Match Day Thread Liverpool v Wolves - FA Cup

This sums up how I feel about LFC at present

 

Original was better lol

 

And it had Harry Maguire in it.

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replay has been set for 17th january at 7:45pm.

this now compromises prep for the cheslea game on the 21st.

 

The tactics that we're employing are eerily similar to how Ljinders set up at NEC ... where he failed massively. I get the need to tweak things every now and again but it's so clear that this tactical set up is not suited to the players. Ultimately, Klopp is putting too much faith in Ljinders and they both need to get their heads out of their ar*es and fix this.

How the hell have we not been able to figure how to close the spaces and become compact again?

 

I don't get this pick a target stuff.

You've nailed ljinders on tactics and on transfers now.

Lets put it this way. theres not a lot radically different to last season where we acheived a huge amount.

The reality is mane is gone, the midfield legs are aging and certain squad players are done for.

the buck stops with the main man, not his assistants.

my view on this is that from day 1 first preseason game we simply didn't look right and we still do not.

• Fitness is an issue. they have not looks fit nor sharp at any point. the massive wake up call was man utd walking over us. The short preseason and touring round asia imo hurt our prep.
• Intensity/urgency/aggression is lacking. whatever way we want to call this theres no real grunt or willingness to slam into a guy as the ball arrives and put them on thier arse at any point in games.
• Tactics are an issue as point 1 and 2 impact ability to get up close enough to the ball if played short/mid range and then total inability to get back if played long. in short the opponents usually have an out ball if they care to look (wolves didn't care to look for large parts of the game last week but brentford did and destroyed us).The entire premise of pressing and cutting passing lanes is there is no out ball that is easy or wont result in a competition for the ball. IMO thats gone
• New players added and inevitable system learning.

I don't beleive mane going results in all of this. in fact is has zero impact on the above really. the players there are not going it.

Who are:
a) Nunez. work rate is good
b) diaz. work rate is great
c) Jota. if only he was fit
d) robertson is fits and starts.

Who are not:
a) Salah. hes clearly not. not getting close to many.
b) elliott. hes a trier but getting within 3 yeard and stopping is not pressing.
c) henderosn
d) fabinho
e) thaigo (he will run formward but not get close then just trots back.
f) trent. sorry but he's between two or not bothers. he's netiehr up high enough hitting people wide not really getting back. kind iof in two minds then says **** it.

The front 3 is disrupted constantly so theres no consistency in approach. the only consistent them to my mind is theres not much of a press on show and not many are joining that three/two who are wrking/

Press can be broken down imo to phases

1. Front 3 must all engage across the line.
2. 1 cm must join this hitting the deepest CM of the opposition (lets say elliott of henderson usually)
3. Full backs must be able to hit the opposition on the side line for mid range balls out. this doens't mean close it down after, it means hit them and actually challenge.
4. other CM, lets call them thiago needs to close the mid space and shut lanes off
5. Fabinho needs to sit with CBs
6. the back two must employ a high line to keep the gaps closed
7. the gk must be out sweeping.

What I see is maybe 2 of the 3 forward engage, then i see random actions from the cms, henderson for example i've seen chasing about aimlessly across the full width of the park, no thought to shutting of his side of the park etc. then i rarely see out full backs hit anyone wide as the ball is floated out there. theres no real agression in the hit.

I see the high line but i see it all too east to get the ball to an opponent in a decent position to pick the ball they want to pick.

I simply do not see it as being possible to emply these tactics out of the players we now have due to that lack of intensity or lack of real will.

 

Agreed MITO - we saw the change in tactics last year but we had better personnel who were also fitter.

We largely have the same team again but we look unfit, the attack is new so they have to learn the pressing, and the midfield is slower and older.

We just haven't adapted at all.

I just wish we revert back to the 18-20 style with the two 8's sitting alongside Fab, and let full backs bomb forward. We need to stop the bleed asap.

 

Yeah, it has to be something like that.

The great example is i think minute 2 of the arsenal game. Thiago runs off half cocked, never gets near the man he decides to close, that man plays it to saka who is not hit hard by vvd but is stood off and allowed pass to a man henderson has allowed run straight past him.

Arsenal look heros but all thaigo needed to go do was close the passing lane and that ball goes square. All Henderson needed to do was actually pick up the runner off of him.

Trent then looks a total muppet trying to decide which man to pick up as henderson's let him down and trent "can't defend" is the outcome.

 

Or it is the preparation.

 

nah, cheslea get a weeks rest due to being crap.

we get only a few days and we simply are not up to that are we?

 

Where is the next thread?,

 

Haven't read back so don't know if it's been mentioned but Doak, once again, shows more determination than a lot of the seniors. Straight in, heading straight forward, gets back in defence when we lose the ball and puts in a brilliant tackle at one end to come away with the ball and back up to the other end swiftly on the attack again. He encapsulates what the team used to be like. What happened to tackling? Alarmingly, Henderson put in no tackles at all. You can't have a midfield that doesn't tackle. Ironically with the players we have in Nunez and Salah, hoofball would work really well - we're not doing that either.

 

Agreed, was refreshing seeing Doak run with the ball with no fear.

The tackling is down to a couple of things in my opinion:

1) Lack of legs = lack of mobility. The midfield is getting older and slower and can't keep up with the play
2) Lack of cohesion from front to back = without co-ordinated pressing, it leaves to gaps. When you leave gaps, it means the opposition have more space to attack and therefore tacking becomes a lot harder

As mentioned above, we can expect the pressing from the front to be disjointed because we are integrating new players and they need time to adapt.

The midfield however has a couple of issues:

1) Getting older and slower, and we need someone who can get around the pitch. It's criminal that we have not replaced Gini yet (not counting Thiago).
2) There is black hole at RCM at the moment - Harvey and Hendo are simply not good enough for that role.

Unlike with the attack, this can only be remedied by bringing in fresh new blood into the team. That's why I believe someone like Caicedo is more important that Jude.

 

i'd rather lads get done for being over enthusiastic and give away fouls than get ran through with no tackles at all.

 

the fact that we are talking about relying on young lads being fearless points to the real problem. Squad depth. In a season with injury, we’re in trouble, without injury it’s more positive; only a few months since we nearly won the lot points to this……the reason we hold onto players as they age is that we can’t afford to replace them and get the other new players that we need. The problem is money. You could argue that we have too little or that others have too much and use it to bend rules but either way the result is the same.

yes, we weren’t ready after the short break

yes, we played so many games last year with a relatively shallow squad that we look goosed this season

yes, we seem to pick up a lot from injuries after the epic season last year

yes we are not as dynamic due to all of the above….

real squad depth in quality would solve most, if not all, of these issues

So underlying issue is that we are spending a lot less (net) than our competition and we are well past the injection of cash and subsequent talent that the Coutinho sale gave us.

the issue is money. Period.

 

Correct. Look at City yesterday, a very strong team on the pitch and a bench with players like Haaland etc. look at our bench against Wolves and compare. We cannot expect miracles every season. Look at the net spends in the Prem since Klopp took over, we are ninth. I realise money does not always mean success ( see Chelsea) but the lack of investment this Summer in the midfield is hard to understand

 

There's an age gap that needs filling in the 25/26 year old range. We've got old and young and nothing in between. Bellingham falls into the young bracket but he has greater experience than those of his age group usually have so I see no issue with him filling what should be a gap for a 25 year old.

 

Think you picked the wrong team as example lol
I would have used Everton

 

Financially we are not in the same league with city.We need a crazy owner who does not care sbout spending.

 

to compete every year, yes we do but, personally, I don’t want to be owned by a country. Reality is that we need a multi billionaire owner who will take a risk be patient and accept some failure…..while we build. Not many of them out there I’m afraid.