That ref is an utter prick who never seems to give us anything either. Not saying it was his fault we drew but I hate it when I see him in charge of any of our games.
I certainly don’t want to argue the point as there’s very little in the way of defending what we suspected in the Summer but do you not think that Matip has been unlucky even by his own injury standards. It’s a new injury every 2-3 games for him.
That second half performance was like watching a team that’s up by five and just running down the clock, even when they equalised we still seemed quite slow.
It’s starting to feel like a touch of complacency or arrogance is maybe creeping in when it comes to the weaker teams, like we’re just expecting to turn up and it’ll happen.
While it’s been a frustrating season at times, we are top of the league at Christmas and defending champions, so it’s not really as bad as people are making out.
I still think we’ll win the league, it just wont be by twenty something points.
I don’t think Matip’s injury should force our hand, that should have happened the moment VVD and Gomez were confirmed out long term. I hope Edwards has done his work in the meantime and our plans don’t actually rely on Matip’s fitness, because I have an idea on how that’s going to end.
Yes I agree that Fab doesn’t need to be in central midfield all the time, albeit that against bus parkers, when he’s at DM, he roams a lot anyway and delivers some lovely defence splitting balls.
In fact, one positive of our current situation is that we’ve found an option to use Fab to rest a centre back against bus parkers and do a kind of centre back come DM role as you outlined.
But IMO we need the option to use him in midfield against top class sides with quality between the lines players, and we won’t have that with the current centre back situation.
I think our best midfield would be three from Fab, Hendo, Thiago and Gini, with the other to come from the bench when legs are tiring.
We saw last night the impact of a midfield with nothing on the bench, and a player still learning his trade (Jones).
In fact, given how we seem to have a centre back issue every season, albeit normally not as bad as two of them out for the season and no senior fit centre back available, I’d argue we need four senior centre backs, decent young options for cups, and Fab as a 5th senior option.
When he’s the 4th option, given the injury record of our centre backs he’s effectively not a midfield option for large parts of a season.
I appreciate that contracts complicate what we’d ideally do, but for me we’d rebalance the squad by signing a top quality centre back, let Gomez and Matip be considered as 3rd/4th choice, and if they don’t like it tough.
Then I’d release two from Oxlade, Shaqiri and Origi in the summer, to free up wages.
Anyone notice, like a good old pair of long johns from most western films, Fat Sam’s face mask also had a quick access ‘trap door’ sewn into it.
Most likely so he can unhinge it during the game, to slide a full meat pie through it to top up his diet.!
It’s strange the way the usual suspects are always at the scene of the crime isn’t it? Atkinson, Friend, Coote, Taylor, always one or more of them involved.
Atkinson has been involved in one role or another the last 4 times we’ve dropped points at Anfield going back to the 0-0 with City over 2 years ago. He reffed the 1-1 with Leicester that same season where he made 3 very strange decisions and those dropped points ultimately cost us the title.
I think Klopp’s reaction to the non-foul by Williams last night spoke volumes. I think he knows what’s going on but has to be very careful what he says in public.
Guy has missed about 70 games since joining us. There’s unlucky, then there’s a consistent pattern of injuries.
None of his injury issues this season have come as a surprise to anyone. That’s why it felt risky to leave ourselves with just three centre backs going into the season, there was an inevitability that Matip would be missing for a reasonable chunk of time.
Mo Salah is an astounding footballer. Love the guy, just poetry in motion. You can sense there’s a but coming.
Whenever he breaks up play near the half way line (as he often does), his first instinct is to pass sideways and bomb up the pitch so that somebody else can do the legwork for his goal. He never looks up or to 45 degrees to see who else he can play in. That sideways pass inevitably leads to another sideways pass and hey presto, the opposition are mise en place. I’d like to see him drive forward and play somebody else in occasionally. It’s no secret that he’s a goal greedy guy (which you need in the best strikers) and he does the leg work to break up play. But occasionally, setting up his own goals could be put on the back burner.
I like his honesty, that’s what the players needed to hear after the game.
Well done Kloppo!
Yeah it’s how I see it now, I expect some summer plans moved forward if the Matip news is true.
I guess what I’m eluding to is that this time round they seem to be relatively small but numerous rather than previously being a bit more serious with lengthier lay offs.
Still I can’t argue the point of the club assuming that he would miss a proportion of the season.
Ok, the day after, and on the one hand I’m still frustrated, as three points were there for the taking, but on the other hand, that’s football, and sometimes you have flat games.
Their goal shouldn’t have stood as it was a clear foul on Fab, and we could have done better in the moments before it, with Curtis Jones getting the lion’s share of criticism. Nobody is saying he isn’t a smashing player already, and an excellent prospect who has every chance to have a long career at Liverpool, but plenty are legitimately saying that he needs to work on a couple things - decision making, like the ball he gave to Rhys, and then also not overplaying it but instead releasing a simple, crisp pass, more promptly… and on a few occasions it might have served us better in the break and in transition.
But Jones is ace and will come again.
The real issue of the day was that we didn’t reach our level. It was lethargic and we mostly played the game in front of 9/10 West Brom players, who were not nearly as troubled by us as they should have been. It happens. As fans we will pore over the details as we love the game and love the team.
Next up Newcastle. Chance to put in a better performance and win all three points.
This season is a slog, a war of attrition. There will be some very good stuff, and we have witnessed some of that, but it will be more occasional than over the past couple of seasons due to a myriad of circumstances.
I still back us to finish champions, but it will be very close. Hopefully the right defender will be available in the window to give us a boost. Onwards and upwards.
I said the same to my son I asked him to check who was officiating when I saw who they were I said to him were fucked. The bastards take it in turn for our matches either in VAR of reffing have they run out of officials in the PL?
I see a big problem too.
What happen when VAR have to decide a world cup finale or another finale 
VAR is killing this game for all of us.
FUCK IT 
It very much depends on the system and pace is vital to the one we play. With any of Virgil/Gomez/Matip we are very comfortable with leaving them two on two because of the pace they possess. Positioning plays an important part but we also very often see our defenders with one on one or two on two not because we’ve cocked it up but because our coaching staff know they have the nous and the pace to deal with it and if they can’t then Alisson is excellent in one on ones and thus the fullbacks are allowed to maraud as they please. The defensive midfielder also plays a part in the covering but since Klopp arrived he has been pretty methodical in making sure that pace and power is prevalent in all areas of the pitch for us. Rhys Williams and Fabinho as a pair do not have the pace to play week in/week out in this system because our system by default will at some stage leave them with one on ones or two on twos and they will be exposed and give up more chances than we ordinarily do.