If people recall hyppia's final 2 seasons, LFc really changed up to let him go do what he does. Carragher effectiveyl sat off as a sweeper and we let the big man go head the ball. In england this is ideal as half the time the sides are just lumping it (at least back then) If we have phillipr right and he's a bit slow, do you sit high with masses of space behind him and then compound the issue by not closing down? Last night we got a bit tired second half before subs. We were letting leipzig have it and take thier time to pick their long ball and play it under no pressure. this cause us huge issues for 15mins. If we play a side with a target man then let phillips go and win those headers and sweep up behind him. I thought kabak actually did alright doing this sort of stuff but everyone needs to buy in. The forwards need to rush the oppoenents and not let them pick thier ball. our game is all about rushing opponents into errors, of whatever type. Robbing the ball high is not the only result of pressing.
Phew - finally a good result and a really good performance. I won't get too excited over this performance because RBL played into our hands but there were some underlying good points to our play to suggest that we can finally kick on in the PL. 1) Fabinho in midfield. Makes all the difference not only for providing protection to the back line, but also winning the ball back in key areas, launching attacks, and freeing up Thiago to do what he does best. 2) Our pressing was back. Jota in the front line is already one of our best pressers this season. Fabinho is our best ball winner and he was back in midfield. Thiago is very good at winning the ball back as well and he was very efficient last night. Our pressing from the front works when they have the support from behind. We finally had that. 3) Chance creation. This was helped by having so much space to work in but some of our chances were created through great build up play, and not long balls. Chance after chance, we put them under a lot of pressure and they eventually buckled. Even when we were winning the cL and PL, we weren't a team that relied on one chance to score. We could create multiple chances a game. Simple probabilities: create more chances, increases the chance of scoring goals. Fortunately or unfortunately, the points above really hinge on Fabinho in midfield. Let's hope Klopp keeps him there.
he should have to but thus far he has resisted for a variety of reasons to the point he had both henderson and fabinho at CB. We have 12 games left this season, hopefully 15 the question must be IMO how to get the most out of them we can. I would assume we are about 6 weeks from VVD. something of that order, so the question has to be now, do we back phillips and kabak or do we revert to assuming they will **** up worse than that we've seen over the past 6 league games?
I'd back Philips and Kabak till the end of the season Philips has shown that he's a fairly solid defender, hasn't done much wrong. Ok he's no world beater and nobody will win the league title with him as 1st choice but in terms of what we've got he's good enough for now. If I were a lower Prem team, someone like Palace or Newcastle or maybe a team that wants to be promoted, I think Philips would be a good buy.
I agree. Phillips and Kabak can only get better with more game time together and with Fabinho in front,
need to count this up again on my fingers 10 league games. aheam, switch to toes 2 QF games = 12 2 Sf plus a fine = 3 12+ 3 = 15 whats your point mate? we are not **** like utd, we are not in the europa here.
I said so at the time of vvd and gomez injuries that nat phillips was fine but nobody beleived me. I should start predicting Ben davies is awesome next. the more desperate we get the more right i will look IMO if phillips nodded in a few goals theres be more interest. IMO he must have rasied his value both in germany and england by a few mil last night. Yesh its only forsberg and poulsen but he did the job.
last couple of games you can see that Kabak has a pass in him....we must not judge him too quickly, think he will be decent given time.
I've been thinking for a while that Phillips could have a good career at a club with slightly lower expectations than ours. He's definitely solid and reliable at what he does. A team with title aspirations is always going to be looking for a slightly more sophisticated player but I'm sure he'd be a regular starter at most clubs.
Kabak is a big strong lad so it's easy to forget he's only 20 (almost 21), and he's already admitted that playing in the PL is a steep learning curve for him. If we weren't in such dire straits he'd be nowhere near a starter at this stage. I'd be happy to give him time beyond this season and see what he can develop into.
He can pass, he's also very good in tricky situations although I'm not keen on him trying to beat an opposition player in our penalty area as he did last night!
