30 Nov 2016 15:55:14
Had the pleasure of going to the game last night, although we didn't play well, always a privilege to see our team.

That said, despite the win, we were not great for a large portion of the game. I personally put this down to us having only 2 forwards on the pitch, and can and wijnaldum having to run into the attacking area on the left, where coutinho and firmino might usually be. Too many central midfielders resulted in the play being all passing and no bite. This was vindicated by how much our tempo improved as soon as woodburn came onto the pitch for ejaria.

While the front line was simply a matter of team selection, defence was where we looked especially dodgy.

And my point for this post is that i do feel slightly worried should we pick up any long term injuries back there. People say mignolet is a good backup, but he was awful last night. He hasn't improved. I'd much rather see an average, everyman goalkeeper there, than someone who looks capable of conceding a goal with every interaction of the ball.

Moreno, was equally bad, again. Where people think he has improved recently, sorry, i just don't see it. He still has the worst drcision making of any footballer I've ever seen, and continually was caught out by leeds attack targeting his area. Any tackles he made were very last ditch and made me wince. Going forward, he is still just as ineffective and poor at decision making as before.

The other culprit is klavan, who seems to get worse every time i see him. Hopefully he just needs time to settle in and get a run of games but, i see too many shades of him being skrtel mark 2 at the moment. His positionig and movement defensively, yesterday, was particularly bad.

Other than that, i thought man of the match was for alexander arnold, thought he had a virtually flawless game at right back, really did look mature. Woodburn changed the game when he came on, and origi put in a great shift in a misfiring attack. Can was also monstrous in midfield, was really impressed with his dominant, physical play and runs forward, he really gave it a good go.

Hopefully firmino, lallana and studge are back for the weekend, and we can keep the good form going!

1.) 30 Nov 2016
30 Nov 2016 17:03:48
We had some luck yesterday on the process and we weren't great as some people are claiming in the page from morning.
I hope before I am taken to graveyard this page will understand what a CM should be to a team. If I die before Ed01, make sure you put up an article of different types of CM's.

The passing of sideways is an indication of lack of vision in your midfield to spot a run ahead or movement ahead.

{Ed001's Note - or it could be an indication of there not being a better option ahead of the player. Or it could be an instruction from the manager. Or it could be that the team have a lead and the player looks to play safe by keeping possession. Or it might be an attempt to draw out players to create space. There are many reasons for a sideways pass.}

2.) 30 Nov 2016
30 Nov 2016 17:09:32
There could be more Ed01. But I don't think that's the case with us. We had 75% of possession in the first half. Leeds were sitting like a duck in their own 6 yard box.

{Ed001's Note - exactly. So they had compressed the space by sitting deep, one of the things the great Liverpool sides did in that situation was pass the ball sideways constantly. You need to go back and watch old footage, we played as many back passes to the keeper as we did forward passes. It was all about drawing out the opposition. You play it sideways to tempt someone to leave their position to make a challenge when they are sitting deep. If someone does get tempted out, then there is a gap to exploit.}

3.) 30 Nov 2016
30 Nov 2016 17:15:00
Wooly, I agree with your post overall but you have to contextualize the game for what it was. Leeds are 5th in the table and a very good team, as we saw last night.

We had 8 changes to the team from the one vs Sunderland as well. This will definitely lead to a drop off in cohesion, team chemistry and overall, and team performance overall. With these in mind, I can understand why we were not as fluid.

One thing to also remember and this is critical, is that, we are not at our best right now and we are literally walking wounded with knock, and niggling injuries all around the squad with origin literally limping through the last 15 mins of the game yet came up with a goal and more than involved in the second.

This shows the mental strength and steel klopp has given this team to battle hard even if all is not going your way and we did that. I just hope we will have Lallana back next week, Mane well rested and back in form vs Bournmouth, Firmino and Studge back this week as well as hope Origi can shake off his knock because they kicked that boy from pillar to post last night.

4.) 30 Nov 2016
30 Nov 2016 17:45:57
Why do people keep saying that Woodburn changed the game? He did well, and scored a good goal, but he did very little apart from that, and on a couple of occasions he went backwards when there was something on. I'm not slating him, because the boy is 17, but can we stop saying that he should challenge for Coutinho's spot as well, it stinks of overreaction, and putting way too much pressure on him.

5.) 30 Nov 2016
30 Nov 2016 18:18:50
Harry, "The passing of sideways is an indication of lack of vision in your midfield to spot a run ahead or movement ahead. ". Clearly, you never played in midfield because if you did, you wouldn`t post a ridiculous comment like that.

6.) 30 Nov 2016
30 Nov 2016 18:40:53
It wasnt reallt a criticism of the team going forward hamilton red, if anything i agree with you. The team was drastically changed and due to injuries it ended up being unbalanced and incohesive. Klopp saw what was wrong, changed it, and we won the game.

As for some of the players at the back though, their performance was not a matter of no cohesion, just being their usual selves. The point is that if we get long lay offs to karius, milner, or matip, we're basically screwed, judging by their performances last night.

7.) 30 Nov 2016
30 Nov 2016 18:57:36
And they did not home out from their position whole first half and we went to the break 0-0.

Hamilton
Happy to know you have been playing in the midfield well.

8.) 30 Nov 2016
30 Nov 2016 20:13:32
Good to know that you avoided responding the your own quote and explaining it so, I will help you explain your own quote. Whether they came out of their positions or not, is irrelevant. Your quote if taken seriously, means that any midfielder who passes sideways, lacks vision is still appallingly unintelligent. So does that mean midfielders like Xavi, Iniesta, Pep and the other maestros of Barcelona who practiced Tiki-Taka (the ultimate sideways passing system) lack vision as well? So did Zidane lack vision as well whenever he passed sideways (which was a lot) vs teams who parked the bus? Ed already explained this to you but you still go on down this rabbit hole for reasons best known to you. You keep passing the ball around as a team to keep possession, move the opposition block around so as to find the right openings/ pockets of space to score. More talented teams play this way all the time but when it`s LFC to you, the midfielders lack vision. Always trashing our players when you whenever it`s covenient for you. Utter nonsense. I stand by my statement. You`ve never played the game nor in midfield because if you did like I did, you would not have made that quote.

9.) 30 Nov 2016
30 Nov 2016 20:17:33
Wooly, your point is taken but I just believe that the situation and the circumstances we were in must be taken into context before drawing such a conclusion. We do agree that we cannot be our best all the time so you have to consider and respect that fact. Let`s just enjoy the win, give the boys credit for fighting hard through some adversity and then hope the injury situation clears up instead worrying about things that have not happened or may not happen.

10.) 30 Nov 2016
30 Nov 2016 21:28:36
Hamilton

Mate I am pretty sure you know better than me. But Xavi was arguably the best Controller in the modern era.
Relentless passing of only sideways is not a great sign of a top CM according to me at least.
Luka Modric is currently the best player in that position.
Passing sideways also means leaving the responsibilities to someone else and staying safe from the action.

Everyone pass to sideways.

11.) 01 Dec 2016
01 Dec 2016 17:18:15
Harry, stop being an imbecile and just accept that your original criticism of sideways passing was just wrong! I can't be bothered to explain again why its wrong as you seem to not understand Ed001, Hamilton or the countless others who have pointed it out.

Its like banging one's head against a brick wall sometimes with you! Scratch that, most of the time!