Klopp picked the perfect starting eleven, aside from Koumetio. Unfair on Gomez to be lining up with a kid at CB and another kid at RB, and still be dealing with rustiness from his injury. Vice versa unfair for Koumetio to be thrown in with an understandably rusty Joe. Konate has sat out most of the season, so should be able to play 15 games in a row no problem if need be.
In the second half, the combo of experience in both positions at CB helped. After VVD, Matip, Gomez and Konate, there is a gap to the ever dependable Nat as 5th choice (he would’ve been perfect for this game if not injured).
Can get away with things at RB, but CB is uncompromising against a wily forward such as Vardy.
But overall for me, the pleasing aspect was the never say die attitude by the whole team. That’s what Klopp has created, and it’s keeping us in good stead. The mental aspect of teams coming to Anfield in cup games is on edge, as they know we will keep going till the whistle.
I don’t think it was unfair, actually. Gomez is a senior member of our defence and more than capable of shepherding the defence. I think in this case however, they did a more than adequate job, despite what most were saying. Vardy is always going to be a deadly striker if you give him the opportunities, and we did because of the rustiness. But on the whole, we weren’t too bad apart from that.
As you said, the never say die attitude is the most important thing to take from this game. Koumetio will probably reflect on this and have learned plenty of things.
I never thought for a moment we were going to lose, not even when Maddison scored their third. That’s just what this team is.
Maybe, or maybe Rodgers keeps his powder dry for the next match. After last night, Leicester will have no confidence in their ability to get a result against the regular starters.
Probably the more so now that we don’t play Leeds Sunday.
Yes, I think we were not that arsed at first but it turned into an entertaining game, esp. 2nd half and penos. To see us come from behind when we looked out of sorts at half time is a tribute to the manager, the players and the crowd, who were vociferous throughout. An unexpected gem of a game.
Klopp said after the game that in order to develop, you need to make the mistakes, and that’s how it is. Koumetio will learn from his mistakes, just like Rhys Williams improved last season. After making terrible initial errors with the first team, he was an integral part of the team which went on a winning run to earn us a CL spot in the end.
I tend to side with Klopp here. You need to play high-potential youngsters at the highest level, even if it means that they’ll commit mistakes initially.
Klopp has these phrases which are fine, they’re there to defend these boys, of course he will not say in public some things he will say to them privately (I’m not saying he’ll go nuts). But of course there’s a limit when we can’t tolerate some things. A cup QF is not there for us to give chances to kids and say “go out there and make mistakes”.
Rhys did better than Billy, so that’s also not fair to compare.
There are levels, it’s obvious from his previous first team outings that Billy isn’t quite ready for this level. So it’s unfair for all sides. I don’t know how he trains, maybe he’s a different player. The situation was delicate so it was more because of it. I hoped Konate could play last night, as I didn’t think we’d risk Matip in this particular 3 games a week period.
Billy is far off right now and playing a key position for the team, it’s not the same to make mistakes at CB or in attack. It’s nothing against the kid, we will not lose his head of anything. It’s probably clear as day to the kid as well. Go back and improve, make steps and then we’ll see if he merits more chances here.
Yeah but that’s not the only way to improve and there are different levels. We’re not Red Cross or something, a club like Liverpool, well… it should be hard to earn a chance. We have a pathway and that is already brilliant and better than at a lot of other top clubs. Not every young player will take these games like duck to water, but we can’t just throw kids out there without any thought. It’s no good for anyone.
I watched this little guy’s Leicester vlog last time 2 years ago when our boys took the Foxes apart. It is pretty good to see the little kids supporting their teams (even though in this case, he supports the wrong team).
loved the win , loved coming from behind . 2nd half was electric and Konate,Kieta , jota made a big difference .
kieta needs a run of games and to stay injury free which is proving to be difficult but one thing we cant deny that he is a really quality player .
gutted that the leeds game is cancelled they were there for the taking
I’m sure there’s a reason that Klopp started him in the match, and then hooked him at the half. Maybe he’s had some really good training sessions and he earned himself some first team minutes. Maybe Klopp wanted to see how he’d react to playing against a world class striker like Vardy, to give him a taste of it. Looking at the bench, I don’t see a lot of other options available to use. Quansah, Wotson and Pitaluga???
Am fairly certain, this match won’t be forgotten by Koumetio anytime soon. That atmosphere was off the charts. Loved it, and am re-watching the second half right now in an empty office so I can hear the crowd.
