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- NotCuntrado
Friends invited me to watch this match together....so much for what kind of match (and result) awaits us on Wednesday night
You need some real mitigating circumstances to argue. If there were any we would have appealed. We appealed the Bologna game and bastoni 2 game ban, this management does stand up for our rights.You don't argue the facts, you try to reduce the ban to a 1 game. But anyways doesn't matter now.
I agree. Re defence, i believe it's a mistake to blame it solely on individuals. Sure De Vij is having a poor season and Skriniar had his worst performance of the season in Naples but it goes far beyond than individual mistakes and performances. It's a collective problem that's clear for everyone to see whenever we fail to defend a lead. It's a combination of the lack of pacy players in the squad, which make our counter attacks toothless, and the big difference in quality between our starting midfielders and our bench options. Whenever Inzaghi takes off one of the midfielders in the big games we immediately lose midfield battle and we resort to passive defence.Generally, when these European upsets occur it is the result of one or a combination of factors including getting caught on the counter, a moment of individual brilliance from a skilled player, a defensively resolute team performance, or simply rising to the occasion.
From what I've seen, this team is utterly devoid of any of these things.
We have ZERO pace. If you timed every single player of ours in a 100m sprint, our squad would be in the lowest 1 percentile in Europe. Teams do not need to fear us hurting them on the counter because we are utterly incapable of doing so.
Likewise, we have such little flair in this squad that the chances of us creating something out of nothing is exceedingly slim. At any moment in the game, Salah can beat his man with drop of a shoulder and curl one into the far post. Who is even capable of that in this squad? Sanchez? Calhanoglu?... Lmaotaro?
The last two games against Milan and Napoli (even for moments against Roma) have also shown a worrying decline in our defence. Much of that is on De Vrij who looks fucking finished but Skriniar was putting on his own clown show at Naples too. Moreover, the trend is that under Inzaghi, this team can not simply close shop and defend a lead. The inability to counter attack certainly contributes to this. Regardless, every time this team has tried to defend a result, it has failed. The less said about Handanovic the better.
Finally, the mentality.. just lol. As I've pointed out ad nauseum, this team lost their mental edge when Conte left and the proof is in the pudding.
We've played 9 games across the league and CL against the big teams. 1 win, 5 draws, 3 losses. That is utterly pathetic and incompatible with a team aiming to be champions.
If you analyse closely, it gets even worse. In numerous games we dropped points from a winning position (Milan twice, juve, Atalanta). We also played our full-strength team against an injury ravaged Atalanta (yet failed to win or even score) and lost to a Milan B team missing both their first choice defenders, plus Ibrahimovic and Rebic.
That indicates to me that this team can not lift their game in the big occasions. Every time this abysmal big game record is brought up, someone argues that we dominated Milan or juve or Real Madrid for 45 or 60 minutes. Even when we do dominate for long periods of the game, what is the fucking point if you just shit your pants and can't hold your nerve until the end? That is the literal definition of being chokers.
I'll watch the game - as I have every game this season and as I did every game during our 9th place finish under Stramala - and I'll hope and support the team as usual, but the evidence is not in our favour. I see nothing wrong with acknowledging the evidence and basing my expectations upon it.
Ok, fair enough, I just wish I was as confident we're going to win the tie as much as a lot of you are!Well, we are simply being realistic. We are definitely not ready to beat a team like Liverpool and the timing of the game is awful. We are having hard time in Italy, two key players are missing the game (I don't believe that Inzaghi would risk Bastoni), so the chances are very slim.
That's an optimistic prediction! I think Liverpool will press us high and dominate the ball.RE the defence, perhaps I am judging what I've seen harsher than you are but I feel the stats are revealing, and not in a good way.
Out of 24 games, we've kept 10 clean sheets. Not bad, but those have come against Genoa (H), Empoli (A), Udinese (H), Venezia (A), Spezia (H), Roma (lol. A), Cagliari (H), Salernitana (A), Torino (H) and Atalanta (A).
That's only 3 clean sheets against teams in the top 10. The others have come against the three newly promoted teams, plus other relegation shitters like Genoa and Cagliari.
But it's the eye test which gives it away for me. Even before that reputation-ruining performance in the derby, de Vrij had been atrocious all season. Skriniar and Bastoni have also had shaky moments, like getting owned by Venezia's Henry of all players. I can't remember one good defensive performance against a big team this season. Maybe the second half against Napoli this week was OK?
The team simply does not look defensively solid. For me that's very visible in the way we win balls, close space and defend as a unit.
Is there ANYONE here who would feel comfortable about us sitting back and trying to defend a narrow, 1 goal lead for more than like.. 5 minutes? Even Torino and Venezia came to San Siro and made us sweat.
Anyway though, I'm not expecting a rout against Liverpool, but I'm expecting a near exact repeat of our first leg against Real Madrid. Same scoreline too.
In the first half we'll have a lot of the ball and make some decent chances, but our forwards will not be ruthless enough to finish their chances. Lautaro in particular will squander chances by shooting directly at Alisson instead of the wide open spaces on either side of him.
The game will then fall into a dull period where we sit back and waste possession with long balls, inviting Liverpool to attack us. We'll concede a goal around the 70th minute, probably from a marking lapse by de Vrij off an Alexander-Arnold cross.
We'll then attack in hopes of finding the equalizer but by that stage, Inzaghi will have taken off Lautaro for D'Ambrosio and Calhanoglu for Vidal. We will fail to create a single remotely dangerous chance in the extremely underwhelming and tame final 20 minutes. 0-1 Liverpool.
gds saying Alexis will start instead of Lautaro.
Same ref with Liverpool-Milan and Man Utd-Atalanta.
so we're screwed from that sideSame ref with Liverpool-Milan and Man Utd-Atalanta.
Lautaro should still start this game alongside Alexis. Van Dijk vs Dzeko will be like watching me vs Brehme in a football debate.-------------------Handa--------------------
-----Dumbo-----Skriniar-------De Vrij------
Dumfries---Vidal---Brozo--Hakan----Perisic
--------------Dzeko-------Alexis-------------
Dude, come on.Lautaro should still start this game alongside Alexis. Van Dijk vs Dzeko will be like watching me vs Brehme in a football debate.