They say the dimensions are identical to the pitch at the Bernabéu
2 Likes
This explains it then…here we go !!!
2 Likes
Yep it’s like a boxer whose finished… The mind is telling him to do things but the body just doesn’t do it as it used to.
I think this is my biggest critcism of Klopp, the lack of pragmatism. We are still playing a very high line and clearly Phillips struggles, the effect of this as you rightly say has everyone second guessing if they should press or not. Our shape all game was horrible, which is a big worry.
That’s literally what he’s saying, the midfield is dropping deeper worried about our defense, rather than backing up the front 3. Causing this huge disconnect between all areas and it’s a piece of piss to break our press due to the holes all over.
We used to press and hunt in packs, now our front 3 are basically closing down passing lines or the keeper but going on their own… So what Real did was really simple, they dropped Kroos deep, this meant our front 3 had 4-5 players now spread, our midfield was none existant or too deep so they had all the time in the world.
This is why Fabinho struggles imo, he isn’t blessed with a lot of pace and giving him a large area to cover he is exposed time and time again. Where he is brilliant is when we are condensed and he can bite into tackles in their half and win the ball back high up the pitch… He spent most of the game in our own half. It was just a disjointed shape.
1 Like
What is clear is we haven’t a defender left who can ping those lovely long balls like VVD does. We tend to give Trent the ball to do that however he doesn’t seem to see it that way and our midfield selection last night didn’t help (once Thiago came on we saw it). My point is that I feel the distance between Defense and midfield is correct, except for Kieta who was unavailable. It’s that with our starting selection we had noone available between midfield and attack. It’s a different situation to the midfield being too deep. The analysis is different and the solution is different.
Fabinho couldn’t even pass the ball 2 meters in the 1st half and was double guessing all the time because Gini and Kieta were missing all the time imo.
For the return I would move Fabinho back alongside Kabak and play Firmino and Jota. Nothing to lose now…
I’m still confident we can get a 2-0 win.
Pressing is far more about making them predictable about where they are going to play it than it is about simply working hard to harry them. That’s why the ball so often gets given to Hendo or Fab…not because they are Kante like monster who is everywhere, but because they are exactly where the need to be to win the ball after everyone in front of them have funneled it to where we want them to play it. You cannot do that with just one line, because it leaves too many men still available to receive the pass. To some degree, if the midfield don’t think they can close down all the passing options then they’re right to sit off because otherwise the whole team is going to look like a side of Lovrens and Pjillips, haring out of a defensive position and leaving a huge gap behind them to exploit. It just needs to be coordinated across all the lines. And right now I dont really get a sense of what we’re trying to do here.
1 Like
And I imagine UEFA would do whatever the fuck Real tell them to do.
2 Likes
I actually thought it looked like a big pitch but maybe that was because their forwards seemed to have loads of space to operate in.
I could setup an email account and twitter handle in 3 minutes of in the name “Kopfan2076” and hurl all kinds if abuse at Liverpool players. Just like I could at any team (and any team fan name). Doesn’t mean it was our fans (although all teams have dick-head fans)
3 Likes
Has Klopp said anything about the 2 Naby decisions (starting him and yanking him before half time)? Ive seen the tweet that he’s admitted it was tactical, but I havent seen any further comment on it.
1 Like
Not entirely sure what he can say (that helps anybody in any way)
Sure, but Klopp is typically refreshingly open about the things he saw in games. Making a tactical change after 40 minutes is the sort of thing he’d normally speak about with unusual candor. Im kind of at a loss to understand what he wanted us to do last night and hearing his thoughts on that substitution would probably explain that. We’re not owed it, but it’s the sort of thing Klopp would typically speak about.
2 Likes
Pre match he said Naby was in for his ability to dribble through the lines.
Post match, he made clear that it was a tactical decision to hook Naby, however that the blame cannot be laid upon Naby, as the whole team was playing poorly (including Naby).
1 Like
I’m still hacked off about this and my reasoning is simple.
Real have an aging midfield and we are apparently a team that’s core ability is to press and force errors from the opposition. We might as well have been the aging team last night. We were given a football lesson.
2 Likes
I’m sad that Curtis Jones didn’t play. He has a lot of talent and deserves to be in the reckoning on that alone. So what are the other attributes?
He has energy to spare, and the team didn’t look like it had enough last night.
Jones has passion to spare, and the team didn’t look like it had enough last night.
He is also a goal threat from the midfield and we generally don’t carry that either at the moment.
Jones should have played and I would play him at Anfield.
Overall a subpar display, and we have had a lot of them this year. Still, we are not out of it yet. I fully expect Real Madrid to score at least one at Anfield, but you never say never.
We have a hill to climb, but we’ve done it before.
2 Likes
Any chance of sneaking in 20000 fans for the home tie?
We have been dire mostly without the crowd, not saying its the be all and end all of our season woes, but its a factor.
3 Likes
What do you think is the actual problem? Is it Klopp or the players not doing what he’s asking. I appreciate thats a bit of a loaded question but this isn’t a smear against the manager, he’s made quite a lot questionable decisions this season.
1 Like
Suspect there may be a fair few outside Anfield with flares etc next week to see the coach come in. Not the same but might help.
1 Like
The only thing( at the mo) with Curtis is a short temper…and RM knew how to ’ press’ the right buttons with Trent…Z Z kept shouting get at 66… And in the end Trent nearly retaliated…I’d play Jonesy but would he bite…
2 Likes