Not how it was phrased, was it?
He is starting every game because of injuries though. He didn’t start against Fulham or City, but has started since.
Injuries. Nothing disrespectful about it.
Also being blind to his contribution. Been our best player in at least half of our games so far
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I am an advocate of using Bobby in midfield and I think this for a couple of reasons.
- Suggesting Bobby play attacking mid is not the same as putting Jota or Nunez there. Bobby has the skills to play there, he has played there, and more often than not in a match midfield is where you find Bobby Firmino. He is pretty much an attacking midfielder we use as a False Nine.
There are a few position change suggestions that do the rounds. I’ve seen Trent into midfield, Matip as a DM, Tsimikas as a left winger. None of them make as much sense as Firmino dropping into midfield. It would require far less tactical ‘re-education’ as those ones.
- The other reason is that with Jota and Nunez coming back, and the front line changing, especially to accommodate the later, Bobby is not only going to find himself down the pecking order, he’s going to find the way he wants to interpret the number nine position further and further away from our tactical set up.
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I agree entirely that not playing players out of position is a good thing. During that season we ended up with a great run of games that relied on Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams at CB - arguably the 5th and 6th choice at that point. The problem is that many of the other options (Arthur in particular) are not up to speed yet and you can probably include Nunez and Carvalho in that number.
The 5 subs rule does give us room to break new players in it’s just with so many injuries, who do you swap them with?
I’m with you on Bajcetic, but Arthur is miles off. Hasn’t played any meaningful football for ages.
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We’ll see when we have a fit midfield, but I think when we have a full compliment to choose from Klopp is going to go with Elliott over Hendo more often than not.
It’s all horses for courses, and I suppose in a game where Klopp wants a risk adverse midfield selection, it might be Fab/Hendo/Thiago. But for the most part, I think Harvey has done enough to be consider a go to first teamer.
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Harvey is recieving ball in good positions out wide on the right. We need TAA to make more overlapping runs so that Mo can move central. Harvey can provide the necessary support to TAA, if needed.
Alternatively we can have Mo support Harvey out wide and TAA cuts in but then we will be short of goal scoring threat.
Mo, TAA, and Harvey should be working in the training pitch to release Mo. Find some routines and perfect it.
One has experience and skill that has been applied at the highest level and the other doesn’t. The fact that Bajcetic has had “experience” in the league does not fill me with any confidence whatsoever as it is so little. He is a work in progress and good for the FA and League cups - not much else for me. If it was an important game and they were my only choices, I’d go with Arthur to give us 50-60 minutes. Bajcetic, like many younger players, can be prone to go missing and be bullied off the ball too easily and would be a bigger risk.
Our current midfield options are Arthur, Fabinho, Elliott, Milner, Thiago(?), Jones(?), Carvalho(?) and Firmino at a stretch. If Klopp opts for a more conservative formation with 3 at the middle, Arthur is bound to feature at some point.
Equally, I think, many of the calls for him to start in midfield are just a reflection of the desire to see that from the start?
Of course it’s not the same as playing Jota or Nunez there, no one said it was. But Bobby playing as a forward and dropping into those deeper areas is hugely different from him actually playing games from midfield. Part of the reason he’s so successful is that link up play, dropping off so opposing centre backs don’t know whether to go with him or stand their ground. He opened up space for Salah and Mane to then do their thing by playing between lines.
If you start him in midfield then those things don’t happen because his role is very different. You’re going to be asking him to do an awful lot more going back the other way, again not really his game. It may make more sense than other suggestions of moving players around but it still doesn’t make much sense. He’s not played as an attacking midfielder for god knows how long now, certainly not in Klopp’s time here.
So thanks to our inability to consider the likelihood of injury prone players getting injured at the same time, we’ve backed ourselves into a corner where we’re now either moving what has been our most effective attacker into an unfamiliar role or starting someone who’s been here a week and who hasn’t kicked a ball in anger in months. Or we’ve a kid most people hadn’t heard of before pre-season but he at least plays as a midfielder. Great.
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Rest Diaz and VVD
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Bobby dropping into midfield is possibly one of the most expected, and wanted, things to happen amongst fans. I also think it will be one of the worst things to happen. He’s got the industry, yes, but not real skill set to make it happen. Everyone sees his creative side from deep and link up play and all that but he’s incredibly lax in his passing and play as well when he does and gives up possession in a dangerous area that often leads to quick counter attacks. Also worth remembering that for us, giving away possession at the edge of the opposition area is quite often more deadly than them winning the ball in our half!
Bobby in a permanent role in midfield would be quite close to allowing the opponent a free pass at goal at least once a game.
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Whatever Firmino did in the second half at Everton it was impactful.
It was a sensible option and one that could and should have yielded a couple of goals.
Leaves the team more open to the counter but if I’m honest that was more to do with the change in Milner than CM.
For Napoli I’d consider a more conservative approach but I wouldn’t be disappointed to see Firmino there and I think it was what Klopp was hoping from Carvalho on Saturday.
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I read that as operating more as a 4-2-3-1 with Nunez as the lone striker. Firmino is more of a creative forward than a goal poacher
That’s how it seems, but it was notable that 1) he made the bench on the weekend, and 2) when Carvalho first went down it was Arthur who was first up warming up as a precaution. the half time interval gave them some time to think through the right option, but this suggests Arthur isnt a million miles away from being a consideration under the current circumstances. With 5 subs, I’d be happy to throw him on from the start even if we intend to only give him 45 minutes.
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Possibly did, I think the fact he was behind the striker helped though, Everton kept failing to pick him up.
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Elliot is in the bottom 5 percentile for things like tackles and interceptions yet Firmino is somehow going to be more of a defensive liability. Not convinced myself.
The idea that our staff don’t know that our midfielders get injuries is laughable. Of course they know, and I dare say they have more information on it than you or I do.
For whatever reason, it was decided not to sign a midfielder, until very late in the window when we signed Arthur on loan, and made a very late bid for Caicedo.
They - and this includes Klopp - obviously thought we could cope. Until we couldn’t.
Personally I think the approach to midfield screams that they are delaying signing midfielders because they ones they want are lined up for next year. Calcaido looks a lot like trying to bring forward a signing.
I’ll back that approach all day long. Always wait for first choice.
They know what they are doing, and even if their belief in a few players turns out to have been a mistake doesn’t mean they were wrong to take that decision.
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Very much hope you are right on that.
I still like the idea of minutes for Bajcetic though. Haven’t seen much of him, but what I have has been really impressive. He’s had glowing reports at all levels.
I wonder if reluctant approach to transfers is because the club believe there is a Man Utd class of 92 vibe about the younger players - Elliot, Carvalho, Morton, Bajcetic, Clark, Gordon. A brilliant clutch, all about to break through at roughly the same time.