20 Apr 2026 10:36:08
Morning all.
Hope everyone is doing okay.
I missed the match yesterday and have only managed to watch the “highlights”.
How did we play? Only asking as the edited package looked like it was one-way traffic and we committed an absolute “smash and grab”.
I am interested as the closer we get to the end of the season, the more I think that Arne and his coaching team will be here next season.
And that bothers me. For all the talk of which players come in, and which may go, if we have the same set up off the pitch then we could bring in prime R7 and prime R9 and we wouldn’t see an improvement.
20 Apr 2026 11:23:29
Neither side played particularly great.
Everton looked the far more likely to score up until they did, then it was disallowed, and Liverpool went up the other end right away and scored, which took the bite out of Everton until half time.
After half time it was fairly quiet for about ten minutes, then Everton got their equaliser.
I was then expecting an onslaught, which never materialised.
There were a couple of hairy moments, caused mainly by indecisiveness at the back, and the game sort of petered out until injury time, 11 minutes of injury time, and that's probably when Liverpool looked the most dangerous they had for the whole game, eventually scoring through Van Dijk's header.
Not a classic but a good 3 points considering Chelsea's recent results.
20 Apr 2026 12:04:00
It was a poor match really, a scrappy game but lacked the grit of a derby at the same time, neither team played well, Everton were careless and didn't take their chances, we were lucky not to go 3-0 down in the first 30 mins, the back line was pressing high and getting caught out with the long ball. Jones at RB did very well at times, but held on the ball too long at others, inviting trouble, very mixed reviews from the fan base. Giorgi did well but went off with a flesh wound and was replaced by Woodman, who, despite some hesitancy, put on a good display. Gakpo was a little more active than usual but unconvincing for the most part, threaded a lovely ball in for Mo's goal and had a weak header cleared off the line that he probably should have sent back across the box to Isak, who did sfa for most of the game, I'm surprised he made it on to the pitch for the 2nd half let alone the 70th minute. Robbo did ok but didn't see much from him going forward and was outpaced/muscled by Beto for the goal.
Wirtz struggled to impact but showed flashes of his quality, at one point, he did nuts Dewsbury-Hall twice in 2 seconds. Gravenberch was going through the motions, and Konate was his usual self. Rio wasn't as impactful as you might expect and skyed a good opportunity from his preferred position over the bar. Dom fell short in the final 3rd but did well defensively, good work rate as always and provided the corner for the winner. Virg struggled with the high line early on, as did everyone else, but I wouldn't necessarily be blaming him as it was clearly a tactical decision, he got better as the game progressed and of course stole the win in the last minute.
We will struggle to get a result playing like that against Palace or Utd but hopefully the win will boost the confidence enough to up our game for next week.
20 Apr 2026 12:19:35
For me this derby was surprisingly open.
We had the more clear cut chances and probably edged the game just.
In terms of style of play, we pressed better than we have in many games this season.
Jones did better than I thought he would at right back.
Konate performed his usual wandering out of position, which didn't help with the Everton goal.
Isak looks like he needs many games to get anywhere near being fully match fit.
Szobo everywhere as usual and probably motm.
20 Apr 2026 12:25:19
Van Dijk was partly at for Everton's equalizer. He stood watching.
20 Apr 2026 13:09:15
Something it seems a lot of people have missed cos he scored, @felmil GH. On that second goal, Konate has two Everton players on him (on the overload), and it was the one on his blindside (Dewsberry-Hall) who got the better of him and crossed the ball while he was marshalling the Everton player directly in front of him. Anyone thinking Konate can win a 2 v 1 in that situation is just being lazy.
The main issue there for me is that before the pass in behind, Konate was a yard up the pitch with VVD behind him, hence playing both Everton players onside. That was VVD's mistake and it all goes to crap from there, imo.
As for the game itself, both teams were poor and for us, it was not the same ol' crap. That being said, loved that we baptized their new stadium with a win. Gotta love that, tho.
{Ed001's Note - or was it Konate's fault for being too far up the pitch? VVD sets the line, the rest should work off him. Konate constantly gets dragged too far forward because he has no patience and throws himself at everything, only to miss it because he is so weak.}
20 Apr 2026 13:16:25
There was so much space on the pitch for a derby.
Hopefully, "the Dick" will be a happy hunting ground for the Reds for many years to come.
20 Apr 2026 13:49:10
We were very poor, imo, Sirbob. We bossed the first half in terms of possession and looked alright at times going forward, but soooooo many simple loose passes to give the ball away. We looked weakest when defending aerial balls, as we always seem to want to let the ball bounce, which invites pressure.
Our defending for their goal was abysmal, as I'm sure you've seen, but our defending long balls was like that throughout, to be honest.
The second half we tried to play out constantly and got picked off as it was so slow. Gakpo did well throughout, I thought, but the win was lucky, imo. A draw would have been fair.
20 Apr 2026 14:18:35
At least Konate was trying to make an effort. VVD was just standing there watching.
20 Apr 2026 15:16:31
"Ed001's Note - or was it Konate's fault for being too far up the pitch? VVD sets the line, the rest should work off him.".
This part I agree with and I saw it clearly on the replay. My interpretation of that was that VVD should have been watching across the line, see it and then meet up with Konate even though I agree, VVD sets the line. Bad comms. btw both there, IMO.
Now I also do agree that Konate is easy to bait, drag out of position and all that because we have seen that happen too many times. I just think VVD should have done more because it looked like VVD hung Konate out to dry, something he has done many times this season.
Cheers, mate.
{Ed001's Note - I just think Konate lacks concentration and it is impossible for Virgil to keep reacting to him, he would spend all day running up and down and never have time to defend. That is why Virgil sets the line. You just sit watching Konate and he is all over the place, he is like a small toddler let loose to brainlessly run amok.}
20 Apr 2026 19:49:41
I don't disagree on the Konate point Ed but once Konate is past, Virgil has to close off the near post. He makes no recovery run whatsoever and when Everton score he is facing his own goal
There was simply no reaction from him to D-H going past Konate
And that's not the first time he's done it this season