Not sure I get the thought process behind moving Bobby into midfield. If anything he’s been our most effective forward so far this season and does a better job of linking midfield and attack than anyone but only because he has licence to drop deeper or pull out wider.
Plonking him into an unfamiliar position and expecting him to a) have the legs to play in our midfield and b) to be able to do the defensive part of the game seems a bit presumptuous.
The call for a switch to 4-2-3-1 has been around for a while but not something Klopp has shown any signs of doing to start games. Situationally during games we’ve seen it, normally when he wants another attacker on but rarely, if ever to start. I see the appeal but not the likelihood of it happening.
I had completely forgotten how early the CL group stage starts this year - I guess that is just a week earlier than normal? Feels earlier.
Napoli is atop Serie A, but they have only played one .500+ team (Lazio), and the one bit I saw them play this season against Lecce wasn’t great. Lots of possession, lots of Lecce fouls, but in the end not that forceful in the attack. If we can just stop giving up the first goal, we should be able to grind them down.
Go over there, win, no injuries, and any traveling fans come home safely too. That’s what we all want.
I like the team posted above. Get a double pivot alongside Fabinho. Maybe Melo for me. Elliott ahead of them. And three strikers in Salah, Nunez and Diaz, causing havoc. Not too spread out, not isolated, but linking up, with good movement and interplay. If we can get that going we won’t look back.
Firmino improved against United when moved deeper and he did well there against Everton. Can he do the defensive work? Maybe not, but then his competition is Harvey Elliot, and he can’t either.
It’s not a long term solution but a potential quick fix until we get some players back.
I think Arthur has to start, he’ll know Napoli well. We need a player who can control the game and especially need a left sided midfielder who will actually play in midfield.
I like the Firmino shouts, Elliott whilst playing very well can’t play every minute.
Peak Brazil midfield?
Alisson
Trent - Gomez - Van Dijk - Tsimikas
Firmino - Fabinho - Arthur
Salah - Nunez - Diaz
Whatever we lineup, get Salah back near the box, be that by starting position or movement instructions.
The only problem is that he hasn’t played football in months. He will have to train with the squad and be introduced gradually. Maybe he could get some minutes here but I don’t see him as a starter.
This is actually the problem that we have with injuries at the moment. Ideally new players need to be introduced next to experienced squad members playing a known formation but the level of injuries is preventing that.
I agree with Salah, though. His play has been perfectly adequate for where he is but he is not in the positions where he could make a significant threat on goal.
Well yeah, we have few other options but is he really an option? Smacks of the centre back crisis and moving midfielders into defence and causing even more issues by weakening another area to try and compensate for a lack of proper depth. And if Elliott can’t do the defensive work then why is he starting all these games?
He’s already been used there so I’d say he is an option. It’s not really weakening the front line when Jota and Nunez are back. Firmino’s ‘form’ as a forward is two games, let’s not overstate how good he’s been up there by forgetting Fulham and United.
Elliot is starting because everyone else is injured, same reason he started at the beginning of last season.
So in the games we’ve been good in, he’s been one of our better players when playing his actual position but it’s only two games so let’s move him to an unfamiliar position and hope the guy we’re rushing back from injury doesn’t do himself any damage? Chucking him in there when we need a goal isn’t the same as starting him away against Napoli.
Honestly, people talk about these guys like we’re the total football Ajax team of the late 60’s. “Just drop Bobby into midfield”, “move Trent from right back to the centre”, “play Carvalho as an 8” like it’s just that easy. We’re built to a system with players doing specific jobs and needing to know roles in detail, hence the bedding in period for many that join us. I’d hate to see Milner starting in there because his legs just can’t keep up any more but at least he knows the role.
As for Elliott, do you really think he’s only starting because of injuries? Carvalho sure, but Elliott?
I don’t really know what the total football stuff is about, I’m suggesting it might be worth playing Firmino instead of Elliot for one game. Hardly a radical, obscene suggestion.
@rab The other view is we cannot have a like for like replacement across the pitch, especially when we also believe Klopp likes working with a small squad and since we don’t have GDP of a country to spend for every position.
I do agree that we cannot expect players to just play at any position just seamlessly like Trent in midfield. But Fab at CB as 5th option, Bobby as an attacking midfielder as 5th option isn’t something that cannot be an option when we are this helpless with injuries.
I am in the same boat that one of Ox or Keita should have been replaced with someone more reliable and available, but with the current situation am okay if we have to put Bobby in there.
I get that. We have injuries, we need solutions. But as we saw when we started shifting Fab and Henderson about two seasons ago, we just weaken two areas of the team doing that. I’d rather we play Badjetic or Arthur than drag Bobby or Trent around into unfamiliar roles. At least they know the position, even if one is young and inexperienced and the other not fully up to speed on how we play.
I also don’t think we really have used Bobby in midfield. He tended to play as a central one in a 4-2-4 when we’ve seen him in there recently and his natural inclination to drop deep means he’s sometimes occupying a midfield space on the pitch. But we aren’t asking him to play midfield and do what we expect of our typical midfield set up when we have three in there.