LFC Forever 2019/ 20

League Cup & Club World Cup

I've missed so many of these. After the Genk game I went straight into finishing that day's Inktober drawing then kept saying I'll write in a bit until it was time for the next match. Once I'd missed one I thought it was somehow better to miss them all and I've been happy to just enjoy watching without thinking about going to write afterwards. There were a few I wanted to come back for but it took this special circumstance.

Since the last post there's been Genk A 1-4, Spurs H 2-1, Arsenal H League Cup 5-5 (5-4), Aston Villa A 1-2, Genk H 2-1, Man City H 3-1, Crystal Palace A 1-2, Napoli H 1-1, Brighton H 2-1, Everton H 5-2, Bournemouth A 3-0, Salzburg A 2-0, Watford H 2-0.

There were also plenty of results for the Women's side. They played against Everton at Anfield, but lost, that was really strange to see. In the last 2 games they drew against West Ham and Chelsea, pulling themselves out of the relegation zone on goal difference.

The League cup was made to be played the day before the Club World Cup so Neil Critchley led a side containing five debutants and which had an average age of 19 years, six months and three days, the youngest starting line-up the Reds have ever fielded for a competitive fixture.

Liverpool began brightly - and indeed enjoyed significant spells of possession throughout the match - but conceded two freak goals in the space of three first-half minutes to allow the hosts to settle. Before those goals Liverpool had chances, one I thought had gone in and made me convinced they could at least get on the score sheet.

Aston Villa went on to score 5 which wasn't a fair reflection of the performance. I was gutted with the last goal that came in added time because they were a minute away from drawing the second half.

It's strange that people think it's wrong of Liverpool to chose to focus on the Club World Cup that you get one chance at when you win a Champions League (and we've not won before) over the League Cup that you're in every season and we've won more than anyone else. The only time we've focused on it was Klopp's 1st season where it was the easiest route to some kind of success since it wants to finish as quickly as possible. It gave those youth players and their manager a huge experience.

The Club World Cup came 22 hours after the start of the league cup match. Somehow if they didn't get through it would be embarrassing that we went and tried - dad's opinion not mine.

Klopp named a makeshift starting XI due to injuries and illness in defence. It was the first time in a long time that a team sheet made me nervous or shocked.

Naby Keita opened the scoring with a right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Mohamed Salah with a through ball.

Funes Mori - the twin brother of former Everton defender Ramiro - shocked Liverpool fans when he pounced on a rebound from Alisson's save. I said please don't let him score but he did. 

Joe Gomez - Liverpool's only recognised centre-back in the squad - was only shown a yellow card for stopping a dangerous counter-attack. I thought he was going to be seeing red!

Both managers got cards for their confrontation from it.

Alisson made a lot of saves, one time avoiding saving to avoid a corner to keep us in the game.

The commentators started mentioning extra time and I was praying for that not to happen. We definitely didn't need more playing time even though it was the Monterrey players getting cramp and stuff.

Trent Alexander-Arnold replaced James Milner. Roberto Firmino replaced Divock Origi. We needed them in the last minute.

Salah kept the ball in play before teeing up Alexander-Arnold, who slid a cross behind the defence for Firmino to poke home, meaning Liverpool avoided extra time and a potential upset in Doha.

Next up the Club World Cup Flamengo, Saturday 21st December 2019, 17:30.

Apparently it's the fixture everyone wanted.

Also Takumi Minamino got announced today, welcome to the club!