[NoSkillz]

Sun. October 27, 2024

Barclays Premier League
Liverpool (2-3-3, 9 points, 13th) vs. Dover (5-1-2, 16 points, 7th)
Liverpool Stadium, Liverpool, UK

Betting Odds: Liverpool: 13-8 Draw: 2-1 Dover: 6-4 (Favourites)
Past Meetings: 6W 3D 9L

Liverpool are struggling a bit and manager Michael Laudrup is under severe pressure to turn things around quickly. We won’t take them lightly, as the Reds handed us one of our two losses last year, at home no less and will come out firing today. They qualified for Europa League play and are currently 2-0-1 in Group play. The club sold last year’s leading scorer Cheikh Bocande to Real Madrid in a huge £36.5 million transfer deal and spent £19.25 million of that on Lazio striker Oliver Hammeri, who hasn’t even started a game for them yet. Liverpool have major injury issues right now, with cultured English international Adam Hill and many others out of the lineup today. We need to take advantage of that…

We will go with a pretty full strength lineup today. I move Andy Broomes back into an advanced role up front with Chiquinho in a holding role. Neil Cairney is back at midfield alongside Jose. We also have Zoltan Bardi available on the bench today. Flat 4-4-2 and a control mentality on the road as slight favourites. We have a mid-week League Cup match against Championship side QPR coming up and I’ll be playing backups in that game. Therefore, we can go full out today with our starters.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - M. Perez
D - Renato Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, Jose, G. Bolis
S - A. Broomes, Chiquinho
Bench - Rafinha, S. Nasri, E. Harvey, B. Raab, L. Kunchev, M. Pedersen, Z. Bardi

Liverpool are in a 4-5-1 today with veteran striker Piotr Parzyszek alone up front. Chris Dunn is their keeper - he’s been around forever as well. Lets play well today for our supporters!

9’ - My goodness. Parzyszek just bursts past our defence and into the area but his shot is saved by Perez. There’s a rebound and Renato Gaucho just tackles Parzyszek to the ground and that’s an easy PENALTY! That’s the second bloody penalty Renato Gaucho has been called for in the last month and he’s reprimanded by the referee before Bo Quattara steps up to take the kick. He goes right and Perez guesses correctly and MAKES THE SAVE!!! Wow!

14’ - Just a note to say we are completely on our heels right now and Liverpool is just man-handling us, dominating possession and they already have a few shots on Perez. Not good at all…

17’ - Off a failed Liverpool corner, they get the ball back and a cross is booted home by Axel Parisot but the assistant’s flag is up. Offsides and NO GOAL. Geez…lets go guys!

36’ - Renato Gaucho gets a yellow card and that gives us FOUR already for the match thus far. This is just a terrible display right now, as we look a step slow against these guys.

HALFTIME - Liverpool are in control here, with 53% of the ball and a 7-5 (3-2 on target) shot advantage. I’m sick of these performances - I completely go nuts in the room at halftime and try to wake them from their slumber. This could backfire but I’m sick of it.

Well, the first impressions are good out of half, as my assistant notes that seven of our starting eleven are now “looking motivated”. Lets see if it pays off.

51’ - BOOM! We have a free kick just to the right of the penalty area and Jose’s cross is booted home at the far post by Claudio Contreras! Finally. DOVER GOAL 1-0

76’ - We make a double substitution, bringing in Benedikt Raab and the returning Zoltan Bardi, taking out Jose and Andy Broomes, both of whom had yellow cards.

81’ - We switch to a counter attacking mentality.

89’ - One last change, as we take out Gianluca Bolis and bring in Lyubomir Kunchev.

Again, not overly impressive but we get the three tough points on the road.

Liverpool 0 - 1 Dover
Goals - Claudio Contreras (8.4)
Assists - Jose (6.9)
Man of the Match - Claudio Contreras
Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (7.2), Renato Gaucho (7.0)
Attendance - 60,254

A bit better in that second half but Liverpool still held 53% of possession while we outshot them 18-12 (6-5 on target). We were very fortunate to get the three points there, considering that they missed a penalty AND had a goal called back. We just can’t put the ball in the net right now.

-- In the other Sunday game, Chelsea and Arsenal battle to a 1-1 draw. We’re now within three points of first place but have five teams ahead of us still.


BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS
(ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 9 GAMES UNLESS NOTED)

1. Manchester United - 22 points
2. Arsenal - 21 points
3. Middlesbrough - 21 points
4. Chelsea - 20 points
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5. Newcastle - 20 points
6. Dover - 19 points
7. Manchester City - 17 points
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Premier League Team of the Week

-- Claudio Contreras makes it into the team of the week after his fine game against Liverpool.



Next Up

-- We head to London and to Loftus Road to face Championship side Queens Park Rangers in the fourth round of the League Cup.