Just a small point about the time played . During extra time Heaton was down for a supposed injury and received treatment along with the time taken for that and to get the game started again this was timed at 1minute 52 seconds the goal was scored 2min 08 seconds of additional time to time added on so not that unfair or unreasonable . As has been said teams can adopt any tactics they choose in order to unsettle teams and that is their right . Burnley spent year playing attritional football and had some results doing so . From my point of view if as a fan you are content with that then fiar enough . If Liverpool start to play that way and adopt these sort of tactics then my Season Ticket goes and I stop going the game . I want to be entertained and if that is not going to happen then why bother ? The real thing is and I really hope this is not the case if Newcastle continue this against lesser teams and sides they should get results against . Just doing this for so called top six sides has a little merit but not much . Doing it as a normal method of play is different and for me will mean not bothering to watch them play as I used to do with Burnley.
Our goalie is Pope and not Heaton.
I've calmed down re the added on added on time and the team needs to play to the final whistle...Howe said we defended the corner poorly. I think there was an argument for putting Botman or Schar (yes our two best CBs were on the bench) on for the last 10mins or so...hey ho.
Did you watch us against Nottm Forest (61% possession and 23 shots to 5)? Or Man City? Or Wolves (64% possession away from home and 21 shots to 10)?
Did you notice Bruno and ASM were out injured? A midfield of Joelinton, Willock and S. Longstaff is good on legs but pretty poor creatively.
What they do allow us to do is press higher up the pitch which Liverpool and Klopp did not seem particularly comfortable with.
We also had one less day of recovery from our last game.
Wilson is another loss to injury and would have started alongside Isak who looks a real prospect but understandably was not match fit (and also got a dead leg). Our subs were Wood and Murphy who are Championship level at best.
It's all very well as a Liverpool fan saying you would not tolerate attritional football but with teams who are beset with injuries to key creative players and generally less blessed with talent (for now) there has to be a level of pragmatism away from home...at Anfield...where we have not won since 1994.
What I will (and shouldn't) say is that Howe spent time at Athletico Madrid watching Simeone when he was between jobs...for a manager who was criticised at Bournemouth for playing attractive football but being a bit of a pushover as far as...game management is concerned this shows a laudible desire to learn from the master.