say it lads, but Sunderland looked terrific again. Buildup for the fifth is worth watching. All that and they’ve got Bobcat Goldthwaite up front.

Kaka just walked straight past it

He really does. Wish we had another CB in as cover though. Mind you, he was happy to put Phillips on the bench today which is encouraging. I don’t feel super-comfortable without a proper CF tbh, but it’s hard to complain. Still a transitional season, but not the worst start

Not really had to face anyone yet, although Brentford away is tough and Bournemouth can be awkward at home too.

Yeah, it’s genuinely everywhere that they’re terrible.

…and I hasten to add, a cracking game to choose in the end.

Whole game was fun, but at least one of these teams is going down.

Maybe. Can’t help but think that this game is arguably one of their easiest of the season and they should probably have lost it (and still could).

fucking ouch. Sheffield United do not look great.

Worth watching this instead of Everton? Each time I’ve seen Sunderland this year they’ve looked pretty good.

It was ever thus.

It’s not to replace Kane though, beyond that he’s a HG forward. He’s more likely to alternate with Kulu as the right inside-forward/winger, only with significantly more pace. Can’t see us making a serious bid to replace Kane until next year, and even that depends upon how this year goes. We have a couple of kids coming through now up front and let’s see if Richarlison’s confidence comes back. Key thing for us is bringing young HG guys in so we have more flexibility elsewhere in the squad.

Almost certainly not. Have a couple for the future (Scarlett, Veliz) out on loan for a bit. If Brennan Johnson comes in then presumably it’s Son, Richarlison, Kulusevski, Johnson, Perisic and Solomon for the three positions up front.

Injury. He knacked his knee meniscus a couple of years ago, then instead of removing part of it (IiRC) he tried to fix it instead and ended up needing multiple surgeries. Lost some pace. He played in a lot of games last year but mostly coming on as sub I believe. Rumour is that we wanted a loan with an option to buy and Barca just wanted a straight loan. Brighton took the plunge. Don’t know if that's true, but it makes some sense.

Yeah that would totally make sense.

I agree. Like I say, that’s why I was surprised when I saw it after reading the thread. Nothing crazy, just expected it to be more blatant.

I mean, it was a foul. He gets the ball, but he goes through him to get it. If he didn’t take Isak’s right foot first then is Isak clean through? Maybe. But since VVD did get the ball as Isak was falling I don’t think we have a definitive answer. Thus I would have probably erred on the side of caution and yellow-carded him.

Well you can’t both be right Finally got to watch the game yesterday. I thought you did OK in general but like you all say, you didn’t have to confidence to really go for it when they were down. Still, there were those couple of moments when a bit of luck could have gone your way but didn’t (mainly the Alisson save and the post) and it did go Liverpool’s way (Botman getting tangled up and happening to put the perfect ball through). You do need a bit/lot of luck to survive with 10 men at this level regardless of what you do. But what you do is still extremely important. I do think it was a Klopp masterclass, reminiscent of Hoddle’s for England against Argentina. It’s key that he’s been there for years now and even though the squad is in transition he’s been working with most of them for a long time in a lot of situations. A few of you have pointed out specific situations that you could have taken advantage of but didn’t (E.g. TAA’s booking) but others pointed out the ways in which Klopp - on the fly - worked to nullify them. I think Howe’s relative lack of flexibility was exposed, perhaps most obviously with the substitutions. He’s still only been there a couple of years and is still building his squad - there's plenty of time for him to develop that. The underlying question is - at this level, with higher expectations (and maybe the first loss of momentum) - can he respond? I will say one thing though. After reading the match thread I was expecting the red card to be considerably more clear-cut than it was. And I suspect I hate Liverpool more than nearly everyone else on this board

Yeah they’re tiring. Every club has its cunts, but the (often foreign) social media nutters you’re talking about are hard to take. At least you can rest a bit in the knowledge that most of them have plumped for Arsenal or Liverpool already.

Hope PEH stays tbh. Ange has been bringing him on to close out games and it’s worked a treat.

Nice juxtaposition of consecutive posts.

He’s classy, but very one-footed. Still young though (younger than E.g. Willock). Lovely footballer. Plenty of time to settle into this system.

Might work but I feel like we need a more physical presence up in the middle. Also I think Perisic isn’t going to be up to playing week in, week out. He will probably rotate with Solomon.

Son’s actually been really good last game and a half, just playing a different role. Richarlison’s confidence is shot, but he’s still working hard. Kulu’s the one where you just feel like he doesn’t fit what’s needed. Suspect that’s where he’ll play Brennan if we get him.

And have the constant threat of your best players being poached at any point during the season? I’m not just referring to the Saudis either. I’m happy with the concept of a transfer window.