We are fourth in the table and unbeaten since April 1st. I don’t want to sound complacent, but that’s hardly a crisis.
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Still have to evaluate the mistakes we do keep making and rectify them. Our gameplay vs Chelsea was average at times. The international break will give us some time for Klopp to rectify some small issues etc.
7 points from 9 pretty damn good all things considered
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Trent must be very careful and concentrated. He can’t give presents every match and needs to calm down and be careful with unnecessary bookings, I bet that after Newcastle away referees will look at his behaviour very carefully. I want to see him being mature, smart and cold blooded. He has the nasty habit to make decent oppostion wingers look like a mix between Ronaldo and Salah. I guess he will have a very tough afternoon against Diaby, another decent winger.
Watkins is a very strong and mobile forward. Virgil and Ibou are much more prepared to be physical against him. Matip and Gomez worry me.
McGinn, Kamara and Douglas are very solid foundation in midfield - hard working, pressing well and solid in both phases of the game /offensively and defensively/. I remember that last match we played against them. They totally dominated us from the start of the game for almost 45 minutes.
Our players need to step up from the first minute and win the battle in midfield. Trent and the central defenders must be very careful with Diaby and Watkins.
They have a lot of injuries to important players too - Ramsey, Martinez, Mings, Moreno, Buendia. Hopefully our attack will prevail over their defence, but it will be a very difficult match. By the way, I fully expect them to play 5 in defence /Cash, Diego Carlos, Konsa, Torres, Digne/.
I don’t expect many changes for us - TAA-Gomez-Matip-Robbo in defence not many options defensively :)/.
If Thiago is fit and ready, I’d play him behind McAlister and Szboszlai. Endo deos not look ready for the PL at this moment, it is strange, but with Endo out and Elliott in we looked much more solid defensively and Harvey’s pressing lead to our winner /by the way his pass to Nunez after 79 minutes was fabulous too. Darwin could not control the ball, very similar to the situation vs. Chelsea in the final minutes of that match/.
Salah, Nunez and Diaz will be my choice in attack, probably Jota instead of Nunez, but Diogo is really very good when we need something different after 60-65 minutes and he could be a prefect option from the bench. Gakpo’s changing position did no do him much favours, 3 matches and he is still not played in his best position for LFC - central forward. Playing as a left sided midfielder or a left winger is not his best position. I’d give Cody a little bit of rest and a different perspective from the bench.
Agree re the attack.
Everyone ahould be seeing lots of minutes in 23-24.
He got shoved in the back and threw the ball back on the pitch. After they tried to get him sent off he was incredibly mature and calm and didn’t respond to their best efforts to wind him up. Went on to have the best defensive stats on the pitch.
And he’s been winning battles against the best wingers in the world since he was 18.
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So we have
- League Cup
- Final qualifiers for European Competitions
- CL Draw on thursday
- deadline day on friday
- draw for EL and ECL
- JK pre match PK
all correct?
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For most of last season, including the start of this season he is not been at his best. That is why Klopp changed his position and helping him to some extent the manager sacificed Robbo’s attacking qualities, because he has to play as one of the three in defence.
TAA’s clearance during the first half yesterday was also a big mistake, giving the ball on a plate for Almiron, Alisson and the bar saved us. That clearance is not what you do playing a football at the highest level. I admit that yesterday he improved with time, but those two consecutive mistakes vs. Bournemouth /leading to two goals, lucklily one of them was offside/ and the mistakes vs. Newcastle are not what I expect from a world class player and Liverpool’s second skipper. And last season we saw too many of those mistakes too.
He needs to improve his defensive game and concetration and be calmer on the ptich, referees are targeting our players and he could have been easily be red carded for that naive first yellow card and his second foul against the rat face. For example Robbo is much calmer in those type of situatiuons, when opposition players try to provoke him. Something similar happened with Szoboszlai yesterday, Newcastle players tried to intimidate him several times, but he was disinterested in their mind games.
Does he? Surely the problem is the amount of defending he is doing. You wouldn’t expect Gerrard, Beckham or De Bruyne to do it, but we do with Trent.
He can’t possibly play in midfield, but we can play a player as (comparably) limited as Endo in there instead. Madness.
Anyway, Gomez and Nunez in for Van Dijk and Gakpo. They’ll exploit the spaces we leave but that Villa defence can’t contain Nunez. 2 or 3-1 to Liverpool.
No one was last season, and Trent was far from the worst
Was mainly because we had no midfield and also to play to his strengths as the best passer of the ball in world football
Robbo is calmer than Trent??
Wow, think I’ll leave it there
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So big Virg out, I see the FA found something to charge him with. Apparently telling an official, “I won the ball.” Is unprofessional conduct.
Nope … but telling them to fuck off and refusing to leave the pitch is.
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It’s worrying that, that isn’t seen by people (generally) as being unprofessional. Maybe in some ways we’ve come a long as as there was a time not too long ago where there would have been loud proclamations that cursing is a normal part of the game and shows the passion of the players.
My only issue is that by the time our ManU comes around, many of these efforts to curb bad player behaviour (kicking the ball away, cursing, time wasting, etc) will be forgotten and they will get away with all the “dark arts”…
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What I hear he said: a fucking joke something that could refer to the decision or to the ref. Pretty sure they will make it that he said it to the ref.
Not that know much about tactics but I think 3-4-3 is the way to go from now on. Basically a five-man defence and five-man attack with interlocking parts. Hard to get through and overwhelming in the opposition’s half.
So I’d go with the above line-up for this game with the exception of Jota. Nunez has to start. We need him to become our go to no.9 and not some over-priced super-sub.
We’ve struggled with bringing the ball out from the back at times. A fit Thiago will give better options to control pahses of the game.
That’s lovely, but is a fit Thiago on the horizon?
I don’t know what that is.
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A chimera
Thiago has played 96 minutes of football since 13 February 2023. 