True. But how many of them played in a defence that holds as high a line as ours?
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Rafa played quite high with Hyypia and Carragher.
I dont ever remember Paisley parking the bus with Hansen either.
I will concede however that those coaches prime tactics werenāt really about squeezing the opposition and forcing an error in their own half.
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Unless a team plays only counter attacks having the CBs on the half way line when you have possession in the final third is really extremely common. This thing about high line is a bit of a myth, we only really see it when the opposition have a free kick within striking or crossing distance.
I have mentionned Willie Millar on a number of occassions he was slower than a dead gran!
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Happy birthday Nat.
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If those informations about his contract not expiring in 2021 but in 2023, then heāll be 26 when that deal is terminated. Heāll be one of the weirdest/oldest āyoung/inexperiencedā players out there.
Hopefully we get a few bobs for him this summer and he can be a regular somewhere + earn a living/build a future from his remaining playing career.
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He still wonāt have as much youth/potential on his side as Lingard.
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I saw some of our fans winding up utd fans on Twitter earlier claiming he was better than Slabhead.
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Thatās simply not true.
Also, happy birthday Nathaniel Phillips 
Thatās not actually far from the truth at all.
Maguireās better on the ball and Natās not a massive dickhead. Other than that, similar.
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The hype we are seeing over Nat is similar to the hype that led to Maguire ending up at United for Ā£80m too. The media and public love a good no nonsense āAve itā style CB despite them actually being a real limited option in modern football.
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Phillips doesnāt have the turning radius of an oil tanker.
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Are you sure? I wouldnāt say thereās much difference in speed and athleticism between Maguire and Phillips. Just one is expected to be good so therefore gets stick because he isnāt and oneās supposed to be rubbish so gets praise because he isnāt. Truth is they have a lot of the same qualities, strengths and weaknesses. As much as I like taking the piss out of the Easter Island headed one he is actually a bit better than Phillips but not Ā£80m better. Probably not Ā£40m better either (a bit closer to what he should have cost United).
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If we tried to make Phillips play as our ball playing, leader and organiser of our team commanding the back line and responsible for starting play we might well see as bad or worse. Klopp is a good enough manager to realise what Phillips can and canāt do and set up to get the best out of him and limit his exposure as much as possible. Leicester did that with Maguire and conned United into a huge mistake.
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Although that high line we still play says otherwise
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Do we? I think its visible how much our play these days protects the CBs compared to when it is VvD etc. back there. Kabak is always hanging back watching danger to sweep up, Trent frequently seems stationed more as a real defensive RB if not even a RCB in a back 3 and since Fabinho returned to midfield heās been far more of a protection than he would usually be. Plus although we push up the longer we are in possession thatās not really how you should measure a high line, everyone does that. Itās how high we keep and how fast we drop back when they have the ball. What we are doing with Kabak and Phillips is much different to VvD and Gomez/Matip.
Well I will say Maguire is not worth 80m more than Phillips.
Then again he isnāt worth 80m
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We have been certainly less high in the last two games and we did need to consider it.
Then again against Wolves we would slip back going higher and were caught once or twice.
Maybe itās just Fabinho is there now.
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He is already commanding our backline!