Absolutely, but let's not put too much pressure on him to be our saviour in midfield. Jones looked mint four years ago, and now he is just meh at best. We need two world class midfielders in there now
we don't need 2 world class midfielders just 2 whose attributes fit our requirements . All that matters is the total of the team and that doesn't necessarily need great players just ones that add more than their individual talent suggests they would to a team and then to have a great team you have a sprinkling of top notch like Salah used to be .
Didn't see the game, had to deal with insurance bull **** and never even gave the game a thought. Very unlike me tbf
Whatever happened to Salah? His performance level seems to fallen off a cliff. Whilst we used to expect him to score every time he gets into the penalty area, now it’s almost a bonus to see him take a shot. He certainly doesn’t look like a 350k/week striker.
He's definitely underperforming but the stupid tactics are forcing him out wide. The guy is our best goal scorer and creator, yet we want to put him as far away from the goal as possible! I think Klopp and Ljinders are trying to reduce the reliance on Mo (because he won't be around for many more years) so all of the shots and opportunities are landing for Nunez. The encouraging thing about the Chelsea game is that it looks like we have finally stopped the bleed in terms of letting teams walk through us. Thiago Bajetic and Naby provide a lot more energy and compactness and help to support the front 3 with the pressing. As soon as Naby went off and Harvey went into midfield, we lost that compactness. It looks like we're prioritising defensive stability over the attack - whilst the attack was really blunt, it should look better once we have Darwin in the team, and Diaz. At the moment, there is no outball other than Mo. Gakpo definitely needs to improve on the ball but I was happy with his defensive contribution. He pressed well in central areas and had a high volume. He could be the long term Bobby replacement.
I think what was interesting a few weeks ago was robertson talking after the Brentford game. "nobody high and wide" was what he said as a defender. this along with the "compact" comments we hear now constantly tells me that we are actively trying to be high up and wider. We it the ridicuolus Tret at RW, Matip at RB debacles. Salah being glued wide or whatever. I think you are right about keita and bajcetic and even thaigo. I called for keita before the brighton game as you could see that since the turned form world cup break that keita was the one person coming off bench injecting urgency in the play. He didn't start and we were hockeyed. Bajcetic and keita have made thaigo look good cos they are doing the running for him IMO. you are also right the second Elliot was pulled from LW (not his position ether) and rammed like a square peg in a round hole of RCM the whole thing went to pot. the Midfield then totally lacked a tackle and he should have put at least two lads on their arses and one of those lead to milner having to do it and get booked. Finally I hope you are right about nunez, if we don't get goals there we are not getting them out of gakpo for a while
He's almost always started out wide, and cut inside to score. The problem is that he used to beat three or four to make his way into a shooting position, but now he can't take it past one. That has nothing to do with Klopp or Lijnders - for whatever reason, his form has dropped off since AFCON.
But he's not able to get more central. He's just isolated out wide, being double teamed constantly. If you look at the stats, he's getting less touches in the box and having less shots. That is a tactical issue IMO. But agree on his dribbling - he's been really poor.
Once Darwin starts finishing his chances, then we will have a monster on our hands. He is absolute chaos - both in a good and bad sense at the moment. You have to look at the games without him - we've hardly created anything. When he is in the team, we get so many chances and shots. His presence alone causes issues.
I agree. I wouldn't care if he didn't score many (as long as someone else did), his presence, speed and determination are enough to have any defence scrambling.
I know TAA has been drifting inside probably since mid last season it became more noticeable - happy to be corrected. I think at the was discussed at lengths on here and his actually stats weren’t massively difference. Was still creating chances and getting assists. I think at the time what was generwlly happening was Hendo/Elliott were then drifting wide and Salah was then coming inside. Do wonder if with TAA drifting in, if that’s correlated with Salah staying wider more to provide some actual width that TAA no longer provided. Go back couple years and although TAA never bombed on like Robbo he was often get round Salah which drew the defender towards covering that run and maybe allowed more space for Salah to cut inside?
he's all energy. If we had both him and diaz in the side we would not be so far off IMO. As Klopp said about mkhitaryan at dortmund. He suits us like an arse on a bucket. Without diaz and nunez we are trying to bail out the sink ship with a bucket with no base in it.
I think there's a certain element of this in the tactics yes. The difference in positioning from broken play and play in possesion against a set defence is massive. Call this Counter attacking v play i nthe final third in possession. Salah can go and run centrally on the break but we need ot find him. Once the play becomes more strucutred then he is going very wide at times. But you have also highlighted the fact that while trent does go in the RCM (whoever it is) is simply not going wide at all now. Elliott is left footed so must come back in as well. there is no actual width coming then. You are also right, robertsons prime mode of assisting was to get beyond mane and running hard to play a cut back form the byline. Trent could deliver form deeper looking for runners like robertson, mane, frimino in the box. Trent rarely ever assisted salah as i think the stats show, it would me mmore o nthe break than any sort of pass in the final third.
The result was fair in the end. The ball looked like it had been over inflated and wouldn't stay down. That's my reasoning for lack of goals anyway. What has happened to Oliver though? Once the best ref we had to now, one of the worst. I think the derby broke him. He was absolutely awful. The card for young Bajetic was a joke. It was never a foul let alone a booking and meant Klopp had to take him off later. Gallagher got away with numerous poorly timed and poorly executed challenges and Bajetic gets a yellow for nothing. I despair of the current crop of referees. It's bad enough watching the team struggle at times without the overtly biased refereeing. As Klopp said, it's a small step in the right direction. Oh and Milner once again showing Trent how to play the RB position. Another yard of pace and I'd actually rotate him with Trent.
