Mane…? Unfortunately it seems to have become the norm instead of the exception.
I love him as a player and its really disappointing he isn’t anywhere near the Mane of 18 months ago.
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I noted a number of times in the in-match thread that they went through our midfield too easily. You can’t allow that and always leave it to the back 4 to mop up. Defensively both Hendo and Fab were bypassed too easily. Curtis won it back in dangerous areas a couple of times (which is normal for us). What wasn’t normal was how few and far between they were. And the tempo of our pressing when they had the ball felt too slow. We didn’t hound them into mistakes. We collectively gave them too much time to string passes together.
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I’m not really sure it was the midfield, it just seemd an utter lack of communication from our defence…
If Trent is being targetted with 3 v’s him, why isn’t he screaming at Matip to come over and help?
If Robbo isn’t closing down the cross, why isn’t Van Dijk screaming at him to get closer?
Why isn’t Alisson telling his defence where there are overloads? Why isn’t he coming and claiming crosses? Spent the entire game on his line and on his heels.
If Trent has gone forward, why isn’t Matip shifting over, calling the midfield to cover and telling the defence to shift?
Multiple times this season our backline just descends into chaos, it takes a simple long ball, we lose the 1st header, we then don’t pick up the 2nd ball and all our shape goes to shit and conceed. It’s piss poor really.
Collectively it looked like we had no leader back there, Van Dijk lost his first duel with Toney and just went into his shell. He seemed to concentrate just on his own game and that meant it turned into a group of individuals v’s the collective shape. If he’s not fit drop him. Not sure Matip even won a header v’s Toney either… Dire both of them.
I agree full that yes we miss some easy chances, but if you score 3 goals and don’t win it’s down to other factors bar your attack.
This is the same defensive 5 which were at one point the best in the world, the midfield aren’t doing much different, they still send 2 forward and leave Fab covering. As I mentioned above it’s communication, if both midfielders are forward both fullbacks shouldn’t be. The in-game management was poor, Klopp didn’t help with the Firmino sub, preplanned clearly to get minutes for him but he basically ripped up whatever shape we were clinging onto and then it was just a bigger mess. Milner or Gomez coming on would have protected the lead.
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I presume that because Bobby was fit and available Klopp likely would have found some minutes for him regardless.
Agree regarding Taki and Ox. If JK seemingly never wants to use them, why persist with them in the squad. May as well replace them with players he trusts and can use for rotation.
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Great analysis
The defence going to pieces didn’t come out of the blue. It started with Milan shredding the midfield twice in two minutes, it got worse with Palace who missed their chances and it culminated with Brentford. Although the backline was especially horrendous, with Van Dijk and Robertson having the worst game of their Liverpool career, the team as a whole again did not defend well. Klopp didn’t help matters at all with his decision to bring Firmino on and go 4-2-3-1. In fact this was the worst game he’s had since the Madrid debacle. The team looked ill-prepared from the kick-off and his in game management was non-existent.
Piss poor from everyone involved really.
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90+% of time Robbo’s assist wouldn’t have become an assist. It was Curtis’ brilliance turned it into an assist.
Robbo sucked yesterday, offensively and defensively, that’s it. Had Tsimikas played yesterday, at least one of the latter 2 goals would have disappeared.
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To suggest Jones did not understand his role is very wrong. He understood it and played it well. People seem to forget that Gini was inconsistent and Keita is invisible for long periods when he is playing. Jones and Elliott ( when fit) contribute more to the team . Yesterday we encountered a fit , physically strong team that got it´s tactics right and were very determined.
Personally I have felt that Trent is a little below his best at the moment and Robbo even more so…Matip tends to struggle against guys who are quick and aggressive. Brentford did not allow any time to string the passes together . they played a lot of long balls and got a lot of players around the ball in a style that has often been used by us but on this occasion they competed better than us.
Had we scored just one more of the many chances we created it would have been a different story but sadly it was not to be. Not the end of the world but conceding so many chanes was concerning.
I was going to mention the foul on Jota, the fact that Ole got into the refs heads regarding Klopp…I doubt we were ever getting a pen yesterday. But in cold light of day, it was a foul.
There is a reason why he always lost his place once Gomez got his shit together after injuries in the past (first-half 2018/19 and 2019/20).
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If Fabinho had been alert for the first goal and put it out for a corner we may have went on and won the game comfortably.
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Fabinho has a tendency to switch off, he’s one of the best in the world with the game in front of him… get past him or fight for a scrappy second ball, most of the time he hardly ever wins his duel.
Brentford invited us to a wild game and we accepted that wild ride. We had no control when it was required to slow down the game.
With Gini instead of any of our 3 midfielders (even instead of Curtis) we are winning this game.
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Of course it was when not 60 seconds a slight bump on edge of box from Robbo resulted in a free kick for Brentford.
Let us just put the blame on @Lowton_Red and get it over with.
I cannot possibly agree with that. Gini was invisible on many occasions. His contribution over 90 minutes was very much over rated. He was brilliant v Barcelona and lived on the glory of that performance .
As for Keita, flashes of brillance but overall contributes very little. Thiago, Jones, Elliot, Hendo all contribute more to team performance.
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JK said afterwards he took off Jones because Brentford were by-passing the midfield with long balls so having 3 in there was pointless.
I’ve seen no evidence this team can withstand any concerted pressure without conceding. Not digging anybody out but that’s just the way I see it.
Most games we have 60-65% possession and the opposition are cagey which relieves pressure on the defence. Teams will create 2 or 3 good chances during a game and will maybe score 1, otherwise they’ll miss the target or Allison will pull off a worldie. That’s generally how it pans out.
I will be interested to see how we defend next week against City. They’ll test us in different ways to what Brentford did yesterday.
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True. Plenty of aways where you wouldn’t know he was on the pitch. Strangest player I’ve ever seen in a red shirt, world-class on his day, invisible on others.
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Not often I disagree with the boss, but that is utter claptrap. Okay, Brentford did occasionally play it long to Toney but they also tried to pass their way through.
And even if they were hoofing it, that doesn’t mean you take off a midfielder. What about when we’re in possession? Do we just welly it upfield as well, because we’re a midfielder short? Be forced to play the game on our opponents’ terms? 
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That was one of the problems, we allowed ourself to play at their tempo rather than impose our own.
Made for a wide open game and acres of space all over the pitch.
We do best when we condense space, and build pressure.
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