24 Feb 2017 08:51:40
Ed1 what's your take on the klopp era so far?

do you feel his signings have workerd/ not worked? And, going forward, what would you see as a good way to cure our defensive and goalkeeping frailty? Is a change of coaches required or another more defensively minded one needed in the background.

For me, klopp still has a few players to move on from Rodgers time. Who just don't seem to have stepped up as much as others. Some like lallana are a different class now.
I think the goal keeping coach must be a problem area. The club hasn't changed that as far as I'm aware. Too many keepers are failing with similar areas of their game. Same on the defensive side of the game. We just don't seem sure in what we need to do.

I think this summer will see another clear out like last year. Klopp will move on who doesn't fit. And maybe bring in 2-3 first team players to fill the gaps.

Sorry for the long post. Your wisdom is much appreciated :)

{Ed001's Note - it is too early to judge his signings really. So far they have mostly been successful, but they have not had time to settle in and show if they are just a flash in the pan or if they struggled to settle in the UK or whatever.

I don't see an issue with our defending that wouldn't go a long way to being cured with a change of goalkeeping coach. I like John Achterberg, he is a genuinely nice guy and I really hope he becomes a successful coach, but right now he is not doing a good job and needs, either replacing or someone over him running the coaching sessions.

The main problem with the defence is poor recruitment in the past. The club signed players unsuited to the role they are being asked to perform. Lovren panics too easily and is far too rash to be a ball playing defender, which is what he was signed to be. Clyne is positionally poor, being nice, and hopeless at marking, particularly in the air. He also lacks quality delivery on a regular basis and struggles with his passing, all things needed to play the attacking wingback role. Less said about leftbacks the better! Though, thankfully, Klopp has been able to get decent performances there out of a player who was signed for a central midfield role he is utterly unsuited to.

The signs have been good that recruitment has been improved, with players targeted to suit the roles Klopp wanted filled. He wanted pace up top and signed Mane. He wanted physical presence, workrate and the ability to get up and down the pitch with a decent range of passing so he added Wijnaldum. He wanted a calm presence at the back and picked up Matip. Only Karius was a questionable signing, but he has not had the chance to establish himself, partially due to injury, partially due to having had so little work to do in his first few games.}


1.) 24 Feb 2017
24 Feb 2017 11:30:24
The GK coach really is an odd situation, Achterberg has been at the club for 8 years now and is widely regarded (by fans anyway) as not being good enough, yet he has been kept on as GK coach by Hodgson, Dalglish, Rodgers and Klopp? Our last few GKs (first team and backups) have all shown the same problems, poor command of the area, poor at collecting crosses, poor decision making and poor communication.

Is it a case of him being a poor GK coach, are the above problems due to his poor coaching and if so how/ why is he still at the club, or are we just terrible at signing GKs, are we not able to see that they do not possess the ability to deal with / do the above and if so who is to blame?


2.) 24 Feb 2017
24 Feb 2017 11:38:00
Well said Ed.


3.) 24 Feb 2017
24 Feb 2017 12:52:05
Excellent appraisal, Ed. In the end, this is still BR's team and the mess he left still lingers on. Klopp has been very good for us overall tho, he has had his issues as well which he needs to face. The GK coach is a problem and needs to be fixed. We cannot expect our players to be improving if they are getting bad coaching, that's just a fact. I hope Klopp sees this and changes the GK coach cos right now, our GK's seem to be lacking the right coaching guidance they need to improve.

As for transfers, early signs show that Klopp has done a good job identifying players who fit his system, something BR had no clue about as all he did was throw stuff on the wall and see what sticks. It will take a while for him to move players who don't fit his style on and get in the players he wants. Till then, we go again vs LC on Monday.


4.) 24 Feb 2017
24 Feb 2017 14:56:33
Guys .

Stop blaming BR now. He has long gone now.

I don't like this attitude of laying blame on someone who is not here now.

So is the opposite true then? The others who are performing - Firminio, Coutiniho (he came when Benitez was in charge? ) Origi, Lallna, Milner.

So will he get credit due to the same logic?

The team is Klopp's now and he is responsible for the tactics, subs, team and the result.

Cheers.

{Ed001's Note - did you really just say that about Coutinho?}


5.) 24 Feb 2017
24 Feb 2017 15:20:50
Rafa must've signed Coutinho when he was about 14 then!


6.) 24 Feb 2017
24 Feb 2017 14:55:30
It's a mix of both Scarface. Mugs was terrible back in his good old days at Sunderland. He was never going to improve. Karius is pretty much on the same level atm with optimism and hindsight of him improving. The problem lies in our recruiting. I don't want us to target the DDG'd and Courtios but there are awful lot of good GK's around Europe. ( I can't name any maybe Begivoc for an example )

You just can't buy a pro and hand over to any coach to make him a Buffoon. It's simply a terrible idea.

Karius makes basic simple mistakes over and over again which is a worrying sign.

Not bashing player or coach but we don't prioritise GK's and Defenders as much as we splash money on attackers.
And out style of play means we should be brining world class defenders and excellent goal keepers.


7.) 24 Feb 2017
24 Feb 2017 14:58:28
Over the years the club has spend a truck load of money on attackers and hence we are strong in that front while our defence and GK's remains woeful and need to be coached? After spending over £300 million on transfers alone What are we left with? £9 mill Migs and £6mill Karius? It's all about priorities. If Klopp prioritise a good GK and 2 class defenders in summer, The club would make every effort to get them.

We always start the season with a dodgy defence and pay the price by the midway conceding goals up down and centre and this has been going on since ages. We have lost the title on two occasions courtesy of our awful defence.

We score goals for fun coz we have absolute quality up front while we concede goals for fun coz we have terrible players at the back.

Stop blaming others while the problem lies elsewhere.


8.) 24 Feb 2017
24 Feb 2017 16:26:14
I may be wrong, but what I think samikewell was getting at when they said "he came when Benitez was in charge? " Was more rhetorical to make a point that people don't give rodgers credit for some of the signings (like the ones previous stated as well as phil) and of course as he obviously didn't people say no rodgers signed him. a tool to accentuate his point and make people give credit he may or may not deserve. Then pointed towards when he says about "credit due" for these signings. Either way I do not think he was genuinely asking that. On the other hand the question may be so ridiculous and unbelievable that I myself can't believe it and have thus assumed suck such silliness not possible causing me to read into it too much. Bugger me who knows.


9.) 24 Feb 2017
24 Feb 2017 17:15:56
Ed1, who would you like to see coach our GKs? Frans Hoek?

{Ed001's Note - Xavi Valero.}


10.) 24 Feb 2017
24 Feb 2017 18:18:56
Klopp has brought in Karius as the kid is clearly talented so let's see what happens with him moving forward cos he will be no.1 next season, instead writing his obituary after 10 mealy games. If that was the standard for judging players, half the team would already be gone by now. NBTW, BR did good things BUT do not outweigh the bad, sorry to say. If he screwed up or succeeded in some shape or form, he should get the blame or credit respectively whether he's here or not.


11.) 25 Feb 2017
25 Feb 2017 11:22:56
Explain me Noah what at this moment are the glaring difference in qualities between Ward and Karius except the 10 PL games Karius played which has been again terrible? Tell me what was the need of buying another young gamble when you could have kept Ward as the second choice and brought a Class GK.
Please don't tell me we never had money. We spend £34 mill on Mane and £25 mill on Wijnaldum the same window.


12.) 25 Feb 2017
25 Feb 2017 12:19:07
Harry, Karius was rated one of the best GKs in the bundesleague last year. Ward is clearly talented but doesn't have anything like the same experience or proven performance at the top level.

Karius needs time to settle and prove himself, he may have made a couple of mistakes but you can't judge a guy's career after 10 games.

{Ed002's Note - He needs at least 3 years transition.}


13.) 25 Feb 2017
25 Feb 2017 13:02:58
Zimbo

Best rated GK don't go at £6 mill. Stop fooling around or stop bluffing. It was another gamble like Matip which has not worked well. Like the boss claimed he would need another 3 years of development. All moving round the same circles. Someone who does the basic errors every week cannot be rated as the best GK in Germany.


14.) 25 Feb 2017
25 Feb 2017 19:41:50
Harry, that is a false equivalence that has no basis in fact. If you can get good value for good money, is that not good business? If your theory was the case that quality players should cost stupid money, what is Matip doing here or is Matip not up to your liking as well? If that was the case, how did we get a young promising Xabi Alonso from Sociedad cos he definitely did not cost stupid money yet was/ is top class? I can keep going as it is that easy to destroy your simplistic thesis.

LC got Kante for 8.5m and how did that turn out? If you want Kante now, it's 50m, easy. Your god Rafa bought 70 players through out his LFC reign and prolly like 10 of them panned out? Great scout, Rafa is, eh? Karius is clearly talented and we have seen glimpses of it. If your expectation was for him to become Reina, DDG or Courtois (all who were awful when they first arrived) right from the off then, that's your luck as the rest of us live int he real world where GK's make mistakes.

Karius will be the starter whether we like it or not and BTW, there are no top class GK's out there anymore so saying we need to get one is stupid ans none are available. Karius is the guy and we support him. End of.