Didn’t know where to post this, we should have a general tactics thread for all sort of pieces. Maybe the central midfield thread, but that one is more for future arrivals/departures.
Anyway, I was hoping that with the arrival of Thiago, Gini would be the one to go at RCM much more often (especially with Hendo missing). LCM (in a 2 or 3) is Thiago’s best position, his strongest foot is open more towards the rest of the team, his best tools are used there.
Our right side balance was always an interesting one. As Salah gets older, I’m not sure he will want to protect Trent more than he did so far. It was usually the job of our RCM, who obviously has a more dynamic role than our LCM, who plays more reserved. We also often have our “weaker” CB in the RCB role.
But at LCM, I always thought we were better protected there for a more tehnical player than Gini. You have Virgil (our best CB) behind you, you have Robbo at LB, who is defensively more solid than Trent and incredibly consistent, you have also Mane on the left of our attack, but who needs to work a bit more than Salah on the opposite side. Our left side is one of the best in football I think, the players and partnerships, availability and consistency. I always felt there was room for a more creative/dangerous player than Gini and that Gini could go over to RCM to do a more needed protecting job for Trent and Salah (and whoever our RCB on the day is).
Geometrically, with Salah playing very offensive, being something between a winger and a striker, a wide goalscoring forward as I like to call him, it makes sense that our RCM can create that 4-4-2 shape at times with Mane more involved than Salah. But I feel the combination of tools often left us too open on that side.
Following how Klopp picks and plays his #8’s, I realized that other technical and more offensive players played RCM. Not only Thiago, but Keita already last season, Jones this season. I thought Gini and Millie would come over to RCM more often, as more limited/hard working players, to bring that balance between Trent (one of our main creators from deep) and Salah (basically the closest thing to our main striker).
In our best XI when they’re all fit and available, since the spring of 2019, it’s been Hendo at RCM and I believe that’s how we would start next season with Fabinho at the base and probably Thiago at LCM. That doesn’t have to be our go to central midfield in all games of course, but let’s say it will be our first choice from this summer onwards. The rest will depend on quality, form, style, experiences, etc.
I believe we’ll buy a central midfield replacement for Gini with Giniesque qualities. More or less a new central midfield worker, given the departure of Gini and the age of Hendo (not saying he’s finished, but you we can’t have too many “creators”) and Millie (who will be in his final season).
By default, I have no big issues if in certain games and periods, it’s someone like Jones at RCM instead of LCM (from where I think even Jones could hurt the opponents goal more with his right foot, scored some beauties in the last 2 years).
But in some games, especially big games like it was against Real, I hope that’s not a default for Klopp (or if it is, I’d like to know all the reasons, more than geometrical - and I give a lot of importance to that), that the RCM in the vast majority of cases should be the one with more freedom.
It’s very sensitive the way we’re “stealing” a little bit tactically by leaving Salah more ready to do his thing (not saying he doesn’t have defensive responsibilities, he does, especially this season with Trent playing a little deeper than in past seasons) ahead of Trent, who is still forming himself in order to become a complete player. He’s a highly gifted player overall, maybe even more than a specialized full back.
Remember Ancelotti’s Real midfield trio. The way they had both ammunition and protection around Ronaldo was also not a small part of Ronaldo’s success, as he already went from a prolific winger to more of a outstanding goalscorer, but who wanted the freedom as well, so had to play somewhere in between the left and central. He had Marcelo at LB, Alonso at holding midfield, Di Maria (probably the best version of Di Maria we’ve seen, though that was understandably hard to replicate somewhere else) as a box-to-box LCM (who worked really hard and even overlapped Ronaldo at times, when Modric would tuck in more alongside Xabi as an additional controlling player), Benzema as a “slave” partner to Ronaldo.
So when you add to our more “sensitive” side of the team someone like Nat Phillips (and usually, with us still needing a better and more available/consistent RCB partner to Virgil, but especially Nat, this level is too much for him to cope) close to Trent, with all that context in mind, it can leave one side of the pitch more vulnerable than it should be, for a side of our standards.
I’m not trying to defend some weaker Thiago performances from RCM (there were some quality ones, because he’s a finished article proven type of player who will manage one way or another) or Keita’s performance in Madrid. But if Hendo was fit, he would’ve started in that RCM role for sure. And let’s be honest, Keita is simply not the type of player Hendo is, Gini can answer those needs much more.
These can be details, but for me they’re important ones and it should be asked/discussed from time to time. Since we all agree it’s all about balance. In last years, we were not only of the best European sides, but arguably the best balanced one. Not going any deeper, the way we function and spend money, we have to focus on remaining a well balanced side if we want to continue to compete/win against other top clubs.
I’m interested to see how we shift those #8’s (and how we rotate them, I’d like to see more flexibility from us in that area) over this summer when Gini leaves and he played a lot of football during his time here.