As some of you have already noticed, Sky posted a stat during the Wolves game, before we scored tonight:
2 of our last 70 shots from open play had resulted in goals.
But let’s carry on blaming the defence.
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It’s never been a simple thing. But the whole side running on fumes has been a huge issue for the attack. A lot don’t seem to want to admit that Premier League opposition have learnt how to nullify the way we set up our 433 too.
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If we try and walk the ball into the box as Gini attempted at least four times only to pass it to a bloke in so little space then yea you can defend that time after time.
A league one side could defend against that, it’s like a training match, so I’m sorry no ones learnt how to play against us, we’ve learnt how to play a piss poor version of how we’ve been playing for the last 2 years
If you look at everything we created tonight it was quick one or two touch.
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Seemingly, getting Fabinho back into midfield contributed a lot to fix things.
He’s absolutely immense in there, does a lot to get our midfield ticking, breaks up opposing moves and protects the defenders so well. World-class.
In the last two games, we created more chances than in the ten games before that. So he seems to be the glue we needed to get the parts together again.
The forwards, especially Mané and Bobby, have been shite at converting their rare chances, but if more chances come along, then they’ll get back to a better shot/conversion ratio. Having Jota back is also a big factor obviously. He knows where the goal is and how to hit it.
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We have 3 goals from 75 attempts its not the chances which are lacking its the conversion rate.
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Sorry completely disagree. It is learning. It’s learning that you can leave Wijnaldum on the ball, he’s almost never going to score against you and even less likely to get an assist with a through ball or cross. Just let him knock himself out dribbling up field, don’t panic and act like the pigeons when the cat is in amongst you (the reaction it used to have) and instead concentrate on who he’s going to be passing it sideways to, make sure they’re not going to have any avenues to create assists or open up chances, they’re who you press not Gini. Extending that Firmino used to drag defenders all over the place creating openings for Salah and Mane to exploit, making little flicks into those areas it was great. Now they just ignore him, wait till eventually he tries something that gives the ball away, concentrate on holding their shape, blocking his long range shooting options a bit and watch for Salah and Mane moving instead. Also when they are on the ball Firmino and Gini had instrumental roles in pressing them creating turn overs that caused panic and confusion in their team we were masters of exploiting. They don’t play ball any more and move ball fast, some teams play it down field, others go for quick passing play, some play it out to the wings. But they move it away from our pressing areas, along with how tired, slow and burnt out we’ve been that’s completely killed any effective pressing which was two thirds of Gini and Bobby’s jobs whenever the opposition had the ball. Those two in particular were essential in how our 433 worked and between tactically negating them, tiredness in our squad and bad form they just aren’t anywhere near as effective as they were. That’s my opinion at least.
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Some of the finishing from our forwards recently has been nothing short of embarrassing. Absolute sitters being squandered. Some chances you’d expect a 12 year old to finish. Hopefully Klopp will unearth a Lewandowski mkII this off season. Don’t care where he’s plucked from we could do with someone clinical who only needs a half chance to score, not 10 chances. 75 attempts for 3 goals is not good enough for any team.
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You don’t go from that last season to this though, chance creation of 0.07 in the first half against a team as open as Chelsea.
That’s not one team figuring out a system, that’s one team not having to bother to stop a front three as blunt as some spoons.
Hasn’t surprised me since Jota came back that we are starting to miss stuff, not just not create stuff.
The energy and quickness was there in the two RBL games, other teams since Palace haven’t done half as good as some at defending and yet the form went off a cliff. We were still doing those aimless crosses today but a few set pieces looked better, that one from TAA that Kabak nearly gets on for one.
I do think Jota staying fit gives us a guy who doesn’t over complicate it in front of goal, maybe teams have figured it out, I’m more of the assumption that we’ve completely gone off the boil.
Let’s face it that 3 goals with 78 shots on target, I haven’t seen a bad a stat as that from any team, the fact of the matter is until recently those shots just haven’t been very good.
I still think we’ve been a totally different team in Europe than we showed in the league however it’s only our second run of two wins since Palace.
Wolves are pretty blunt but I think if the injury doesn’t happen that we probably score a late second today.
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Before the Leipzig game, our lads were absolutely miserable in creating clear-cut chances. We went through a spell during which we couldn’t get one single shot on goal during a whole half, never mind on target. The problem might have been in part chance conversion, but it was also our incredibly dire build-up play which was responsible for that.
Now put yourself into Mané or Bobby for a moment: suddenly a rare chance pops up. You know that there is a big likelihood that there won’t be any other in the match. The pressure mounts up and you are more susceptible to miss it. By comparison, when a chance comes up every five minutes, there is less pressure on you as a striker.
Don’t get me wrong, lack of clinical finishing has hurt us this season without a doubt, but in my opinion, the lack of ability to create chances on a regular basis has been even worse. Fabinho in midfield gives us that platform to get our game going again, as witnessed in the two latest games: many more chances created, and I’m sure that the chance/goal conversion rate will go up for all our forwards if the team can maintain a steady production of good chances.
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Not sure I 100% agree with this. Both have regularly been getting put in great positions in the last few months particularly Firmino. They haven’t always ended up getting shots off though. Look at the early Mane chance last night, it was a cast iron chance to dink it over the Keeper into the empty net or switch back to the right taking the keeper out of the equation for an open net. Mane played it wrong then got fouled but didn’t go down to win the penalty and eventually no decent shooting opportunity happened. That was a massive chance but no shot on goal and definitely none on target. Doesn’t mean the chance wasn’t created. Firmino has been particularly guilty of receiving the ball several times a game in great positions but failing to get shots off, quite often trying one last pass that gets cut off or miscontrolling the ball and losing possession. Just because we haven’t had shots on target doesn’t mean chances weren’t created. Especially for that little run where Klopp tilted the side so Trent was nearly in a back 3 with Salah and Robertson as wing backs releasing Mame and Firmino as a front two.
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If all it took to nullify 4-3-3 was to ignore Wijnaldum and Firmino and maintain the shape, the opposing managers must have been pretty stupid to have only realised it now after years of being destroyed by it.
Or it has something to do with the fact that we are not doing what we used to do in order for the system to work. As half your post alludes to.
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I didn’t say it was all, if it was Salah wouldn’t still be top scorer, but it is an element. Too many want to just peg it as injury issues (which are another huge element) but it’s not as simple as one thing.
Due to the injuries we are missing some world class players whose play can’t be fully replicated by what’s left.
Due to those injuries there’s been less ability to rotate to keep players fresh and firing on top ability. The fullbacks can’t be rested because there’s already too much disruption at the back. The CM can’t be rotated properly because some of our best options were in defence. The players we were trying to see defence through with were playing week in week out because of it and ran into the ground. Jota was still really the only decent rotation option in attack so they weren’t as efficiently rotated as needed.
Even without that it’s a congested season after several physically intense seasons with only the strange lockdown stop of football as a break for our top stars over 3/4 years.
Mentally it’s hard to keep going consistently, so much of sport is determined by mentality and when things have been intense and tough for awhile but you’ve still achieved everything it’s hard to go again when everything seems against you and you don’t even have the crowd to egg you on and encourage you.
Tactically we are built on a fine balance of certain components working seamlessly together like a well oiled machine. Some are missing (like VvD and Gomez or Matip) replaced by inferior parts putting more strain on those around them. Some elements are vastly diminished such as the tireless energy and blistering pace we could turn on at will. Others have become stagnant, predictable and stale so opposition are managing them better like Gini and Firmino in particular (watch the reactions of domestic rivals when they’re on the ball compared to Thiago/Fabinho and Mane/Salah, night and day. Then watch against European sides who still treat all our players equally).
It’s a “perfect storm” add some extremely dubious bias (conscious or unconscious) creeping into the decision making by refs and VAR refs that wasn’t initially there in the early days or anywhere else.
If you wanted to put together all the elements you could to hold LFC back I don’t think you could choose any more than what has happened but yeah tactics are a major part which is why we are struggling in the league but doing about as well in Europe as we always do.
Or, sign Lacazette and Wilson 
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Origi topped it a couple of seasons ago. Not surprised Mane and Firmino are so far down.
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Question. Are we a gegenpressing side any more? Notice we seem to control games more than our press them and every goal is at 90 miles per hour.
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No. We started to manage our pressing from the beginning of last season.
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You can’t press if the opposition hardly ever has the ball and moves it quickly to new areas avoiding the press. Its like asking if someone is really argumentative anymore because they’ve been alone in a room for a few days.
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In the indoors friendly today between our own players Davies partnered Phillips for one side and conceded five goals, mostly down to Davies is what we being told. Many moaning he should be playing along side Phillips in PL since he arrived, believe in Klopp more.
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Nothing wrong with Kabak in his last two games.
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