Our right side still looks very weak defensively. It seems that trent and elliott are tasked to attack, making their positions so damn high in the pitch which is crazy. Klopp will need to decide who to be the attacking output on the right, Trent or Elliott come 1st October.
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Why the hell is Milner coming on in the 90th minute? Because this is EXACTLY one of the reasons he was re-signed for, play somewhere within the last 15 mins, and not having to start ever game because our midfield is ridiculously, ridiculously, ridiculously fragile, handle with care. The midfield today looked like a completely different monster with Thiago in there. Fab even played better. We need Thiago to play at least the same amount of minutes as last year, at least.
The goal against, once hit it was unstoppable. I saw the replay from behind the goal, and it was telling that when the goal hit the back of the net, you could see Fab, Trent and Harvey all standing near each other, about 3 seconds behind the play. That right side is a major liability in defence, major!
Timi was great, perfect player to cover Robbo, and on current form, a better option.
Nice to have Matip back. Itās now strange that he seems to now be the galvanizing force rather than Virgil. Whatās happened Virgil? Not only has he been bang average, but he also talked up Darwin, probably cost us Ā£15m more. WTF VVD.
Diaz is still lightning in a bottle, just unbelievable, and is carrying that forward line. Some of the linkup play with Jota was outstanding.
Darwin still looks like a player that needs a year, I guess they canāt all be a Diaz.
Nice win never in doubt after the 89th minute, was I panicking? nope! I also saw we were second in the table, I guess thatās because of the head to head rule.
Phew, I was panicking like Trentās defending, my nerves were as fragile as Nabyās body, yet I was as happy as Matips smile. Flaccid, Flaccid, Boner!
I guess I am allowed to open the next CL thread, the next game in 21 days time! Fucking ridiculous.
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Just want to flag my disappointment in waiting so looooooong until the next game.
With a World Cup in the middle of the season to contend with too, the schedule is going to get ridiculous.
Hopefully we use the break to get one or two fit, while also training and ironing out the rough spots. The attacking unit, for example, is not a unit yet.
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I actually thought Trent had a decent game bar the goal. (He and Fabinho looked far less drained as they did).
The other two chances were offside and on the left.
Anyhow much better and Matip forward pass and run is almost always over looked but does make us tick. I thought the most disappointing part was the finishing which seemed to go straight at the goalie. The guy hardly was able to move eithier side so a bit more shape and you could have a hat full.
Also not really sure why Darwin got complained about again. Yes he should finish but almost puts one on for Diaz and led to Matip being free on a couple of corners before the goal and then on the goal.
The attack is almost there mind and
Diaz rocket deserved to hit the net.
I said Iām happy for us to have a bit of a break and still am. But this was more like it.
Klopp seemed more thankful at the end, Napoli is the kind of result that can send a season spiral.
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We have fewer World Cup players than our rivals. At least Robbo, Salah, Diaz, Tsimikas, Matip, Gomez, Keita, Milner, Jones, Konate are out. Elliott, Firmino and Thiago are extremely unlikely as well.
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Three points was all that mattered at the end given our form and we looked like might end up dropping a couple by the 88 mins. Better performance, but thereās still room for improvement. Ajax werenāt that good, but not complete useless like Bournemouth. We donāt look impenetrable in defense, which is the key in winning titles. Happy though, hoping this improvement continues going forward and we donāt take two steps back again!
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Guinea will call Keita even if they arenāt in the World Cup.
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Damn, I left for work thinking not another draw and ready to groan. Damn Matip, who does he think he is scoring in the 89th minute. 
Klopp may pull this season around yet. Letās go redmen!
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Melo is our Saul (who signed for Chelsea on loan last season and hardly kicked a ball for them).
Missed the game as I was out.
Glad to see we nicked the win. Frustrating we donāt play again for 3 weeks
At this stage all that matters is the 3 points. A draw coupled with the current form would heap on tons of unnecessary pressure. The improved performance was more like a welcome bonus.
Still, as Klopp said it was just the first step to the right direction. Thereās a lot of work to be done. Their goal for one was the kind of collective failure weāve seen too many times already. But thankfully that was the exception rather than the rule. They didnāt create anything else bar Blindās header.
We looked far more cohesive and industrious compressing the field and pinning them back. Fluidity was lacking and the finishing was sub-par but we got the job done at the end.
Matip was phenomenal and Thiago made us look like a team again. TAA and van Dijk clearly improved, Tsimikas got better and better as the game wore on and the front three worked hard albeit without much linking up.
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Absolutely loved the fact that we send those ā¦. Whiteout anything back to Amsterdam 
After watching both Ajax games so far in full Iāve come to the conclusion that rangers are absolutely crap. 
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If Mickey Mouse died, Orlando would close permanently.
A few take away points;
- Jota added much needed energy and intelligent pressing in the front 3, his touch and passing was much better than it had been
- Kostas needs a run of games, even when Robbo comes back. He really was exceptional at both ends of the pitch
- We need to work out the problems with our right side, if Elliot is struggling with defensive transitions then we need to ask Trent to play more reserved or play Gomez. Alternatively we play Thiago over there and Arthur on the left
My view on the right sided problems is itās about communication, look at the left side and you have Van Dijk and Thiago who are constantly talking and keeping shape. We used to have Hendo on the right and whilst some people mocked him for constantly shouting itās clear he was bringing a lot of structure over there. One example was Fabinho tracking a midfield runner on the left side, you can see Thiago hand him off to him as he goes out wider, Fabinho sees this and follows him into the box and makes the tackleā¦ On the right none of this happens, look at Trent, Elliot, Matip none of them talk. How can you work as a small cohesive unit if you arenāt constantly telling eachother where players are. Itās easy when the game is in front of you but we have zero capability to adapt and shift on that side hence why we are continually caught. I donāt even think itās a problem with Trent being too far up field, thats what heās being asked to do, but what he needs behind him is other players shifting to fill the gaps, and continually telling eachother who is doing what.
Hence why I think Thiago on the right might work really well for a little while, but as part of that Klopp picks his right sided ācommanderā and coaches them on reading the game properly but importantly empowers them to get the right side structure sorted throughout the game (which is a huge ask for Elliot imo). Thiagoās reading of the game and defensive positioning is world class, we need to use that whilst we get back into form.
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Had to listen on the radio again as was driving back from a long weekend away for our anniversary but just based on commentary it sounded a lot better than previous performances.
Not sure why the crowd was so quiet though, even when we scored it was almost polite applause. Kind of weird. Maybe most people didnāt realize that this version of Ajax is actually a really good team.
If Ferguson thought Charlie Adam corners were worth 10 mill, would love to know how much Tsimikas corners are worth!
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Was wondering the same thing myself. After the goal they were there for the taking , but there was just nothing coming from the stands to drive us on.
Ajax are ok but theyāre nowhere near as good as they were when they had that CL run. I fancy us to win over there.
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I blame @Dutch 
he keeps saying that Ajax are shit 
Probably not as good as that team youāre right, but still a very handy side who have been destroying everyone they play this season (mostly in Eredivisie of course). Iāll be interested to see how they do in this double header with Napoli. I think theyāll be really close games.
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