04 Sep 2018 11:24:39
Grrrr I hate international breaks. Imagine as a coaching team, meticulously preparing and planning your team's fitness, performance levels and psychological focus for a big season only to lose most of your players to meaningless international games for 2 weeks. I could perhaps understand it if it was after at least 10 league games had been played and the squads are getting to full fitness/ rhythm but after 4? What a farce!

Nevertheless, 4 wins from the first 4. I'll take that, especially with those two potential banana skins being Palace and Leicester away in there. Being positive we've won these without playing well (something we've not been able to do in the past), Joe Gomez is finally showing his ability at RCB now that he is fully fit, Alisson looks to have a massive presence in goal, the front-three are all off the mark even without them being at the top of their game and we've still yet to see the full array of the talents of Fabinho and Keita in the first XI. Very pleased with the start and not quite sure why there are any negative posts at all as points on the board during the stop-start nature (due to these two early international breaks) of the first 10 PL games is vital for a title challenge!

1.) 04 Sep 2018
04 Sep 2018 11:45:36
I actually think that for once, the international break might be coming at a good time for us. Often they’ve come around when we’ve started to hit firm, this time it’s come around when our form is actually dipping, the way we’ve played the last 2 games I wouldn’t be overly confident of a trip to spurs. This time the break might just hit the reset button and allow the lads to start a fresh with a new rhythm.

2.) 04 Sep 2018
04 Sep 2018 15:38:11
Always nervous about injuries during international break.
Seems like Lallana is injured once again. Hopefully not too serious and most importantly no more injuries.

3.) 04 Sep 2018
04 Sep 2018 17:47:23
When is he not injured.

4.) 04 Sep 2018
04 Sep 2018 18:13:18
Lfc_hopeful is on the money. We have been poor in the second half of the past two games and that trend will not even get you a point at Spurs. Now, players like Milner can get some time off to rest his legs and allow Klopp and his crew to analyse games and get fresh ideas to implement.

5.) 04 Sep 2018
04 Sep 2018 18:50:50
I hate the window too, especially after world cup year. But actually, the dates have been know forever, so if a coach is meticulously planning but misses out that there is a 2 week break after round 4, then perhaps they need to relearn what meticulous means.

Also reflecting on it, I think the breaks are handy at certain points. Imagine just playing week-in week-out for 40-50 weeks. Whilst they're not "clean" breaks, I think the mental break is good and helps set the season up in chunks tht coaches can plan for.

6.) 04 Sep 2018
04 Sep 2018 19:09:59
Hey we are top of the league. I'm happy. I honestly think we can stay there all season. City may regret that draw with wolves. I also think they are a lot weaker without kdb.

7.) 04 Sep 2018
04 Sep 2018 20:12:55
Hopeful and BRover did you not see Spurs on Sunday? I think they should be more worried about us regardless of international breaks or our form in the last two games.

8.) 05 Sep 2018
05 Sep 2018 13:35:53
Most impressive thing is that despite not being in fantastic form the last 2 games, our chances created vs chances conceded still looks good based just on what I’ve seen from the games.

Leicester we could have scored another 2-3 goals quite easily, but apart from Alissons glitch (which they scored from) and a great block from Gomez, they didn’t have a huge amount of fantastic chances despite outplaying us for decent periods of game.

I agree this break is coming at exactly the right time to reset the benchmark and sharpen up, but I also think our improved defensive resilience is no accident and Klopp seems to almost consciously be dialling our attacking instincts back a bit when we are a goal or two up to get that balance right.

I think it’s a smart move, as from the looks of things we seem to be learning how to grind out results.

9.) 05 Sep 2018
05 Sep 2018 13:42:29
Real shame Lallana's hit another brick wall. As if he doesn't have enough of a hurdle to jump to get into our midfield?

10.) 05 Sep 2018
05 Sep 2018 23:41:40
Someone ought to move that brick wall. Wonder if they would employ a brick wall and hurdle remover, I could also put the cones out for the throw in coach.