He is like a goalkeeper who has a couple of howlers while otherwise being very solid. He really has no excuse for this sort of mistakes and it’s down to his bad habit of switching off every so often.
Every player makes mistakes. The perfect footballer has never existed and never will.
Playing too many games right now, more out of need than on merit (post-City). Hopefully Konate can finally get his chance now. That was a criminal pass last night. No-look, outside of the boot swerve, just lazy and dangerous shit.
Firmino is our no-look guy …
100% and it always seems we are one intercepted pass away from giving away a solid chance at the other end. We’ve gone from the masters of transition to being exposed horribly on it. So it’s killing us at both ends of the pitch.
I felt sorry for Joe last season when it seemed he couldn’t get on the pitch at all. Having watched him this season it’s no longer a mystery. He’s a mistake waiting to happen and quite frankly I’d rather see Nat Phillips than Joe.
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It’s why I keep saying that it’s not so much the individual players themselves, but just our passing and moving game being completely out of sync, in large part due to all the injuries causing disruption to our team.
Jürgen simply doesn’t make that many changes to the team on a regular basis, I’m guessing because of things like these. When we have massive changes for example, even when we have players that should well be coasting a game easily against lesser teams in the League Cup, we often tend to struggle quite a fair bit, with the same symptoms that we’re seeing now.
So we can criticise individuals all we want, we can bemoan the lack of new signings all we want, but until we can get some players constantly fit and ready to play, this situation isn’t going to improve much.
The other major problem is the lack of time between games and therefore no time to work on the tactical shape and movement of the team, making it harder for the likes of the newer players like Elliot and Fabio to slit into the team.
Carvalho, maybe. Elliott has been here for a few seasons now.
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However, we are setting up in different formations and he is still getting used to his role
Again, not good enough tonight.
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Not consistent enough at 25 years old, I guess.
I’m not sure we can afford to wait around and see when he does become consistent.
And frankly “consistent” is being generous to him. For one good game (City at Anfield) he has 5-6 bad games.
Even as a sub, we can’t afford to carry a CB like that. Our CBs don’t get a lot of protection, and he is increasingly looking like he’ll need to be in a team where the DM shields the CBs
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As a CB he is not good enough for a while now IMO, getting bye as a FB but noting special.
Unfortunately he is just so inconsistent. Having multiple long and short term injuries have not helped. He has also not improved on some qualities and still depended on his pace to get out of trouble at times and that has not been good enough. He has signed on for the next 5 years taking him to 30. I have a feeling that he is willing for now to stay and be a squad player because VVD and Matip is still our best CB pairing but of course Konate is coming up really fast and so Gomez if everyone stays healthy, would be 4th choice at best. And that is the conundrum because he might be good enough as a squad player but not great enough to challenge for first choice, then at 25, you have to ask yourself, do we try to extract maximum value with his age and long contract and sell to a mid table club who might not demand a high level like us or keep him as a decent 4th choice? Never will have a right answer but something the club always have to manage. And Nat Philips as rightly pointed out by others, have been giving good account of himself whenever he gets to play. In fact over the last few years, he has been very good more than bad whenever he played. I would think Nat or Joe will go this coming summer depending who is willing to play backup.
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Well, our midfield is not that good defensively as well if Fabinho doesn’t go back to his elite level. But the way of how I see Gomez, the moment he loses his recovery pace, he will be throughly cooked by any PL forwards with pace and/or power.
How is starting to remind me of Titus Bramble of Newcastle. Pacy but that’s about it
Not sure why everyone is jumping on Joe. If I had put a bet on him winning a tackle/header/interception and had a better chance of winning it that putting anything on Nunez putting the ball in the net. Haaland got a foot in front of him and guided it towards goal, it happens. Joe’s not developed into anything more, which is sad, but he was extremely good for a time and injuries have put paid to that.
Haven’t noticed anybody ragging on Phillips for misjudging the flight of the ball to allow Ake to score even though it’s supposed to be what he’s good at, though…
Probably because he was abysmal, again.
The level he is playing at is terrible, Harry Maguire has been laughed at for better performances than this.
Unless he improves he isn’t even good enough to be 4th choice.
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Sad, but true. He simply hasn’t recaptured his best form since that injury he sustained on international duty in November 2020.
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