Last point on this stat : the interesting thing is that Naby and Thiago haven’t started together this season. Which means we can combine their numbers and we get 19 wins out of 21. You have to factor in the level of opposition but that is very impressive.
no. no really you can't Have you seen the stats on "great teams" that never played together. Like man utd's 1999 treble winning 11 that only ever played 4 games together or the invinibles who starts 2 games total all together or even our "best" 11 under klopp that has hardly ever actually played as a team. Its a squad game mate. the same 11 or even same midfield 3 is no assurance of winning all the same games.
That’s fair enough however I think there is definitely a very strong case to say that we win a lot of games when Thiago and Fabinho start matches. Agree that the best XI will rarely play a lot of matches due to rotation but there are definitely some players that will play most games because they’re world class and crucial to winning games. In fact, I will give you some numbers …
Since joining, Fab and Thiago have played 17 matches and have won 16 of them - the only game to not win was in the infamous game vs Everton where we were robbed. We score 2.4 goals and concede 0.4 on average. We are witnessing one of the best midfield partnerships in world football
absolutely. If we could get thiago actually fit the stats have to be much higher for example the last 10 games last season.
The chart represents the xG differential in each game across the season. The dots represent the matches where Thiago and fab both started and you can see we create a lot of chances and concede very little. Let’s hope we see more dots for the rest of the season …
I wonder if tonight's performance may alter people's thinking slightly. I'll be honest I really don't see the big thing about thiago. I don't understand why people think he's the saviour of our midfield, he has major plusses but major deficiencies as well. Apart from fab, I wouldn't say we have one complete midfielder, one player who is gaurenteed a spot because he's just that good.
Thiago wasn't great last night - he didn't do much wrong but I expected more from him. However, he has been very good for most part when he has played. He has struck up a fantastic partnership with Fab. What are his major deficiencies, other than injury record?
pace. Its a big pitch there. at anfield the spaces are tighter and he doesn't get as exposed. we have to remember though that inter played 352 and were happy to have our front 3 engage their back 3 in press it was 5 v 3 in the middle.
The pressing vs Inter was incredibly intense ... was a good decision to make several changes vs Norwich to keep players fresh ... please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Whilst it wasn't a vintage performance on the ball, there are no issues off the ball - all the lads put in a great shift with their pressing (excluding GK and defenders): please log in to view this image
Inter were pressing too but it was a different style of press; they didn't hunt in packs, the nearest man instantly closed the guy in possession every time. The fact they were stretched out and high up ther pitch made our press easier to implement.
Good point - they were pressing man to man. Was a very tough game for us but thankfully we got the win.
This is the problem with the stats. They don't show how Elliott got destroyed by inter pulling him out of position. He did well in his actions but after half time they targeted him and pulled him about and opened up our entire right side for peresic
no it certainly doesn't. he did his best and he was quite decent in his pressing as he didn't simply dive in but closed his lanes. the problem was he got caught up in following their lateral runs (or jogs) out of position rather than focusing on controlling his area.
And people would have moaned like **** if he'd just said "nah, I'm not moving out of position, someone else will have to deal with it"
Kostas is a really good player ... excellent back up / competition for Robbo. We just need something similar for Trent ... please log in to view this image
