In the very long time between those two shots, Salah and his teammates tried their luck many times, but not once succeeded. It is worth mentioning that 13 out of 15 shots that Liverpool have taken took place in the penalty area. However, with only 4 on target, it can only be said that Juergen Klopp’s students played very badly. And when eliminated, they should blame themselves for leaving the Champions League.

Klopp said Liverpool needed a better performance than the first leg to dream of a comeback. They did, at least in the early part of the game, putting great pressure on Real with intensity and speed. The expected 1.23 goal index greater than the 0.83 they had at Madrid last week also underscores the difference. There is, as James Milner sadly said after the game, “we did everything, other than scoring 2 goals.” And that is the reason why Klopp regrets, that his team “lost in Madrid, not tonight”.

The question is, why did Liverpool lose the consistency they had, and then put themselves in such a bad place? They have been playing erratically over the past several months and in a confusing way, always becoming less sharp when playing at Anfield. Wednesday night was the 7th of the last 10 home matches in all competitions, Salah and his teammates could not find the opponent’s net.

The goalless draw against Real at Anfiled officially turned Liverpool (red shirt) into a blank in the 2020/21 season.

Hope for a broken feat, Liverpool has to face the reality of an empty season. More seriously, they also risk not being able to re-export the Champions League to get revenge next season. The Kop has been drifting outside of the top 4 for 2 months now and 6th place, 2 points behind Chelsea, 3 points West Ham makes coming back a real challenge. Their journey will start at Leeds’ Elland Road at the weekend. And overcoming physical torture with players physically tired, mentally downhill after 90 minutes filled with disappointment and regret at Real will reveal how successful they are. .

But the challenge for Klopp has not stopped. The defeat against Real has shown that Liverpool need a drastic overhaul to upgrade the squad. 7/11 names in the starting lineup at Anfield have played in the Champions League final against Real in 2018. If not because of injury, this number is even higher. In the second half of the game, when the opponent regained the rhythm and Liverpool increasingly withered their ideas, the players Klopp brought into the field did not help improve the situation. So depth quality is also an issue.

However, Klopp’s summer revolution, in addition to the task of retaining stars like Salah and Sadio Mane, depends greatly on where Liverpool is at the end of the season. A vicious circle. And with that said, they can only blame themselves for falling there.

When Anfield was no longer a mecca

This is the 11th match this season (in all competitions), Liverpool failed to score goals. Amazingly, 9 of them took place at Anfield. Under the guidance of Klopp in the previous time, lasting more than 4 seasons, The Kop has only 9 times without scoring at home and no season more than 3 games.

“Liverpool played excellently, actively and created many opportunities. But this kind of match takes a few crucial moments. We don’t have, and we don’t have a goal. Finishing has been a problem for The Kop all this season., Said Klopp.

The 90-minute match statistics showed that the match between SLNA and B. Binh Duong had a fairly high professional quality. The SLNA host controlled the ball only 44% and skillfully performed defensive counter-attacking style. Coach Quang Truong’s students launched 8 finishes and 5 of them went on target. SLNA’s finishing rate on target has improved as they still have 1 shot on the crossbar.

This is a rare match this season where the quality of the shots on the SLNA side has such a high accuracy rate. On the B. Binh Duong side, the visitors launched 9 shots, 3 shots hit the target and there were also 2 situations where the ball reached the crossbar and the post. SLNA played a good game without receiving any penalties compared to the opponent’s 1 red and 4 yellow cards.

SLNA’s finishing ability has gotten better. Photo: Duc Anh

Despite winning, Pham Xuan Manh personally will have to learn from experience because a foul in the penalty area leads to a penalty. Before that, in the match against Nam Dinh, he also had an unnecessary foul situation outside the penalty area, indirectly leading to a last-minute goal. The position of Cao Xuan Thang also needs to be considered because if defender Sy Nam comes back, Xuan Manh will be more dangerous when playing in the winger position.

Continue to believe in using young players

In the last match, when Peter was not healthy to play, the person chosen was young player Nguyen Van Viet. The player born in 1999 was the one to create a favorable way for Phan Van Duc to open the score after an intrusion and passed the technical person. His good strength and ability to observe also help Van Viet to have other very sensitive passes to his teammates. However, Van Viet is no stranger to Nghe fans. Two players Nguyen Van Duc (1998) and Tran Manh Quynh (2001) are the first faces BHL SLNA “released” in the V.League playground.

Besides Van Viet, Van Duc and Manh Quynh are used more often. Photo: Duc Anh

Although Van Duc is inexperienced, the biggest mark of original player Quynh Luu is a one-touch finish that sends the ball to the crossbar. The ability to pass the ball and handle in a narrow space of this central midfielder is also better than the man Sy Sam. For Manh Quynh, this player replaced Van Viet and had a tectonic line for Phan Van Duc to score. If he was more fortunate, the number of assists of Manh Quynh in the match would have been 2 when Xuan Thang missed the chance to score at the end of the match. Thus, not only with 3 points, BHL has basically solved the problem in the central midfield position.

How to use Bruno Henrique?

Striker Bruno Henrique last season had 10 goals for HL Ha Tinh, but this season he only had 1 goal after 8 matches. Obviously the ability of this Brazilian striker has yet to be fully promoted. Although this player did not score in the match against Binh Duong, this is still a pretty good striker of SLNA. The player made a one-touch move and finish after an accurate cross from his teammates.

Unfortunately it was an offside ball. It was a typical Bruno Henrique scoring situation with a pretty good one-touch finish. It seems that this player will become dangerous when he has the highest kicking tendency, often present in the middle and penalty area.

Striker Bruno Henrique still needs a good partner beside Phan Van Duc. Photo: Duc Anh

However, in order for this player to promote his header and scoring ability, it is necessary to have midfielders capable of crossing the ball well from the two wings for him to choose positions and deliver a quick, neat finish. Unfortunately, Peter Samuel is not the type of player that can cross the ball well, does not work well, manages to manage in the middle area, so the foreign duo of SLNA often do not find each other in combination.

Anyway, Bruno Henrique still has a better finishing ability than Peter Samuel and playing with a 4-4-1-1 chart in the past has helped SLNA become more harmful. The most important thing right now is that BHL must find out how to use midfielder Bruno Henrique to maximize the player’s strengths.