I wish I could like this post ten times.
1 Like
Oh dear. How have you misinterpreted what I’ve said this time?
1 Like
From you not understanding what you wrote!
You’ve made this point before and it’s a nothing but a weak excuse. He controlled Robertson’s pass and then misplaced his own pass to Gomez. It’s not the first time he’s done it and it won’t be the last.
In any case, this isn’t 5-a-side football. If he has trouble handling these passes, he has no business being a professional footballer, let alone playing games for Liverpool.
1 Like
Come on. I’ve been very clear that I consider it his mistake, and you’d want him to do better.
My point is that if the team is adjust for him Robbo doesn’t give that to him. He has other options. And what does Robbo want Adrian to do with it anyway? He isn’t going to launch an attack with a devastatingly accurate pass through midfield.
As I say, the whole outfield performance was as if nobody had told them Alisson wasn’t in goal.
1 Like
There’s many goalkeepers who aren’t great ball at their feet.
It’s not like Alisson hasn’t had problems in this department either.
Whether this lads good enough or not I don’t really know but it’s who we have. He’s our best option when Alisson is out according to our coaching staff. If he needs replacing I’m sure the club are looking into it.
Some of the stuff being thrown his way is just unfounded nonsense. Aren’t we better than that?
1 Like
It’s the kind of mistakes that would raise questions at most clubs imo, let alone a top one and current champion. Doesn’t have to turn into a witch hunt though and shouldn’t cover for the disorganisation across the whole team.
5 Likes
It was a shit pass that very reasonably took him two touches to control while the opposition were pressing. If he banged a ball like to Virgil he’d probably have got an earful as well. Adrian made a bad decision and shit execution on his decision, but I also dare say that he used his third touch to bang it into touch a significant part of the fan base giving him shit would have still given him shit by saying “he needs to do better there, he needs to show confidence at playing out otherwise it will hurt our confidence and affect the way we play.”
3 Likes
San Miguel beer is pretty fucking bad as well,you can’t win.
1 Like
When you’ve made the same mistake once, twice, thrice you don’ take any chances. You play it safe and you don’t care an iota of what the fanbase thinks.
For the record Robertson’s pass was indeed shit. But what happened was 100% Adrian’s fault.
That wasn’t really my point. Mine was more the willingness to crucify one player with a he’s shit if he does and shit if doesnt attitude.
Yes and yes. Don’t think anyone is suggesting any different.
The point is that Robertson’s pass to Adrian - one that Alisson brings down easily and starts an attack with - is an example of the team not adjusting to the Brazilians absence, and making no concession to Adrian’s more limited game.
1 Like
This isn’t 1992 anymore. Any goalkeeper playing in 2020 has only ever known dealing with the back pass rule.
Granted, not all will be Becker style confident, but dealing with a back pass should be bread and butter to a keeper. Yes, mistakes will be made, but for a Prem level keeper, no way at all should it be at this frequency,
Now, adjusting with less sweeper keeper style tactics, and defence accommodating Adrian is sensible to do, and I totally agree with you there.
But implying that Andy shouldn’t have passed back to the keeper from half way, is giving too much protection to Adrian. For a debutant 22 year old, yeah I can see the merit. But an experienced keeper, albeit backup, for the reigning champions? Not having it. What I’m saying is you could adjust the tactics all you want and explicitly tell the team not to pass it back kinda awkwardly, but in the heat of the game, the keeper has to deal with what he is confronted with. And he failed big time in the opening goal.
Now, I would bet my last dollar that in the past one year, every day in training, Adrian has gone through our keeper in-game tactics, and has been learning and adjusting his game. He trains with the team day in and day out. He knows that to play for Liverpool, he has to be a little more expansive with his game compared to his Hammers days. So he must be doing something right in training for Klopp to keep faith in him as the number 2.
I recall last season after some howlers, Adrian went back to putting his foot through the ball. He’ll need to revert to basics to get his and the team’s confidence in him again, as every man and his dog knows that he’ll be targeted in the derby.
Also, for our third keeper, personally I would have sent Kelleher on loan to play some first team games, and allowed Grabara to fight with Adrian for the number 2 spot. Grabara has had a couple of good loan spells already.
2 Likes
Has anyone said that? The criticism of Robbo is not the he passed to him, but gave him a shit pass that put him under pressure immediately. The same criticism would be valid no matter who he gave it to.
6 Likes
We are stuck with Adrian for 6 games at least, personally I don’t rate him much, so its up to him now to prove he is worthy of the shirt.
Not a critique or at all a complaint, so I don’t want anyone to get my words twisted, more an observation. The recruitment team certainly went economical on the Adrian signing. He was a free agent with PL experience and all it cost the club was wages. So I totally get it. Factor in no way to predict Ali’s freak injuries (non contact calve injury v Norwich; training collision), just no way for the club to predict that. Was Adrian the best available option, debatable/doubtful, but in the most simple economic terms I completely understand why he was signed at the time.
And I even posted in the Villa post match thread, there was next to zero chance the club were going to panic-buy a goalkeep on deadline day. Even if they wanted to buy, I doubt they could have pulled together something realistic or even sensible in those remaining 24 hours.
2 Likes
I don’t get this angle.
Anyone who has played any sort of team game I’d expect to understand…
The last thing you do to someone being “dropped” into the team is gradually let them grow into the game, the role, the positon whatever…
Not first action fucking smash a ball back at them when the entire backline is being pressed. Give them a bloody chance to get their head into the game.
I think you meant to write “The first thing you do”. But your post reminded me of that wonderful story about Souness that he only learned several years after the event…
The whole article is a wonderful read but this bit seems relevant to how the team reacted (or more pertinently, failed to react) to Adrian’s error.
Jock Stein talking about Souness to Alex Mooney, “There is seldom a moment when you play in central midfield that you are not involved but he still finds time to do things way above and beyond what’s required.
“He helps players in his own side without them even knowing. If somebody has a bad touch or makes a mistake, Graeme will be just a few yards away from him every time he gets the ball so he can take an easy pass.
“And he’ll keep doing that till the player’s got his confidence back. I’ve never known anybody to do that. He’s the best team player you could wish for.”
As Stein spoke about his skipper I sensed it was with a distinct fondness and pride. “Oh aye,” he said. “He’s some guy. There’s no doubt about that.”
Scotland’s next game was a World Cup qualifier against Iceland and Stein arranged a ticket for me. I watched Souness closely and full-back Arthur Albiston had a few nervy early touches.
Sure enough, every time he got the ball, for the next 10 minutes or so Souness would appear at his side asking for an easy square pass. Albiston went on to have a decent game. As did Scotland who claimed a 3-0 win. Now I understood why Stein admired his captain so much.
Fast forward to 1990 and the day the first Gulf War broke out. Souness was now Rangers boss and I had a one-to-one interview with him. Walter Smith, his assistant, was sitting in the far corner, a tray of tea and sandwiches on his lap, staring at the TV as US defence secretary Dick Cheney spoke.
When I entered the office, Smith stood up out of courtesy to be introduced to me but Souness just nodded at him to go. As he shuffled past sheepishly holding his tray, I thought Souness had been unnecessarily rude – even arrogant – and feared we wouldn’t get on.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. He was in wonderful form, talking about how he played football non-stop as a kid because his family couldn’t afford a TV.
After an hour my recorder ran out and we ended the interview. He said: “If you’re not in a hurry I could phone for tea and sandwiches.” I gladly accepted.
We eventually spoke about Stein and he said: “I still miss him so much. There wasn’t a day we didn’t speak, if not face to face then by phone. He was like a second father.”
I hadn’t told anyone about Stein’s insight as he insisted it was a private matter. He also said Souness’s team-mates didn’t know he was helping them on the field and felt that’s the way his captain wanted it to remain.
But now I thought Souness should know. I told him the story and he was lost for words, gobsmacked that Stein had revealed this. That he was even aware of it.
His eyes welled up and his voice softened as he said: “I didn’t know he knew that… Oh, that is really something.” He paused then added: “But I should have. His knowledge of the game was unbelievable. What a loss he is.”
What we were missing against Villa was someone like Souness. Jordan Henderson.
9 Likes