Match Thread Liverpool v Everton - Sunday 10th December

[Jib in lad]

Haha they are so so gutted I kin love it.

 

[Groucho]

"These Brexit weirdos" or whatever he said. Haha. One tiny snippet of the fanbase showed there's a % who think a European superstate might be a bad idea and the blokes having a full-blown breakdown and trying to use it as a stick to beat us? Anybody know his name because I'm about to do the pod with @Groucho and we'll reference this.

Is it Neil Atkinson?

 

[The Blue Cat]

Anyone else getting Mourinho vibes off Klopp in that interview?

Just imagine that had been - as it could so very easily have been on several occasions - Martina giving Salah a little shove in the back inside the box. We'd've seen a whole different Klippety Klopp tantrum if that'd been waved away.

 

[Adam-GOTTV]

Is it Neil Atkinson?

Ha-ha. We'll give him and the Anfield wrap a shout out. His sister must have married a blue or something because he's raging. Bless.

 

[heartscry2286]

Welcome to a Sam Allardyce performance. "Respect the point"...

I'd much rather get a point out of a game that we were going to lose rather than nothing.

Sam had you into Europe didn't he? then you binned him for Bilic and Sexy 'West Ham' football.
How did that work out?

Moyes and a relegation place, aye, we'll be taking your advice.

 

[Thomasc]

*cough*

...just another reminder for the future to anyone wanting to run the white flag up when we play that lot.

The odds historically are stacked against "Them winning all the time....as sure as night follows day".

@Thomasc


Let's all stay off our knees eh?

Round Two in January.

No idea how we got out of this game alive, Everton were basically pathetic for 80 minutes.

Still a point is a point! Would have taken that ok day long from the beginning.

 

[goodisonopheliac]

What is this weird obsession with kopites and Brexit? I voted Remain, so they can stfu. Big Nev's a vocal Remainer as well. And I know a kopite who voted Brexit.

No idea how we got out of this game alive, Everton were basically pathetic for 80 minutes

Which makes it even funnier. And the backline had Martina and Williams in it.

 

[irishblue11]

ha, ha, ha. heads are falling off everywhere. they are raging, love it.

 

[peteblue]

I just have one question on those loveable Rs my friends; are they still just one player away from winning the title?
Can anybody answer this one for me?

They are, and that one player is a bent referee......

 

[BrendanGOT]

Merseyside derby: Everton’s Sam Allardyce cannot hail Anfield draw as a masterstroke
H MDecember 10 2017, 6:00pm,
new
Paul Joyce

This was how Sam Allardyce will say he envisaged it: long ball over the top of Dejan Lovren, turning the Liverpool defender towards his goal, a mistake and a chance for the visiting team to strike.

Wayne Rooney did the rest, dispatching a nerveless penalty, and Allardyce was punching the air in celebration at Anfield once again and with even more gusto than that which greeted a crucial victory for Crystal Palace back in April.

Everton may still not have won at the home of their bitter rivals since 1999, but as they trudged across to salute the blue hordes at the final whistle that did not seem to matter judging by their giddy reaction.

Allardyce’s side were comprehensively outplayed and only regained parity with a long ball that drew a foul from LovrenLee Smith/Reuters
Nor did the reality that for the 76 minutes which preceded their equaliser they had been bystanders in arguably their biggest game of the season, allowed a route back into the 229th Merseyside derby only by the paucity of Liverpool’s finishing.

Everton completed just 101 passes throughout, mustered just 21.3 per cent of possession, and still emerged with a point and, more importantly, managed to deny their rivals all three.

Yet even Allardyce would be hard-pressed to describe this as a masterclass despite having pointed out Lovren’s vulnerability to the ball played in behind him after Palace’s success.

Rooney delivered the raking, cross-field pass, Lovren needlessly placed his hand on the back of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and, after the Everton striker was sent sprawling, the moment invited referee Craig Pawson to point to the penalty spot.

The decisive moment was the chance Liverpool passed up in first-half injury time
In an instant, the focus shifted from what had been an utterly supine performance from the visitors which had threatened to leave Allardyce exposed.

There had been a moment just after Jordan Pickford shanked a goal-kick straight into touch for the umpteenth time in the first half, leaving Rooney and Allardyce in competition as to who could shake their head the hardest, that it seemed pertinent to wonder just what Everton had spent the past week doing.

This was ‘Operation Anfield’? The one which had been conceived on the training pitches at Finch Farm over the past six days, Allardyce pulling himself, and his first team squad, out of Europa League dead-rubber with Apollon Limassol in Cyprus to concentrate on their master-plan?

Everton retreated backwards, conceded possession to Liverpool and tried to hit Oumar Niasse or Calvert-Lewin when the ball was turned over and play from there. They were, in truth, shocking.

Match stats

4-3-3

Liverpool 1 - 1 Everton

4-4-2

English Premier League14:15 Sunday December 10 2017

Possession
79.0%
79.0%
21.0%
21.0%
Shots
23
23
3
3
Shots on target
3
3
2
2
Corners
12
12
1
1
Fouls conceded
8
8
11
11
By the time the interval arrived and Allardyce tried to revise his approach – Niasse was hauled off, Tom Davies dragged off and Morgan Schneiderlin and Aaron Lennon introduced – he was fortunate to only be one goal in arrears.

The decisive moment was not Jürgen Klopp’s decision to leave Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho out of his starting line-up, but the chance his side passed up in first-half injury time having just gained the ascendancy following Mohamed Salah’s latest howitzer.

A break-away started when Sadio Mané slalomed away from Ashley Williams but he went for goal, when Dominic Solanke, Mohamed Salah and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were stationed, unmarked, to his right, and the chance went begging.

Coutinho was left out of the starting line-up and was not able to alter the scoreline after coming onPaul Ellis/AFP
Much will be made of the absence of the Brazilian duo. Klopp had stated after the 7-0 dismantling of Spartak Moscow last midweek that he did not like the nickname ‘Fab Four’ given to messrs Coutinho, Salah, Mané and Firmino, claiming it was disrespectful to other members of his squad.

Yet no one expected him to disband it for this game.

Until Salah scored in the 42nd minute, back-heeling the ball away from Cuco Martina, brushing off Idrissa Gana Gueye and using Ashley Williams as a guide to brilliantly arc a shot into the top corner, it felt as though the question of how to stop the Egyptian and Mané had finally been answered. Take away Firmino.

If the plan was to introduce Coutinho and Firmino as Everton tired, then they entered just as Rooney restored parity. It was that sort of day for Liverpool.


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...hail-anfield-draw-as-a-masterstroke-qr78l23r2

Christ Joyce really has turned bitter about us the last few months hasn’t he!!

He's a bitter f***er since Koeman got the boot

 

[BlueToff]

Poor display in general, but in terms of what we set out to do - we've got a good result.

Thought Williams and Kenny - in particular - were superb.

We restricted Liverpool to 3 efforts on target. Yes, we rode our luck, but overall deserved a point purely because of how we defended.

That's a tough game out of the way with a point taken. Not exactly how we wanted I imagine, but did it in the end.

 

[Jreverton1]

No idea how we got out of this game alive, Everton were basically pathetic for 80 minutes.

Still a point is a point! Would have taken that ok day long from the beginning.

For all the possession they had, Pickford didn't really have to make a save and Salah's goal could've been prevented, not that I'm saying we weren't lucky to come out with a point. We looked a lot more solid than I've seen in a long time and if this had been a few games ago it would have been 4/5 nil easy. I'm looking at the top 6 rather than the bottom 3, which seems to suggest we're doing something right.

 

[BlueToff]

He's a bitter f***er since Koeman got the boot

Nah, he's alright, he laid into Koeman as well.

But, he's a red, end of the day, and it's come out here.

Yep, we were shocking, and it wasn't the tactics to be that bad - Sam would have wanted us further up the pitch.

We got the point we wanted. Sound.

 

[BlueToff]

No idea how we got out of this game alive, Everton were basically pathetic for 80 minutes.

Still a point is a point! Would have taken that ok day long from the beginning.

We stayed in the game.

That's all that mattered.

 

[dannyboy]

"These Brexit weirdos" or whatever he said. Haha. One tiny snippet of the fanbase showed there's a % who think a European superstate might be a bad idea and the blokes having a full-blown breakdown and trying to use it as a stick to beat us? Anybody know his name because I'm about to do the pod with @Groucho and we'll reference this.

lol

Absolutely bizarre but not surprising, the politics forum on RAWK is rife with Blairite Europhiles.