Gomez midweek was a bit slack with his passing, but he was fine defensively.
For all the stick Gomez gets, I haven’t seen anything bad in his Liverpool career as the shift Konate put in today.
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It won’t be for long if he keeps playing like that.
Well that’s because you let your soft spot for Joe override your judgement, he was terrible for about 3 years straight before Klopp decided enough was enough, now you’re only being used at FB.
A couple of seasons ago Joe had a brainfart in him every game and some cost us goals but Konate took things to a new level today. Seems to be away games where his head goes. For an experienced international it’s fucking nuts.
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No need to have a lack of memory, Gomez had a number of very weak displays at CB, especially when it came to aspects of defending going backwards (or in that case, not defending, but letting people run), in the air, defending deep. He’s comfortable on the ball, but it’s not like he didn’t have low level displays (which is kinda normal in almost 10 years at the club, but the amount of that + his injuries resulted in him having the position in the hierachy that he has). Peak Gomez is the start of 18/19 and his large healthy part of 19/20. But not all of our players are of equal excellent level. A lot of them aren’t. And it’s more or less the same at other big teams.
Said the same in the post match, I do like to see aggressive vertical passes as that what hurts teams but Joe was a bit off against Southamptom with them.
What gets me Quansah was replaced at halftime in his 1st competitive game under Arne for losing to many contests, yet Ibou was far worse today and idn’t get replaced until late.
I also started to feel, last season, that every time Quansah made a mistake it resulted in a goal which makes it look worse, whereas Ibou this season has made quite a few and got away with it.
Multiple factors lead to those decisions. Of course that Quansah in the first league game last season and Konate at HT yesterday is not the same context. Even if it did cross my mind whether I would take him off at HT. Football wouldn’t have enough substitutions even with the 5 there is now if we would start changing players as wildly as that.
Why, they both were weak against their opposite number and I will go to say that 1st half from Ibou was far worse that Jarrell’s when he was subbed at half time. Sometimes as a coach you have to send a signal to players that a certain level of performance isn’t good enough. It’s not like Ibou isn’t experienced playing at the top level.
One significant difference is that when Quansah was hooked at halftime it was to bring on Konaté, one of our first pairing defenders. As opposed to taking Konaté off for Gomez, someone who has spent a while being comfortably 4th choice.
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So Gomez should sit back, put his feet up, pick up his pay check and not offer anything because no matter how bad Ibou plays he isn’t going to come on?
You should have to fight to keep the shirt and earn it with every performance.
That’s not even remotely what I said.
Basically said that Gomez is our 4th choice and not good enough to come on and replace Ibou when he is having a very bad game, but maybe I interpreted it wrong.
The only reason Gomez is back in the pecking order is because of injuries. The effect of second guessing his body, losing rhythm, etc.
The conundrum for managers is that the very thing that he needs to get back to elite level - a run of games - is also the same thing that’s likely to fuck him
If someone could promise me an injury free Joe Gomez for the rest of the season I would play him over Konate in a heartbeat. As I said before a firing Joe Gomez might not be capable of the best of Konate, but I don’t think he is capable of the worst either.
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It’s not only because of injuries, it’s because of quality. We have so many years as a large enough sample. Gomez had his purple patches, being out injured and being lower in the hierarchy as a useful backup defender.
Konate has progressively won his place on merit. First season had to wait a little bit behind Matip, then won himself a start in Paris, then Quansah had little periods, but overall he’s come in to replace Matip. And he’s a better CB than Gomez.
Gomez had a few quality performances (and some very poor ones) at CB when he was called upon in recent years, but his peak (2018-2020) is a long time ago in football. We’ll see what happens this season, but my feeling is that it will take more for Gomez to takeover Konate.
Hopefully Konate really sorts himself out soon.
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He might not be as much a key player as VVD is for us, but to be fair with him, he brings a lot of the qualities needed to play alongside VVD. For instance, he’s very quick, which allows us to play a high backline. He’s also a monster of a player in terms of physical presence. And when he’s on his game, he’s fantastic. As others have said, it’s his consistency which lets him down at times.
But generally, I agree, he could be replaced. Matip was excellent alongside VVD, and Gomez is usually excellent as well when fit. So, it’s not as if we can’t replace Konaté if he decides to look if the grass is greener elsewhere.
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Konate played Mateta like Lovren would have done - engage in everything, prove you won’t be bullied (unsuccessfully).
A performance he should learn from. He can do that against most players but not Mateta, he needed to put the ego aside there.
I still expect him to improve and he’s still our best choice in that position. In his defence, also, the right backs (bar Dom) have played like competition winners.
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Yep, he didn’t show any game intelligence. Every centre back is taught how to deal with this. If you can’t win the first ball, you back off and win the second. Lovren is a great comparison.
What’s annoying, it’s that he isn’t learning. This isn’t the first time he’s done it and it’s also not the first time that he was caught in possession.
Sometimes, he plays as if he has nothing upstairs.
Carragher was brilliant at this. Nowhere near the physical stature of Konate but clever in how he dealt with big strikers