I thought Coutinho is showing sign of getting back to form. The problem for him is that his best attribute are his vision and throughballs - he has no-one making the runs behind the defence. But playing him in the midfield 3 is where he belongs - he's able to pick the ball up from deep and keep the ball moving. Sterling has been poor by his standards - the final touch/pass/shot just isn't happening BUT the good thing is that he is still getting into those positions. His form is not caused by some inherent deficiency. That can't be said for Lovren who makes Skrtel look decent. This man seriously does not know the basics of defending.
By his standards not really, decent enough though. Out of our attacking midfielders Lallana was the one that stood out for me Henderson was a cut above everyone imo.
Yeah, he was good. In the first half the team's shape was off and fixed, so there was little creative interchange, but in the second half Henderson pushed forward and Coutinho was solid from deeper (the #8 position as Jimmy calls it).
Not what I saw. Ok first half (without doing much) but anonymous in the second. Jimmy sums it up - no-one, including Sterling, making runs.
And that's the issue. Much like Ozil at Arsenal who suffered when they lost their pace up top last year when Walcott got injured, Coutinho needs lots of movement ahead of him to be able to pick out those passes and through balls.
Once we got the second goal, you could really sense the passion from the crowd AND the players - we played with that aggression pace and swagger again.
A little bit of a contradiction there. In any case, runs tend to happen in bunches, done by different players. That's the whole concept behind it. The whole front 4 or 5 need to interchange, probe, overlap. That is best done via 433.
I don't understand what's happened to Lovren. He was fantastic last season, absolutely rock solid and a leader at the back. He had a good first game for us but has plummeted since then...
That'll be a hard decision for Rodgers - as since Lallana has been match fit he has looked good, he fit's our system well. Just as good as Coutinho, and the last couple of games Sterling seems to have lost his final touch. At least we options I'd like to see Sturridge and Balotelli up front as I think Sturridge would get a lot more out of Balotelli than we're currently seeing
Missed the game completely today as not even able to get phone updates, and we won. Should I miss the game every week from now on so we win the league?
Lad probably needs a rest, played every minute since the Villa loss. Also needs to stop listening to his agent and get a contract signed. Big distraction at the moment and its not being made easier by a greedy agent trying to tout his player out, paper stories linking him to Real etc.
When we bought Lovren, the Southampton fans said if we wanted a leader at the back we should have bought Fonte. They may be right. Only time will tell. Let's see what he's like this season.
See I'm not with you on that personally, he's settling in to a new club, been given the role as our back four commander. Yes he's made a few mistakes, but he's made some great interceptions, blocks etc. too. Unfortunately for a defender it's the mistakes people remember you for and, and not so much the good. I have every faith in Lovren becoming a cult figure in our defence. It will just take time
