29 Jan 2023 19:55:57
Midfield was working initially today. They had 1 jammy deflection but we were the better team and Elliott was looking dangerous with Gakpo and Salah. Went to pieces after the changes.

Keita goes off and Henderson immediately goes too wide leaving huge holes, as has been an issue all season. I don't know why he thinks he's a winger but he needs to show a bit of game management quality and realise he's leaving a gaping hole in midfield. Keita's not even good enough but at least he's not arguing with linesman 40 yards out of position.

Then Baj goes off and we have to watch the Brazilian Lee Cattermole cowardly smash people who aren't looking, whilst managing to bottle every head on tackle. Got to be mental surely? He's 29 and he's the least mobile player we've had since 39 year old Hyypia. That was a res card today and my immediate thought when VAR started reviewing was "thank god he'll miss 3 games". What a fall from grace.

Then Thiago goes off for Jones who is sadly looking more and more like a headless chicken as he gets older and tries harder and harder to succeed. Thiago's passing was atrocious by the way but Jones is just an u21 left winger who a bit like Elliott should not be in midfield. Hard to be too critical of him when he shouldn't even be needed in there i suppose.

For the love of god can one of the coaches tell Konate to just clear the ball when he is running backwards under pressure? He always tries to either push the player or get his body in between and turn out. Mbuemo bullied him the other week and he should've been sent of today for smashing McAllister in the back of the head. Just kick it into row Z and stop trying to be prime Van Dijk. Know your own limits.

On another defender, Robbo stamping on a player running away from goal to gift them the free kick they won the game from, was just absolutely stupid and summed up our senior players. He had the armband on for god sake. Making a decision so bad it was as if it was his bloody debut.

Lastly, Nunez coming on is fine. But Elliott was playing a blinder and Salah was just not (despite his assist) . So why take off the 19 year old who's buzzing about and high as a kite from 2 goals in 3 games, but leave on a 30 year old who look knackered after an hour (at best)? I don't get it.

This season absolutely gutting to be honest. How on earth have we sunk so low that Keita is now our 3rd best midfielder because the others either can't run, can't tackle or can't stay in position? I don't know for sure how or why it's gone so far south in such a short time. Thank god we have 3 or 4 really talented young players because the senior players are a joke this year. I normally wait a day before posting but that last half hour was just painful to watch. Where on earth are our mentality monsters? I hope Klopp is serious about wanting to rebuild. Sorry for the rant. Will probably regret it in the morning.

{Ed025's Note - nothing to regret there MK, top post mate and everything you said i agree with...kudos..

1.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 20:09:52
Pretty spot on MK.

I hope we stick with this lineup (with the addition of Darwin) for the next few weeks. At the moment, it's the best we have.

Klopp has come out and said there'll be no more activity in the window. That is more concerning than the performance today, which was not terrible until the subs.

2.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 20:22:08
Not trying to make excuses for Robbo MK mate but I’m sure Hendo was wearing the captain’s armband when he gave the foul away.

3.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 20:30:35
The point about Henderson it's not him who thinks he's a winger it's always been a strength of his and has been doing it for years working triangles with Trent and Salah nobody minded it then?

If I'm right in saying he did start as a right midfielder for Sunderland?

4.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 20:37:38
Good post MK. For me the ‘mentality monster’ tag honestly needs to go and never return. I cringe every time I hear it. We ain’t that anymore unfortunately. I say that not in some spoilt kid way but in a stating the facts way when you consider how our season has taken a vertical nose dive and still descending. Thiago came out this week and said the boys are mentally tired from the ‘almost quadruple’. If that’s the case then that further reinforces the point we ain’t mentality monsters. That season has been and gone. It’s bouncing back from disappointment that sets those who occasionally win apart from serial winners. Before anyone says anything. Yes, we have won every trophy but it’s winning say the league consistently instead of once and exerting dominance in that competition that gets you remembered when it’s all said and done as a great team. That goes for any sport not just football. You can’t be falling off the face of the earth in terms of form because we ‘almost won the quadruple’.

5.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 20:44:03
We were fine when Hendo came on, coincided with our best phase of play, imo. It's no coincidence that Mitoma only really got at Milner once - Brighton couldn't get the ball to him as regularly.

The problem is we failed to create real chances in that spell and then turned off late on. Got what we deserved.

How poor we've been with the ball is at least as big an issue as how we've been off it.

6.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 20:51:48
Agree with all of it except Jones. Give the lad a chance to get a run of games. He is the only player we have in midfield who has the legs to press but can also hold the ball/ beat someone. Yes he was to improve but he is not a bad squad option at all and would prefer him in there to Elliot and Keita.

Robbo is trying to show passion but it’s just spilling over into rash challenges.

Also fed up of conceding stupid goals, was shouting before the free kick was even taken to mark the man at the back post and where does the ball go…

I genuinely think when Virg is back we need to move Gomez to RB as he has turned into a shocking CB. Trent’s head has also completely gone by the look of it and can’t keep getting away with playing Milner there.

7.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 20:59:45
Good post, MK. I'm trying to think of another player who's become so poor, so quickly as Fabinho. He is an absolute liability at present.

I do think we were unlucky today ( apart from Robbo, Fabinho and Konate who were all lucky) and we did enough to have brought about a replay. Like I always say, I'm constantly looking at the next game for improvement, so let's hope for continued improvement against the Wolves. How long my positivity can last, though, is being sorely tested.

8.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 21:07:14
The fall from grace of our midfield comes from running them into the ground. It’s criminal what we’ve done to them.

9.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 21:07:18
You also have to give credit to Brighton. They are a good side. The winner by Mitoma was a great goal.

I still don't belive the team has dropped form this dramatically. I fully expect a run in the league sooner rather than later.

10.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 21:11:01
I think there's a lot more to us falling off the face of the earth than last season's exertions.
Last season should be remembered as a tremendous effort by a squad that wasn't the biggest or the strongest.
Maybe we overachieved last season- as we have in other recent seasons- and this season we are underachieving so the difference is huge.

11.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 21:20:02
“Elliott was having a blinder”…
Lmao.
Liverpool’s LH side was once fearsome, with Robertson and Mane / Diaz, now it’s as limp as a wet lettuce leaf.
If you’re dropping off to play deeper and not press, you need pace on the counter and Elliott cannot provide that. I’d play Nunez there myself.

12.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 21:29:29
Completely agree with the post MK, in just amazed Gomez escaped your wrath. Bar the Man City league game I think it was he’s been pretty much hopeless in every game this season. My other point is that our midfield has been awful with zero creativity, klopp keeps pulling Trent off, would it be worth trying trent in midfield for a game or 2. I don’t see what harm it could do. At the moment we can’t score or keep clean sheets so something needs to change and soon.

13.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 21:45:34
Good post MK hard to argue.

I acctually thought we played not too bad today, good to see the press back. Brighton a good team and that Mitoma is class so no shame in losing really.

Season is over let’s see how we can build towards next year. Bedding in Bajcetic, Darwin, Gakpo and finding a position for Harvey will be key. Let’s use Hendo and Milners experience to teach these you lads how to ply heavy metal football.

14.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 21:49:11
@The juicer

Fair point around pace but I thought Nunez was incredibly sloppy when he came on actually - bad passing broke down our attacks and gifted Brighton counter attacks.

Harvey Elliot was having a good game. Surely that can’t be questioned?

He’s no Sadio Mane though and he’s never going to be that type of player.

15.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 22:02:46
Yeah, all good points that I agree with.
I would just say that any player needsa run of games and Jones hasn't had that. He's not the problem with what's going on right now.

16.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 22:47:15
Jones only ever had a run of games here when we had no CBs a couple of years back and had Fabs at CB and Hendo at no.6. To be fair, he looked okay in that run. Tended to hold onto the ball too long sometimes and his final pass/ shot tended to let him down, but everything he did up to that, positioning, retaining the ball under pressure, pressing etc. was ok. You thought as a young player he'd build on it and eventually add the final ball.

Struggled for fitness since. Really don't know what to do with him now.

17.) 29 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 22:50:55
We need Saint Maxim from Newcastle on that left side.

18.) 30 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 23:52:46
Injury-prone and inconsistent. Don't we have enough of those types of players already? .

19.) 30 Jan 2023
29 Jan 2023 23:55:04
Agree with most of that MK. I thought we actually did ok today but got done by the 2nd phase of 2 set pieces.
Mitoma’s finish just highlights the difference in confidence between the 2 sets of players. I don’t think anyone could claim that Mitoma is a better player than Salah but at this moment in time I couldn’t see Salah be as calm in the box in that situation.
You say Keita is our third best midfielder. I can only think of Bajcetic that could claim to be better at the moment. People need to forget about this hatred of Keita and get behind him because we need him right now.
All in all I thought today was much more positive and was drifting towards a replay which wouldn’t have been too bad given the hiding they gave us a couple of weeks ago. We were arguably the better side overall.

20.) 30 Jan 2023
30 Jan 2023 06:15:02
MK - Elliot had a decent game, but I got frustrated with how easily he was caught in possession and knocked off the ball. Mitoma is about the same size, but nobody could get near him to knock him off the ball.

Our quality drops off hugely when we lose a couple of players through injury, but I still think there couldn't be any arguments if we had won that game, which we most certainly could have done.

21.) 30 Jan 2023
30 Jan 2023 10:27:00
Killed it right there, MK Scouser.

22.) 30 Jan 2023
30 Jan 2023 10:29:42
Trent was atrocious and got skinned by the Japanese guy (cracking player) . You also missed Joe Gomez comedy show for that second goal. Rest all good.

23.) 30 Jan 2023
30 Jan 2023 10:54:33
Elliott had a decent game but he's never going to be a Mane. I don't think Diaz will be another Mane. Mane has gone and we were always going to miss him. The replacements have hardly got started so we are missing even more than we could have.
Elliott is not a midfielder either.
Not yet anyway.