chjoak said:

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With Brighton opting to pull defenders out of the box, Id like to see us crowd the GK and see if we can score directly from the corner.

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I think Nwaneri accidentally tried that. Worth a shot

Doubt it was preplanned. Outside of his goal Nwaneri was losing the battle against Estupinan. Had we been up 2-3, Arteta likely lets him stay in.

Why can't we have nice things against Brighton

Damn it all

UGH!

Get Odegaard on

50/50 headers are pens now? Neat.

I don't get that penalty. It's not intentional, not malicious. Does Saliba not have the right to go for the ball?

agdoc2001 said:

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50/50 headers are pens now? Neat.

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Saliba was late and made the head to head contact so a bit hard to argue with it, imo

But Saliba was nonetheless terribly unlucky as that was bang bang and was an honest play for the ball

Also, it was ok for a BHA player to "sweep the leg" and take Gabi out on a corner in the box in the first half

TXAggie2011 said:

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agdoc2001 said:

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50/50 headers are pens now? Neat.

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Saliba was late and made the head to head contact so a bit hard to argue with it, imo

But Saliba was terribly unlucky as that was bang bang

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Yeah I agree, super unlucky but it was a foul

Anywhere else on the pitch, I guarantee that's a drop ball

Also, keep in mind, this wasn't a foul and a pen wasn't given a few hours ago:

I think Saliba was really unlucky but also didn't need to try to head that ball at all. He really didn't have a chance to get the ball. But I know that was instinctual from him as much as anything.

Joao Pedro awarded a penalty after inadvertent William Saliba headbutt. pic.twitter.com/xPVB9sCp2e

— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) January 4, 2025

Anyhow, Brighton is going for the win and leaving us space for the counter attack. Let's see what happens

75 minutes in: 6 shot attempts and only 2 on goal. Very poor. Put the damn ball on net!

Lucky to not be losing after that

chjoak said:

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I don't get that penalty. It's not intentional, not malicious. Does Saliba not have the right to go for the ball?

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He was really late and headed the BHA player in the temple instead of the ball. It's a foul. No different than kicking at a ball, missing it and kicking your neighbor in the shins.

I have to say the amount of dark arts being applied by both teams is both amusing and off the charts. Guys are stomping feet, stepping on heels, throwing elbows, kneeing opponents in thighs. I'm pretty sure I saw a BHA guy hold up Martinelli, wrap him up, reach around and squeeze his junk. Martinelli came up screaming, way more than for a wrap up hold.

Miserable match. Nwaneri goal was the high point. Very little creativity. Cold wet matches are like the 12th man against Arsenal. 13th Man would be Anthony Taylor.

Full time whistle goes as we take our time over a throw in. Fitting.

This one is 100% on the lineup we put out. You want to rest Odegaard, do it in a home match. Not a place that is typically tough to play

Also suck that it's Pedro who draws the penalty when he should currently be serving a 3 match ban for violent conduct from a week ago

Mathguy64 said:

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chjoak said:

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I don't get that penalty. It's not intentional, not malicious. Does Saliba not have the right to go for the ball?

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He was really late and headed the BHA player in the temple instead of the ball. It's a foul. No different than kicking at a ball, missing it and kicking your neighbor in the shins.

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Really late? Interesting take since the ball actually deflects of his head before the clash of heads.

wangus12 said:

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This one is 100% on the lineup we put out. You want to rest Odegaard, do it in a home match. Not a place that is typically tough to play

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Word was he was sick?

This team continues the streak of dropping points it can ill afford to if it is to win the EPL. This is a concerning trend, going on for a third year.

If Arsenal would handle their business, the 2nd half of this season would be a thriller to the end. As it stands, it appears they will be chasing points Liverpool has as of yet been unwilling to concede. Know there is much soccer still to play, but damn it, this is frustrating.

injuries keep kicking our butt. while the roster isn't perfect we've had 2-3 seasons now that could have been the title season if not for either key injuries or stacked up injuries in key positions. as it stands right now, it is near impossible to get 1st this season. Liverpool would have to lose a minimum of 4 and we would have to be perfect. I don't see either of those happening. right now we are fighting for 2nd and trying to finish as high as humanly possible in UCL. Still think we need to add 1-2 players this window to mitigate the injuries but we also need to figure out if there is anything we can do differently to prevent sooo many injuries moving forward and prepare for a solid retool in the summer window.

Just doesn't feel like our year. Lots of soccer left but it hasn't felt like it was our year for a while and nothing about Liverpool right now suggests they'll fall apart.

But this is still a darn good team and we will be back as good as ever next year. We want an extra option here, maybe an upgrade there but the roster is solid and the two new kids are just going to get better and better.

The way I see it, we've got some work to do with the roster but nothing is a gaping hole.

Biggest issues:

1) Need another striker/right wing option.
2) Need to balance out the defensive side of the roster so we have more reliable RCB and RB choices relative to our overload on the left half.
3) Need to figure out how to let Rice regularly play at #6, which I think is his best position.

Next issues:

1) Find an upgrade to left wing if possible.
2) Upgrade CB depth.

Dream:

1) Find another starting level creative midfielder that can pair and rotate with Odegaard/Nwaneri/Merino.

Or at least that's where I'm at today off the top of my head.

TXAggie2011 said:

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1) Need another striker/right wing option.

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I honestly think we need a ST & W. ST is less important right now but I think you absolutely need a new ST next season so you can move Jesus on.

TXAggie2011 said:

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2) Need to balance out the defensive side of the roster so we have more reliable RCB and RB choices relative to our overload on the left half.

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I dont understand this comment. Saliba is one of the best CBs in the world and outside of FA cup or injury, he isn't seeing the bench. RB is technically set with White & Timber we just have some injury there right now.

I think we replace Kiwior in the summer and find a 3rd CB that plays both LCB & RCB and you use Heaven or Kucurri as the 4th CB. LB will likely be Cala/MLS and RB White/Timber. Highly doubt we do anything else on defense unless someone else I named above departs.

TXAggie2011 said:

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3) Need to figure out how to let Rice regularly play at #6, which I think is his best position.

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Think you need a right-footed 8.5 that can play on the left and rotate with Merino. MO & Nwaneri rotate on the right and Rice + someone new plays 6.

TXAggie2011 said:

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1) Find an upgrade to left wing if possible.

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In theory you could do this with the W depth this window but I honestly think we end up with 2 W as I could see Trossard leaving for a starting gig.

Apparently Nwaneri got hurt and that's why he was subbed. Arteta said it doesn't look good

Oh lovely

One thing we do need to start thinking about with the right side of defense is Saliba's contract. He'll be down to 2 years in the summer. Obviously you try to get him to resign, but I have a feeling with the Madrid noise that keeps coming that he's not going to. So we need to start preparing for that possibility.

agdoc2001 said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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chjoak said:

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I don't get that penalty. It's not intentional, not malicious. Does Saliba not have the right to go for the ball?

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He was really late and headed the BHA player in the temple instead of the ball. It's a foul. No different than kicking at a ball, missing it and kicking your neighbor in the shins.

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Really late? Interesting take since the ball actually deflects of his head before the clash of heads.

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He wasn't heading the deflection. He was heading the original ball and late to that. It just happened to deflect to him from sheer luck and proximity while he was in motion. The BHA player embellished a bit rolling around but I think it gets called anyway.

For the record I don't think Taylor had a great game. He let a lot of dark arts stuff go all around. None of it was particularly subtle. I didn't get the time wasting card on the corner at the end of the 1H.

I hear that about having White, Timber and Saliba on the right side. But I'm not convinced our best back line isn't when all 3 of those are on the field at the same time.

As Calafiori and MLS settle in, we hopefully won't need Timber over there as much but I don't think Timber's who I necessarily would want to rely on as RB rotation.

And our dependable Saliba back ups are…Timber and White? Tomiyasu *should* go a ways to solving this but you cannot count on him at all. (And yeah, the Saliba contact is obviously a looming question.)

Kucurri and Heaven are a year away at least from being guys I would go into a season planning on needing for real minutes. Next year they'll get some time and you can see where to go from there.

Just think as you offload Tierney, Zinchenko and maybe Kiwior and Tomiyasu you have to find at least one defender and preferably they're focused on the right side because we have 101 options for the left but are always an injury away from being real short on the right.