Klopp’s talking about back to basics and being more compact.
Who knows what that means, also Darwin Nunez is very close so hopefully back.
He also can’t say anything about investment from outside. These journos are a bit thick.
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Ok, so no real wingers on the sides of the middle four, and more compact, so wouldn’t that make it a quasi-diamond 4-4-2?
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“I will take decisions, we will make changes. That makes sense.”
To be honest I’m only really interested in who is fit.
A narrower 4-4-2. The 4-diamond-2 is, again, different. More looking like a 4-3-3, with a deeper player than Firmino or Nunez. In a “normal” 4-4-2, someone like Gakpo or Jones on the left can play a bit higher than someone like Henderson on the right, par example. Asymetrical, whatever. How we call it is irrelevant, the key is that we become more balanced and then improve from there.
Reading between the lines, Nunez won’t play (or start) tomorrow, but then he should be back for Chelsea, with more training time until then.
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I couldn’t catch what the question was about Fábio Carvalho. Was he asking whether there had been a falling out or something?
Pearce just asked the question is there a particular reason he hasn’t been used since the City game, when he scored. Klopp said nothing special, nothing happened, his behaviour in training is good, just normal team selection.
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Klopp confirms changes will be made for this, fresh legs needed…Darwin is close but probably too soon for tomorrow (shouldn’t be near the squad even if he was 100%)
Says squad doesn’t need strengthening and says nothing to report on a takeover.
“Shouldn’t be too hard to play better than at Brighton.” God, that’s assuring.
Ok, it’s quite clear now what you mean with the narrower 4-4-2.
So then, what players would you put in that midfield (I assume the front 2 is Salah-Gakpo at this point), and why do you think that would work?
It’s not for every game now as we’re in a busy schedule with injuries and we also have to manage minutes, but…
Right now, I’d probably drop Fabinho for a game or two and see if Hendo & Thiago can recover some balance in a double-pivot.
Double-pivot is what I’d go for, as I don’t trust neither Fabinho nor Hendo currently to do the single pivot role well enough, with the “mess” in front of them.
On the sides, we can have variations, depending on form, fitness, opponent, partnerships.
The following bunch could all do a job in their own ways: Hendo, Gakpo, Jones, Elliott, Chamberlain, Keita, Carvalho, even Salah in some scenarios (or parts of certain games). If we go a little bit further, I could imagine Tsimi doing a decent job on the left in front of Robbo, but that’s lower on the list of solutions, one of the last. More than Trent on the right, I’d say. Even if that’s also possible.
Like we did it in 17/18, after that heavy Spurs loss at Wembley, we then went 4-4-2 with Chamberlain and Coutinho on the sides. They weren’t strict wingers, because Coutinho certainly never was that, but the structure change was one of the reasons why we then improved our balance and then after a month or so, when Mane came back from Africa (although that was also one of the worst Mane played for us, but that’s another topic, we could revert back to 4-3-3.
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Becker
TAA - Phillips - Konaté - Robertson
Henderson - Fabinho - Keita - Tiago - Doak
Salah
Meh, dont know who to pick as they’re all dogshit at the moment.
Going 5 across the middle as that seems to be the biggest problem this year.
Gone for Phillips over Gomez, as I just can’t trust Trent and Joe to be on the same side of the pitch as each other.
Nice example was Barca last night.
On the ball, they were a 4-3-3, but not with both wingers stuck out wide.
Dembele went higher and wider in front of Araujo, a CB at RB, so more conservative than Balde, a proper LB, who pushed up more to allow Gavi to play off the left inside channel more inside (sort of like Iniesta before, stylistically).
Off the ball?
Since Busquets is struggling a bit defensively, Barca defended (if Real broke their initial press from the front) in a nice, proper 4-5-1 (4-2-3-1 structure) middle block, Dembele (already showed brilliant discipline at the WC, defending to allow Mbappe more freedom on the opposite side) and Gavi putting in a shift on the sides, Pedri acting as the #10 behind Lewa.
They don’t have to be all in their best, ideal world scenario positions. But if you tweak the structure a little bit and have players working hard (a non negotiable), then it can work well. At least for a few games, a few weeks, a certain period. To bring back our principles, regardless how we call formations.
Wolves’ team news:
- Diego Costa is a doubt for the home side and Tuesday’s welcome of Liverpool may come too soon for the striker.
- Chiquinho, Pedro Neto, Boubacar Traore and Sasa Kalajdzic all miss out.
- Matheus Cunha may have to settle for a spot on the bench, so too might fellow January arrival Mario Lemina.
Agreed about the need for double pivot, as the only one who could do single pivot before is Fabinho, and he can’t do it right now.
Just thinking that Fabinho may be better than he currently shows, if in double pivot (with Thiago). It’s been often stated by many that even in his good days he has always been better in double pivot, with examples given (don’t really remember who was making an argument on that, and don’t know whether you agree, but after reading about it I was watching to verify and seemed legit). If not, then I’d still choose Bacjetic with Thiago, before I’d try the Thiago-Henderson double pivot.
So I’d rank the double pivot options as follows (not overall, but how it looks to me right now).
- Thiago-Fabinho
- Thiago-Bacjetic
- Thiago-Henderson
- Fabinho-Bacjetic (not ideal)
- Fabinho-Henderson (not preferable)
- Henderson-Bacjetic (avoidable)
For the sides of the midfield 4, well if you include Salah and Gakpo there, then who plays up front, where we’d need 2, and them being the only fit options there. So for me right now they are not options. Maybe Curtis if he’s on his best, for which there’s no evidence right now (he’s probably not even match fit). Not Ox for me, based on what I’ve seen so far, he means we’ll and for large part he even does well, but overall very underwhelming for me.
This leaves Elliot, Keita and Carvalho, and I’m not really sure either of them can do this role in a narrow 4, maybe Keita…
So maybe one of them along with whoever doesn’t make the double pivot from the 4 options above.
So probably, if I’d go with a Thiago-Fabinho double pivot, I’d have Henderson on the narrow right, and Keita on the narrow left in this formation.
Hendo had quality games as the single pivot in multiple seasons, it’s not that he can’t do it. But his recent performance there (Leicester) wasn’t good. That can all change again in the near future. As the forward options. We’ll have Nunez back for Chelsea, hopefully Bobby’s not too far, Jota should be back around start of February, etc.
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About Hendo, yes, that’s why I said “not overall, but right now”.
Very encouraging to hear we may have Nunez back for Chelsea, I hope it happens. And if so, then the narrow 4-4-2 with a double pivot would be an option, and in that case I’d have Nunez-Gakpo up front, Salah on a narrower right, Keita on a narrower left, and the aforementioned double pivot.
His comments from today made it sound there will be several changes.
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Yes I found the wording quite interesting, he will go as strong as possible but the fitness needs will be our first… gives him an easy out to drop players.
That’s seems to be what we’re recruiting to. We keep fucking buying number tens. Maybe we should play them.
Strong team
Alisson
Gomez Matip Konate Robbo
Fabinho Thiago
Elliott Gakpo Carvalho
Salah
Gomez Matip Konate Robbo
Fabinho Thiago
Elliott Gakpo Carvalho
Salah
You can make a few changes from that, but basically play a formation that suits the players. And under no fucking circumstance should we play Trent or Hendo after that shitshow. And make it clear that they aren’t rested. They are dropped. They can’t get away with that performance.