Mo Stewart is here fresh from attending the latest LFC press conference to break down what Arne Slot has to say, and deliver his top takeaways. Tune in to hear Mo ask Liverpool's head coach a question
Shame your week break coincided with a gigantic swing towards the Reds in the title race. Opportunities to display exuberance have gone begging, like a Darwin Núñez 'certain goal'.
Just a note about the FA Cup draw, which I don't care about in the slightest, we wouldn't have been playing Manchester City in Plymouth's place, the balls would have been numbered/sequenced differently with us in the draw instead. Anyway, who cares. Fighting for one domestic (cup) trophy is quite enough. Two is overkill when you're in the title race.
Not interested in the Ligue 1 is it or isn't it stuff. We're not playing Ligue 1. It amazes me how much time and effort people waste digging up mindless statistics, writing "Liverpool haven't beaten a French side away for 17 years" and all that totally irrelevant stuff. Oh My God we've never won on a Wednesday in the first week of March away in France when the opposition have had two players in the side whose names begin with D. We might as well give up then.
Not aimed at you. But at progs/sites who churn out mindless facts like Port Vale haven't beaten Hudderfield since 1938, like that could possibly be of interest or influence anything.
My gut feeling is that this PSG will be the most dangerous version we've ever played against. I don't know who is responsible but they seem to have changed course from the galactico approach to the "football is a team game" approach and that can spell trouble.
Joao Neves is the sort of player who only comes along once a decade. I was desperate for us to sign him. Surprised he didn't hold out for a move to Real Madrid rather than Paris. Presumably he'll be up against Dom, and that contest could be fascinating to watch given Dom has hit form just at the right moment. Does Neves have the legs to track Dom for 90?
Much has been made by PSG of their right back Hakimi getting forward. But he won't be used to playing against a left winger with the tenacity of Luis Diaz. Another battle to watch.
As ever the game (or tie) is likely to hinge on our right-hand side. Will Mo's threat going forward be enough to compensate for the danger that Trent gets totally run defensively? Their left back Mendes is a converted winger so he'll be wanting to get forward and get involved in 2-on-1 overloads (will Mo track back as he has been more willing to do lately?). Of course that risks Mo destroying PSG on the counter. How hard will Barcola press Trent?
There's a natural cockiness about the French, and I say that as someone who has been in and around them for a lot of my life and consider myself a Francophile. But there's an arrogance. A notion that they're God's gift to football. And given PSG generally have it easy, I wonder how PSG will cope during the periods when Liverpool will inevitably be on top.
I haven't watched them but one comment about their tactics sets alarm bells off: that they tend to go man-for-man all over the pitch. We've struggled with this. You don't even have to be a good side to cause problems. Luton did it. At Anfield. The good news is that we've had a matchday off to rest and prepare tactically. But we'll have to be able to action any plan Slot has come up with as earlier in the season we lapsed into a habit of booting it upfield.
The press conference was notable for Endo's presence. There is a theory that that means he's starting. Maybe? Slot clearly wants to play Jota but doesn't quite trust his fitness, and he clearly doesn't trust Darwin, and Cody is doubtful, so we could well see the double false nine of Dom plus perhaps Macca, with Ryan and Wata as what appear to be called double fives when they're playing in the six position - confusing! If so, that's only going to last 60-65 minutes and then we'll see Curtis and Jota and even Darwin come on for half an hour.
A box midfield gives us the chance to win second balls, something we're not great at, which might help us relieve man-to-man pressure by going longer and winning possession higher. It also gives us the chance to show our backs-to-the-wall win against 115 FC was not lucky.
Gut feeling is that this will be our hardest game of the season, with a result to match, meaning that turning things around at Anfield might prove beyond us. I'm relatively relaxed about it because I've been feeling for a while that this narrative is just ready to pounce, that winning the group stages is meaningless if you then get PSG while Aston Villa get Brugge. And I'm relatively relaxed about it as we're top of the league and if there is a silver lining to going out of the Champions League it would be having entire weeks to prep run-in games.
If we do go through, so much the better, but in a deal with 'the big man upstairs', I'd happily put Big Ears in the bin as long as it meant the league title is coming to Anfield again.
Welcome back.
Shame your week break coincided with a gigantic swing towards the Reds in the title race. Opportunities to display exuberance have gone begging, like a Darwin Núñez 'certain goal'.
Just a note about the FA Cup draw, which I don't care about in the slightest, we wouldn't have been playing Manchester City in Plymouth's place, the balls would have been numbered/sequenced differently with us in the draw instead. Anyway, who cares. Fighting for one domestic (cup) trophy is quite enough. Two is overkill when you're in the title race.
Not interested in the Ligue 1 is it or isn't it stuff. We're not playing Ligue 1. It amazes me how much time and effort people waste digging up mindless statistics, writing "Liverpool haven't beaten a French side away for 17 years" and all that totally irrelevant stuff. Oh My God we've never won on a Wednesday in the first week of March away in France when the opposition have had two players in the side whose names begin with D. We might as well give up then.
Not aimed at you. But at progs/sites who churn out mindless facts like Port Vale haven't beaten Hudderfield since 1938, like that could possibly be of interest or influence anything.
My gut feeling is that this PSG will be the most dangerous version we've ever played against. I don't know who is responsible but they seem to have changed course from the galactico approach to the "football is a team game" approach and that can spell trouble.
Joao Neves is the sort of player who only comes along once a decade. I was desperate for us to sign him. Surprised he didn't hold out for a move to Real Madrid rather than Paris. Presumably he'll be up against Dom, and that contest could be fascinating to watch given Dom has hit form just at the right moment. Does Neves have the legs to track Dom for 90?
Much has been made by PSG of their right back Hakimi getting forward. But he won't be used to playing against a left winger with the tenacity of Luis Diaz. Another battle to watch.
As ever the game (or tie) is likely to hinge on our right-hand side. Will Mo's threat going forward be enough to compensate for the danger that Trent gets totally run defensively? Their left back Mendes is a converted winger so he'll be wanting to get forward and get involved in 2-on-1 overloads (will Mo track back as he has been more willing to do lately?). Of course that risks Mo destroying PSG on the counter. How hard will Barcola press Trent?
There's a natural cockiness about the French, and I say that as someone who has been in and around them for a lot of my life and consider myself a Francophile. But there's an arrogance. A notion that they're God's gift to football. And given PSG generally have it easy, I wonder how PSG will cope during the periods when Liverpool will inevitably be on top.
I haven't watched them but one comment about their tactics sets alarm bells off: that they tend to go man-for-man all over the pitch. We've struggled with this. You don't even have to be a good side to cause problems. Luton did it. At Anfield. The good news is that we've had a matchday off to rest and prepare tactically. But we'll have to be able to action any plan Slot has come up with as earlier in the season we lapsed into a habit of booting it upfield.
The press conference was notable for Endo's presence. There is a theory that that means he's starting. Maybe? Slot clearly wants to play Jota but doesn't quite trust his fitness, and he clearly doesn't trust Darwin, and Cody is doubtful, so we could well see the double false nine of Dom plus perhaps Macca, with Ryan and Wata as what appear to be called double fives when they're playing in the six position - confusing! If so, that's only going to last 60-65 minutes and then we'll see Curtis and Jota and even Darwin come on for half an hour.
A box midfield gives us the chance to win second balls, something we're not great at, which might help us relieve man-to-man pressure by going longer and winning possession higher. It also gives us the chance to show our backs-to-the-wall win against 115 FC was not lucky.
Gut feeling is that this will be our hardest game of the season, with a result to match, meaning that turning things around at Anfield might prove beyond us. I'm relatively relaxed about it because I've been feeling for a while that this narrative is just ready to pounce, that winning the group stages is meaningless if you then get PSG while Aston Villa get Brugge. And I'm relatively relaxed about it as we're top of the league and if there is a silver lining to going out of the Champions League it would be having entire weeks to prep run-in games.
If we do go through, so much the better, but in a deal with 'the big man upstairs', I'd happily put Big Ears in the bin as long as it meant the league title is coming to Anfield again.