Match Day Thread 6 Time Champ Liverpool V 5 Time Champ Ajax

I really feel for Trent sometimes. He is a player who has a high football IQ that he plays right back, wing back, right central midfield and has to tuck in as an auxillary midfielder when applicable. He plays all these positions in every game and most people still expect him to run back and cover for himself regardless of some structural issues on how we are currently set up. It is not that Trent is being lazy but his expectation is there is cover behind him when he goes attack.

Injuries
The biggest issue killing us at the moment is having few options in midfield to rotate players. Fabinho is absolutely shot. He cannot get some rest since he is the only one who can play that role with Hendo gone. You only need to look at Fabinho off the ball. He is struggling to keep up at the intensity and at times is deffering defending to Matip and VVD. Keita and Jones are very good utility players to have as they can play both the RCM and LCM to a level where structurally we are sound. What we are seeing is no different to the 20/21 season where because of deficiencies in key positions, we were left exposed for not covering them. We just lack the functional midfield structure and teams are capitalizing. I firmly believe when injuries in midfield clear up, you will see a very different Liverpool. I guess the only rebuttal was we went into a season hoping Thiago, Keita, Jones, Henderson and Ox will stay fit is this very tight schedule.

Defending
The key to Liverpool defending is how well we close out passing lanes upfront and win the ball via pressing. We are struggling on the right side where Elliot lacks the engine to cover Trent and he does not win the ball off the opposition players high up the field as expected (see Thiago). Once you beat our press, you have the freedom to make VVD and any defender left behind look stupid. Part of our defending is a functional midfield that works by fluid rotations to cover gaps where wide players have left space. Whatever you may think of Keita, he is one of the few players who is so good at positioning himself in the right areas of the press and winning the ball up high. Even the much maligned Henderson, always ensures we have structure and shape in our press.

In summary, criticizing Trent in terms of effort is fair in some instances during the game where he just shows no desire to get the ball. However to expect him to execute all these attacking roles effectively whilst covering himself without help from Elliot/RCM is expecting too much. If we are not carefull we will run him to the ground.

 

I'm here for Naby propaganda!

Hendo used to be able to do it but he simply does not have the legs to do it anymore.

 

Excellent post but I'd contend merely that that goal last night was not trent doing another job and not getting back etc, it was just not making the right call to do the no 1 right back job. Yes it's fair sometimes to say he's not getting back as you say but yesterday he worked better but still made a basic error that lead to a goal.

And as you've said and ibwt said last ight and the pictures show Elliott didn't do a thing but ball watch either.

 

The goal last night was both Elliott and Trent's fault.

But the good news is that we the team structure was a lot more organised and compact, and bar the goal and the Blind header, Ajax didn't create much at all.

Team have been walking through us all season but yesterday, we finally had some stability. Just need to iron out the individual errors.

 

Spot on for me that

Very easy to criticise the players

Klopp had a clear system and once you remove a piece of the machinery it can lead to issues, like him or loathe him - Hendo is and was a very important part of the system as he provides the cover for both our attacking defenders

atm no one else does that as well as him
Thiago is different and sadly appears to be made of glass

I trust Klopp totally to turn this around
He hasn’t done anything yet to make me doubt him
Just needs time so this season could be a quiet one and that’s fine imho

 

I never bought into the Keita hype when he arrived , mainly as i watched quite a lot of his performances during that disastrous year on loan at RBL , yet i'm not as critical of him now as most and agree with Jimmy that he is our 2nd best LCM and if he was available would almost certainly be playing RCM at present .

 

I truly don't want to pile in on Trent, but in trying to cover for him again I sense some posters are making ten times more effort to get back than he does. He simply jogs back at saunter pace no matter what the situation - is he worried about pulling something? He sprints like **** though when he's overlapping or getting into the box.

 

Good post.
I'll reiterate what I said yesterday that I'm not making a personal attack on Trent, just an observation on what is, imo, a real problem we need to address.
With regards to the last paragraph: my view is that if a player is in the side as a defender then that is his primary function and that can't be abandoned in favour of other aspects of his game.
Trent has more to offer than that, it's true - but in that case he needs to have that responsibility lifted a little, or the problem will never be resolved. You're right, he can't be everywhere, but if he's not doing his defensive job then who is? It's not as though it's a role we can do without.
I think he's trying too hard to do too much.

Having said that, much as I like Gomez he's had a bit of a 'mare recently, and we looked more solid with Matip back.
I completely agree that with fewer injuries we'd be a vastly different team - it surely goes without saying - but the injuries do happen and we have to be able to cope with that somehow.

 

Does not make much sense, a defender should try to get his head on the ball and shift it out of the danger area, even if it just a touch, it can upset the striker and any header at the goal. Ducking out when you can make contact with a dangerous ball into the box is crazy and almost cost us a win last night

 

I don't think the front three play as a team, it's three individuals

 

Think you might need to add context to my comment!

Obviously, he should head the ball away of he's there or thereabouts but we were talking about when in possession he pushes forward leaving a gap behind that gets exploited when we lose that possession.

 

I think Roberto is very team-minded. Just lacks a little pace these days. The others, you're right, I mean, Salah has always been a little selfish... Not to say he hasn't helped out with assists in the past... But if he has a half decent shot, he'll take it rather than pass to someone with a better chance.

 

Why don't we have the next match thread up yet? Are we concerned we'll still be mourning the Queen after the next international break?

 

A different kind of groaning when people watch mourn hub.

 

Same amount of flapping though.

 

Must admit that for a second I was expecting him to row Z it given his recent form.

 

By the way, you guys are welcome.

1 match thread, 1 win. 100% record.

I was going to retire but due to the unprecedented demand, I’m willing to put the team first and continue

 

You need to retire officially if you want your IN FULL.

 

Good man

Good man. Much better last night but still plenty of room for improvement. Long break not great, but probably a godsen