I think the defence has become so solid we just switch into cruise mode as soon as we score. It's never calm at 1 nil but in saying that the only save Alison had to make was a save I'd would have made.
Great to get the 3 points..job done but woeful to watch. Never going to be easy to play away after international break
Wjinaldum was excellent when he came on. Salah was hit and miss today and I thought Firminio was incredibly poor when he came on. I'd still prefer to see us attacking with more purpose like we did last season but I appreciate very much how hard we now are to play against and that's probably more sustsinable over a season.
Utd kept doing it every season under Ferguson, play poor but always managed to grind out the result. We can't go on without our front 3 not clicking like last season so for now we just need to keep pace with City and that's exactly what we're doing. Delighted with a win from today's game
We haven’t married the defense and attack yet and looks like it’s going to take a while , Not sure if it’s the quality of midfield or just how we’re newly set up ? Looking like Keita and Fabinho going to take a while to settle and Ox out probably for the season all factors to consider . Probably going to have to give up some control to help the attacking side for now
Excellent three points. Tonight was the absolute definition of winning ugly. Huddersfield do look a much better team than where they are in the table tonight.
Just back after the internationals, few players missing, few players carrying some knocks. I'll take the 3 points all day long
Thought Huddersfield have some good build up. Pritchard was not bad and that fella Mooy is always busy however their strikers are not even championship level. A decent striker could have has at least two goals. On LFC could not believe some of the breakaway waste. Only thing I can think of is the grass was very long and the ball was getting stuck. Timing of passes aside from Shaqiri and occasionally Sturridge was very slack. A great with though.
Three away points, a clean sheet and all from a not very good performance from us. Still they tell me that great teams can manage a win when under par so a good days work. You've got to be happy with that. Now let's get that ball control and passing back to the standard we know we can play with.
Virgil some man to get away with a mistake on the odd occasion he makes one. Wish I was that lucky... Gomez is really exceeding my expectations this season
It was funny listening to the commentator on that one, Vvd makes a mistake and then Lovren panics completely. Lovren had zero expectation of that ball getting by Virgil and managed to make some contact with the ball to break it up but it was like the commentator was suggesting it was his mistake!
An important win but it was a very poor performance. Just seen the point made that teams are giving up against City before they even get on the pitch and days like yesterday gives the same teams hope against us,basically making our fixtures harder than theirs. We can't win the league under those conditions so we can't afford to lose that fear factor for other teams. Keeping things in perspective though,joint top of the league,we know what we're capable and overall the team is doing an awful lot right.
Very harsh on Lovren by the commentator alright. I only saw the highlights but I much prefer Gomez at CB instead of Lovren, I thought Lovren was a good bit off the pace yesterday and was caught out in poor positions a good few times. Maybe Klopp wanted Lovren in for some extra height and TAA dropped because of that?
Our defending has improved an incredible amount since this time 12 months ago. We though, are playing a slightly different style of football which does help the defence as we won't be cut open as often. It's not as 100 mph as it was last season with the midfielders chasing every ball like terriers trying to win possesion straight away. If that didn't work we were out of position and often left wide open at the back. Of course VVD, Alison and all the defence have improved everything as well. This more subdued approach could well help us conserve a little energy for when we get to March and April when we're playing massive games every 3 or 4 days. People are saying yesterday was poor but that's unfair on the back 5 for starters. They were all pretty flawless. We were poor from there forward though. Our passing from the halfway line forward was awful, i thought Salah was probably our worst player for it, he got a great goal yes that turned out to be the difference but overall he was poor. Our front 3 arent clicking at all but I'm pretty sure they will, i don't think we'll be seeing the blitzing of teams like we did last season because we're not going out gung-ho anymore and I'm fine with that. With our defence looking pretty solid if our front 3 can get going we'll go very close this season. It's just going to be done a little differently.
While we all raved about the "heavy metal" football and the absolute batterings we handed out to teams last year, the simple fact is that tits out gameplan landed us 20 odd points behind City in the final reckoning. Alot of those points were dropped against teams we fully expected to beat, or teams we got ahead of and let them back in. I cant find the exact total for last season, but up to February we had dropped 12 points from winning positions, and over 50 points in Jurgen Klopps reign. The defensive side of our game had to be addressed and fixed and so far it certainly looks as if that is the case. That has had an adverse effect on the offensive side, and while the forward line isnt firing yet (it WILL, its too good not to) I think a lot of the blame/problem lays in the fact that the midfield, rather than going gung ho to get up with the front three are being far more circumspect, ensuring the backline isnt left totally exposed time after time. Bedding Fabhinio (a quality def mid) and Keita ( a quality all action mid) into the team was always going to take time, but once Klopp can figure out how to do that, I honestly think the goals will start flowing with regularity again while also allowing us to continue to be miserly at the back. In the meantime, we're winning games ugly without ever looking like the team (going forward) we were last year. So if (when) that aspect of the team reemerges we are going to be a frightening propect. And in all fairness - if Klopp delivers the Holy Grail, will anyone remember, or care that we won an ugly game of football against Hudersfield in October?
Not at all even if we win ugly all season , But we’re going to come unstuck and look at City it won’t happen unless we improve the balance . Personally think it will change but how long it takes I’ve no clue . Think with the quality of our defenders and Alisson we can afford to open up a lot more .