Honestly can't see how Isak and Salah can be in the same team. It's like defending with 9 men as neither track or have loads of energy to press. Think Salah should be used as an impact sub these days, run him at defenders as they tire late on. Also our approach to defensive transfers has been rubbish since VvD. Lets not sugar coat it Konate is a hit or miss defender and should have been replaced along time ago. Instead we've sat around and stuck with the same without any thought to change unless it forced on us, ala TAA. Arsenal on the flip side, probably the best defensive pairing in the league, still had the thought to go out and buy two CBs who are more than capable.
The most damming thing is that we are so easy to play against and yet we haven't changed anything to stop this, either between games or during the match itself. The oppo just need to sit back and hit on the break as we're wide open. It's the definition of madness, doing the same thing again and again and expecting things to be different.
I got frustrated yesterday with our attempts at attacking,which involved going from one side of the pitch to the other three times without any attempts at going forward.Absolutely boring to watch.
Salahs days are numbered. Even without the huge drop in form this season, he wasn't hoing to last forever. If when he goes to afcon we stick frimpong or sboz out there, while ekitike or eirtz sits on the bench I'll be majorly pissed off. Konate is getting major ****e, deservedly so. Some of his performances this season have been woeful, but he's more than capable of being colossal. He ****s up at times but for much of last season he held the entire left of our defense together alone. Konate is getting the worst of it but there's to many players who's form has absolutely dived off a cliff for there not to be a reason. From a well drilled machine to absolute shambles in a couple of months in incredible. Yes we've brought in alot of new players but to have non of them hit the ground running is unbelievable. Its like they've had no instruction, no clue what each other are going to do or are supposed to do. Movement and passages of play are non existent. God forbid we lose the ball, we look like cockroaches with the lights switched on. Scrambling everywhere. The players look lost, what's worse is they look like they've lost belief as well.
When Salah is away this team sets up perfectly for a 352 really Ali Konate Vvd Gomez Frimpong Mac/Szobo Grav Kerkez Wirtz Isak Ekitike let Frimpong and Kerkez do what they do best flying up the wing with protection behind them and let 2 of mac/grav/szobo sit and hold while Wirtz feeds the front 2
Won't happen, Frimpong will just take the rw position, Slot even said so much during pre-season. I'd say we'll play the same until Slot gets sacked, cause he's got no clue how to change things as he doesn't like half his squad.
Yeah, Kerkez is perplexing - I'm sure Klopp would have loved him, and used him more as a wing-back/overlapping fullback, which is what he was at Bournemouth. I've lauded Slot in the past for being more tactically flexible than Klopp, but there are times now that we don't seem to know what formation we're playing. Don't get me wrong - I think players should be able to adapt to total football and play several formations (sometimes in the same game), but good, proven players are looking hapless and clueless at the moment: we need to get through till January, get a couple of signings in (Guehi and Semenyo, please), consolidate the CL push, and try a tilt at 4th or 5th place, as they're the best we're doing this season.
I dont know much about Kerkez beyond what I've seen at Liverpool. From what I have seen of him, I dont think he suits our current set up. For him to play to his strengths, either the RB needs to stay back or we'd need two holding midfielders imo. 352 might work too.
We are a bit of a shambles at the moment, a collection of good players not playing as a team. Our defending from set pieces is awful, it is simple stuff, pick up a player and don’t let him loose in the penalty area. Konate is a mess at the moment, we should have sold him in the summer, we learned nothing from the Trent debacle. It’s hard to find positives at the moment but if we lose at West Ham, Slot will be in big trouble
Yeah I think so too. Hearing things like "we keep conceding on the one chance they have" just isn't going to cut it. A) It suggests he thinks everything will come good eventually, just keep going with the same approach B) It's ignoring why the opposition score with every chance, it's because they are ****ing sitters due to our approach
Yes it is basically the same pattern where we concede first on a set piece, and then when plan A doesn't work, replace defenders with midfielders and lose any control of the game in the hope that one of our million attackers will do something.
We have no way of knowing how soon our form will improve but if we'd won on Saturday we'd have been two points off 2nd place. That's how tight the points are at the moment. Don't give up.
Lucklily West Ham aren't a coached by someone who sets up his team to soak up pressure and hit on the break, with a history of using this tactic to beat a Slot LFC team...
