30 Dec 2015

Shock Defeat? Boss reveals 3 ways Sunderland can 'expose' and 'beat' Liverpool tonight

After the deserved victory against Leicester, it's imperative that Liverpool continue the momentum today with a positive result against Sunderland. On paper, Liverpool are vastly superior to Sunderland (who are languishing in the relegation zone), but Sam Allardyce seemingly has a plan to beat the Reds today, and it involves following Newcastle United's game-plan.

When asked in his pre-match press conference how he plans to get a result against Liverpool, Allardyce explained:

"We have to be resilient and expose a few frailties that they've shown in the last five games. Newcastle beat them by hard work out of possession, shutting them down and stopping them playing. That’s really the way forward for us".

Prior to the Newcastle debacle, Liverpool hammered Southampton 6-1, so no one expected a 2-0 defeat to a team in the relegation zone.

It's a similar situation now: Liverpool are coming off a good win, and no one expects a defeat to comparatively lowly Sunderland, but as this season is showing, anything is possible, and any mistakes can and will be punished.

So, what are the 'frailties' to which Allardyce refers? One of the key issues is LFC's soft centre.

It's simple: if you want to beat the Reds, then do as Allardyce suggests and bully the players out of the game (Lallana, Coutinho, and Firmino, especially, are usually ineffective when physically hassled).

Klopp has specifically mentioned this weakness several times this week, and vowed to improve Liverpool's ability to deal with physicality on the pitch, but this is not something that will change overnight.

Liverpool's pampered, mollycoddled players don't like being put under physical pressure, and/or being denied space/time on the ball, but that's exactly what's going to happen tonight, so they better be prepared.

Defeat is:


Right?

On a separate note: Adam Lallana is once again spouting Rodgers-esque platitudes in the media, and his latest groan-inducing guff is about Henderson:

"It’s Liverpool’s privilege that he’s our captain. He is not one that wants the praise or to be credited, he just wants to get on with his job like a lot of us here and do well for the team".

It's 'Liverpool's privilege' that Henderson is captain? Give me a break. It's Henderson's privilege to be afforded the honour of captaining Liverpool, *not* the other way round.

This is typical underperforming player 101, though: Lallana constantly dishes out gushing praise to his team-mates as it takes the focus of his own abject failure to perform. Look back through the last year, and you'll see him repeatedly saying outlandish things like this. Another Prime example:

"He [Milner] is a fantastic player. He's got unbelievable ability. Left foot, right foot; a goal in his locker and always fit. He's a complete role model; the perfect player."

Lallana's view on this (and many other things) matches the low expectations and dispiritingly low standards a growing number of LFC fans, who endlessly make excuses for, and/or continually lionise, utter mediocrity.

Author: Jaimie K


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