If you’re pressing properly overloads you seem on the team sheet shouldnt really play out on the pitch because you always have someone stepping forward to pressure any player who can reasonably receive the ball. If your seeing situations where there are too many players to account for its because you’re not doing well enough further up the pitch at making the pitch small enough.
We don’t press anymore. The amount of times single players push on and no one backs them up is many per game.
We put zero pressure on the opponent when they have the ball. So they have the feeedom of the pitch to look up and a single pass is all it takes to be through on goal.
Fuck knows what defensive shape and “compactness” Klopp worked on during the break as we appear to have got worse.
How can we press with a midfield that can’t run?
Nunez and Salah can press, as can Diaz and Jota. Even Bobby will still give it a go.
We need more legs in that area, there’s no other way around it if we want to play as openly as we are doing.
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Correct and sadly even Thiago is in that conversation. Whilst he’s clearly our best midfielder by a mile he still is slower than me nan.
He actually wins the ball back though. Last night he had a 20 minute spell where Leicester couldn’t make a pass without him reading it.
He’s the least of our problems in there.
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But they are not. It’s not about their willingness to work, but the coordination of the work.
They can’t with that midfield behind them. Who’s going to back them up, Elliot?
The midfield is where all of our major problems stem from, not the front line. It’s just really, really shit. There’s no getting away from it unfortunately.
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RIP to your mother, my sincere condolences, and get well very soon, mate!
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He does but he doesn’t press at all. The drop off in energy levels in the midfield is staggering.
The amount of ground he is having to cover worries me his hamstrings will snap soon.
What do you mean by this? Pressing for someone in midfield simply means finding a guy ahead of you who might be able to get the ball and stepping up to him. If they play the ball into him you then either nick it or at worst force them to keep the ball in the space you’re trying tog et them to play on, or you force them to just pump it forward seeing no viable passes. He wins so many balls because that’s exactly what he does, just as he has been since he was 17.
Of course they can. The midfield might not currently be able to reliably take advantage of it, but if the forwards don’t do their job then there can be no press. A forward line that isnt starting the process by ushering the opponent into a certain area of the pitch you leave the midfield with a much bigger area to patrol. If you’re concerned with the midfield the way you are, that exposes them even more.
They can but they’re not. I don’t think you can blame the forwards, not from what I’m seeing. We’re wide open in the middle of the park. I think it’s a system problem. Henderson had no problem in the world cup, Thiago as has been said wins loads of balls back.
If every player on our midfield had lost so much energy and pace, do we not think Klopp and the rest of the fitness staff would know this? Is Klopp just hiding his head in the sand? Obviously, we have targeted midfield as an area to improve and strengthen but if it’s a player getting old in the legs thing then we need someone in this transfer window.
We’re still creating loads of chances though, that’s a positive.
Elliot does a lot if things right in the initial press unfortunately he just can’t tackle and if the initial press is beaten he does lose his man
I wish we had legs in midfield to do his running so he can concentrate on making us play, also we need midfielders that can beat the press with passing and movement and also with the ability to beat a man
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Thiago beats men all the time with that ‘telegraphed’ shimmy of his.
Despite all the doom & gloom I’ve read about this game, I’m more than happy we got 3 valuable points, and an outstanding defensive display from Trent.
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A bad day at the office but we still got paid. Obviously you’ll learn from mistakes but it’s preferable to losing points but having a “good performance”.
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Thanks we all hope 2023 is better than 2022
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Cheers thanks
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Personally for me 2022 was a very good year. Wishing you all the very best for 2023 mate.
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