Well Lovren played like a ****ing giant monolith yesterday. But the last thing you'd say when you see our bench is 'My God, it's full of stars'.
It was in the film of 2010. Really underrated film that - better than 2001, imo. Loved the scene when they 'gravity-braked' in Jupiter's gravity field. And Hal at the end 'Dr Chandra, will I dream?'. Epic.
Not seen yesterday's game as I was at work and having seen the result, I'm not overly keen on watching now. However, Lovren had been very good running up to this match. Consistency is obviously key but everyone as off games. He can certainly be improved upon but he's definitely not the worst either.
He just has stupid moments that have plagued his lfc career. Don't know if it's just him trying too hard and complicating not things rather than keeping it simple. First tried to anticipate and nick ball in front and it went over him. He stays goal side, gets there before Palace player. 2nd tried a first time blind pass out wide and ducked it up before trying to recover by immediately winning ball back rahee than getting into position to properly defend. Remember his one v West Ham last year I think, tried to jockey ball out and got caught, rather than just putting it out for a throw. He almost needs to look at Mig and go back to basics. Since Mig has gone back to doing what he does best which is just come punch he's looked a different keeper and that confidence is having positive impact on rest of his game. Feel lovren would benefit from just getting rid at times rather than trying to force himself to be a clever ball playing CB. Know how how everyone loves to play out from back and when we go long we can't really keep the ball but forcing a player that can't play a certain way to keep trying is having detrimental effect on his all round performance, even doing the basics.
I go to see Alexei Leonov next month. Looking forward to more than my holiday in Cape Verde this week.
He's just not a good defender, period. He always makes errors - they're only highlighted when they are punished. The guy is clearly not good enough and we need to upgrade, but he's not the only one. For all the mistakes Moreno made, our left channel was not targetted as much as it is now. It's a massive concern.
For all the stick he gets I have to point out that once he came on it was the first time we got behind their full backs. TAA tried as well, Milner and Clyne just get to the full back foot on the ball and pass back, no adventure, no ambition and not a lot of pace.
I've always said that Moreno offers something going forward (his brainfart with the open goal last week notwithstanding), but it's his defending that's awful. Milner isn't a LB, and it shows, but he doesn't make the quality cock-ups that Moreno (who theoretically is a LB) does. I'd be happy to see Bert stick around to be used as a pacy attack option when required, but we really need a competent, and experienced, specialist FB.
Yup Milner has stopped offering anything going forward (maybe he's tired and jaded) compared to when he first took on the role. For you guys you better be hoping he has improved. He was going forward but from what i remember from before, the standard Moreno MO was to run forward and just welly it as hard as he could across the box, either getting cleared by the first man or just going past everyone. Also he always tries these shots thinking he's agger or riise but never really scoring. For someone who attacks so much and runs forward at every opportunity, his record is pretty poor. Seems to have it in terms of athleticsm and technically doesn't seem too bad just decision making and generally being brainless. In fact if i had to describe him, i would say he's the defender version of Adama Traore
He's definitely brainless, and that's surely why he was dropped. His end product isn't great, but if brought on to shake things up, his pace and willingness to work is sometimes enough to unsettle defences. This is why I say I think he's worth keeping as an impact sub when the game has gone really stale, but he should never be first choice in any position, imo.
I've said this previously but Palace was a perfect example of where any shot on target is a goal. Ming could do nothing about either goal but it seems our defense will always gift the team one massive chance to score. Look at the past. Against West Brom where we won 1-0 it was up to Ming to save a 1v1. We beat Watford 5-1 near the start of the season and we still gifted them that one opportunity to score. Against Man u at home we kept a clean sheet but that was only due to them not attempting to score. Against Spurs we kept a clean sheet but Eriksen should've scored. Now look to Man u against Burnley. home team didn't even get a shot on target ffs, Mourinho knows how to set up and know when its game on and game over. That was classic Mourinho. Our team needs to understand when it's time to slow the game down and just get the result. We have 5 mins until half time yet Lovren is pushing up and got out ran by Cabaye?! I mean that is piss poor. I see a lot of positives from Klopps first proper season and wouldn't call it a failure. Got to a semi of a league cup but was dreadful in the FA cup. 5/6 of our first team have been injured consistently this season and even though we needed reinforcements in January no one could predict the injury problems we've had. Imagine if Man city have Aguero, David Silva, Sterling, Fernandinho injured? That's what were dealing with ATM in terms of first team players.
