Seems like you really don't understand it yeah. "Not good defensively" yet we have conceded 3 goals less than the second best defensive team in the league
And off the top of my head: Diaz missed a sitter a few feet away from goal right after coming on yesterday. Salah hit the post. That's two I can remember in a second yet you bang on that we didn't create anything apart from their "mistakes".
I do understand it, too well - that's the problem.
XG is too nuanced and complex to mean anything over small sample sizes like one game or even eleven games (or however many we've played).
You created those chances at 3-2...I'll give you that, when Southampton were mentally broken.
Look, I'm not digging out Liverpool here necessarily...you're obviously doing some things very well.
What I am saying is that, as an observer, it's ugly and attrional and relies really on wearing the opposition down and having good athletes all over the pitch as opposed to superstars.
It's frustrating, as a rival fan, to see goals scored week in, week out, due to bad errors by opponents...but if Liverpool have mastered a method of playing which forces those mistakes and allows you to capitalise on them...well three points is three points. There was a stat last season about how many points Liverpool gained in the 75th minute +...again, fitness, wearing teams down, boxing them in when they're knackered.
It won't say Southampton 2 -3 Liverpool (two terrible errors from McCarthy, one terrible error from the fullback)...it'll just be three more points on the board.
You’re over-simplifying things - obviously.
Liverpool have probably the only ‘superstar’ CB in the league. The goalkeeper is superstar-adjacent. The right back may well be at Real Madrid next season and the right winger is possibly the biggest superstar in the league barring one or two debatable alternatives.
The idea that this is some industrious set of hackers who rely on opposition mistakes is quite incorrect. In the lead up to Liverpool’s winning goal yesterday, Southampton went almost 12 minutes without touching the ball in Liverpool’s half. Their windpipe was slowly closing and the handball mistake was a product of being completely overwhelmed.
Slot is very controlled and Liverpool aren’t all action - and you’re not obliged to love it - but to confuse that with attritional is misdirected.
No doubt van Dijk is fantastic, Salah is one of the best footballers to play in the Premier League...Allisson one of the best goalkeepers. I think there's plenty of comments from me on here saying as much. Also seach my post history, look what I said over and over about Klopp's great team that won the Premier League...I side many times they were the blueprint, very exciting, high-energy, loads of talent.
I just don't see it with this team. I see this current version of Robertson, Konate, Mac Allister, Gravenbach, Jones, Szoboszlai, Gakpo, Jota as largely "6th to 3rd" types who are performing out of their skin thanks to a history of solid tactical foundations and principles from Klopp and the two superstars who are at the latter stages of their career.
I would say Diaz is a player I do like, he's not a "superstar" but he's probably the next level, a level above Gakpo and Jota but not Salah-esque
It's frustrating, therefore, as a rival fan, to see players who'd sink at United performing very well, and players sinking at United who'd do very well at Liverpool.