28 Jan 2018 13:21:23
How will Keita/ Lemar or whoever you're begging for stop calamitous midfielder team mates next season?
Players who leave massive gaps right in front of and expose our defence time and time again?

This is our best front 3 we've had in a few years (2 when Mane takes a day off like yesterday) but our worst midfield since Souness was manager, remember those Mike Marsh, Paul Stewart and Michael Thomas days to name but a few?!
Not to mention the man mountain of flesh himself Jan Molby (Great player when not too fat to jog) .

How can we expect our defence to improve when they're exposed all the time by inept midfield players like Wijnaldum, I'm sorry, I've said it, he's not good enough and inept in midfield at best.

Can has proven me completely wrong and has fully regressed recently, I was actually relieved when Henderson and Milner came on to my surprise.
I like Milner but he's not a CM for me. Henderson not good enough recently but looked good last night.

Mignolet was not to blame for the goals but VAR saved his bacon with the 1st offside goal.
At 6 foot 4, why is he not dominating his 18 yard box, he couldn't even get 2 yards off his line for that set piece.

He will argue Barry blocked him off, fair enough, so move forward another yard so your starting position is further out .
The chances of the corner going directly in are minimal .
The missed punch was hilarious, I think it's fair to say his sporting career won't extend into Boxing later in life!

This guy has a degree in University apparently, I wish he'd show some brain power on the football field.

1.) 28 Jan 2018
28 Jan 2018 13:28:26
Once again another great post, I couldn't agree more with everything you have said mate.

2.) 28 Jan 2018
28 Jan 2018 13:43:40
Totally agree. That missed punch when all 6 of their players were offside was amateurish and in all honesty embarrassing. Cannont belive how mignolet maintains to be our first goal keeper for 4 years.

3.) 28 Jan 2018
28 Jan 2018 14:16:13
Olrish Your about 2 years behind on your Mignolet assesment.

9 months behind on Can

4 months behind on Gini

In 3 months you will tell us Matip can't defend. You are just now saying what the rest of us have been saying all season and last season re Mignolet.

4.) 28 Jan 2018
28 Jan 2018 14:22:56
Couldn't agree more.

As far as I'm concerned, there's only one decent central midfielder at this club and it's Jordan Henderson. Within five minutes of coming on yesterday he'd played more forward passes from the 'pivot' position than Can and Wijnaldum had put together in their previous two matches. He's not great defensively, but he makes a better fist of it than anyone else we have and the stick he's gotten has been over the top.

Can's a raw player who has ability and with time could become very good. Except we've been saying that for 4 seasons and 150 appearances. He hasn't advanced as a footballer at all and at this stage, I don't think he will. You see him playing a good pass, outmuscling an opponent, or injecting a bit of pace into the attack with a quick one two and think there's a quality player in there, but in between those fleeting moments, he's sluggish, poorly positioned, wimps out of tackles and takes four touches to play a pass that Henderson (or Lucas when he was here) would've played in one or two.

I give up on Wijnaldum completely. He's a coward. He went missing every other game last season, this season he's gone missing at a rate of about 4 games in 5. Doesn't tackle. Doesn't look for the ball. And when he does get it he does nothing with it. And it frustrates because the few times he has stepped up to the mark he's actually shown himself to be a good player.

Milner and Ox aren't really central midfielders and I'd be very concerned about their positioning and defensive contribution, but at least they put a shift in.

We need three central midfielders, imo. Keita's one. We need two more after that, at least one of whom is good defensively, and the other at least has to have the capacity to make a tackle. I get that Klopp doesn't want to play with a pure defensive midfielder sitting 8 yards in front of the back 4, and that's fine, but the midfielders we have still need to be able to do a bit of defending, even if they're not 'defensive' midfielders. They have to be able to tackle a player who's trying to dribble past them, and they have to see an opposition player making a run and go with him. Most of our current crop just don't do either of those things.

Remember when we had Mascher, Alonso, Gerrard and Lucas? We all know that Gerrard wasn't asked to defend much, and was the weakest defensively anyway, but he could at least put a tackle in when he needed to, and if he happened to be between an opposition player with the ball and his own goal, you can be certain that player had a harder time getting past him than anyone has getting past Can or Gini.

5.) 28 Jan 2018
28 Jan 2018 14:45:35
Great post Something Red, my thoughts exactly.

6.) 28 Jan 2018
28 Jan 2018 15:13:48
Thanks Salah and Jomil.

Mark, are you stalking me or something mate?
I've always said Mignolet was woeful.
This was my assessment of his effort last night mate.
Always wondered what Wijnaldum brought to us, from the second he was bought but guess what mate, I supported him all the time unlike some.
Emre Can, I admitted I called him wrong, still think he's a fine player but something isn't right.

Been posting here for many, many years Mark, probably close to a decade now and have always been prepared to argue or discuss differences of opinion with fellow posters or editors, but you strike me as the type who is never wrong mate, my advice is to ignore my posts going forward mate as I don't converse with "know alls" fella - Cheers!

{Ed001's Note - don't converse with know alls? You have talked with me many times you fibber!}

7.) 28 Jan 2018
28 Jan 2018 15:14:42
Always enjoy your posts Something Red, nice job mate!

8.) 28 Jan 2018
28 Jan 2018 15:48:42
Emre Can is avoiding injury for the World Cup and his next move, so you won’t see him put a shift in.

9.) 28 Jan 2018
28 Jan 2018 17:23:48
To be fair Ed001, I'd probably talk about Liverpool to a deaf giraffe mate :)

{Ed001's Note - sorry, what did you say?}

10.) 28 Jan 2018
28 Jan 2018 17:30:09
Totally agree Something Red, a really good post.

11.) 28 Jan 2018
28 Jan 2018 19:03:07
Our midfield has been letting poor teams walk through it since long before Klopp.
He has done nothing to address this either.

He needs to take the hint which has been 5 years in the making and adapt his midfield tactics.
His teams need a player to sit in front of the back 4 and STAY there. Not chasing into the opposition penalty box or getting involved in “the press”. We need a defensive midfielder to take the next step. It’s not a case of personnel, this is a tactical flaw which is continuously exposed.

12.) 28 Jan 2018
28 Jan 2018 19:13:27
Disagree Ron.

Imo, you don't need to have someone babysit the back 4 as long your midfielders aren't all running ahead of the ball like headless chickens, can put in a tackle once in a while, and if they see someone running past them, go after them instead of standing around looking.

If Can or Gini never strayed more 5 yards from the center backs, our defence would still be exposed because neither of them tackle, or track runners. It's not a tactical issue, it's a case that apart from Henderson, none of our midfielders are anywhere near the standard we need.

13.) 29 Jan 2018
29 Jan 2018 09:50:21
I think the truth is probably somewhere in between our 2 opinions 🤝.