Club knew that we would be without Mané and Salah this month for a long time.
Club knows we will have to replace Origi soon.
Club surely knows for a long time that Origi won’t be available for the next few weeks. He’s been injured for more than two months already and never been available as a starter in when needed in the past.
Maybe a new attacker should have been presented on january 1st already.
Bobby, Diogo and Taki - love them all but there have been no signs of compatibility between them in the past.
Just the same mistakes all over again destroying what has been built/achieved in the last few years.
I think that current attacking issues largely reside with midfield - not enough urgency or creativity there, especially when Keita and Alcantara are unavailable, which is far too much for my liking. I think that this could be one area to strengthen in the summer but it will depend on Jones and Elliott.
Of course, some better attacking options than Firmino, Minamino and Origi wouldn’t go amiss. Minamino is a rich man’s Iago Aspas - far too lightweight for the league and the system probably doesn’t suit him. Firmino hasn’t been himself for a while. Origi is heading out anyway.
We need to use the wide areas better when teams sit in. It’s been an issue for a number of years now, we can’t only rely on overlapping full backs to provide in those areas, when teams are well organised like Arsenal or Chelsea they follow those runs and we struggle to get the space. Trent and Robertson, for all their quality in delivery, don’t pose much of a 1v1 threat (Robbo especially).
Neco provided some of our better moments in those last 15 minutes by gaining a yard on Tierney and getting a cross in. I still think there is room in the squad to bring in a couple of players who can do that to a high standard consistently, whether that be from full back (like Lamptey does for Brighton) from midfield or from a wide player.
As a short term fix while AFCON is on, I don’t know what the answer is. Would I be upset at seeing Tsimikas start on the left instead of Minamino? Probably not, he did well enough there in an admittedly odd situation against Tottenham. If nothing else we might get a decent corner put in.
I think it’s more than just one result in isolation. It’s our first game without the Afcon players and we fielded what in essence is our strongest team. We can argue Milner being in there and Ox or Jones coming in but that’s basically our team for the next 3 weeks without Salah, Mane and Keita and it was completely pedestrian and devoid of ideas.
It’s not unreasonable to look ahead to the January fixtures and be a little concerned.
I bet you weren’t saying that when he scored that last-gasp equalizer against Leicester a couple of weeks ago…
Seriously, look back at that situation, it was brilliant from him, and it’s not the first good goal he scored for us. As a squad player, he’s largely good enough for us, especially as he doesn’t injure himself often, and still has time to bulk up a little bit.
The problem is that he’ll never be a player of Mané’s, Mo’s, Jota’s or Bobby’s status. Whenever a pair of them are out and Divock is as always injured, we find ourselves short. He’s a bit leightweight, so when played with Bobby and Jota against a packed defence, we’ll lack punching power, something Divock would have offered yesterday night if only he had been fit.
In my book, it’s Divock the problem. He injures himself far too often and should be the first to make way, even though he’s an absolute quality player as we know. But his fitness betrays him time and time again. The club should cut lose now, in order to make place for someone who offers similar qualities, but is more reliable on that level.
100%, why Klopp persisted with basically 3 workmen midfielders against 10men sat in their box is beyond me. He needs to be bolder, get Milner off at halftime, he had had 20 minutes to make something happen already, wasting another 15 minutes of the same is baffling.
Yesterday is a prime example when we had 3 forwards who were pretty static and not going out wide, so get people on who will go wide, will beat a man, the more varied crosses into the box (high, low, cut backs etc.) Arsenal were quickly going into panic mode, the problem was it was 91 minutes on the clock.
Trent infuriates me, he’s our best crosser of the ball yet he stubbornly sticks to this next inside right midfield position trying to dictate play through the middle. Either instruction or him it needs to change, the lack of in-game tactical shift is lacking from both Klopp and the players.
Yesterday was crying out for Kostas, yet Robbo who has huffed and puffed all season stays the distance. He should be fined for every corner that hits the first man.
We clearly changed our tactical set up in the summer, it was designed for Thiago and Elliot really, players with very high technical ability and the feet and vision to draw a man then ping it fast to break the lines, fullbacks coming central, midfielders going wide etc. Yet both aren’t playing and we are asking Milner and Henderson to do the same job, when they are clearly not up for it. It’s a lack of pragmatism (or stubborness) to revert back to our old style of play until we get the right players back.
The only shining light was Jones, despite what some will say about him holding on to the ball for too long, at least he fucking runs at players and commit defenders rather than this tepid 2 touch laborious crab passing from our midfield.
I think the answer to our attack is currently in Africa but we were playing well last night until the sending off. They were pressing high up the pitch and leaving gaps. We had them at full stretch and I didn’t have any concerns then that we’d win and win well. No problem with our attacking play before the sending off. It was only when they went to 10 men that it exposed a lack of creativity in the midfield and bluntness up front. Also our set pieces have gone right off.
Playing Jota on the right is a waste of our best available striker. If it’s being done to accommodate Taki on the left then we need to get our priorities right. I’d rather have had Gordon on the right as it least he would have given us some width. The best thing you can say about Minamino is that he’s cheap.
Just thinking about this and it dawned on me the reason he was better last night was 2 fold. Firstly he was higher up the pitch than Trent and secondly he actually took Tierney on. That put Tierney on the back foot a little.
We were always going to dip a bit without Salah in particular but I wouldn’t advocate having someone coming in just to cover AFCoN. The decision attacking options was set at least a year ago. While you can’t predict the Origi injury I still feel that our front 3 last night should be enough and they are on paper but when our passing is as poor as it was last night we’re going nowhere.
Exactly, it was our first game without our Africans and against a good side.
We can sometimes struggle to break teams down even with our best side, let alone without some of our most important players. Have we forgot a lot of games when we were missing that final bit to break a team down?
I understand being a little bit concerned, I’m also probably more curious than concerned, but suddenly we needed to have a brand new signing on January 1st and our full backs are out of form? I don’t think so.
I think there might be a possibility that we are a little bit spoiled also (which is a compliment to this team of course).
We are not used to this, so we have to find a solutions or a few solutions.
I haven’t been convinced about Minamino since he arrived. He’s obviously a good lad and tries his hardest, but he hasn’t proved up to the standard we need, even as a back up. He has had plenty of chances, but hasn’t taken them.
I’d love him to prove me wrong, but I just don’t see it happening.
