OTF

Such a bizarre situation there. They were having a great season, beyond their wildest dreams, and before it's even done there's a falling out between the manager and the owner. Then instead of ending it during the off-season it drags on into the start of the season, likely causing problems with the players through the general volatility and unease at the club. Then part ways a few games into the new season, and hastily appoint a manager who has just had a tragically shit season at a club with notably deeper reserves and bring him in giving him effectively no time to implement any changes to the style of play even though his style of play is vastly different to the previous highly successful manager. But let's not end it there, now let's get rid of this new manager, who yes is probably not going to work and ralk about implementing another new manager whose style of play again is totally different.

Surely the Isak sale gives us the headroom to improve and extend his contract?

Joe copped a fair bit of criticism here and he was far from his all-round best but I thought he had a very positive impact on the game. He was covering a lot of ground and imposing his physicality in an effective way. His passing wasn't amazing but certainly not the worst in the side. He is still coming back to full sharpness and fitness from that persistent knee injury but this was the most like the Joelinton we know in a long time.

I think they will sell Salah either in January or next summer. First half of last season he was at his best single handedly changing results in their favour, but the second half that run ended and he was on a decline fitting with his age. That has continued this season. It's no surprise to Liverpool though, it's why they wanted Isak all along. What doesn't make sense is both Isak and Ekitike in the same team. With Gakpo as well who is a quality player. With Konate injured not sure how their defense will look. They're still favourites IMO.

With Hall out with a busted hamstring and Livramento out for a couple of months (at least I would say) we can expect to see a lot more of it. Really Howe should be putting Trippier on the left and trying Krafth and Thiaw at RB. Or even Murphy though he's a bit lightweight in the tackle. Otherwise it's going to turn into a couple of seasons ago where everyone constantly attacked Burn with pace and agility.

He seems to only be fast when he's not dribbling, when he has the ball fullbacks catch him. So we really need to be playing balls through for him. If Howe intends to use Wissa with Woltemade then I wouldn't mind him trying to come up with a formation where Elanga plays more central with Gordon and Murphy wide. Gordon was not great in this either but Elanga had a stinker with the ball, so many poor touches. He does have more misscontrols than you would expect at this level but he's still only 23 and we've seen him enough to know that this was not his usual game and he seemed really.unsure if himself, even in deciding when to make runs. Even having a bit of a stinker he managed to combine well with Trippier a couple of times and got into dangerous positions. We have Howe and age on our side for him to improve on all of this.

Big meeks for me like.

Oof Ange 0.27 xG (2.98 for us).

Howe giving nothing to Ange with that curt and dismissive hand shake.

Dummkopfs, the lot of us.

Yeah, I was nervous.

Wolte! Lovely.

Agent Ando

That is an incredible save from Sels (from Thiaw).

How have we not scored there?!

Yeah, just looks like an off game. His touch from the start was off.

Hospital pass from Murphy

Fuck, so close

That would have been a beauty from Tonali.

Nice play Barnes.

We really need Hall back.

The amount of miss-touches by Elanga is ridiculous. It's like park football.

He's turned the ball over a bit but I feel like he's been one of our better players.

Shocker there from Wood, though he was offside anyway.

It's only because of this shit referee that they have 11 at the moment.