That’s fair. That was a ridiculous challenge.
Konate got away with at least 37 fouls today. I’m ok with letting the teams play but Konate should have had a few more called against him.
3 Likes
Yea Konate constantly broke up our play and never got called for it. Cunt.
1 Like
Eh. That’s not really a reason as to why they scored. It fits a neat narrative because it’s Xhaka but I don’t think their crowd (at that point in the match) caused them to score. For the first 60 minutes I think the only person affected by the crowd was the official. He had a horrendous match.
2 Likes
As I said, not a direct reason but it did change the energy of the match. Just didnt really need to do it and we were sitting pretty at the time toying with them in front of a quiet crowd.
Fair enough if you believe that but I think the analysis on that is partly shaded by who Xhaka is to the media and partly outcome-based. If we finish the match at 2-1 it’s a nonissue.
If Xhaka was in a shoving match with TAA and then made a bad tackle or got sent off or blew coverage for a goal I think the analysis is warranted. It’s just lazy narrative. He had the best first half of all our midfielders.
1 Like
The Xhaka overreaction has been huge today. It was a needless yellow and moment but he had a decent game.
Probably our best midfielder.
1 Like
Sad to see Xhaka being scapegoated. I guess some things never change.
These scuffles are part of the game. He did it against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, and few times in other games that I cannot recall. The only difference from the old Xhaka is that his temper is controlled, he invites trouble rather than causing trouble which often in the past led to the red cards.
The goal Liverpool scored straight after was simply because Ben White was out of position and Henderson’s touch gave them a bit of luck. Silly to fault Xhaka.
I refuse to scapegoat Xhaka.
5 Likes
I think the criticism he’s getting is born out of PTSD from when we’ve seen him lose his head before. If any other player had gotten into a little spat like that and the match had gone the same way afterwards, no one would be labeling it as THE REASON that we didn’t get the 3 points.
I can’t believe that someone who has performed so well this season and is a major reason why we’re sitting where we are in the table right now can just lose all the good will he’s built up in the last year from this one moment alone, just shows some people are never willing to let him live down past mistakes. I’d be more critical of the referee not blowing for a clear foul when Konate twice hacked at him which led to the small scuffle in the first place.
1 Like
Yeah what the fuck was that? Dude had a free pass all match.
4 Likes
Was a stupid moment but it didn’t cause a goal to be conceded 30 seconds later. That’s correlation not causation.
1 Like
Don’t think he’s being scapegoated, however, he did something very foolish and people are rightfully calling him out for it.
Liverpool were collectively on their knees prior to that and the fans latched onto it, it gave them some fresh energy regardless of who was at fault for how the 1st goal was scored.
He got annoyed because he didn’t get a foul just before and for someone of his experience it was stupid to lose his cool especially when we were on top.
1 Like
I don’t understand why Xhaka was at fault.
I don’t.
He has enough of Konate’s roughing and fought back.
So??
If you say this fired up Liverpool’s players and fans… This could be said on our own players.
Our players should have fired up when we were roughed a number of times before the goal we conceded.
Where was our fucking fire??
I don’t say we should lose our head and fucking foul all Pool players, but, we should also use this as motivation to player harder.
You fuck up my teammate I fuck you up.
Don’t use Xhaka as an excuse.
After Xhaka bumped TAA, I think Konate rushed to the scene and pushed Xhaka away, right?
That’s the attitude I want to see
Instead, our players were chicken and grabbed Xhaka away, and afraid to deal with the heat and tension.
I see this as more chicken than getting tied.
Ode has a good season so far but I always think a player with tougher mentality could have handled today’s situation better.
If you rough my players again, I fuck up your Salah.
I
1 Like
For one I’m not a Xhaka hater, and I’m also not in the media. So your suggestion this is an extension of some narrative is completely off.
Tbh I haven’t really seen anyone saying the goal was directly his fault, just that the incident didn’t help and was poor behaviour.
His reaction was unnecessary and it played a part in bringing the crowd back into it. After the TAA confrontation, Trent was revving up the crowd and they were responding in kind.
He just didn’t need to do it and I think any time you bring a previously quiet Anfield crowd into a game, its a bad thing to do. He also put his head on TAAs head which is risky.
Would we prefer to play with a silent Anfield or a raucous one? It’s not exactly a question that needs answering.
Go back and read my post where I’m very clear Xhaka wasn’t directly at fault for the goal. It’s not some wild attempted analysis. It’s simple really: Xhaka did dumb thing and brought crowd back into game. Louder crowd is not good.
2 Likes
I think you’re putting too much weight on the Xhaka incident.
Yeah, maybe if he hasn’t done it would have hepled us, not having the crowd against us so ferouciously…
But their crowd is usually like that when they play an important game or so. You’re almost like asking them not to play with their full commintment (or the crowd not to support their team as hard as they know) which is a bit silly tbf.
We should still be able to cope with that, IF we want to win the league.
It’s not just here, I’ve been seeing comments about Xhaka on other places to and honestly I can’t wrap my head around it. Basically as if he made a silly pen and got a red. Or just got a red. Just a had a normal, somewhat heated argument ffs.
In other circumstances we would be praising him for standing up for himself and the team (if we won; or imagine he did that at the Emirates and motivated our crowd)… Idk, maybe I’m getting too old for this shit, or the game hame gone that soft. It was a totally normal, everyday incident, at least 10-15 + years ago.
Yeah, he has that bell around his neck (mostly his fault no doubt) because of his past incidents, so every time he does anything remotely conflicting people react a bit too much, but you’re making way too much out this “incident”.
4 Likes
There’s four minutes to half time. We switched off for the goal more than anything.
The free kick is deep in their half. Do your job . It wasn’t like we gifted them something deep in our half too defend.
At some stage that crowd would of found it’s voice.
Start of the second half. A corner or a shot at goal.
We are over playing this moment because it buys into a narrative on clichés on Xhaka and the crowd.
5 Likes
I am old school… I think he acted like a captain more than Ode yesterday.
2 Likes
For 35 minutes Liverpool looked insipid. You could see Arsenal were taking measures to kill any sort of momentum by feigning injury and it worked.
But the same thing happened with Klopp and Arteta last year. Don’t inject unnecessary emotion into the game. Not at Anfield.
1 Like
Yeah, but what really fired up the crowd was the goal, which was not caused by the Xhaka incident.
Players who defended poorly for the goal deserve ten times more stick and attention than Xhaka.
3 Likes
But their crowd wasnt like that until the Xhaka incident. So the argument that it is usually a certain way doesn’t wash. Maybe something else makes them loud in another scenario but at that time we had shut them up pretty well.
I’m literally not asking players to not play with their full commitment, butting heads with the opposition over a non-called foul isn’t the only way to play with full commitment.
I feel like the Xhaka defenders are the ones overanalysing this. Xhaka did an unnecessary thing when he should have showed more composure. Crowd reacted. Not a good thing for us when compared to a quiet crowd. Simple as.
Being angry is not the only way to play hard.