APOLOGIES FOR THE LATE DROP ON THIS ONE. STILL WORTH A LISTEN!!
Welcome dear listener to the 19th episode of the 7th season of First State Kopites. I’m Paul and today I am joined by Daz. In a week where there have been so many hot takes we could probably have heated a major city through a nuclear winter. We’ve taken a couple of days to reflect with our review of Brentford 3, Liverpool 2.
Part One -
Conceded from a throw in, a long ball and a penalty.
Liverpool are terrible, the full backs are shit, Ibou is useless (2nd goal), Wirtz is too lightweight, Mac Allister is ‘broken’ and the manager is clueless. Oh and ‘the League is gone’
Comparisons with 2020-21 of course.
OR they are actually 3rd in the League in xG (ahead of Arsenal) and the ball hasn’t bounced their way - the xGA for the goals conceded outstrips the actual goals. Or is there no space for a cooler take?
Serious point about the move to ‘shitball’ - especially against us.
More long balls in general in the league, but especially against us.
Have we signed players to play the ‘old’ way?
The 9+ minutes it took to take their 10 throw ins.
Other areas for potential concerns:
Confidence (pass accuracy dropped from 88% in the 1st half to 77% in the 2nd), too much - woe is me?
Duels and winning second balls - headed duels were about 50-50, we had an edge on overall duels,
Integrating Wirtz and the other new players. Pre-season and a change of style.
Interesting test case - with Hooper we had 68% possession and were given only one foul, they were given 3. 2nd half less possession, but the foul count was 6 to 7.
Footnote - Jordan Henderson has learned how to pass - just another sign of the stupid dialogues that exist around Liverpool
Part Two - quick preview of Saturday:
Aston Villa who have come back from their early season stumbles.
Injuries, confidence, luck?
I am concerned about the crowd, nervousness and the backdrop of a million hot takes.
In passing - Crystal Palace
We’ll be back with a review of the Villa game. Thanks to Daz for joining me, Paul. And most of all, thank you dear listener for joining us.
If you enjoyed the pod, please share it with a friend. Follow us @FirstStateKopites on X – we only tweet and retweet from sources we think are credible. Music is courtesy of Hypenotic – they are a Welsh electro-pop band – https://hyperfollow.com/hypenotic
