The best thing to do with the domestic cups is to win them. If you can’t do that, the second best is to get knocked out in the first round.
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But he could have played them.
End of the day he played a team that was the strongest he was willing to go. I have no issue with that if it delivers the goods elsewhere.
It would be slightly more serious if we hadn’t already got to another final on Thursday and didn’t have to use our free weeks we achieved for PL games due to TNT and the PL.
Like if we had this week free then I wouldn’t been against it and circumstances have been beyond our control with this one but the way they arranged the Villa game when there are at least 3 midweeks free later on and only one PL clash weekend is a bit meh.
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I don’t think Arne would have put a different team out even if something had been different on Thursday. I think it’s quite clear that for him the domestic cups are for experimentation and for resting the first-team.
I wonder if it had been a league game this past weekend, whether he would have put out such a strong side against Spurs.
Who knows but he seemed pretty much excited by the goals.
I think he had prioritised the league cup of the domestic ones once we got to the semi finals as both teams were strong.
People have been banging on about rotation and then moan about it. Sorry but the game is as it is.
He was totally right in my view especially after Thursday.
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I don’t think it’s a prioritisation, more a reflection that it was just a tangible opportunity to get to a cup final. If we reached the FA Cup semi-finals I have a feeling he’d do the same too.
I too think he did the right thing with his game selection, and people are genuinely just underrating how unlucky we were in the game itself. Thursday itself is immaterial to my thinking that way. I don’t think he says to himself, “well that’s one cup gone so better try harder in the remaining one”.
It’s a marathon not a sprint, and every single action and interview suggests that he knows that. I’m just disappointed that we don’t get to see the younger players get another run out, but they didn’t do enough to earn that either, in a manner of speaking.
Completely this, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised that much of the narrative has been that Liverpool will be better off out of this.
On the squad point though, I think our squad is deep and strong. It’s pretty much the strongest in the PL. We have two strong options for each position, and only in a couple of those positions is there generally a clear pathway to upgrade.
The issue on Sunday, was that we had to go deeper than that, using what we might call ‘third string’ players, and in unfamiliar positions. And then was further disrupted by Gomez going off injured.
The team was very unbalanced, very unfamiliar with each other and obviously struggling with cohesion and fluidity.
I don’t think the game should really suggest anything about the squad beyond this. When you dig deep into your third string, when you throw a load of lads together who aren’t used to playing with each other, and when you are further disrupted by in game injury, there is always a chance you might walk into a bloody nose. Plymouth are a professional outfit, not a bunch of amateurs, and even if they only had a 10% chance of winning the game, there is still a 1 in 10 chance of living in the universe where they do.
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I agree. There was and still is a small amount of room to register additional players, but that is more of a reflection of the full compliment of 25 legit first team players being more than any side actually needs if they are all good enough to contribute that evidence we needed to add more bodies.
Our issue, if we have one, is more the question marks about the ongoing viability of a few of the lads currently taking up those spots than not having enough of them currently filled. And maybe the other one that certain combinations only work if other key combinations are also present (are our CBs only at the required level if they are playing alongside Virgil? What happens to our movement of the ball when Gravy and/or Mac arent out there and that ever reliable ball back into the CM isnt as ever available as we’re used to it being?)
It’s been glossed over because of the success of Gravy, but Slot’s football puts an incredible responsibility on the CM roles. In this game those roles were occupied by two kids with about 6 first games between them, one of whom missed the first 5 months through injury. Given the circumstances it was not that unexpected a performance.
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Not sure about that to be honest. Isn’t it better to get through the rounds while playing fringe players who need playing time, and a selection of youngsters who need first team experience? That would be my dream scenario: go throughout the competition, right until the final, without having to use the big guns at all.
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Yeah he’s also now said that Jones was meant to play the full game, so I imagine he’s rather frustrated.
The biggest losers from Sunday were players like McConnell and Nyoni. That’s probably the last we see of them this year. Might even be the last time Chiesa and Endo get meaningful minutes.
But even if you can get through to a final playing U18s, it’s still a disruption to coaching and prep time. Slot and his staff don’t get to rest themselves for the cups.
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I liked how Klopp let Lijnders take charge of the cup games, while taking off time for himself. I understand that Slot isn’t at that point yet, but it’s very much a blueprint to follow in future seasons imo.
What?
I must be missing something as I thought Lijnders only ever took charge of the press conferences for the League Cup and nothing more?
No, Lijnders also coached the team during the matches. Klopp was taking time off during that time. I think it was during the two or three last seasons before he left, in the early stages of the League cup, maybe also of the FA cup, I don’t remember.
I don’t remember him doing that. He let Pep do the press conferences, but I’m sure he was in the dugout.
The only time I remember Klopp not being there was illness, and that time we had two games on 24 hours and had to send the Kids to Villa.
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Pep has proved he was never up to much scratch apart from putting out cones and talking shit in his book
That was also my recollection, but I couldn’t find any solid sources one way or another.
Really harsh. Jürgen credited him with a lot of our success, and I don’t think it was just him being nice. It might simply be bad luck, an inability to translate methods across when he’s the main focus, or just being limited and not well-rounded enough in his skillset.
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Got it! And publishing a book with soundbites for our rivals to placate his giant ego too. What a guy; Shane he sux as a manager.
There was a piece in the Athletic not long after the sacking detailing a confluence of factors that went wrong with many outside his control. Still, it gives the whiff of the Rodgers…has ideas that can work but seems to not have the ability to fight through rough patches, which is largely the big difference between a good coach and good manager
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