So what changed?

[BluethroughtheMiddle]

What a performance last night against Liverpool! The best I have seen under BR. A breath of fresh air in defending, we really wanted that and I wonder what/if something has happened behind the scenes. Was it a one off or a new direction for us? We looked like a different side last night.

[lcfc sheff]

Kinda bit of luck but mostly we are capable of that kinda performance just haven’t shown it for a while, yesterday was our day.

[fox_up_north]

Probably half time at the Man City game. Lads just realised they were allowing themselves to be bullied by the big boys. 

[Shane]

Brendan got it spot on and it was the best tactical display from him in quite a while.

 

We protected the defence from start to finish. I know he's not everyone's favourite player but in the first half Hamza did a good job tracking Tsimikas and stopping Castagne getting caught in 2 v 1 situations. Same on the other flank with KDH helping out Thomas Vs Salah & TAA. Then we switched to 4-5-1 with Albrighton and Lookman on the wings which kept us solid defensively & provided an outlet for the counter. Going man-for-man on corners with Ndidi picking up Van Dijk & Amartey marshalling Matip helped negate our weakness from set pieces. Overall it was just a great defensive display, from the tireless runners in midfield to the resolute back four & Kasper's heroic saves, they all did their job and deserve massive credit.

 

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

For all the many positives I don’t think we should forget the amount of good chances Liverpool missed. It was resolute, committed and heroic (particularly at the back), but on another day it would have been 2 or 3 nil easy.

 

The subs, tactics and change of shape won the game imo (as well as our 9 lives). We were more able to carry the ball forward and defend in wide areas.

[turlo]

Players ran their knackers off, got stuck in, didn't let the scousers bully them and tried to move the ball forward quickly when they could. Still trying to play our way out of trouble from the back at times and were lucky to get away with a few misplaced/poor passes. 

Edited 29 December 2021 by turlo
typo

[Guest TaggertvsWise]

Man marking instead of zonal. Allowed us to get in their faces and throw them off their expected game 

[RumbleFox]

6 minutes ago, Wasyls Pec Deck said:

For all the many positives I don’t think we should forget the amount of good chances Liverpool missed. It was resolute, committed and heroic (particularly at the back), but on another day it would have been 2 or 3 nil easy.

 

The subs, tactics and change of shape won the game imo (as well as our 9 lives). We were more able to carry the ball forward and defend in wide areas.

To be fair, if you take out the penalty and subsequent rebounded efforts their xG was only about 0.8. 

[UniFox21]

2 minutes ago, turlo said:

Players ran their knackers off, got stuck in, did let the scousers bully them and tried to move the ball forward quickly when they could. Still trying to play our way out of trouble from the back at times and were lucky to get away with a few misplaced/poor passes. 

Think this really sums it up. No one was a passenger, everyone was getting fully stuck in. Even after our (regular) sloppy passes, we were chasing them down and hassling. 

Really showed the desire our performances have been lacking

[ousefox]

We didn't go 1-0 down early to a penalty and we didn't handicap ourselves from a set piece.

 

This is a top 6 team we have and we're capable of results like this as proven against them last season.

[turlo]

28 minutes ago, Shane said:

Brendan got it spot on and it was the best tactical display from him in quite a while.

 

We protected the defence from start to finish. I know he's not everyone's favourite player but in the first half Hamza did a good job tracking Tsimikas and stopping Castagne getting caught in 2 v 1 situations. Same on the other flank with KDH helping out Thomas Vs Salah & TAA. Then we switched to 4-5-1 with Albrighton and Lookman on the wings which kept us solid defensively & provided an outlet for the counter. Going man-for-man on corners with Ndidi picking up Van Dijk & Amartey marshalling Matip helped negate our weakness from set pieces. Overall it was just a great defensive display, from the tireless runners in midfield to the resolute back four & Kasper's heroic saves, they all did their job and deserve massive credit.

 

Hamza still got a bit of stick but I thought he did what he was tasked to do well supporting Castagne on our right against two very attacking players. I'm not sure Youri (who's still looking rusty after his injury) would've performed that duty so well, as doesn't cover ground as quickly as Hamza does to shift out when he needed to track Tsimikas

[Fox92]

Penalty save. So much momentum with that. 

 

They started snatching at chances too, once we were in front.

[sdb]

Atmosphere and some organisation/common sense at set plays. Long may both continue.

[Cadno'r Cymoedd]

Great determination and grit and deserved the win because of that. But Liverpool blew chances, should have scored the penalty and we offered little in attack in reality. So I think we need to keep our heads and feet on the ground and build on the spirit we showed at last. 

[RowlattsFox]

You have to admit that if Salah scores the penalty then we probably lose comfortably. The miss/save galvanised everyone, on and off the pitch. They didn't create loads but they did have 2 or 3 huge chances. Plus a couple of headers from corners that Jota should have scored. 

 

Not all luck, we worked extremely hard and looked a lot more organised. First goal so crucial.

 

[Happy Fox]

We played with grit and determination, which has been sorely missing for the majority of the season, can we now play this way against the likes of Norwich etc, this will be the true acid test. I have no doubts that we can finish top 4 with the players we have. Let’s go on a winning run now. 

[Old Fox]

9 minutes ago, TaggertvsWise said:

Man marking instead of zonal. Allowed us to get in their faces and throw them off their expected game 

This is absolutely spot on!

 

you could see the confidence grow as they competed at corners and free kicks

 

Every ball In the box was competed and we won an awful lot more - gave us a base and solidity we have been lacking 

 

plus it helped schmeichel as he could concentrate on just making saves 

 

My only question is why it’s taken so long to click within the coaching staff as man for man we looked so much better !!

 

We know we have attacking talent in abundance and I think the injuries have been hiding the glaring tactical error - fair play at last now stick with it as at least we can see who is at fault if we concede so we can learn and improve !!

[shailen]

We defended well yesterday and it was a throwback to a performance from 2015/16, with the low block and little bit of luck with their missed chances. Then Lookman popped up with a Mahrez esque goal with one of our only chances in the game. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

We (BR) couldn't play the line of "we're better than the opposition, just keep patient and eventually we'll break them down with our quality" so he had to go with "run harder than them, fight more, defend for your lives". 

 

Funny eh.

[Finnegan]

51 minutes ago, Shane said:

Brendan got it spot on and it was the best tactical display from him in quite a while.

 

I'm not sure I agree with that really. Not because it wasn't the right approach tactically but because, to be honest, he didn't have much choice. It was pretty much the only available option. 

 

Moreover, I don't actually think tactics was what was really different last night. 

 

All season (and perhaps longer than that) we've not really looked like a team that's motivated or confident. His failings have been less tactical and more in that he just hasn't really rallied the team sufficiently when things have gone bad. 

 

Last night we had an awful, makeshift side out in a mess of a shape we're not really used to. But the players grafted, they gave 100%, left nothing out there, threw themselves in to every tackle and block, focused for the full ninety and played truly like they had something to prove. 

 

That's the difference. 

[crisp packet]

Bit of graft goes a long way …

[Hales]

Mentality, they believed and they worked so hard for themselves and one another.

[Nalis]

The players are probably mentally exhausted this morning with the levels of concentration needed. Perhaps being a make shift back line helped galvanise and tune in focus more than Cags and Evans have done earlier in the season.

Edited 29 December 2021 by Nalis

[Gazza M]

After many months of zonal marking being our downfall, Brendan decided to finally change it. This was pointed out before hand for months by the pundits, commentators, fans, Bernie and even that Falcon the club uses to stop the Pidgeons before the light bulb moment in Brendans mind. Finally. Let's keep it up. 

[StanSP]

Added aggression after last Wednesday. 

 

The way we lost, the injustice of the Morton & Jota non-red cards, the loss on penalties. 

 

If that can't incentivise you to avenge a sour defeat against a side that think they're gods gift, then not much will.

 

We silenced them, nullified them, got in their faces and showed a spirit and resilience any side would be proud of. Rodgers could have only said as much, but that kind of hunger and desire mainly comes from within. And added to that, it's why it helps having homegrown players in the side that will give that extra effort - Thomas and KDH epitomise that.

 

The crowd seemed up for it from what I heard on Amazon's coverage, and links back to the 'revenge' from last week's result. It was a bit flat to start with but Kasper saving the penalty woke everyone up and then it never felt low again for the rest of the match.