Premier League | Liverpool vs Arsenal | 27/08/2017 | 16:00 BST | Sky Sports

[Sniper Mik]

Crystal Palace should be the blueprint for our gameplan on Sunday. Sit tight, deny them space and hit them on the break. Benteke missed a sitter at 0-0, we'll need Laca to put away the one chance he's bound to get.

If we go there our usual chaotic self we'll probably get hit for five or six this time around.

I think we tried that approach in 2014-15 right after we'd gotten spanked in February in the previous season. The problem was we were too passive and let them dominate us. The only instance where that approach was executed perfectly was against City away in 2015. I just don't think we have the personnel or the defensive organisation to keep things tight without being passed off the park and then create chances and actually take them with whatever little possession we have.

 

[2Smokeyy]

They are great against teams that offer them space to exploit,teams that basically don't come to Anfield and park the bus. Arsenal are usually suicidal in the way they attack by over committing bodies forward. Our way of playing completely plays into their hands with the way they set up.

I agree with this. It's probably the reason why Mourinho does so well when he takes his teams to Anfield even if they're full of average players.

Liverpool are known to go full tilt within the first 15-20mins and they try and blow the opposition away with their fast paced start.

When Mourinho took his Man Utd side there last season, he had Fellaini playing in midfield. Ashley Young, Smalling, Blind etc all playing too. However, he managed contain them and make it difficult for Liverpool to find spaces.

Look at the possession stats in the link below. Man Utd had 35% whilst Liverpool dominated with 65%.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37604054

The same thing happened when Mourinho took his average Chelsea side, full of players who were warming the bench for most parts of the season. He set the players up to ruin the game and make it really difficult for Liverpool to find spaces. It worked successfully and Mourinho left Anfield with a 2-0 win and dented Liverpools title hopes.

A key figure once again is the match stats. Chelsea only had 27% whilst Liverpool dominated with 73%.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/27092978

There's a specific way to play against Liverpool however Arsène Wenger hasn't mastered it. The way our players are set up, Liverpool are provided too much space when playing against our system.

 

[Sniper Mik]

I agree with this. It's probably the reason why Mourinho does so well when he takes his teams to Anfield even if they're full of average players.

Liverpool are known to go full tilt within the first 15-20mins and they try and blow the opposition away with their fast paced start.

When Mourinho took his Man Utd side there last season, he had Fellaini playing in midfield. Ashley Young, Smalling, Blind etc all playing too. However, he managed contain them and make it difficult for Liverpool to find spaces.

Look at the possession stats in the link below. Man Utd had 35% whilst Liverpool dominated with 65%.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37604054

The same thing happened when Mourinho took his average Chelsea side, full of players who were warming the bench for most parts of the season. He set the players up to ruin the game and make it really difficult for Liverpool to find spaces. It worked successfully and Mourinho left Anfield with a 2-0 win and dented Liverpools title hopes.

A key figure once again is the match stats. Chelsea only had 27% whilst Liverpool dominated with 73%.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/27092978

There's a specific way to play against Liverpool however Arséne Wenger hasn't mastered it. The way our players are set up, Liverpool are provided too much space when playing against our system.

Mourino and Ferguson used to do that to us everytime we played them, especially at the Emirates. Depriving us off any space meant we'd overcomit with the fullbacks playing almost as high as the strikers, and then they'd pick us off on the counter. There was a quote, I forgot who said it, but it went something like "Arsenal play all the football, and we score the goals". I mean you look at the goal we conceded against Stoke and it's basically just that.

 

[Bergkamp a Dutch Master]

Wenger hasn't known his best starting XI for two years. That's a major problem.

yep. It often seems to me that he picks the 11 on sentiment not who is on form, or the best FIT 11, or the best line-up to try a back line of 3, or even taking the oppo style into account.
YET he is praised as one of the all-time best managers....beats me.

 

[IslingtonBornandbred]

Mourino and Ferguson used to do that to us everytime we played them, especially at the Emirates. Depriving us off any space meant we'd overcomit with the fullbacks playing almost as high as the strikers, and then they'd pick us off on the counter. There was a quote, I forgot who said it, but it went something like "Arsenal play all the football, and we score the goals". I mean you look at the goal we conceded against Stoke and it's basically just that.

When on the odd occasion Wenger actually sets us up to be compact and solid ie a big game or an important away UCL game, we seem to look good in that style.

The really big clubs do, but we don't really have periods in games where other clubs have possession against us and we can sit back and counter. Teams often don't want possession against us anyway. They are quite happy for us to have the ball which sets them up for the counter.

The goals we concede are the same. Stupid counter attacks when we have players too far forward or direct crosses/balls. It's the same goal style time after time.

 

[OSBK]

It will hinge on the first goal. If they press and score early then we are in trouble. However is we catch them early and score then watch them crumble.

 

[Sniper Mik]

When on the odd occasion Wenger actually sets us up to be compact and solid ie a big game or an important away UCL game, we seem to look good in that style.

The really big clubs do, but we don't really have periods in games where other clubs have possession against us and we can sit back and counter. Teams often don't want possession against us anyway. They are quite happy for us to have the ball which sets them up for the counter.

The goals we concede are the same. Stupid counter attacks when we have players too far forward or direct crosses/balls. It's the same goal style time after time.

I don't think we necessarily set out to play that way but it's more due to the fact that we don't have the technical quality in midfield to keep possession or play through the press of teams like Bayern and Barca. So we're forced to play on the counter, even at home. When we had Cesc and Nasri we won the game against Barca with 47% possession and that was probably the best possession based team ever. We've completely lost that technical security in midfield and are forced to feed off of moments and bits and pieces and individual quality of players like Alexis.

 

[albakos]

It will hinge on the first goal. If they press and score early then we are in trouble. However is we catch them early and score then watch them crumble.

Liverpool are known to go full tilt within the first 15-20mins and they try and blow the opposition away with their fast paced start.

This is so true.
Just wind back to 2014, when ****ing Skrtel scored a brace within first 10 minutes and we were 4 down inside first 20 minutes.

 

[Kroket]

On the other hand, we've also managed to concede a 97th minute equalizer against 10 men Liverpool (Skrtel with the goal again) in 2014 and another stoppage-time equalizer by Joe Allen in 2016.

I suppose the main takeaway is that in recent years we've been huge bottlers at Anfield, regardless of who scores the first goal.

 

[Bergkamp a Dutch Master]

This is so true.
Just wind back to 2014, when ****ing Skrtel scored a brace within first 10 minutes and we were 4 down inside first 20 minutes.

What did you have to raise that for !!! I had just about lost that into a cobweb area of my memory.

 

[albakos]

What did you have to raise that for !!! I had just about lost that into a cobweb area of my memory.

Hahaa, just connecting with the previous posters who posted that Liverpool always start with intense rhythm and we seem to fold

 

[2Smokeyy]

On the other hand, we've also managed to concede a 97th minute equalizer against 10 men Liverpool (Skrtel with the goal again) in 2014 and another stoppage-time equalizer by Joe Allen in 2016.

I suppose the main takeaway is that in recent years we've been huge bottlers at Anfield, regardless of who scores the first goal.

They also scored early in that game too (2016):

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35239781

Firmino scored 10 mins into the game.

Then in our most recent encounter there, they scored early once again:

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39086717

Firmino scored 9 mins into that game.

Not to mention an early goal in this one too:

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/25994878

By the way, Firmino has been a problem for us in the past two games we've played against them.

 

[The_Playmaker]

I don't think we will get a result from this game. LIverpool are weak at set pieces and they do leave thems elves open, however that is more by design than sheer disorganisation. They press as a unit and they know what they want to do when going forward. It is methodical and they will have a plan for us.

Wenger will throw his players out there telling them to play the same way and we will be lambs to the slaughter. Özil and Xhaka will be pressed. One of them will lose the ball and we will be caught out.

Unless wenger changes something, there is no chance of a good result.

 

[asukru]

Ramsey to light it up along with Laca is my prediction, however, I see a high scoring 3-3 tie.

 

[Bergkamp a Dutch Master]

the first bit would be good.

 

[Gooner Zig]

Won't be surprised to see big Olly start this.

Giroud
Lacazette Özil

Alexis and Welbeck getting 20-30 mins

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Yeah, think they'll ruin us, our team is too disorganized while Klopp will have these ****s playing like men possessed running all over the place.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Klopp was also waxing lyrical about our offensive options mentioning Alexis first before mentioning all of our other forwards. Think this is the view most within the game have, we've got 4/5/6 attacking options that any manager would love to have in their team while they don't see much in the rest of the team. Even guys like Ox and Theo who Mourinho apparently wanted to sign when we first made a bid to sign Cech as he thought he could do more with them than we have done, while Liverpool themselves have been linked with Ox quite recently.

It's also why I found the constant talk of further additions in terms of attackers to be quite baffling as it's the one area of the pitch where we constantly excel at (unless our midfield is playing so badly that we just can't get the ball to the forwards).

Basically Liverpool see us the same way as every other team sees us, stop the ball reaching our forwards and you'll have a good chance of getting something against us. They'll press us like crazy, they'll probably try to stop Xhaka and will target someone like Mustafi whenever he's on the ball at the back while they'll know Bellerin is poor when it comes to ball retention and of course Ramsey always leaving his midfield position to go further forward. I hate to say it but we're incredibly predictable and it's not entirely hard to figure out how to beat us. The only thing we can hope for is that we play more as a team on Sunday, defend as a unit, work together to get out of tricky situations and in general don't make it easy for Liverpool to exploit our weaknesses.

 

[rich 1990]

We'll be 3-0 down in the first 2 minutes.

 

[YeahBee]

has it come to the point of wanting your own team to lose?

I am thinking that an embarrasing loss would force Arsène to do a 2011/12 last night bonanza

imagine that, signing 2, arguably 3 starters...