Lush Vlad

I might be wrong. But I think it's to do with how he strikes the ball. He never gets any power into it and you never expect him to beat the keeper from long range. Not necessarily down to his accuracy or finishing ability if he is in a bit closer. It's not a disaster. He is very good at other things. But his shooting is weak as piss, IMO.

He has been brilliant for them this season and all. Having Tonali central and Joelinton or Willock in there too should mean we are a lot more mobile. Jones and Gravenberch get about the pitch and the latter is pretty fast, even. It helped that Bruno was often matched up against Mac Allister, as he is slower than Bruno, even. I was impressed at how well the midfield did and how balanced it was. Even if Joelinton faded a bit 2nd half and Bruno was dead on his feet. That's where I think we could have done with some fresh legs in there. Especially after they made their incredibly attacking triple sub.

Had some mates in our Whatsapp generally saying we deserved to win, we played well, they were shit. But a couple actually saying the first thing the ref gave them was the early whistle at the end

He does. But we were still going to get Willock in, I'd say. Even if VVD covers Wilson's run. That would have been a massive chance for a counter.

I thought he was outstanding for the most part and can't believe he is getting some stick for the first. It clearly hits Burn and deflects past him at a decent speed. Bar that proper no man's land where he sort of ran into Tino and realised too late that he was blocking his route to the ball. It looked windy as fuck and seemed to catch plenty out all night, mind. I'd rather he kept being aggressive and coming for the ball. Even if it does result in the odd fuck up. He certainly got away with that one! Came from us giving the ball away cheaply down our left , yet again, from memory? The save down to his left was top drawer. But as I always say, he seems to make saves a lot of keepers get nowhere near look incredibly routine. Positive that he has gone down hard on his dodgy shoulder and all. As he was certainly looking a bit ropey diving to that side. His distribution was superb all night, I thought. His quick roll outs and throws set us away on counters regularly. The whistle at the end possibly robbing him from contributing massively to our own 4-3 v Liverpool that Sky could keep showing for years to come. Even his kicking was pretty good. Nearly set us away on a counter with the long one out of hand. Played a decent diagonal out to Tino. Low bar on the kicking, of course but it was still better than usual.

It is becoming a bit of a gripe when we’re winning or drawing a game. We often just seem to leave the same players out there no matter how it is going or how jaded certain players look. Yet when we’re chasing. We will suddenly make wholesale changes all at once and they often don’t come off or we don’t leave enough time for them to make an impact. I Thought the game was crying out for Willock and/or Longstaff a bit earlier. Don’t want to piss and moan too much, mind. Fully deserved point against the best club side in the world at the minute.

Yeah. Macallister is somehow less mobile than Bruno

No. He saw he was too inconsistent or not doing what he wanted as the RCM and he preferred Longstaff for that role. I think he realised how well he played in the central role against Chelsea in the cup. We’ve been struggling for goals so perhaps need ball players further forward and we have also still had that issue with screening the CB’s. He’s found a solution (so far) to a lot of the midfield issues. By playing him as the 6. Something I read that he did early in his career. Suddenly, the LCM role looks like it could be more of an issue. Willock is too in and out, Joelinton was great first half tonight. Poor second, IMO. Longstaff has been bad there the few times he’s played there from memory?

He really does go from the sublime to the ridiculous. Often in the same passage of play. He had a good game overall. But his lack of quality and some of his passing was really annoying. Not his fault, I guess. Just his level. If anything, a lot of the time he plays, he is up to his usual standards or exceeding them. Whereas others are off it and get a free pass. He just has limitations and shouldn’t really be starting games for us. Not if we have genuine ambitions to win things and get top 4-6.

He was a menace all night. Carragher was saying the other day how no striker really troubles Van Dijk. I didn’t want to jinx it. But I thought at the time, Isak often gives him issues. Goal at Anfield on debut. Unlucky with an ‘offside’ to stop another. Got him sent off in the home game. Scored there last season (not checked if VVD was playing, TBF) Regularly turned him inside out tonight and Was giving him problems all game. He didn’t seem to gas for a change and the hip seemed fine. Just hope he can go on a run of games now where he isn’t playing crocked all the while.

He just needs to be more purposeful, IMO. Too often he slows it down then it all sort of fizzles out. He runs into a defender, he cuts back and never gets the angle for the shot, he plays a low percentage pass into traffic to a man back to goal etc. I feel like I’m giving him shit all the while. But we know how great he can be and I’m not seeing it this season.

He’s mobile, fast for a CM, even. Followed up Saturday’s performance with arguably an even better one. The 6 (4) position is his to lose now.

They just punished our first real mistakes in the game with their elite quality. Made 3 big mistakes second half. They score two and should score another. That dragged them back into the game. Should have been out of sight before all of that. So it is frustrating. Brilliant game and performance. Very frustrating in some ways.

Great performance. It somehow feels like a bad result for both. But a fair one. We were ahead twice and the better side at the time. They’ve come back into it and then battered us for 10-15. Mistake at the end let’s us back in. Funny old game. At least we are scoring again.

Love Howe’s subs. Team’s been dead on their feet for 10 mins. Make 3 subs when the game’s beyond us. Hard to be annoyed in some ways. We have played really well for the most part. Just some atrocious mistakes and soft goals to concede. Which is becoming a bit of a theme.

Surely a pen, VVD on Gordon? Gordon’s safe finishing and pass appreciation still fuck me off no end. But that is a brilliant half. They’ve been excellent to a man.

Last time everyone got a bit annoyed at a bit of a less fashionable, workhorse type starting a game. Was when Longstaff started against Arsenal. So fingers crossed this works and we can get a result.

Ha. He does talk a bit like the Jonathan Ross off Bo Selecta. “wibble wobble wibble *shoehorn in a long word for no reason* wibbly wobble woblov.”

I’ll lowkey be over the fucking moon.

Also, that article FFS. References PSR and the need to be clever. Yet we’re getting linked with two players where we’d be buying high whilst also paying the Premier League premium.

All this talk of how much better Gordon is, so perhaps he is surplus to requirements or we should cash on on one of our sellable assets to improve other areas. Based on last season, rightly so. Based on this season and other spells in the Prem, I’m not so sure that’s right. I know they’re different ages and played for different sides. So not ideal to compare. But Gordon has one season of great numbers. Then what? He has been dreadful for most of this season IMO and I don’t actually think technically as a footballer, he is that great. Barnes has never got a fair crack at starting regularly and seemingly never will under Howe. So it becomes even harder to compare. I can totally see the argument that Gordon is much more of a Howe player in this system. But he’s hardly shown that this season and without that workrate and tenacity. I don’t particularly rate him. As controversial as that may sound.

If we do build on it. Then fine. But we’ve shown time and again we can play against teams that give us space to run into and tend to raise it for the big boys when we’re on TV. What happens tonight is almost irrelevant, to me (I’m sure I’ll be sayinf this later ) It’s a bit of a free hit and I also think there will be large chunks of the game where we look decent. The next 3 games after this will tell us more about the season and if Howe can start to get a tune out of the current squad. As it’s been more of a David Guetta Kiss FM remix sort of tune this season, as opposed to a Beethoven symphony.

One bloke wrote a message on a rainbow armband. Another bloke didn’t want to wear one at all. Someone thought the earth was flat. There was an argument about science.