Flo did an awful lot better than Alex; but for a good save he’d have got a first half goal and the problem for him is that he’s not occupying the right spaces, or when he is no-one is passing to him so he’s coming deep. I actually think we need to completely rethink how the middle three play together - I’d actually like to see us move to a 4-4-2 with Gakpo and Isak up top centrally and Flo in behind alongside 3 deeper central midfielders - perhaps Macca, Dom and Grav to start. At present Dom just doesn’t have ‘it’ (game intelligence?) to play effectively as part of a two man midfield and our CBs are not capable of defending a high line 1-1.
I have huge questions about whether Virg sees out the season as a starter; what is wrong with Isak and also whether we need to bring in several new midfielders or if its just that AI hasn’t had enough time on the training ground yet. Very worrying but I guess we’ll just have to see how the team looks in 6-8 weeks.
I clearly remember the players all tracking back to defend as a unit early in Slot’s reign, but disappeared during the end of the 1st season. So, the foundation was there.
I am annoyed with the midfielders and forwards not busting their lungs to come back and help in defending yesterday. I am hoping that it will not be too long for Iraola to drum out the laziness from the players, and get them working together a proper cohesive team again.
I was disappointed in the effectiveness of the pressing of the front 3. Just as a pattern of play we very rarely exerted any sort of suffocating pressure indicating that we were effectively winning the ball back as soon as we lost it. But you also saw lots of examples of the 3 forwards starting doing the right thing and just not finishing it, allowing that inside pass that opened us up when it only required that all out effort for 1 more strider to take that option away and keep them boxed in. Its a different mechanism of failure to our bad pressing from last year, but its one that indicates that it isnt as simple as flipping a switch and giving them new direction that is followed well immediately. Unfortunately
This.
I thought the team has sorted out the pressing and intensity based on what I saw in the 2nd Como match (there were still some teething problem but overall it looked quite good in that match). Yesterday pressing was not great at all, until later in the match. Nobody closed the outlet and Newcastle could play out easily. I probably need to watch the match again to confirm.
When Klopp first arrived, there was an incredible amount of grumbling and negativity—claims that gegenpressing wouldn’t work in the Premier League in the long run, and so on.
So, look: we’ve brought in Iraola to implement his system here. That clearly means we won’t be seeing the 4-3-3 formation we were used to, (or whatever the Slot formation was) anymore; everyone needs to come to terms with that. Otherwise, you’re in for a really tough season. 
I’d wait to see what other reinforcements arrive and how things shape up; we’ve probably only seen tiny glimpses so far of what Iraola actually has in mind. As for Wirtz and Isak—they need time to gel; they’ve spent far too few minutes on the pitch together so far. Plus, Klopp’s influence is bound to bring about changes for Wirtz, too—something I wouldn’t underestimate. We’re right at the start of this journey; it’s going to take a lot of patience, and there will be setbacks—but also the occasional surprise.
Have to say, I am a bit skeptical and I often think fans romanticise and overemphise the impact of pressing nowadays, as the pundits do, but I do very much agree that the front 3 pressed very poorly or in a way that was a bit disjointed and never really put them under much pressure. As you say, it looked like starting well but being disjointed it allowed a pass to open up. The coordination is not natural for them
I have written quite a few posts moaning about the berating of Gakpo, if we had listened to some of our supporters and got rid of him we would have lost the game yesterday. What really heartened me was his willingness to accomodate his manager in playing out of position and making a difference, compare that to Rio who also played out of position but with far less experience was very uncomfortable.
Jacquet and Araujo are going to be immense for us going forward if they stay healthy.
Well, assuming we bought nobody else, which I think nobody wanted. Maybe we´d have had somebody to create for Isak.
Gakpo played a very Gakpo game. He will score a solid amount of goals. But he won´t stretch teams or create anything for our striker or work with Wirtz and they will suffer somewhat for how he plays.
For now, at least he is reliable goal output, which we don´t have elsewhere.
I hope so! I don’t share your optimism about Jacquet - I understand he needs minutes before it’s fair to judge - but he just didn’t look good defending space or off the ball. I was shocked; I’m not sure if it was a communication thing or what but his positoning and desire to get back seemed miles off several times.
Really good image from Michael Cox’s piece in the athletic today
There is just no reason for Virgil being that deep. It would be one thing if their striker had refused to drop into midfield and was trying to stay high so Virgil stayed with him, but he’s dropped off 15 yards off the highest newcastle player. That was not a legit pass to him, it was a half clearance that only looked like a pass because it went into his vicinity without a liverpool player anywhere near him. Remotely decent pressure on Osula there stops that counter in its tracks.
Cox describes that Iraola spent the 10 mins after this play constantly berating the defense to take a higher starting line.
This is the perfect illustration that while Grav was sloppy its a more complicated story of what went wrong than “he should have just shot”.
I think the last part of the post match interview by Iraola is the most damning part of the current squad cohesion.
Journalist (good question actually, not the usual template question):
…Just going on from that about the midfield, because it was a problem last season and your Bournemouth team exploited it… How do you address that? Is it personnel, is it coaching? How do you solve that problem?
Iraola’s response.
Yeah, I remember.
I think it’s not just personnel, because I understand, you are telling me basically, Ryan Gravenberch is the No. 6 and he’s on the edge of the box…
But if he shoots and he scores, we’re saying, “What a play from Ryan.” So I don’t want also to take this from his game, but we have to adapt as a team to these situations, and we have know that these situations can happen.
I think the second goal probably we did better in terms of having the numbers to defend.
We don’t make the foul, go to the first challenge, probably reduce the distance with the ball carrier.
So, it’s an incredible goal. The situations is not just because one person is playing there, it’s something that we have to correct between a lot of players.
When played on the left last season (and that’s a big “when”, but still), would have more chances created, successful dribbles and would bring that sense of danger more than any other senior forward that had started the game, within a few minutes. Seemed to translate to more than just potential, he was genuinely dangerous, both if you’d see him in isolation, or in comparison.
Yesterday it felt he couldn’t function as well on the right - at least to me.
Over the year here I definitely value your input, both in general and young talent related, so I’m curious whether it felt that way to you too. This post I quoted seemed to indicate you don’t think so. Wanted to make sure, with a direct question.
It’s 3rd (or 4th?) senior match for Rio playing on the right wing (2 of them were friendlies), and the kid is only 17 (18 the end of this week). There will be plenty of development time.
Talking about young players is tough because realism can be interpreted as criticism. He’s 17, of course he needs to improve. And he will. During that period there are going to be games where he shows he needs to improve but still contributes. Yesterday unfortunately wasn’t one of those and he probably should pay for that with his starting place. But no one should interpret that as criticism or writing him off.
Gravenberch took a bad decision and made an even worse pass, but he did so at the edge of the opposition’s box. It doesn’t take much to surmise that he wasn’t the only one at fault for allowing them to go not once, but twice, all the way the other way and score without so much of a challenge.
It’s a really stupid way to concede and it will probably happen again before the team gets it out of its system. Bad habits die hard.
Perhaps because there was little opportunity for this as N/C went long often and were playing on the counter
My take on Rio is he is a left winger, now early on in learning to do it on the right. And all that as a young player who isn’t yet fully established, in a team that isn’t yet fully established under Iraola.
If we end up with a winger quartet: Barcola, Rio, Minteh, Munoz it will be so much better. Then Rio can start as and when, but he will very likely be a back up option on the left to Barcola, while he gets meaningful minutes to continue his development.
I expect him to grow to the point of being decent/passable on the right, but very good indeed on the left. Lots of grace for a young lad right now though.
Ryan Gravenberch fucked up twice but somehow ‘everybody’ gets the blame even Kerkez who loses a footrace against the fastest man in the League.
Gravenbergch was the problem yesterday.