Basically a two-week break from football, or at least playing (you don’t want to lose rhythm). Hopefully uses it to sort out a few things, as he played a lot of football. Then kicks on.
I liked his aggression last night, he’s always been willing to get stuck in but I still get the impression that opponents get too easily past him sometimes. I feel there’s a bit of inconsistency about him this season - not in the sense that he’s sometimes dismal and sometimes sublime but rather that he needs to play just a bit better on his “bad” days to be considered a top class player by the football public.
I also think that Slot still has to find a way to let him have the ball more often in positions that are close to opponents’ box when the opponents are playing in a low block. He’s not exactly David Silva in terms of close control but he (and Jones) are very good at protecting the ball and short passing, so I hope these abilities of theirs can be better utilised.
Fuck what “the football public” think.
As long as he’s giving it his all in a Liverpool shirt, that’s all that matters.
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Can’t have it all, each player has his weaknesses.
And when it’s pace related, it’s much more obvious to the general football public.
He’s really good in duels and small spaces, though sometimes too aggressive. He’s also slow, which means sometimes, in this league, people get away from him.
We naturally want and strive to be compact, but we cannot possibly be that in all moments of the game. His usual partners in midfield have pace and/or energy so that’s good balance. Questionable how it would work if we got Zubimendi, but that’s for another topic.
On the ball, for a player who wants to be in that control zone and involved, it’s pretty good, but you also want to see further evolution at this highest level. More personality in possession.
Was funny how when Mac was at Brighton, I linked his nous for getting foward as similar to Gundo’s. Recently, Mac said Klopp mentioned Gundo to him in their talk when we were buying him.
I also wanted him to learn a thing or two (when we talk about control and personality in possession) from Thiago for one season (even in training), but unfortunately Thiago was nowhere last season. Then, at the end of the season, Mac wrote how sad he is as he was looking forward to working with him.
It’s all good so far, here we talk about certain little things that could be improved or evolved together with the team.
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@Zoran He’s definitely improving this season needs to know where his teammates will be (gel more) and as hé lacks pace he must improve his positioning so he doesn’t feel he has to foul players every match. Save that for when it counts.
He was the kind of midfielder we were missing in that season when Hendo and Fab dropped off like a U boat.
In fact if he had come in at the time Gini left I think it might have been more seemless.
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9 club bookings in all competitions this season, one away from another CL suspension. Needs to work on his discipline and dose aggression in contact with opponents. Not be like Scholes at times in his career or overaggressive as Thiago was in his first season. Yesterday he comes on at HT (I wanted Endo on earlier, didn’t like Szobo as the LCM pivot) as an experienced player and one of our leaders, we’re winning they have a red card. Needs to be more professional to help himself and the team kill the game.
It’s due to his physicality, imo. Most opponents are stronger and faster than him. He has the same issue with Elliott. That’s why I think we’ll never see them play together.
Never? They played together last night
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Ops 
Not at all. It’s his positioning and lacked of speed. He ends up half a yard behind and lunges.
If he learns to be a bit more patient and Shepard opponents rather than lungeing I think he would do a better job.
Buy time so we can gang up on opponents and buy time for the défense.
Elliot is a much more proficient tackler so they could actually become complementary.
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Mac isn’t great when he has to defend big spaces (and not being compact is not something you want to see, but it’s impossible to prevent it at all times). He’s good in duels, but just when he makes contact and he isn’t late, has to be a bit more careful.
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Macca don’t listen/read to what is said on here, apart from this, keep being combatative as it is part of your game, yes you will give away freekicks and get yellows but that is part and parcel of challenging for the ball.
(P.s you can read mine)
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Dear Sportbilly1966,
Thank you for the generous advice which I will keep in mind.
Kind regards,
Alexis
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Wow Alexis I knew you would reply, I love you
Thanks
Sportbilly
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Hi Macca, your mate Sportbilly, thank you for listening to me, your tenacity in the challenge to win the ball back numerous times was brill pal.
Also, Don’t listen to the heathens and naysayers.
Your bestie
Sportbilly 
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Get a room.
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I have one regularly booked
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