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CL Final Key Match Ratings

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posted on 29/5/22

Can't give Mane and Salah 8 for not scoring. Yes great saves but we needed them to step up.

posted on 29/5/22

Didn't watch the game yesterday but I think Robertson has been pretty consistent this season. He's had as many assists as TAA, hasn't he? In spite of taking less set pieces. And he's reliable defensively too

posted on 29/5/22

comment by merrysupersteve (monitoring the situation) (U1132)
posted 17 minutes ago
Didn't watch the game yesterday but I think Robertson has been pretty consistent this season. He's had as many assists as TAA, hasn't he? In spite of taking less set pieces. And he's reliable defensively too
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Definitely steady but because so much of their creativity comes from the flanks he hasnt been at his best.

comment by Silver (U6112)

posted on 29/5/22

It wasn't Carvajal that shackled Diaz it was 5 at the back Jose stylee. boring as fck.

comment by Busby (U19985)

posted on 29/5/22

Thought Salahs decision making was poor, could've squared it to mane for tap in but chose to shoot.

posted on 29/5/22

comment by B10 - Boss (U22536)
posted 29 minutes ago
comment by merrysupersteve (monitoring the situation) (U1132)
posted 17 minutes ago
Didn't watch the game yesterday but I think Robertson has been pretty consistent this season. He's had as many assists as TAA, hasn't he? In spite of taking less set pieces. And he's reliable defensively too
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Definitely steady but because so much of their creativity comes from the flanks he hasnt been at his best.
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He’s a lot better than the Greek bloke they have

posted on 29/5/22

comment by Silver (U6112)
posted 1 hour, 5 minutes ago
It wasn't Carvajal that shackled Diaz it was 5 at the back Jose stylee. boring as fck.
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All 5 weren’t marking him

posted on 29/5/22

I think I agree mostly with your assessment, although I don't think Courtois can be scored anything other than a 10, while Carlo might have edged the managers' battle by a point or two, but never 5.

The battle in and through the middle was all Liverpool for a very long spell early on, but ended up being a bit of a stalemate. Thiago was allowed the freedom of the city for the opening half hour, and Sané was super lively and involved, but I think part of Madrid's game plan was always going to be to preserve as much energy as they could early doors so as to make for a more even physical fight later on. Hendo and Fabinho did nothing much wrong, but Madrid's decision to force Liverpool to play the game on the flanks meant they didn't have a huge impact either way. I do think they -or Klopp- missed a trick by not having them step up a few yards to mop up on the edge of Madrid's box, where no amount of loose balls were bagging for a midfielder to run onto and put his laces through it.

Madrid on their part barely tried to progress the ball through the middle at all, other than trying to pivot through Benzema and Modric always with an eye to getting it out wide asap, so I think that rather than view the CBs and CMs for their role as part of their natural central pairings or threes, it almost makes more sense to group them with the wide players in their corresponding left or right hand sectors.

The more the game wore on, the more Madrid bossed the left side with Carvajal and Valverde, with Militāo and sometimes Modric or Casemiro on hand to plug the gaps. They rarely broke, but when they did it was with full purpose. Robertson was reduced to chasing the game, and Díaz's inexperience at this level showed. I don't think even the most optimistic Madrid fan thought Carvajal had this game in him. VVD was seldom tested, but when he was, he didn't come off too well. Jota really added very little to the game.

Over on the other flank was where most people expected the game to be won or lost, and even though the winner was created on the right side of Madrid's attack, the left was indeed where most of the action took place. Mendy had a pretty poor game up against Salah, whose influence and foothold grew as it wore on.
Kroos and Alaba were late to almost every ball, and Madrid only survived on that side thanks to Vini chipping in admirably with the defensive work and to Casemiro covering the role of three players (another whose performance far exceeded his season's average). And because on the multiple occasions it was penetrated, Courtois stopped everything that came his way. He could've stopped a meteor last night, he was that good.

I know Trent's got pelters for his brainfart, but I genuinely think he was Liverpool's best and most consistent performer over the 90. He put plenty of good balls into the box, al sorts too: into the feet, onto the head, driven balls across the front, near post, far post...several of them were just whiskers away from being converted, and he also managed to play the odd one-two, and get off a shot or two, albeit none too dangerous that I remember right now.

He also managed to toe-poke a couple of decisive balls away from Benzema and Vinicius that may well have put more Madrid goals on the board. Along with Konate, I think they held their own far better than Liverpool's left considering the size of the threat they were up against.
If Liverpool didn't want him, I'd have him at Madrid in a heartbeat.

Salah showed his poor form of recent months for 60 minutes, but slowly grew into the game and completely sprang into life after Madrid's goal. He was the one Liverpool player who truly looked and played like he actually believed they'd get the equaliser. In all honesty, I think he badly needed a real knife-edge gas been a poor back half of the season. If the league were to continue from here, I think he'd be back scoring freely again in no time.

Konate was fine. I think Alisson's panic and VVD's indecisiveness put the jitters into him a bit, but even though I know little about his ball-playing skills, defensively he looked like a very complete package. Great find for you guys.

Finally, one thing did surprise me quite a bit, and it was how poor you were at attacking set-pieces. It might just be that Madrid were excellent, but I don't remember any corner or free kick creating serious trouble. That, along with the loose balls on the edge of the box are two aspects of the game I am surprised Liverpool didn't exploit, but it could be that that's where the difference in time that each side had to prepare the game actually showed most.

posted on 29/5/22

Finally, one thing did surprise me quite a bit, and it was how poor you were at attacking set-pieces. It might just be that Madrid were excellent, but I don't remember any corner or free kick creating serious trouble. That, along with the loose balls on the edge of the box are two aspects of the game I am surprised Liverpool didn't exploit, but it could be that that's where the difference in time that each side had to prepare the game actually showed most.
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Funny thing to say considering most members of this group have at least 1 CL medal but I thought the majority of them froze after the goal. Reminiscent of the City players after Chelsea scored last season.

The pressure of the CL Final is something else

posted on 29/5/22

comment by Sky-blue (U22529)
posted 1 minute ago
Finally, one thing did surprise me quite a bit, and it was how poor you were at attacking set-pieces. It might just be that Madrid were excellent, but I don't remember any corner or free kick creating serious trouble. That, along with the loose balls on the edge of the box are two aspects of the game I am surprised Liverpool didn't exploit, but it could be that that's where the difference in time that each side had to prepare the game actually showed most.
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Funny thing to say considering most members of this group have at least 1 CL medal but I thought the majority of them froze after the goal. Reminiscent of the City players after Chelsea scored last season.

The pressure of the CL Final is something else
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Didn't see the game but that would be even more surprising, given how often Liverpool have come back from behind to win in recent weeks. But as you say, the occasion yesterday was incomparable to any of those games. Also went behind a lot later

posted on 30/5/22

comment by Sky-blue (U22529)
posted 3 hours, 12 minutes ago

Funny thing to say considering most members of this group have at least 1 CL medal but I thought the majority of them froze after the goal. Reminiscent of the City players after Chelsea scored last season.

The pressure of the CL Final is something else
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I was more positively impressed by Salah stepping up after that moment. You could tell how much he wanted it, showed real character even if it didn't work out for him.

posted on 30/5/22

I think those ratings are pretty much based on one thing only … RM winning the game. Obviously that’s all important, but Liverpool bossed every stat in the game, bar the final score. Sometimes your name is just on the Cup, this year more so than any other I can recall … with the winners having been outplayed in all 4 of the knockout rounds. Has that every happened before?

Hats off to Ancelotti though. He got his tactics right, albeit having to rely on a fair chunk of good fortune (again) to get over the line.

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