I just saw this claim - unverified - that he was poor on the weekend. Anyone know how he is going at Swansea?
Still don’t think Klopp gets enough credit for managing 3rd place last season. I was at Luton watching the Swans on Saturday and Rhys Williams was hooked at half time, with the Swans 3-0 down and him having been run ragged. He’s even slower in the flesh than he appears on TV. Same Rhys Williams who played the majority of games during last season’s run in, as mentioned above. How on earth Klopp nursed them into 3rd with that defensive pairing of him and Phillips, I will never know.
Swansea were playing a 3-5-2 / 5-3-2 and were 3-0 down at HT, when Rhys, and two other Swansea players, were subbed off. I assume there were significant tactical changes made at HT (including a shape change to a back 4), and subsequently, Swansea did a mini Istanbul and finished the game 3-3.
More disturbing is the fact that Rhys was racially abused during the game.
Yeah I just watched the highlights and none of the goals had anything to do with Williams. Maybe his general play was poor but he wasn’t at fault for the goals. From that view it was probably more tactical than performance related.
Well said. If a central defender is being run ragged there is something wrong in front of them. Consider the mighty reds so far this season. We have conceded more than we would like. Definitely needs to tighten up. And there have been a good 3-4 games where our central defenders saw a lot more action than we expected, given the opposition and our expectations before the game. Run ragged? You could make that case on a few occasions.
So Rhys Williams is alright. We know the score. Came in and did a heroic job to help us get what we did out of a dog turn of a season last time. Beyond that, he’s a borderline Prem level defender, but as a young kid he’s growing his game and good luck to him.
Mind you, I can think of another high profile central defender who is slow, and often gets run ragged, and he cost £80M!
That £80m pound defender gets roasted regularly or skinned alive. Big difference between trying to cover 2 attackers all game and being in the wrong place, or just shite.
Probably not at the level we want to be looking I agree. Shame though, the lad has some ability.
