Fulham had us in that game. They surely don't have the best players in the league, but they made very good use of what they have and at the end of the day, managed to secure a point in the opening game of the season.
That's good news for Fulham. Fair play to them. They did well. They will likely be thinking that they could have come out of that game with 3 points if not for the brilliance of Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez. This shows how tough the game was for Liverpool.
Mehn, my FPL points so far is not looking good. Haha. I will exercise patience until the end of this first gameweek before talking about the points and how it felt to be playing FPL for the very first time.
For now, let's talk about Liverpool and the effect of their performance at such a crucial time of the season.
I feel this is something we need to break into pieces because the way Premier League have been in recent years shows that anyone that wants to win the league cannot afford to lose too many games in a season. You should be getting above 95 points to stand a chance, but here we are... dropping 2 points against 'Fulham'. Fulham!
No disrespect to them, but this is Liverpool. The bar is raised so high and that's exactly why I'm not surprised to see the reaction people are giving to that game.
Bobby is getting the sticks for being invisible in the game. The defence line is getting the sticks for conceding two avoidable goals. Even Thiago who I would say played well in the game is also getting some negative comments for picking up a knock 51 minutes into the game.
I'm particularly concerned about the backline.
'Trent can't defend' is already a cliche which we've come to accept, but Van Dijk's decision-making was off. That is on the list of things we don't get to see often, so whenever it happens, it leaves a lot of us in awe. Not just because of the penalty he conceded...
Did you see his long passes in the first half?
I love when he sends those long passes to the right-wing forward or Left-wing forward players. It helps our attacks so much, but he didn't get it right today. I need to look at the stats to be sure of the number of long passes he completed. From what I saw in the game, I don't think he completed up to 40% of those.
To put words to that performance, it was a bang-average game for our starting midfield players and also for the backline. As for the forward line, just like Bobby who was invisible, Dias was also lost in the game. He spent 78 minutes on the pitch with nothing significant coming from me. I know he hit the woodwork. That's about it. Just that.
Impressive performers
It's really hard to talk about this when it feels like we lost our opening game of the season. Nonetheless, let's do it.
Darwin Nunez is the first on this list. The dude played 40 minutes today... pressed very high, created chances, bottled some goal-scoring opportunities, got a cheeky goal for himself and also got an assist. What a player.
Mo Salah also makes the list just because he is Mo Salah. The guy is always ready to do something with half chances. Just when you think he has no right to score, he jumps in and feasts on half chances. He got himself a goal and an assist. I have to say this is why we splashed big money on him. Haha.
Matip wasn't bad, to be fair. He won most of his duels and intercepted a couple. He should be getting a 6.5 rating for his overall performance in the game.
Before I wrap this, I know there are shouts about the penalty that was given to Mitrovic. It's leading to very interesting arguments and I would like to get your thoughts on that.
Was it a pen in your books? or not?
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