• Liverpool easily beat newcomers Ipswich 2-0
•The first half may have been even, but in the second half, Liverpool were much better and should have scored more than 2 goals
• And these are several things that can be seen from the opening game of the Premier League match.
Event: Football Premier League 2024/25
Match Date: Saturday 17 August 2024
Stadium: Portman Road, Ipswich
Result: Ipswich Town 0-2 Liverpool
Horse and Swan
Due to their absence from the Premier League for more than 22 years, Ipswich Town has not faced Liverpool for more than 20 years.
In the past two decades, the White Horse and the Reds have had only one chance to cross each other, in the 2002/23 League Cup. When Gerard Houllier was in charge and Steven Gerrard was the leader.
That time, the game at Anfield ended in a 1-1 draw before going to penalties. Where Liverpool edged out the game 5-4, with Jamie Clapham the only miss from either side.
Going back even further, Liverpool thrashed Ipswich 6-0 and 5-0 in the 2001/02 Premier League.
However, all of that is in the past, nothing can be taken seriously. This ufabet https://ufabet999.app game will only be decided by who did better.
It is clear that Liverpool are superior to Ipswich Town in almost every aspect.
The first set of slots
Arne Slot’s starting XI at Portman Road has a little surprise at the back, with young centre-back Jarrell Quansah selected ahead of senior Ibrahima Konaté.
The rest is nothing out of the ordinary: Alisson Becker in goal, Andrew Robertson at left-back, Virgil van Dijk at centre-back and Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back.
The midfield consists of Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch, and up front, Luis Diaz on the left, Mohamed Salah on the right, and Diogo Jota as the main striker.
However, the most interesting thing is not the real team, but the “no name” players in the team.
Joe Gomez
In this match, Gomez was not named as a substitute. The news said that he did not travel with the team.
Some reports suggest Gomez is in the process of “looking” to negotiate with other clubs to leave Anfield before the summer window closes at the end of the month.
Which, since the team didn’t travel to play the opening game like this, probably means that
The Blue Swan and the Temple Horse
It is somewhat predictable how the “small team. That has been promoted to the top league for the first time in two decades will play this game.
One is to set up a tight defense, pack the game back, and build a wall for the whole team.
Two, look for a good counter-attack opportunity or take a chance from a set piece.
And Kieran McKenna also installed some strategies like “Measuring Ball”. Which means which way you face, I kick in that direction, power first, technique later.
Which should be considered that in the first 45 minutes, Ipswich did quite well.
They shut down Liverpool’s attacking game, so in the first 15 minutes, the Reds still couldn’t find a clear scoring opportunity.
The closest to a goal was the White Horse. Which had a close call with Omari Hutchinson’s shot or Jacob Greaves’ header.
The first half ended with Ipswich creating 4:3 more chances and also having 2:0 more shots on target.
The picture is a set piece, a counter-attack, Ipswich is more dangerous, it will be clearer.
So, there is 15 minutes for Slots to make a move for the second half.
It should be more than 2-0.
It’s a little strange that the first place Slot chose to change was the back house.
Ibrahima Konaté replaced Jarrell Quansah at the start of the second half. Although it is unclear whether he was injured or not.
After the VAR check that said Ipswich was offside and didn’t get a penalty, in the 55th minute, Liverpool’s golden opportunity came. A beautiful play that ended with Alexander-Arnold tapping it to Luis Diaz who charged in from close range. However, at the same moment, Christian Walton also charged in, causing Diaz to unfortunately kick the ball over the bar.
And a few minutes later, TAA shot from the right, accurate to the head of Diogo Jota, who headed a dangerous shot that anyone who saw it would have thought was a goal… but it went wide of the post.
However, in the 61st minute, the first goal that The Kop had been waiting for arrived. Mohamed Salah broke through from the right and crossed inside, finishing off Jota. This time, he scored without fail, giving Liverpool a 1-0 lead.
And it didn’t take long for him to wait, when in the 66th minute, with the game already underway, Leif Davis stretched his leg to intercept the ball, allowing Mo Salah to poke past the goalkeeper, making the score 2-0.
When the score was tied and Ipswich tried to open up the exchange, it went Liverpool’s way.
In the last ten to twenty minutes, Liverpool’s chances kept coming. There were no less than 4-5 more finishing opportunities (until the end, the game ended with 18 shots, 5 on target). But if they weren’t blocked or saved, they wouldn’t have hit the target.
The conclusion of the game is that Liverpool were much better in the second half and should have won by a clear 2-0.
So you agree to buy or not?
Because the picture was clear from the first game that one team was fighting for the championship and the other team was escaping relegation.
However, it remains to be seen in the long run which way Liverpool and Ipswich will go.
The big question now is, with the summer window closing, do Liverpool need to sign new players, having not signed anyone yet, not even a penny has been spent.
From this game, the answer can be classified into 2 types.
1. Short-term, no need to buy – The players are already good, there are many options. In this game, Cody Gakpo only played for ten minutes, Darwin Nunez did not play, and Harvey Elliott or Wataru Endo sat on the bench and were not used.
2. Long-term, it’s good to buy – when you don’t know what the future holds, who will get hurt, who will be like, who will lose form in the 4 competitions, the Reds should add some more options, at least 1-2 would be good.
But since this is a long-term competition, 8-9 months per season, the final answer is probably “should buy”.
The problem is, where to fill in when the options are quite tight right now?
That’s it… where do you add it to make it “just right”? Not too much, not too little.