KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum CONFIRMED TEAM & MATCH THREAD V BARCA

Robbie was sorely missed. His work-rate and finishing would have made a difference. Trent on the bench was a strange decision. Gomez is a super centre-back, but he isn't a wing-back.
Geez, how good was Messi though? There are no words.

Maybe our team can watch that again. Maybe we get Rafa into the dressing room after the Newcastle game to tell our lads what really happened that night in the dressing room. Our fans have lifted the team before and they can again. Apart from Istanbul there was also Dortmund and Olympiakos.

Klopp is unbeaten in two legged games with us. I don't think Barcelona have beaten us in Europe.

The one thing I pray for us a win v Newcastle on Saturday followed by City slipping up on Monday night.

Can you imagine the volume levels and atmosphere at Anfield on Tuesday night if that happens?

Yep we need one more top notch player to rotate as you say. I would imagine the minutes our front 3 have stacked up this season are far more than those of our rivals. Perhaps only Sterling has anything like as much game time as our front 3.

Yep and that was a Bayern side bang on form in their domestic league when we played them off the pitch in their own back yard.

Yep and that was a Bayern side bang on form in their domestic league when we played them off the pitch in their own back yard.

I think you need to watch that 2v1 situation v Spurs as to why he does that. His positional play and situation awareness is second to none.

We must now accept, we need a quality right back who can attack like TAA and defend like Robertson, else do both like Robertson, TAA can attack and cross very well, but he can't defend, that's why every side attacks us down our right side. Klopp must sort this out in the summer window, as using Gomez there is a mugs game. Then we need a clinical finisher for these big games, a clinical finisher would have scored last night, but none of our forwards could do it despite repeated opportunities. It's noticeable all season how many scoring opportunities we need, I.e. The ratio of opportunities to goals scored is outrageously high on the negative side.

I said it from the start Klopp meddled with the team and upset momentum with his starting line up. At one point Gini was playing as the striker??? what was that all about?

Our attack was insipid he meddled using Gomez at RB when we needed TAA supporting Salah and overlapping with his crossing of the ball that both he and Robertson do so well. It's probably the best part of our attack this current campaign, our fullbacks ability to get down the line and swing dangerous crosses in to the box which we have profited from time and again this season.

Barcelona played us like a fiddle...they set the traps and we fell into them. At 2 or 3 v 1 we might of had a chance at Anfield, but asking us to get 3 goals without reply and then possible extra time is mission impossible...if Barcelona score 1 we need 5!

The only shining light at the end of this tunnel is that if FSG are serious about success then they have to back Klopp to the hilt in the summer.

I'm not buying the team selection excuse - it's a complete kop-out (literally!). Firmino was injured and couldn't play the whole 90 minutes - and Klopp just doesn't trust Sturridge or Origi to deputise in that position because they don't close down and track back well enough. So he played a false 9 with a harrying player - and we had plenty of chances to score. In fact, Mane often rotated into the middle and he got behind a couple times. TAA has been caught out of position in recent games - and although he's a great prospect, he doesn't always time his runs right and sometimes leaves us exposed. Gomez is more solid defensively - and you just can't say that Liverpool would have secured another fate with TAA or Firmino in the side.

What we can say is that the team on the field was a little naive. Only a fabulous piece of optimism separated the sides in the first half - and we completely outplayed them for the majority of the second half and should have scored. Just like the Real Madrid final last year we were undone by the 'dark arts' of a Spanish team. We were outplaying them and they slowed the game down with dives, injury simulation, and trying to con the ref, which we played into. Just imagine if a Real player had been fouled in the box like Mane was early in the game - he would have rolled around and pretended agony to get the ref's attention. Klopp's teams are always honest and direct and need to learn to cope with the underhanded methods of teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona. The headlines will be about Messi's freekick... but I will forever remember his pathetic rolling around to try and get Milner sent off for running into him. We need to wise up.

People keep saying the formation was too defensive: No it wasn't. If anything we were too open and pushed too hard for an away goal, which left us exposed to the break on countless occasions towards the end of the game. Once it was 2-0 it could have 5 or 6. We should have played a bit tighter - it would have been better to get out of there with a 1-0 loss rather than risking the whole tie. We were so reckless that Allison wanted to go up for the corner at the end - and the coaching staff had to wave him back. But before that late period it really could have been 3-3 as Milner, Salah and Mane fluffed very attractive chances. Just like last year's final, the scoreline flattered the Spanish team who were simply opportunistic rather than good. Also, VVD was slightly at fault for two goals so all the boasting about him being the best defender in the world was probably a bit premature. I think the players are more to blame than Klopp - and they really should have put away one or two of those chances.

So good you posted it twice.

So why did he not replace them, what's the use of keeping players he doesn't trust? We all knew they were not good enough and not even with hindsight.