Aside from agreeing with the general point that we could have done with a Centre Back, the choice of words here is fucking ridiculous.
You literally have no clue what led to the club not buying a centre back in the summer. I doubt very much the team that are the envy of the sport were guilty of ‘negligence, incompetence or arrogance’.
Pure hyperbole. It’s some like like there a competition amongst fans to be the angriest about something they don’t understand.
I get this, but does Mo help himself? He really needs to change his game up, it’s clear he’s getting zero help from the officials yet his default stance is to go tight, back into the defender and try and turn them.
He’s stopped running off the back also (that sneak run behind fullback and center back), all seems very very static in games, a lot of stood waiting which allows the defenders to cover him.
Too much is being made of the CB situation. Scoring goals wasn’t a problem until Christmas. Then we suddenly hit a wall and everything is attibuted to Henderson and Fabinho missing from the midfield.
We are not scoring because we are not doing basic stuff correctly like passing on time and on target, shooting with any accuracy or conviction, making runs off the ball. All tell tell signs of a team badly out of form. Having to play Henderson and Fabinho at the back isn’t helping but let’s not pretend that either of them is the creative force that is sorely lacking now. Henderson was in midfield for WBA and Newcastle and it wasn’t any better then than it is now.
Mo problem is that both Bobby and Mane are vastly under performing which is allowing teams to concentrate more on him.
It’s just the wrong decision all the time, fatigue of mind or fatigue of body who knows.
Have to say it’s got very tiring to watch, you kind of know what will happen.
Feels the other way to me. As if they were playing as 3 individuals. Plus you can see the confidence is shot. Everything is taking too long
Drop the 3 stooges and play Shaqiri, Origi and Minamino instead. 
I’m not sure it’s the confidence, but their heads have gone. I think they just look like they’re fucking sick of having to play different rules to everyone else, and I don’t blame them. If I had to deal with the shit they had to deal with I’d have probably packed it in by now. They are getting the shit kicked out of them every single game, dragged down in the box whenever they get in, and clean challenges for the ball are getting pulled back.
I would not be surprised to see Mo Salah want to get off this summer, if for no other reason than he’d quite like to be able to run around on a football pitch without two lads dangling off his fucking neck and the bellend with the whistle telling them it’s fine.
It probably doesn’t help but when I see the likes of TAA, Salah and so on holding the ball for too long instead the playing a past that they would have last season then it looks like they are over thinking the situation and playing safe. The problem with that is that it becomes a self perpetuating prophecy. You think a bit , lose the so you think a bit more next time, lose the ball etc.
Plus on numerous occasions they seem to be too busy to try to do it all by themselves.
Agree that Henderson and Fabinho aren’t creative forces in their own right, although they are pretty good at the floated pass over the top of the defence. But we didn’t become the best team in the world on the back of having top quality creativity in the midfield. We got there because the midfield helps suffocate the opposition. Snaps into tackles, presses like fuck and keeps teams hemmed in. Many of our victories in the last two seasons have come from simply wearing the opposition down. Replace Henderson and Fabinho with, effectively, Thiago and Shaqiri and the team has a completely different dynamic. Obviously it doesnt help that the front 3 don’t seem to be on speaking terms let alone the same wavelength at the moment but taking two midfielders who have been critical to our success and putting them in the back line is going to have a big impact.
Simple.
Buy a centre back and get that line pushed up
Get Fab and Hendo back in midfield. Fab creates the shield in front of the back four and allows fullbacks to bomb on again and Thiago to play higher, picking those lovely incisive passes. Hendo adds drive back to the middle of the park.
Give Firmino a break, he hasn’t had one for about four years. Play Minamino, Jota or Div if needs be but stop playing players who are woefully out of form.
Move the ball quicker. Everything has got so slow.
Don’t be afraid to shoot from outside the box. It’s not the high percentage play but it’ll stop the opposition camping on the 18 yard line.
Stop crossing the ball from deep into the heads of their centre backs unless we’ve attacked at pace and they are out of shape.
Mo’s (and Bobby as well) game has been figured out as well.
Amazing to think how many (myself included) were like “oh we gotta stop playing such a high line or else we’ll concede goals” in the beginning of the season. Now missing our two starting CBs has forced us to withdraw the line to an extent, and it has had the opposite effect of diminishing our attacking play.
Just goes to show how fine the margins are!
Yeah it’s a very delicately balanced system. The back line being pulled back forces the full backs and CM deeper. That drags Mane and Salah further back and wider. By pushing the line up the full backs go wide and further forward creating width and pushing Salah and Mane into those gaps between their CBs and FBs. The CM operates as a solid foundation doing all the work which allows Firmino to operate just in front of their CBs being a nuisance. Without that he gets pulled too deep and has too much ground to cover. I don’t think we can get the chemistry right for a false 9 set up with this deep a line. I’d play Shaqiri on the right and Salah at CF till we can get the line pushed up again. May be harsh on Firmino to drop him but it’s for the good of the team whilst 2 out of Hendo, Fabinho, Williams or Phillips are our CBs. Thiago, Gini and Keita or Jones as the CMs.
People do realise I hope that if you buy one centre back the likelihood is you still end up with Fabinho playing in the back 4 right?
Just throwing it out there.
I don’t think Fabinho is the problem. Stick him next to VvD, Gomez or Matip and you could still play that high line system. He’s faster than people realise and not awful in the air. It might be a bit rusty here and there with him and a new, quick, good-in-the-air CB but at least it would return us to the right system to get the best out of the rest. Henderson, Thiago plus one other (picked depending on form and what we are faced with opposition wise) in CM brings Henderson’s Drive and energy back there too.
All true, and no argument from me it’s just some were saying that we need both Henderson and Fabinho back in midfield.
I’m just trying to point out that it’s probably unlikely to happen this season thanks to injuries. He might even end up there permanently to be honest. He’s been that good there.
Gini deffo could do with a rest, Shaqiri wasn’t bad yesterday but we really need to consider the front line, the best it’s looked was against Palace but it’s done well at other times, it’s odd this shit kicked in the minute we lost Matip, hopefully he will be back on Thursday but for how long who knows, effectively we need to shoot a lot more… one too many passes for the ones in or around the box and hitting the first defender for the general crosses.
People mention that Mane thing at half time, I’d half expected him to have some what miscontrolled it gone wide passed it to Firmino who in turn would have lost it, because that’s what happened with all three of them at several times last night.
He might even see it as a route to locking down a Brazil spot.
Regardless of who we bring in, I can see VVD and Fab being our longterm CB partnership.