Don’t think we have to worry about playing the CL final this year 
so we get some proper rest this summer …
But why play Thiago there when we have no player looking for that vertical pass to get him on the ball, the only player that players that pass is Thiago and even he isn’t that good to pass to himself. It seemed more to stop them playing through Caicedo, which didn’t work as our press/covering was shocking and he had too many passing options
Aye, it didn’t work. However, when the choices were him, Hendo, or Elliott, a player who maybe needed to be kept out of the line of fire while more experienced players tried to implement a different system, you can see why he might have thought it was the way to go.
I think it illustrates one of the things that happens when you’re struggling. Whenever you make a change to address something that isnt working (a single pivot struggling to cover the amount of space we’re asking them to) you end up creating problems elsewhere with the change.
1 Like
It’s funny but the only bit of good play (very rare yesterday) happened when Thiago felt he had to drop deeper from the #10 spot and get us out in possession. Plus, some of his defending actions when we reverted back to 4-3-3 in the second half. The line cutting pass he played through the middle leading towards Salah’s overcomplication high on the right of Brighton’s goal, par example.
Thiago at the moment really does all he can, he’s one of the rare players there when you see him, you you see he’s the player with 24 medals in his career. He doesn’t play without mistakes, he can’t play without mistakes. But I hope he doesn’t get another injury now, because he’s needed everywhere and he really gives his all, I don’t feel like he plays with a handbrake on.
Quick question for any tactics bods out there but are we doing something different to last year which is causing our issues? I know there was talk of Lijnders implementing a new system that he used at NEC.
Fabinho VVD, Mo, Trent all look like shadows of their old selves. Is it a new system that’s causing them to struggle?
I hope not it was a disaster
I’m not one for criticisng back room staff because we don’t really know what goes on. Achterberg came in for a load of stick for not turning Mignolet and Karius into world beaters.
But it does seem like a lot of our whackier ideas this season have come from Ljinders, and I think it’s reasonable to say that given his work with NEC and his book (not that I paid any attention to either, but trusting what others have said).
He seems to be a bit of an extreme character with extreme ideas. Maybe he needs reigning in a bit.
4 Likes
Lots of comments have been made about how the positions the players are taking up are off, especially on the right. Mo too wide. Elliott standing in his shadow. Trent then having to fill the gaps inside them. The positions themselves arent unfamiliar. What is though is the lack of movement. It is supposed to a dynamic rotational thing, but far too often they’ve taken their position and then all stood still.
Is that the result of fatigue? Confusion on what is being asked of them?
2 Likes
There is nothing in that book which would suggest this season frankly, if you’ve listened to Klopp or Ljinders and watched our games you’d know pretty much everything in that book
Unless they are doing less Rondos, it was actually rather bland.
2 Likes
Age makes a huge difference, bar a few none standard examples most midfielders are in their prime from 24 to 28… An age range we have 2 players who are injury prone and now leaving in the summer for free.
With our current midfield it’s actually the perfect age ranges bar missing another in the “prime” age ranges.
Thiago - 31, Hendo - 32,
Fabinho -29, Oxlade - 29
Keita - 27
Jones - 21, Elliot - 19
Maybe thats why Arthur at 26 was signed, however keeping Milner alongside Hendo/Thiago and not signing a midfielder hitting his peak years was a big mistake.
Yeah but we know for a while now that Ox and Keita are not our prime midfielders. Maybe the door was always open for a sudden Keita period of availability and improved/more consistent form, but nah, it is how it is. The fact that Keita is the only one in between in terms of age is more of a fact how it is now, not something we planned to the tiniest detail. Thiago looks better now at the verge of 32 than Keita does at the verge of 28. Hendo looks better than Ox, being a few years older, etc. Bellingham looks better than some of our young talents. Modric still looks clearly better than someone like Camavinga.
We need to add more quality and fresh legs, that’s true.
1 Like
If it worked at a lower level, he wouldn’t be here…
1 Like
Martin Baturina - 19 year old at Dinamo Zagreb.
Nicolas Seiwald - 21 year old at Salzburg.
#15 tucked in deep as a LM, basically acting as a 4-4-2. it was commented on about 10days ago that his role was different of the traditional LW of Diaz/Mane we’re used to seeing.
Took me also about 5 minutes to see what are we exactly trying to do in possession and without possession.
In possession it was:
Alisson
Trent Matip Konate Robertson
Fabinho
Henderson Chamberlain
Thiago
Salah Gakpo
Trent Matip Konate Robertson
Fabinho
Henderson Chamberlain
Thiago
Salah Gakpo
Without possession it was:
Alisson
Konate Matip Robertson
Trent Henderson Fabinho Chamberlain
Thiago
Salah Gakpo
Konate Matip Robertson
Trent Henderson Fabinho Chamberlain
Thiago
Salah Gakpo
That was all in the first half. Second half we flipped back to our usual 4-3-3, but our performance was so poor that there wasn’t really enough difference.
1 Like
problem with those transitions is the lads couldn’t find each other on the pitch, weren’t able to see the passing lanes. Partly due to a decent press by Brighton but so many times I saw the ball collected whilst facing own goal and unable to make a turn or a quick lateral pass to open up space.
It was frustrating to watch. that lineup couldn’t score in a brothel with a pocket full of $100 bills.
I watched the Brighton game with an eye on how we pressed from the front. I’m probably guilty of some kind of confirmation bias, but to me it looked like the pressure on the defenders was absolutely none existent compared to the days of Firmino and Mane harrying the shit out the opposition backline.
I don’t care if we had prime Hendo, Gini and Fab in there on Saturday. We weren’t getting near the Brighton midfield, because by the time the Brighton midfield receive the ball they are in total control of it. It was the pressure from the front line that would create the 50/50s for the midfield to go and win.
The retire of Jota and Firmino will go a long way to sorting the out. We have got to get back to not allowing the defenders to pass the ball into midfield under no pressure.
2 Likes
Said that in the match thread. Seemed like they’d been instructed not to press. Not sure we fully appreciated how much Mane and Bobby protected our midfield over the past 5 years.
(Hope Jota and Bobby don’t retire though 
)
1 Like
We did it just really badly and without coordination making it too easy to play through. One of Klopp’s main complaints from his comments today was that we weren’t nearly compact enough (the defense line too deep) meaning the players trying to put pressure on the ball had too much space to cover.
2 Likes
It seemed we had 5 “front” players pressing - Oxlade, Gakpo, Salah, Thiago, Trent… Thiago was clearly told to stick to Caicedo, to little effect. This press wasn’t done quick enough or properly (i.e. cutting out the right passing lanes).
We still didn’t get to their fullbacks, nor stop the likes of Caicedo getting out of the press.
This meant Hendo was constantly out of position and then the space behind them was massive, so once that initial press was bypassed we were wide open.
One of the worst tactical set ups and implementation of Klopps time here.