VVD has been poor this season so far. He had 1 game where I thought he was great but that’s it. Maybe that’s because he never knows what Konate is going to turn up (was good yesterday) and which full backs will be playing.
I don’t think he enjoys playing with Kerkez - you can see him asking Kerkez to talk to him all the time.
I didn’t think he was that bad yesterday, it felt like Neville was out to criticise him from the first minute for anything and everything. It was Konate who was deeper than the other 3 defenders for the first.
We’re playing with zero protection in midfield. That’s more concerning than the form of any of our defenders.
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Yeah I think Konate was better and VVD was fine yesterday. Fact there is zero cover doesn’t help. You always had that third player (CM usually) under Klopp and that’s gone a bit now.
Huh? He’s been our only good defender all season. Yesterday was the first game that he wasn’t babysitting Konate
Konate’s the one who’s been largely below level this season. If there was more quality competition, he would’ve been benched by now. Virgil’s been better for sure, prime example his Arsenal performance, when he was majestic. Yesterday though, yeah, that was one of his weaker days.
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I think Virgil’s biggest issue is that he doesn’t trust Kerkez. You can literally see him panicking when the ball goes into the channel and he doesn’t know if he should leave it for his left back or intervene
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One of our issues is that we’ve picked some very unusual choices at full back for the way we did our build up last season (knowing that there are other successful ways other than having Trent Alexander-Arnold to have a quality build up from deep).
We wanna do it differently this year? Fine, I’m yet to see what’s the idea. Because we already changed it a little bit (which is no problem, but together with our other issues so far, it hasn’t worked). Kerkez tucking in, Kerkez pushed higher and wider.
We believe the likes of Frimpong and Kerkez have what it takes to mould them into something different to what they did so far in their careers? Fine, I have my reservations about some of their skills and potential.
Back to Virgil, yeah, sometimes I feel sorry for him in these last years of his career at the top level that he has to “carry” a lot of things around him. As an isolated situation (football issues are not only solved by changing players), that defence does need help. More help.
I mentioned in game that Virg is brilliant 1 v 1 but his positioning at times and recover running isn’t always the best.
Apart from positioning I think he has to babysit Kerkez less than Robbo as Robbo got skinned too many times last season and although Kerkez can be rash, he is rarely beaten by a player 1 v 1
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In pre-season, that’s what I felt what we tried to do with Kerkez (tucking in more). Use him a little bit like Kyle Walker. Physical skills, recovery pace, extra security against counter-attacks, last ditch tackling (in which he can be really good at, but you don’t want to see so many tackles in the first place). In possession, play a simple game and put the odd cross from outside (and he can swerve some very dangerous balls without much preparation) when he finds himself in a position to do so.
Use Kerkez/Robbo as more tucking in options (releasing them a bit more if we have Wirtz in the left half space instead of Gakpo as a classic winger), to release the likes of Bradley (more underlap) and Frimpong (more overlap) on the opposite side.
I think the public generally saw him as a full back great going forward. I also think he was used differently at Bournemouth, more as a ‘classic’ full back, more up and down. It confused me what we were trying to achieve. Considering our other target/alternative to his signing was Hato.
From what I’ve seen so far, he’s pretty limited, especially in smaller spaces and close to the opposition box. And not very intelligent. A lot of aggression, energy, agility and at times a nice left foot. For certain things.
It’s like we decided to add two wild, pacy players around the older guys who we extended with, Kerkez close to Virgil and Frimpong close to Salah.
But that means nothing because it takes more than mobility and pace for everything to work. We’ll see how it all pans out.
This may have already been posted…
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It happened so often already this season that words on the outside don’t have much weight.
I don’t even care too much what they say or if they repeat the same Rafaesque “we must improve” things, because that’s not what’s going to fix it inside anyway.
It’s just media obligations.
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Yeah if he said anything else he’d be viewed as a looney
That handball was atrocious. So much that it looked like the opponent raised his arm! It was like when he already raised his arms before Sterling body checked him in 2018. You’re strong as a rock mate, don’t go asking for fouls that are not even fouls. Play until the whistle.
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Some lapses of concentration lately, weak reactions, little mistakes. Even if he’s able to handle playing a lot of football, I think it’s took it’s toll lately.