I think it's time for Klopp to go all in on Darwin now - give him a run of games as the CF and play to his strengths. My assumption is that he's not starting many games because he doesn't defend / press well from the front. 1 of 2 things have to happen: 1) Darwin learns how to press in the current system or he simply won't start the big games or 2) Klopp changes the system slightly to build around Darwin. Play to his strengths and mitigate his weaknesses (i.e. lack of pressing). Get him in the box, let him make the runs and give him service!
in the main i agree with this however Gakpo links the attack much better.I think LW is possibly his best position but you could say thar about all our forwards bar Mo
history and guessing. Seriously though you are absolutely right. Last year we would have started thinking Fulham away, thats a bottom half game but it turned out they did great and were top half. But you'll find you'll get it pretty much right for 9 out of 10 of them. for example 23/24 burnley sheff utd Luton forest palace wolves Everton Bournemouth Fulham would probably be a reasonable guess at 9. West ham or Brentford guessing then. Brighton have firmly made themselves top half now imo arsenal newcastle utd city spurs Brighton us (I hope) chelsea villa I'm sure.most of us would agree with that 9 also being top half. in the end its about getting 75points now for 4th and you have to assume you have to at least match what others clubs will do. I call these points you'll never earn elsewhere. A good example is this: 2022/23 LFC (Fulham and Chelsea in effect swap form bottom to top half) played 20 games v bottom half. Won 10, drew 6 lost 4. Ended on 67 points and TBH gave up at end as 75 was needed Convert those 4 losses (forest, Leeds, wolves, bournemouth) into wins as we should have and we are in CL. 2021/22 LFC is an exceptionally good year we all enjoyed. record v bottom half is 19-1-0. Only draw is mad brentford 3-3 game away. we finish on 92 points. 2020/21 another terrible year with an absolutely awful run in there. Record v bottom half? 10-5-5. 2-7 v villa, 0-1 v southampton and burnley and brighton and fulham. finish on 69 points and others are just plain worse so its ok. you really must win your home games against the bottom half. of those games we lost at home to southampton, burnley brighton and fulham!!!
It'd be a massive change in system here is my view on this. steal formation from leipzig. 4-2-2-2 (box midfield) Use the two full backs as attackers again. get wide, stay wide. Park the two cbs close to each other to cover and park two CMs in front. MAC and Bajectic. Play sloboszlai as advanced player in midfield with someone util we get that 6. (elliott?) Put two forwards up there. salah and nunez or nunez and jota. this completely makes gakpo and diaz uselss BTW. Alisson Trent Konate VVD Robertson Macallisater Bajectic Szoboszlai Elliott Salah Nunez Now you've jota and gakpo to come in at least. not srue what you do with diaz in this or Doaks. But at least you have width from full backs and the door shut behind with closer pairings Its not ideal but its a damned sight better than your RB playing LCM at times and nobody covering. oyu guys can thank me later when we win 10 in a row. #tacticalgeniusatrobbingothersideas
There is always a surprise or 2 see Villa , Fulham (though i was sure they would do better than expected) Southampton and Chelsea
There have already been two VAR controversies this season one at Stratford Bridge, the other at Old Trafford.
so let's look forward and largely ignore transfers that won't effect this game what changes to we make for this game based on what we have seen on game week 1 from both sides? First off this a home tie for us so we hope there is a reasonable atmosphere in even though the anfield road end really in effect gives Bournemouth a large standing section for good away support and kills out home side of it the Kop is rail seats in top half so let's see. anyway I think we will possibly see.more of the failed 3223 formation so there should be less pressure on macallister at 6 and we could we see an unchanged starting 11. Elliott was busy, Jones recycled the ball... but can either stake a claim? Bournemouth lined up like this last weekend and have 3/4 more signings to throw in netoAarons zabarnyi senesi kerkezbilling RothwellBrooks Christie anthonysolanke Scott, kluivert and faivre. really this game hinges imo on our ability to push forward and keep Bournemouth worried about us and not establishing themselves in the game and pushing us back.
The Stuttgart Trainer described Legendo recently as "The face of our team, an absolute warrior" Sadly not an @UltimateWarrior but still sounds like something we could do with.
