Years ago, I told him (And a few others) that the best way to get activity on here, whether it be a new thread or not, it's to be controversial. I think he tries to do it too often so people misinterpret his persona.
I haven't been able to watch many of our games so far this season but the ones I have seen have shown that teams are triple teaming Salah; Mané can't pick out a decent pass [although he is one player whose focus is forward not backward] and Firmino is struggling with where he should be playing. Just as an aside, when Firmino renewed his contract did it remain incentivised? I know it used to be and he looked a lot more like he was trying to score or assist when there was money in it. Not saying he's a money grabber but maybe there was a reason he liked a contract with incentives.
he subbed him on after 70mins... that's not starting him. I also point that fact out that psg just immediately had two closing and fouled all the time
I like everyone have done a fair bit of moaning about the midfield. However I'm not 100% sure it's justified. We have strengthened the midfield with two signings, plus we have ox to come back. All three are going to take time to bed in. We are left with milner, wini, Henderson as the only fully fit midfielders. We have 3 fully fit attackers (that are good enough for first team) Now thinking about it like that, would we prefer that we tear arsed round the pitch like last year, scored a **** load of goals and by Christmas had blown ourselves out. Possibly losing games as injuries would be more likely, and we may have been forced to play a weaker team. Or play within ourselves, sit second in the league, 2 points off the most expensive squad ever assembled, with a better than fair chance of going through to the knock outs of the champ league. Klopp has changed the way we play, we have the players to play the new system, but as with everything it takes time to get right. I reckon, I'm going to stop having a go, just for a bit and see how we get along.
Semantics. Evidence for his lack of fitness 1. Keita dropped out of lactate testing in round one on first day of preseason. Milner of course won but lallana even came second and smashed Keita. 2. Early in season he was subbed off a lot. 3. Injured playing international. 4. Injured v Napoli after 19mins. 5. Misses loads of games for us. 6. International break klopp is quoted as saying him going off and playing was good cos he needed game time cos... he's not fit. So if you wanna argue something fine but the fact is Keita not been fit to play prem football and has been injured. You might as well be talking about lallana here....
Midfield has been a problem for a long time - since Mash and Alonso left. Individually, Gini Hendo and Milner are decent players but we simply can’t play them together. Add Coutinho or Ox, it then helps. But that still masks the issue. And the issue is, none of them are brave on the ball. If we want to keep possession rather than counter press, then we need players who want the ball in tight spaces and can avoid being pressed/keep the ball, open up spaces for others, passing through lines. I posted an example in the PSG thread - Hendo has two SIMPLE options ahead of him but he chooses to go backwards. THIS is what kills us! It may seem like nothing but this ‘no risk’ attitude is bullshit and it hurts us. A lot of fans were calling for Henderson because he moves the ball around quickly - but it’s pointless if we’re simply shifting it back to the CB’s or full backs. Now that Klopp is taking a more controlled approach to games, we’re no longer pressing like demons and creating chances through that - the high intensity style suited Hendo/Milner/Lallana etc. We’ve taken that away so they will naturally suffer. The good news is - we have two quality midfielders to help remedy the situation. Whilst it’s been a slow start, Fabinho and Keita ARE top class players. Both are progressive with their passing and both work incredibly hard. Keita came on PSG and he was dribbling with the ball and was moving around which opened up space in midfield (which no one exploited). At the end of the day, Klopp isn’t happy with the midfield hence why he spent £90m on two new mids and then wanted Fekir. I think he needs to have a bit more faith in the new signings and get them integrated quicker. But it will happen at some point this season so I’m not overly worried. One final thing - I want to take the captaincy away from Hendo and move him back to a B2B role. I think captainancy is weighing him down and he seems afraid to take risks and not to make a mistake. And his best role is B2B - he can use his energy to press and he can add more support to the attack (he was really good in 13/14).
In summary - - have faith in the new players - klopp needs to use Gini Milner Hendo a lot better because they are limited and it’s not their fault - klopp needs to choose a better midfield for the style he wants to adopt
btw klopp is talking evolution today/yesterday. I've no issue with that, nor what jimmy has said above. what i wrote this article about was players not wanting the ball in midfield and not wanting to have an influence on the game.
But the thing is - is that a problem with the players or the manager? You’re right in the players don’t want the ball or want to influence - but that’s their limitation. We can’t change that. It’s like asking Hendo to be Alonso. So we need Klopp need to take the call and bring in players who can do it.
"Hendo has two SIMPLE options ahead of him but he chooses to go backwards." makes me laugh when stats are thrown out to show hendo has made the most forward passes to justify this. well maybe i have had my eyes closed when he has done, as i haven't seen any of it. he's not called the crab for no reason yeah another lucas ie scapegoat, well its because we have now accepted average players sorry!!
The forward pass stat that gets used is so bad. Basically, Hendo will pass the ball out wide to a full back who is probably a yard ahead of play - that’s a forward pass. It’s not progressive, it’s not getting us the pitch, it’s not bypassing lines.
think it was the watford game where they showed it on motd as well, hendo had the ball up pitch and could have put bobby in for a shot on goal and he plays it backwards, he does it so many times it gets ****ing irritating. and why when they go through the game in training does he keeps doing it, does he never get pulled up on it or something. coutinho would have had bobby straight in, or anyone else for that matter, he seems scared to take risks ffs! and it wasn't even a risk as it would have put bobby straight in on goal.
