Pre-Match | Tottenham v Liverpool | PL Game 20 | Thursday January 28th 20:00h | TH Stadium

Surely because he’s better there than Hendo, errr …?

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It goes like this. The last time Henderson and Fabinho played together in defence, Klopp very weirdly swapped them over so that Hendo played on the left (despite mostly playing on the right in midfield) and Fabinho in the right (despite mostly playing on the left of defence). Clearly Klopp wanted to look at Hendo on the left.

There is no question that Fabinho is a better defender than Hendo, but Hendo is probably good enough there - we kept out a very potent Man Utd attack with that pairing.

I think what we are trying to do is

  1. Replicate the way Virgil could quickly turn defence into attack with an accurate ball into the attackers - which Fabinho can’t do.

  2. By bringing Fabinho - a really good single pivot - into midfield we can get Thiago further up the pitch. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of him sitting deep, taking the ball off the centre backs, and we know Mourinho will shithouse this. We need Thiago probing the Spurs defence.

It’s sort of a horses for courses thing. Going forward we have to choose between Henderson, Matip and Fabinho for defence (I’d throw Nat Phillips into the mix as well for very select games).

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All good and thanks as it caught my eye straight away and I was interested to see your thinking behind it.

There might be a job for you yet!! :wink:

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Forgot to add that there’s actually a huge amount of sense to it as well.

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And you call yourself fit to open match threads…

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I get the rationale and agree with it but for a caveat. Fabinho can’t replicate VVD with those diagonal balls, and I dont think anyone really can. The best delivery from defence would be an in form Trent, but he is the one you want receiving those diagonals.
I hope you are correct as it does make sense.
Particularly the movement of Thiago to where he can cause damage.

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I saw Juergen on the beach with his dog the other day. Looking a bit down as you would imagine. Hopefully this game will give him a boost.

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I did that just before Christmas. My son decided to get me a replacement but couldn’t find an LFC mug so I now have a Werder Bremen one. I hope I don’t break my Dalek mug because I’ll probably end up with something from Raumschiff Orion.

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I have no idea what to expect from this one. Agreed with @Mascot, our current run of form makes this a complete mystery. I’m really at a loss to call it.

They’re all important, but this match is mission critical if we want to stay in the race.

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Great news if Hendo is fit. Assuming Matip is also , that gives us our best available midfield of Hendo , Thiago and Gini.

Suddenly feel a lot more confident about this one.

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Our form, Atkinson the ref Moss the VAR and professional diver Kane on the pitch, a draw would be a win.

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Klopp: No new [injuries]. Hendo and Joel trained y’day with the team fully. Like always we have to wait and see overnight but they trained."

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Omg! We have this guy as the referee tomorrow! :worried: :roll_eyes:

Great.

Matip RCB, Fabinho LCB.

Put Hendo at #6, Gini RCM, Thiago LCM.

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Fucking have it… We go from here! I feel it.

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Easy tiger, haven’t you heard Klopp

:roll_eyes:

Win and hopefully the slump is over

Draw and we continue the season battling for top 4

Lose and we’ll have a proper fight on for top 4

Crazy how our season has turned around in 5 games

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Which is why I think we can still turn it round in another 5 games.

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