Liverpool have now completed their pre-season programme, signing off with a 2-0 win over Como, and the discussion has quickly shifted towards whether Andoni Iraola's side are ready for the competitive action ahead. In his post-match ***** sment, David Lynch weighed up the positives and concerns from the final friendly, with a particular focus on Liverpool's ability to sustain performance levels, the emerging 4-4-2 system, and a pair of encouraging defensive debuts.
As Lynch put it, "that's the preseason done. No more friendly games for Liverpool until the real stuff starts." From there, the central issue was obvious, "is this team ready to compete in another Premier League season, another Champions League season, the League Cup and the FA Cup to go with it as well."
The result itself was positive, a 2-0 victory, and Lynch noted that "not a bad way to sign off for the summer really." He pointed to the underlying numbers that favoured Liverpool in key areas, saying, "the expected goals from this game and it's 1.47 for Liverpool, 0.52 for Como," while also noting that Liverpool "created three big chances to Como's zero."
That pattern had previously been easier to dismiss because of substitutions and rotation, but this time the concern felt more relevant. Lynch explained, "for the first time we've seen a lot of players get the full game or in some cases a lot of the game maybe two thirds of the game. So in theory Liverpool should have been able to replicate the first half performance in the second half of this game and unfortunately we didn't really see that."
The second-half figures underlined the point, "9-2 to Ko on the shots, 3-0 on the shots on target in the second half." With Newcastle next, his warning was direct, "they have to be better. They have to be more capable of playing 90 minutes." He added that Iraola's earlier comments about not being strong enough across the full match had been borne out again, saying, "what he'll have seen today would have convinced him again that maybe they aren't just strong enough yet to put together the 90-minute performance that they will need against Newcastle and need throughout the season going forward."
#season #league #como
As Lynch put it, "that's the preseason done. No more friendly games for Liverpool until the real stuff starts." From there, the central issue was obvious, "is this team ready to compete in another Premier League season, another Champions League season, the League Cup and the FA Cup to go with it as well."
The result itself was positive, a 2-0 victory, and Lynch noted that "not a bad way to sign off for the summer really." He pointed to the underlying numbers that favoured Liverpool in key areas, saying, "the expected goals from this game and it's 1.47 for Liverpool, 0.52 for Como," while also noting that Liverpool "created three big chances to Como's zero."
That pattern had previously been easier to dismiss because of substitutions and rotation, but this time the concern felt more relevant. Lynch explained, "for the first time we've seen a lot of players get the full game or in some cases a lot of the game maybe two thirds of the game. So in theory Liverpool should have been able to replicate the first half performance in the second half of this game and unfortunately we didn't really see that."
The second-half figures underlined the point, "9-2 to Ko on the shots, 3-0 on the shots on target in the second half." With Newcastle next, his warning was direct, "they have to be better. They have to be more capable of playing 90 minutes." He added that Iraola's earlier comments about not being strong enough across the full match had been borne out again, saying, "what he'll have seen today would have convinced him again that maybe they aren't just strong enough yet to put together the 90-minute performance that they will need against Newcastle and need throughout the season going forward."
#season #league #como
27 days ago
