Thiago isn’t an actual midfielder? Despite his poor form he’s still the best of the lot.
He made 6 tackles against Wolves, Henderson and Fabinho made 1 combined.
He made the most tackles against Leicester.
If Keita comes in it should probably be for Henderson, or Fabinho with Henderson moving back. Those two have been playing like competition winners.
I think the structure might need re-thinking again.
We’re not getting enough quality from the single pivot at the moment, be it Fabinho or Henderson. Would maybe be better to flip it to double pivot, at least to get our shit together again.
Like we did a few times under Klopp when we had a dodgy spell of performances/results and the balance of the team was lacking.
Like in the City game in the league this will do us a lot of good Imo…we’ve proven to be a lot better when we don’t have 65%+ possession every game.
Brighton will make us defend deeper, which will see us far more compact as a unit defensively leaving no crazy spaces for likes of Caicedo and Macallister to exploit.
It’s a bit more complex than that.
Playing against a football playing side doesn’t mean the task will be easier for us at the moment. It still means potential danger, but in another way.
We had 54% possession against Brighton at home a few months ago and still conceded 3 goals.
Although Arsenal had an interesting approach (but I mean, it’s not like you can control possession all the time, stuff happen on the pitch, there are two teams) a few games ago when they beat them 2-4 with 32% possession.
We’re now playing some wild games. Villa, Leicester, Brentford… all too wild. Brighton smells like it could be another similar.
Would be great not to concede the first goal for a change. We’ve conceded the first goal in 13 of our 27 games so far this season, terrible stat.
It won’t make it easier because we’ve made tough work of 90% of our games this season.
Against Brighton our defensive structure was actually fine for large parts believe it or not, unfortunately Trent had the worst game of his life and was largely to blame for every goal…whilst individual mistakes are of course classed as “awful defending” I don’t see it particularly as concerning as to when the whole team is dragged out of position like we’ve come to see a lot of in recent times.
We need to adopt a similar approach to what Arsenal did and make the most of the counter attacking moments that’s presented, Brighton have shipped a lot of goals under De Zerbi.
Game plan should be to sit deep…Keep Darwin and Salah on the half way line, extra protection for Trent and the midfield to keep almost within touching distance of each other.
He does bring a bit of life to our midfield and can tackle and beat players 
I’m going into this one with no expectations at all. If we get a draw or a win, I will be delighted but I just can’t see it as we seem so fragile at the moment. I had hoped we would start again after the world cup firing on all cylinders but all the other teams have carried on much as before so why would we be different.
Not what I meant. My bad
I’m going Hendo Keita Fab because there is at least a battle in that three. It’s love Thiago. I’d pay to watch him taking his bins out. But we need a midfield that is going to get stuck in.
It you prefer Thiago over Hendo, then I can live with that. But I just want to see Keita start.
Some stats from premier league games this year.
Tackles:
Thiago 31
Henderson 11
Fabinho 32
Interceptions:
Thiago 13
Henderson 9
Fabinho 16
Duels won & lost:
Thiago 77-51
Henderson 21-21
Fabinho 57-50
Successful 50-50s:
Thiago 13
Henderson 2
Fabinho 1
Thiago’s played about a game’s worth more minutes than Henderson and 3 less than Fabinho.
I’ve read elsewhere that so far our duel success rate is the lowest in the premier league currently. Whilst Thiago is certainly no Kante, he’s doing his fare share of dirty work. Henderson, Fabinho and Elliot are the ones phoning it in.
I wish the idea that Thiago is too fancy to get stuck in and do his own defensive work would go and die the death it deserves.
Alisson
Ramsay Gomez Konate Robbo
Trent Matip Thiago
Gakpo
Salah Nunez
Fuck it
I’d go back for a 4-2-3-1 if we have the players.
I think we should be working on being able to defend and not over commit at 2-1 up.
No need at this moment.
Why not playing Joe on RB and trend in midfield.
Because Klopp’s long been against that concept, he sees him as one of the best RBs in the world.
I think Thiago needs a rest but according to the last games stats he made 6 of our 8 successful tackle by our midfielders against Wolves, so therefore he is on current form our best battler
In the 4 - 2 defeat Brighton didn’t have Caicedo or Macallister playing
Would start with Keita, Bajcetic and Thiago. Fucking sick of Fabinho and Henderson doing absolutely nothing this season. At least Bajcetic will put a shift in.
Agreed
Wow never seen such strong words from you, I do agree with regards to Fab and Hendo since the World cup has dropped below the level required
But you wouldn’t play him in in a midfield that desperately short of midfielders?