He nearly scored bar a good block from Matip. Otherwise, very quiet, understandably to be fair
So he nearly scored except for how our CBs handled and dealt with him? That was kind of my point. Top level CF and we dealt with him even if some weren’t fully convinced with how we did it at all times.
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Yes Matip hardly won anything against him. People don’t like him that’s fine but hé is a better CF than we have.
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Er I dont quite get your point. He nearly scored. I dont see what else there is to say.
I’ve never rated Lukaku myself but he had a chance to win the game for Chelsea. That wasn’t a great moment from us at the time.
For a weird perspective I have decided to give you a Lovren
So a CB doing a good thing to stop a world class CF scoring with the only decent chance he got all game, limited to one decent chance all game because the two CBs did fantastic against someone who is a world class CF. I’m not sure why anyone would think anything other than Matip and VvD were absolutely brilliant in a game they were supposed to be all set to struggle in.
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I’ve never said they weren’t.
As a team we were not brilliant leading up to that moment. Even you’d be hard pushed to argue that.
personally I have no issue with the performances of Matip and VvD bar a couple of sloppy moments. You could actually say that about everyone in the team I think. I’m actually more concerned with what Mane was trying to do. Seemed like another game where he put a shed load of effort in but was at complete odds with everyone around him and even his own feet for what seemed the majority of the game.
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These guys are redundant.
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Agreed. Not just redundant now but have been for a few seasons or so which just increases the problem. Minamino fairly new but hasn’t delivered and already been out on loan.
These players need to be sold, replaced, upgraded on.
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Are we really going to judge the attack on 45 minutes against the best defensive side in the league playing with 9 men behind the ball this early in the season?
The only thing the attack needs is an additional option so that when Klopp turns to the bench he isn’t looking at players he clearly doesn’t think are up to it.
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How about moving Salah to the centre, Harvey to the right and Jota to the left. This way, you can leave both Mane and Firmino on the bench.
I mean, against teams with deep formation, Salah seems to be dragged far away from the goal too often even from last seasons.
How about waiting until our midfielders are fit and settled and seeing how our team performs then.
We ended last season excellently, we’ve started this one fairly well too. I don’t understand the panic I’m seeing everywhere, it really isn’t as bad as you think.
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The powers that be at Liverpool pushed their luck last season when it came to defence and it came back to bite them on the arse big time. I’m personally worried that it might happen again, this time with the attack. It might, it might not but I doubt that many sides will be able to defend like Chelsea yesterday, not just against Klopp’s boys but in general in PL. You’d be forgiven for mistaking them for a top Italian side/national team or Atletico Madrid.
A point at home early in the season against the reigning champion of Europe and one of the favourites to win the Premier League title is nothing to scoff at. I do think that people worry about what happens if the team suffers some injuries to attacking players or another dip in form in front of goal like the one from the start of this year. I don’t see Klopp suddenly turning Minamino into 2018 Firmino or Origi into 2020 Mane.
Since buying adequate cover is probably off the table for the time being, maybe Klopp will look to shuffle his pack and play a diamond in midfield from time to time against such sides, with two players up top?
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We had just three CB last season and that was really tempting fate.
Now I know very few will be encouraged by the presence of Origi and Takumi, but they are senior players with experiences of playing at the highest levels. Yes, we could have had signed another attacker but where’s the guarantee that he wouldn’t be injured or wouldn’t struggle too.
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I’d say the situations are quite similar actually.
3 top class options for 2 positions is stronger than 4 top class options for 3.
Fabinho and even Henderson dropping back into CB are comparable to using Ox, Elliott or Jones further forward. But the CB options are stronger options.
Origi and Minamino may in theory be better than what we thought we had in Phillips but Phillips did far better than what they’ve done for a long time if ever.
Williams vs Gordon is probably comparable although Williams was a bit older and more experienced.
This point last year it would have been ridiculous thinking VvD would get a career ending injury early doors to be quickly followed by Gomez so we shouldn’t be too complacent relying on Salah, Mane and Firmino, they’re all well overdue big injuries. Salah and Mane will at least miss a few games at the same time due to AFCON. We ended up needing to recruit in Jan last year, could be the same this one.
But most importantly this season is looking extremely competitive, we want the title back. 90+ points will almost certainly be required again. Going to have to be at full throttle all season to stand a chance.
Minamino and Origi just don’t seem worth being on the pitch. And no hope to us if they are due to injuries/absences. There is no point them being here. At the very least loan them out and loan players from Barca or something to help them lower their wage bill or something I don’t know, just something should have happened this summer and without it we are riding our luck once again when 90% of the squad is good enough to win the league. Be fucked up if another season is written off like last year just because we didn’t have perfect luck all season.
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Yet another game last night where we should have been out of sight after half an hour but were instead on tenterhooks until the very end.
While some will no doubt argue that our profligacy makes things more exciting, I’d prefer it if we actually took our chances and killed games off early- it would allow us to rotate in the second half, resting key players and giving youngsters and fringe players minutes, safe in the knowledge that the game is already won.
To this end, I have now switched from the Mbappé train to the Haaland one. Whilst I believe the former to be the better all-round player, the Norwegian is the more clinical finisher and we desperately need someone to stick the ball in the old onion bag.
We need to break the bank for this guy next summer.
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I’d be surprised if that was the case, regardless of what FSG feed to media. I expect some investment but I think that a transfer like Jota is more likely as Mbappes and Hallands of this world are out of club’s reach.
That said, I fully agree with you on the profligacy point. Lads should have been out of sight at half time against both Leeds and Milan - and we’re talking about two sides that play open, attacking football. When the likes of Crystal Palace come with their tight, counter-attacking approach, every chance will count.
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I 100% agree here.
Haaland is a monster and scores goals. Over the last 12 months I’ve been gradually accepting that Haaland is possibly better than Mbappe and I think that will come to pass.
Whoever gets Haaland next summer (please don’t let it be an English club if it’s not us) guarantees goals
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Next 3 to 4 weeks with games against Arsenal (twice), Brentford, Palace and Cardiff I am really concerned that we will struggle to score enough goals.
With Mo and Sadio gone.
Origi injured (lack of information).
We have Bobby, Diogo and Taki left.
Surely going to see Ox and Curtis in attack and maybe Gordon.
Still not sure how this is going to work.
Let’s assume they’re all fit while our African guys are missing, Origi might be back soon.
I think replacing Mo is the hardest part because of his specific role where he’s both our right wide forward and our main goalscorer. Nobody does that diagonal movement towards the central area and attacks the space and goal as well as him in our team.
The closest skills we have in our other players available is Jota. And Klopp actually used him quite a few times on the right side, when we went to 4-2-3-1.
All our other players are more of the combining type or not quite good enough in terms of quality. Origi has some pace but doesn’t use his tools consistently enough.
So… I think the logical move would be to have Bobby in his best role centrally and then Jota in Salah’s high right sided role. His weaker foot is good also. Just unleash him in that space where Salah does his damage and see what happens. Our dynamic on the right side probably wouldn’t change much and that’s what you want, not needing to change much at least stylistically.
In the other more deeper, left half space, we can rotate some of those more combining types; Chamberlain, Jones (but he might “win” our LCM spot while Thiago is out), Minamino, etc.
Of course, if we want more threat in behind from our central guy, we can have Jota or Origi up top.
The next solution is to possibly flip the system to 4-2-3-1 and have our best two remaining individuals (Bobby and Jota) playing together centrally, Bobby slightly behind Jota. Origi could also play up top being helped by a partner. And then rotate the likes of Ox, Hendo (though he will be more needed centrally as Thiago is out at the moment) and Jones (as well as probably Minamino) as players who can play on the sides of a midfield four.
That’s how I see it and those would be my main solutions.
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Without Mo it’s unlikely we’ll create as many chances or score as many goals so we need to concede fewer. I would like to see us become much more boring over the next 3 weeks or so. Defend deeper, focus on keeping clean sheets and taking the chances that do come our way.
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