Pre-Match | Sheffield United vs. Liverpool | PL Matchday 26 | Sunday February 28th 19:15h | Bramall Lane

It’s entirely possible he rides this season out and is the PL player of the year next season.

I know talking about injuries is not fun, but you can’t consistently have six-seven first team players out and everything be OK. It has a massive impact.

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I think Thiago will be pretty effective in European games and the domestic season is pretty much scratched off. So he will contribute in our European adventure and after a proper preseason (and rest) will boss the PL, FAC and Energy Drink Cup next season.

:trophy: :trophy: :trophy: :trophy:

I hadn’t realised the next game was a week and a bit off. At the moment the entire core of the team is missing: VVD, Matip/Gomez, Fabinho, Hendo all injured. Of those, I can only see a chance of Fab being fit.

With a bit of luck we should have Keita fit.

I think we should use whatever CBs we have available. I’d be tempted to give Davies a debut as, with the greatest of respect to The Blades, they are probably closer to the level he is used to playing against.

Most of the rest will have to stay the same. We just don’t have the luxury to rotate.

I would give Klopp and the core players time-out till Thursday. The lot is physically and mentally exhausted and the best way to rejuvenate them is to take football out of them, for a while.

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Right now I doubt that players coming back will help us to turn it around.

Whole team (excluding the CBs here) is not running enough. Not fighting enough. Not physical enough. Not pressing enough. Not attacking their defenders enough.

We’re too passive - anticipating too much. Not brave enough.

Easy to criticize single players atm but it’s a Team Problem.

Afraid to say this but it is at least 70% a mentality problem

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I think you’ve just cracked it!

The whole team is playing poorly on purpose, so that nobody gets selected for their national teams at the Euros, Copa America, etc.

That way, they all get the summer off and return refreshed and raring to go next season. It’s all part of Jürgen’s master plan! :+1:

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:rofl: :rofl:

So, who will we have available for this one?

Central defenders: Kabak, Phillips, Davies.
Full backs: Trent, Robertson, Williams, Tsimikas(?)
Midfielders: Gini, Thiago, Jones, Ox. Maybe Milner? Maybe Fabinho? Keita? (knock wood)
In attack: Shaqiri, Firmino, Salah, Mané. What about Jota, will he be back?

VVD, Gomez, Matip, Henderson will be out for sure. That is the whole defensive spine of the team bar Allisson.

Millie is a more than capable vice-captain. If he can play, he’ll offer leadership to the lads. If he is injured though, all our natural leaders will be out. I’d probably give it to Gini then.

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Only six, yes SIX, Liverpool FC first team players have not spent more than three weeks injured this season.

• Andy Robertson
• Gini Wijnaldum
• Roberto Firmino
• Mo Salah
• Sadio Mané
• Curtis Jones

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I want to see

…Alisson…

TAA Gomez VVD Robertson

…Fabinho…

…Henderson…Thiago

Salah…Mane

…Firmino…

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We simply have to win here. West Ham are at City and will likely lose and Chelsea play Man U.

Next up for us is Chelsea at home. If results go our way in these games, even a draw with Chelsea if they drop points to Man U, then we are still in there fighting.
Drop points at Sheffield and lose to Chelsea then top 4 is more or less gone. We really, really have to win this one.

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Bloody hell. :frowning_face: :pensive: How are they going to manage till May, uff!

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Alisson
TAA-Kabak-Philipps-Robertson
Thiago
Keita-Jones
Mane-Salah-Tsimikas

Or Jones at left wing and Wijnaldum at CM. No Firmimo needed at CF, Sheffield are just going to give us possession. We need speed and dribbling down the wings and some creativity from midfield. Drop the defensive line by a bit to make both CBs more comfortable.

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Bramall Lane? Bloody Bramble Lane!!! We’ll be cut to shreds at the back!!!

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Interesting to note the form on those as well

Mane firmino and Robertson are just running on fumes

I’m not trying to tempt fate but once the squad fills out a bit it’s be good to see these guys get a slight ‘niggle’ that puts them out of any future international break and a week or so either side.

I’m not normally like that… but… this is out of control right now ( form, momentum, injuries)

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smash us we are shite

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We’ve all been holding onto the hope that when the squad is more like full strength we’ll click into gear, even if we continue with the 433 that most teams have worked out how to deal with.

But here we are in late Feb, as soon as one player comes back another is out, so that’s clearly not going to happen soon enough.

We all know that injuries and referees have fucked us up this season, but Klopp has enough players and enough talent in the squad for us to deliver results better than week in week out defeats.

Of our squad for the second half of the season. i.e. with Matip, VVD, Gomez and Minimino out of it, we currently have all the defenders available, plus five of six forwards.

Midfield is where the issues are, with Fabinho and Henderson used in defence and getting injured, Milner and Keita injured during the poor run since Palace, and Oxlade clearly needing games in order to contribute yet we can’t carry him right now.

The forwards aren’t delivering and the defence is having issues, partly because of ever changing centre back partnerships.

For me, there is no point making midfield any worse by taking players out of it and using them in defence, certainly against less than top class forwards, when you’ve so many defenders to use.

As far as I am concerned, we could finish 10th and I’d still believe there’s nobody better than Klopp for us, but it nonetheless frustrates me to see the same old faces delivering nothing, and the same old issues.

I believe he could help the young centre backs by either using a 352, or 442 diamond.

The 352 (or 3142) could use Kabak Phillips Davies, with TAA and Robertson as wing backs, Fabinho at defensive midfield, 2 from Gini/Keita/Jones/Thiago pushing on ahead of Fabinho, and Mane and Salah up top.

I do think a four man defence from the aforementioned centre backs could easily be exposed, so an extra man is helpful, but if Klopp won’t deviate from a 4 man defence you could use a midfield diamond with Fab at DM and Thiago at the tip.

I accept that top four is going to be a real challenge given the refs and injuries, but if we end up way off 4th with the players we still have available, it will be on the manager.

No way should this group of players have seen such poor results for two months, and in my view we need to change things up to stop giving opponents a huge tactical advantage of knowing exactly how we’re going to play.

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I’ve seen several posts advocating that we go to three at the back and deploy all of our fit central defenders at once.

A simple question to the proponents of such a formation: what happens when one of them gets injured, as will inevitably be the case?

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Play another 1 in its place. :smiley:

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