25 Jan 2018 08:02:19
Let’s get something straight here “we need a couts replacement to breakdown defensive teams”

Couts was here for 5 years and I seem to remember us faltering against these types of teams on a regular basis with him in the side.

We need to replace him because he was quality but buying someone in won’t change these frustrating results alone, we need a new approach to these games and for more players with bravery to take it to these teams.

{Ed001's Note - finally someone who gets it!}

1.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 08:47:49
Well said 87red. I said the minute we lose or drew a game. Sly sports etc would be straight away saying oh it's cause they sold Coutinho! Absolutely tripe! as you say it's been our weakness for a few years. That was with coutinho in the team, with him taking 9 shots from 35 yards in those types of games, without him scoring. Funny they said can't say we didn't miss him based on 1 game v league best team. Yet they have a feel day based on 1 lose in a game we easily could have scored 3,4 and our gk stood and watched the whole game and had nothing to do!

2.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 08:47:55
I fully agree with using the word 'bravery'. Salah spent the last game making those short diagonal bursts of runs through the centre halves but for most of the game the midfielders weren't brave enough to try and find him. They have the ability to do it and have to try, maybe they will step up now, hopefully.

3.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 08:51:04
We don't have the midfield capable of doing what you are suggesting. If they run around a bit more it doesn't change the fact that they lack ability.

At 0-0 in games agains't a defensive set up 8 times out of 10 our midfield will offer zero going forward.

Couts far from did it all the time but he will bring more to the table this season (in 5 months) in goals and assists than all the other midfield put together in a whole season.

In 17 starts and 2 subs in the league and Champ league he has

12 goals
8 assists.

{Ed001's Note - they do have the ability and have shown they do, they have all shown they are capable of far more in big games.}

4.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 09:08:36
I agree with Mark to be honest, not a fan of Phil anymore after the way he left (I'm also not going to slag him) but my god did he play well for 4 or 5 months this season after his dummy throwing.

In my opinion, his form hugely contributed to our unbeaten run, not saying we'd have beaten Swansea if he played, just saying he brings more to the table offensively than Can/ Wijnaldum/ Oxlade Chamberlain who all were pretty poor on Monday, so he could have brought more chances or possibly even goals.

He does need replacing, not necessarily like for like but we do need another attack minded player coming from midfield.

5.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 09:17:02
yes agreed they have some ability or they wouldn't be playing premier league football. The big games are totally different styles of matches, we try to cancel them instead of the other way round (it is easier to do) . Some of our midfield are mentally weak, some just are not bright enough to understand what needs to change in a game.

Many of the defensive teams match us for work rate in midfield, we then don't have the extra quality to beak them down. Our midfield is not significantly better to make any difference.

This is just my opinion but in these matches we need a change of system if we can't get the required player in. I also favour Lovren with VVD and hope we will concede a lot less goals.

6.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 09:19:28
It's funny mark, because this season we have had a large number of high scoring results against very defensive teams without Coutinho.

7.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 09:34:35
But we won games with him.

No one is saying we won't win games now and we are not saying the fowards aren't decent. But we were a far better team with Courts in the team. Barcelona didn't pay £140m for Milner, Gini or Ox.

No one would take our 6 remaining midfield for £140m.

Hjikle it is about doing well in the Champs league and finishing in the top 4. It is undeniable that we would of had a much better chance with him. But his head was up his arse so he had to be sold. But now we on the ropes and need a top signing.

You should never ever sell your best or one of your very best players without a replacement.

8.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 09:47:45
You make perfect sense to me Mark, couldn't really agree more!

9.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 10:26:37
Spot on, 87red. I think it is the people spending their time reading media nonsense that come up with these one sided statements of Cou being the secret sauce for low block teams whereas he has been in the team countless times when we had dreadful results against them. And saying we don't have the ability to break down teams where as we have done a WAY better job of doing that this season, is also patently false as the numbers bear that out. We won, drew and lost games of this manner, with and w/ o Cou in the team and our boys have the ability to deliver in both these games and in big games under Klopp and one loss in 19 (w/ and w/ o) does NOT change any of that.

Mark, so we are on the ropes after one los in 19 games. Knee jerk much? You need to stop panicking really cos it is not good for your health. Also, you saying we are a better team with Cou in it this season is your opinion and is highly debatable and cos the numbers don't bear that out. Vs Burnley, WBA, Newcastle, Spurs, Cou was in those teams and he was poor and so was the whole team and was a liability in both the Spurs and Burnley games. Yes, we were good in other games where we played well w/ him and in others where we played VERY well (Arse and City) where he did NOT play at all.

Also, you seem to forget that Cou would not have even played the City or Swansea games cos he was injured and would have refused to play anyway if his threats came to pass. Pls, enough of the Cou fixation as it is a non issue and a non argument. We need a signing, yes IF we can get one and like it or not, Klopp will NOT buy a stop gap so you might as well get over it.

10.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 10:47:16
Well considering that pretty much every single top signing would be cup tied for the CL, no matter who we signed it would probably not affect our CL performance. And considering he was refusing to play for us again, keeping him probably wouldn't have affected either. And our squad has proven several times that yes he's a quality player, but we are capable of matching anyone without him. So what's your point? Are you complaining because we haven't magically come up with a non-cup tied world class midfielder who is willing to force his way out of his club? Or because the club decided that there was nothing to gain by refusing to collect a ridiculous transfer fee to be used as appropriate on a player who was disrupting the squad and didn't want to play for us anymore? Or both? Cause although LFC as an organisation pulls a lot of I genuinely can't see how the events of this window are really anyones fault but the one person that I've never seen you blame - Coutinho for going on strike for the second time this year.

11.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 11:08:07
BRover, he's not being fixated on Coutinho mate, he's referring to us being short of creativity from a Coutinho type of player in midfield if I'm not mistaken.

Look, Messi isn't at the races every game either is he and Barcelona have lost silly games too with him in the team, but the point is that players with Coutinho's type of ability give you a better chance, that's all, no more, no less.

12.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 11:25:11
hjikle - Coutinho would have left last Summer if we'd been able to bring in VVD and Keita / Lemar. None of these happened at the time and one may never.
Kllopp wanted them, FSG's men failed to deliver.
It's poor planning and the squad has been left short - again!

They've given Klopp back a disgruntled player and hoped he'd do a Suarez for his final year (without the bite) . I applaud them that they stood up to Barcelona but ultimately money talks.
Editors say VVD was't dependant on Coutinho's sale.
There may be no ritual exchange of bags of silver, but Liverpool's financial year ends May 31 and, unless a new signing does miraculously appear in the next week, the accounts are going to look healthier than the first team squad come then.
Draw your own conclusions at that.

13.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 11:45:33
My exact point the other day about us needing a plan b, well said 87. We are never going to replace Coutinho for the things he does. We need too add quality not replace Coutinho. And as I said the other day it’s the same talking point every time we play teams that sit back and it has been for a few seasons now. Different approach and bigger thoughts is another thing we need instead of going into every game with the opposition knowing 95% of how we are going to play.

14.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 11:51:25
Lallana, Wijnaldum, Henderson and Chamberlain have all scored over 5 goals in a single season in recent years, and they've all assisted about 30 goals EACH over the last 3 years of their careers. These aren't players without the ability to hurt opposition teams. These are players who too often, are forced into playing without the freedom to hurt opposition teams, and seem to lack confidence because of it.

Our problem stems entirely from the fact that we don't have anybody to cover the mass loss of form and injuries we're seeing (Hendo, Lallana and Gini), thus killing the balance to our midfield that was so good just 12 months ago. This could be resolved simply by signing a defensive midfielder mind you, because then we could change up the system to cover injury. The problem is, Klopp won't change as he believes in having a midfield 3 as fluid as his front 3. For that you need 3 very mobile, intelligent players who can attack, defend, have a good reading of the game, but most importantly you need players who move the ball quickly and then move to receive a pass.

As soon as you bring Can or Milner into our midfield, it hurts us purely because they don't suit our style of play. To be honest, even Lallana, Hendo and Wijnaldum on top form are still too lackadaisical to really get Klopp's philosophy going at full tilt and challenge for top honours. Ultimately though, this is why Can looks so inconsistent despite being a great midfielder, and why Milner looks absolutely awful, despite (once upon a time) being an okay central midfielder. They are both too slow and too rigid to play in a fluid midfield, and our options who do suit the system are all suffering from poor form or injury.

Milner and Can simply do not suit the way Klopp wants to play and to be fair, Keita will replace one of them most likely in the summer. The question is, who replaces the other, and why (seemingly) isn't it a priority this January?

Long term, the only midfielders on our books who i have confidence in are Ox and Keita, so i think it is far more important we correct that before we try and sign a back up left forward to replace Coutinho. Lemar is an excellent option for the left side of our midfield 3, and i pray that the rumours circulating are true. He can even play left wing too so he can actually replace Coutinho and Milner. Then we'd just need Keita in for Can in the summer and our midfield problems would be effectively resolved.

15.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 12:29:59
Still think we need one more in midfield MK, a physical player - tall and athletic.

16.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 12:46:11
Keita and Ox are very physical, wouldn't you say? I'm not massively bothered by height. As long as they are aggressive and add a bit of steel, height doesn't really matter to me. They will usually be competing for headers with attacking midfielders who are going to be about 5ft5-5ft10. Kante isn't tall and he's a monster.

I do get your point, but Keita is actually not that bad with his head anyway. With how high we play, our centre backs are the only players likely to need to win headers.

17.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 12:57:02
Juicer - now you're just making stuff up. There is no indication at any point that Coutinho wouldn't have left when he did had we signed other people. And frankly you can blame FSG as much as you want, but Klopp is the reason that we didn't sign VVD in the summer - no one else, FSG have actually rescued that one for us.

18.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 13:15:09
No mate, it was the numpty that prematurely put VVD's signing up on the Liverpool website that loused that up.

19.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 13:34:37
Hey MK,

I just prefer height myself for set pieces etc, read a stat somewhere recently that if you have 3 players over 6 foot, you are 40 - 50% less likely to concede from a set piece.

Many teams play with 3 CBs now, we don't, I personally have always liked that set up.

I just don't want to go back to conceding at every second corner/ free kick.

Keita might well be good at heading, but if he's up against Matic/ Pogba for example, he won't even get up high enough to win it.

20.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 15:45:45
You could tell we weren’t going to score against Swansea after about 15 minutes because we were failing to keep hold of the ball in their half an build any pressure. It was one pass forwards, 3 passes back. To win whose sort of games against a ultra defensive team you have to build pressure in their half, which we were incapable of doing.

21.) 25 Jan 2018
25 Jan 2018 15:51:07
To break teams down who park the bus we need a top class winger there is no one in the team that can dribble past a player we just try to pass it round them or through them.