FM18 | Letou Choose | Liverpool vs. Swansea City Match Review
Well, it was going to happen eventually.
Against Liverpool we weren’t our usual selves, we were sluggish, no swagger or confidence and allowed them far too much space. It can happen, prior to that, we’d gone twelve games unbeaten in both league and cup.
Liverpool, who were without a certain Egyptian, ran rampant led by the likes of Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mané. The first goal, though, came from a set-piece. Having three centre-backs on the field, I thought we’d at least boss the deliveries into the box but Joel Matip got above everybody to head back to the edge of the area and Emre Can stepped up to lash the ball into the bottom corner.
Sometimes you have to just grudgingly accept that a play was worthy of a goal, replays confirm that in fact Emre Can did take the original free-kick and showed good awareness to follow in for Matip’s knockdown. The second goal was from a mistake by Kyle Naughton. A pass to him by Tom Carroll hit Naughton’s heel, Liverpool then flooded forward and Daniel Sturridge played the ball through for Coutinho to finish off.
Despite two changes at half-time, better possession and a better performance in the second half, a counter-attack late on saw Liverpool win a corner and Adam Lallana’s delivery was headed in by substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
A 3-0 loss is horrible but it is against Liverpool, second in the league behind Champions Arsenal. We were due a hiding and it’s come against Klopp’s Reds.
What was really displeasing was the shape of the team. I went with a 3-5-2 to get the best out of Roque Mesa and Renato Sanches, but they were pinned back. Where we really failed was the movement of the midfield, they were practically on top of the defence.
We have one more game this weekend in the league away at West Brom and our chance to secure that top half finish.