I’m loath to think that any player of ours is completely burnt out beyond hope, but I feel like he’s probably the closest to that if anyone is.
In my mind, the stakes in this game are lower, so I’d rather start Bajcetic there in this game, and get him that valuable experience playing in such a crucial position for us.
Of course.
And Klopp when he speaks you’d think that it’s all bad luck.
I think there must be also something in our way or working (which has also proved successful more often than not) + bad luck which is always a factor.
We were quite healthy in some of our best seasons, certainly plays a part.
We absolutely need to sort out the sporting director role and what holes we have in the medical department before next pre-season.
All the new investment/owners thing can still be ongoing, but those two roles need sorting as soon as best possible.
If he is fit again I agree.
In fact if Bajectic is fit it wouldn’t be a bad idea to use him a lot more especially if reinforcements aren’t coming. Learning from some around him who aren’t bad players after all, just playing badly wouldn’t hurt him.
100% there are multiple reports showing that league postion directly correlates to player staying fit.
I’d imagine the likes Keita has no muscle mass left in his legs due to so much training being missed, it’s not wonder he is only being used sparingly.
My guess is it’s the nature of the injuries perhaps? Often we don’t get told that much detail, but for example, in the recent game when I think it was Robertson (or Milner?) and Elliott who got taken off due to minor injuries, at least the first of which came in a minor clash between the two in warm-up. It could be that the injuries we’ve seen have come from incidents like Jones getting poked in the eye that you just don’t think are systemic in nature.
The main problem with such suppositions is that we have no way of proving the counterfactual. What if we did what City did, and ended up with more injuries instead because the bodies weren’t ready to take on the load we had this season?
Yeah.
I think it’s okay from us fans to expect that with time, we can both maintain our principles of work, but also come to a balanced point of not losing players so much through injuries.
I’m sure they’re working on it, I don’t doubt it, but we need to come to that point, because this is way too wild the way we can’t field our best XI (at least on paper) more often than we do.
We also can’t keep this tempo of having a terrible season with injuries, to a good one, then another bad one.
Of course, easier said than done. A lot of injuries from the past leave a mark for the future, there’s accumulation, etc. And you can’t possibly buy 20 new players and start from zero.
Think he was back in training last week? I certainly remember something in the press conference about that I think.
On a separate note, I’m wondering if Doak might be in for a start here. Given all the other issues we’ve had, it would probably be prudent to give him that extra game time too, although that will probably be balanced against how many other changes we’re making.
I’m not sure Jürgen will be too keen on making wholesale changes to a team that desperately needs it all to click together, but at the same time if fitness is an issue…
Definitely would not like to be in his shoes right now.
Yeah, I don’t actually expect Klopp to come out and say or go into detail what we did wrong. Some injuries are pure bad luck, especially when they’re on the pitch and in contact with another player. But I also think it’s not all luck.
Up to us to find a good balance between people upstairs (Ward leaving) and people on the pitch, coupled with what we have to solve in the medical department soon. That was after Klopp’s factor as an individual possibly our biggest strength.
Yes, I agree with all that, makes much sense to me. My main reason of suggesting a 3-5-2 besides the issues it addresses, is that due to our lack of senior forwards we don’t have the right players to play with 3 or 4 genuine attackers, in a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2, because then at least one, often two, forward positions will suffer and in a domino effect will affect the other forward positions too.
Missing 4 attacking players is just making those two formations impossible right now.
Out only fit senior forwards right now are Salah and Gakpo.
In a 4-3-3, if we play both in their natural position, Gakpo left and Salah right, we have no striker (anyone played there will simply not deliver).
If we move any of the two centrally, one wing becomes a non-danger zone (with either Ox playing left or Elliot played right), which in consequence makes Gakpo/Salah centrally much more difficult to work.
I’d like to see the 4-4-2 you’re suggesting with the current choice of available players. I think it will have a problem.
That’s why I think under the circumstances, a 3-5-2 uses the available players we have at the moment in the best way. Width is taken by wingbacks, two strikers that are actually strikers, and at the back everyone fits too.
So I’m not suggesting it because I think Klopp would prefer it or because it’s tactically more sound in general, or anything in that direction, I’m suggesting it because it’s the formation that uses the players we have available in the most sensible way. Whether Klopp will be able to make it work (let alone go there in first place), no idea.
Is the press conference later?
It is, 1:30pm UK time.
Going to try and shake the negativity off and approach this with an open mind… changes would be required from the weekend even if it wasn’t such a shit show. But a chance now for others to show they should be starting in the prem. I think the best we’ve played this season is when we switch to 4-4-2 before the World Cup, seems to have been abandoned now, although not entirely sure what formation we have been playing in the last couple games. Anyway, I would go back to that.
---------------Alison--------------
TAA—Gomz—Konate—Robbo
Elliot—Keita–Thiago----Jones
-----------Bobby-Nunez----------
This is what I’d like to see, but if Bobby and Nunez can’t start, then I guess it will have to be Salah and Gakpo again. Or maybe throw Carvalho or Doak up there.
I don’t envy Klopp right now.
Not really for the match thread, but I think we failed to evolve. To me, we are basically playing the same system when we have lost so many key pieces over the years. Wijnaldum and Mane has left. Firmino and Henderson has got older. Just these four players alone used to cover so much ground, harassed the opponents so much. Even Trent and Robertson are showing signs of fatigue.
I feel with our present squad, and specially in their present state, we would be better off playing counter attacking game.
Our midfield is the main problem, Fabinho is just like a 38 year old, Henderson can still run for about one hour but watching him on Saturday he seems drained of confidence afraid to pass forwards in case he gave it away. Playing 3 up top is a waste as we are not able to give them proper service so i think 442 is what we need. Without Nunez forward runs v Brighton we looked awful so i hope he will return 
Do you think they will move the Chelsea game to that weekend if we lose to Wolves?
Probably a good reason to beat them in a way, I don’t want Klopp taking them on another warm weather break 
I’m still in shock as to how completely abject we were on Saturday. Bench the lot of them and play the kids.
Can the heading be changed - the match is on Tuesday this week not Wednesday. Agree with your line up, might as well start a lot of the youngsters as they can’t be any worse then the crap we’ve seen recently.
We can moot a change in formation until the cows come home, it will make no difference if we continue playing a high line with midfielders who can’t move and a forward line that doesn’t press even half as well as it used to.
If you look at the average positions from the Brighton game, it was something akin to 3 at the back. The problem was the 7 in front of the 3 had absolutely no idea where they were supposed to be, and the defensive 3 used made zero sense.
First half, when Brighton started their build up, we defended in a 3-4-1-2 and in possession we were a 4-diamond-2. It’s not the first time we defended in such a structure (either Trent or Robbo staying back to form more of a ‘3’, par example in the final in Paris we did the same, but obviously with another attacker instead of Thiago who was the #10 here).
I agree, regardless of the formation, we need to do much, much better. Flipping to more of a 4-4-2 now, as we also have few forwards fit, could help us. In that case we don’t need to necessarily have “Beckham & Giggs” on the sides of a midfield ‘4’, but just make the team more compact and more connected for a start. We did it a few times under Klopp when we were in a bad run of games.