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EFL Cup Is Over For Klopp So Time To Clip Villa
With the first ever winter World Cup out in Qatar now at an end following Argentina's ultimate victory over reigning holders France, domestic European leagues are preparing for their own resumption following the enforced pause in the calendar that was required for the tournament to take place.
Although Liverpool's Premier League return will come as we make the trip to Aston Villa and Villa Park on Boxing Day, we were more quickly back in action (compared to most) as we had the trip to the Etihad Stadium and Manchester City to contend with on Thursday evening for the EFL Cup Fourth Round clash, and given the break, the result of that game was always going to be akin to rolling the roulette wheel at https://www.slotozilla.com/uk/online-casinos/mobile.
Now even a die hard Liverpool fan would admit that City unfortunately edged the tie when it came to the telling statistics from the game, slightly greater possession, 18 chances to our seven, and nine on target to our two, but that does not quite tell the tale of the whole game for anyone who did not get the opportunity to watch it.
City took the lead ten minutes in as goal scoring monster Erling Haaland found the back of the net, but Fabio Carvalho had us back on level terms ten minutes later. The hosts again took the lead a few minutes after the half time restart, and the ever reliable Mohamed Salah again restored parity 60 seconds later. Sadly from Jurgen Klopp's point of view, Nathan Ake hit just ahead of the hour mark, scoring what eventually became the winner on the night, and we just could not find an answer to that.
There will be frustration from fans who attended as Darwin Nunez had three great opportunities to add to our own scoring tally, but he wasted them, shooting across the face of the goal and missing the far post when his positioning, at the very least, was begging for him to at minimum test goalkeeper Stefan Ortega and force him into some headline making saves.
Liverpool's defence of the trophy now comes to an end, but as we went into the World Cup break sat in sixth place, a full 15 points behind Arsenal (of all sides) who occupy top spot, fans will be hoping for a significant upturn in our league form now during the second half of the season and with six wins from the opening 14 matches, we simply have to sort out our consistency.
The EFL Cup this year was sadly just a distraction, we have to get back to winning ways and pick up all three points against Unai Emery's Aston Villa side, as even though he has had quite a material impact on them, there is no way this one can end in a defeat.
Klopp knew it had been a bad night, as he said after the full time whistle.
"We played a formation that we haven't played for a long time, and we had to change in pretty much our last session. You could see that, we needed time to adapt. In the first 15 minutes we had real problems and that killed our confidence and conviction a little bit. The goals we conceded were completely unnecessary. We had good spells and could have scored more goals as well. It's a result we have to live with now. It was a high-intensity game from both teams, that's normal. We played a good game but not good enough to beat City tonight. That says something but not everything. It's just how it is. There's a lot we can build on and we can take into the next games and that's what we'll do."
Fans will be hoping we just do that on Boxing Day.
Although Liverpool's Premier League return will come as we make the trip to Aston Villa and Villa Park on Boxing Day, we were more quickly back in action (compared to most) as we had the trip to the Etihad Stadium and Manchester City to contend with on Thursday evening for the EFL Cup Fourth Round clash, and given the break, the result of that game was always going to be akin to rolling the roulette wheel at https://www.slotozilla.com/uk/online-casinos/mobile.
Now even a die hard Liverpool fan would admit that City unfortunately edged the tie when it came to the telling statistics from the game, slightly greater possession, 18 chances to our seven, and nine on target to our two, but that does not quite tell the tale of the whole game for anyone who did not get the opportunity to watch it.
City took the lead ten minutes in as goal scoring monster Erling Haaland found the back of the net, but Fabio Carvalho had us back on level terms ten minutes later. The hosts again took the lead a few minutes after the half time restart, and the ever reliable Mohamed Salah again restored parity 60 seconds later. Sadly from Jurgen Klopp's point of view, Nathan Ake hit just ahead of the hour mark, scoring what eventually became the winner on the night, and we just could not find an answer to that.
There will be frustration from fans who attended as Darwin Nunez had three great opportunities to add to our own scoring tally, but he wasted them, shooting across the face of the goal and missing the far post when his positioning, at the very least, was begging for him to at minimum test goalkeeper Stefan Ortega and force him into some headline making saves.
Liverpool's defence of the trophy now comes to an end, but as we went into the World Cup break sat in sixth place, a full 15 points behind Arsenal (of all sides) who occupy top spot, fans will be hoping for a significant upturn in our league form now during the second half of the season and with six wins from the opening 14 matches, we simply have to sort out our consistency.
The EFL Cup this year was sadly just a distraction, we have to get back to winning ways and pick up all three points against Unai Emery's Aston Villa side, as even though he has had quite a material impact on them, there is no way this one can end in a defeat.
Klopp knew it had been a bad night, as he said after the full time whistle.
"We played a formation that we haven't played for a long time, and we had to change in pretty much our last session. You could see that, we needed time to adapt. In the first 15 minutes we had real problems and that killed our confidence and conviction a little bit. The goals we conceded were completely unnecessary. We had good spells and could have scored more goals as well. It's a result we have to live with now. It was a high-intensity game from both teams, that's normal. We played a good game but not good enough to beat City tonight. That says something but not everything. It's just how it is. There's a lot we can build on and we can take into the next games and that's what we'll do."
Fans will be hoping we just do that on Boxing Day.
Written by Alan Spencer
