Football News: Fulham Vs Liverpool: A Red-Tinted View

This game had me worried as soon as it was announced: first game of the season, away from home, 12:00 kick off time. All the ingredients were there to make this as challenging as possible, and so it proved to be. We need to figure out how to raise our performance for these midday kick offs because they cause us problems time and again. It was a typical game in that we dominated possession but perhaps untypical in both the amount of shots we gave up and how toothless we were in attack (until the introduction of Nunez) .

Fulham

They had a game plan: press us hard, induce mistakes, play on the counter. Overall they were pretty successful. We never looked settled on the ball and a lot of our players had loose touches, misplaced passes, and in general a real lack of sharpness in their play. Fulham worked hard and in Mitrovic had a striker willing to work hard all game and engage Liverpool’s backline. He beat Trent in the air for the first goal and dived his way to a penalty he ultimately converted for his second. Fulham were sharp, organized, hard working, had a game plan, and deservedly earned a point. There will always be doubts about the defensive rigidity of Marco Silvia’s teams and, when attacked with purpose they did look a little flustered. Teams who really put pressure on them will find gaps so there success this season will depend on keeping the goals flowing.

Liverpool

Alisson – he was decent, and did not really make many errors. His distribution wasn’t great though, it would help everybody if it was more accurate. Didn’t really make any noteworthy saves was just beaten by two strikes that were very difficult to do anything about.

Van Dijk – good but not great, he was another whose distribution we expect more from. I did not think the penalty awarded against him was a penalty although the tendency of the backline, him included, to retreat when Mitrovic had the ball was not helpful and just increased the pressure.

Matip – woeful, woeful distribution. Klopp may like him for his ability on the ball but carrying the ball 40 yards is pointless if you can’t play a 5 yard pass at the end of it. Defensively he was OK, no big errors, but he also seemed slack and not quite on it. Improved second half but, for me, I want Gomez to be given a chance.

TAA – possibly the worst game I have ever seen him have. Awful distribution, passing and crossing, errant positioning defensively, was dominated for their…