Liverpool - post match thread.

[franksinatra]

But the truth is that in the summer we spent in the region of £150m yet still have the same deficiencies at full back, centre back in midfield. In addition we are lighter up front than we have ever been and have severely weakened ourselves in the goal keeper position. Surely we should have been able to expect some level of improvement?

Your correct there should be evidence of inprovement not just in the quality of the squad but also with the balance within the squad.

We have got three centre halfs at the club, including Kompany in the squad and yet find ourselves with Nolito, Sane, Sterling, Navas, KDB, Silva, Jesus who play in the wide positions. This does not even include Roberts, Zinchenko who are currently out on loan.

To add to the issue we have over 100 million pounds worth of talent out on loan, who we cannot get rid off due to the wages they receive and a number of players in the squad near the end of their contracts who for similar reasons we could not have moved on even if we had hoped too.

The sides also lacks physicality, has aged in the fullback positions and within the attacking positions has little variety such as introducing a target man.

We also need to move away from this policy of continually overpaying for players with promise. Stones like many players is just potential but he has become the second most expensive defender in history, similar to the Mangala transfer 2 seasons ago. The game is littered with players with potential who never fulfill it. There is value in the market, Pool picked up two centre halves in the summer for a combined fee of 4.2 million and they look no worse defensively than us this year.

 

[Jack74]

Our squad is well overrated, heard for few seasons that we have the best squad and never agreed
Awful defenders have been with us a while so don't know how we can have best squad
Coming into this season I felt only Hart Silva Fernandiho De-Bruyne and Aguero were good enough and we got rid of one of those to hugely weaken that area
Shame we didn't have a strong manager to see what Klopps seen and put Milner at full back, he can do that in his sleep and for a few years yet

To be fair I would never have seen Milner as left back either , but he having a great season for them fair fucks 2 him.

 

[Blue Hefner]

It could have been worse, but we should have been better!

I accept that Guardiola is a genius, however, if he was sat with me now he could not convince me that bringing Ian on with 5 minutes to go was a good idea

Drop Aguero and get De Bruyne upfront. He holds it up like a forward but has the vision to bring others into play. Aguero has had it, its clearly not working

As for Kolarov, I'm sure it's been done to death but the whole game plan fell apart when he, lazyily, gave the ball away. No excuse

 

[CrownPointBlue]

To be fair Conte's system is much easier to learn. There's a reason why his Italy team exceeded expectations in Euros despite not training together for a very long time. Pep did change tactics a lot, but I think he rarely betrays his fundamental concepts, and his changes did work more often than not, e.g. 2nd half against Arsenal.

It might be better had he made substitutions sooner, but who knows? Perhaps Pep has seen something worth keeping that we all missed. Or that he thought changes of personnel wouldn't have made much difference. Zaba, apart from the goal, did play an okay game yesterday and provided some semblance of support in attack. Nacho needs more games to polish his skills. Until then, he would probably remain a late impact sub. But this is a bloody conundrum. Kev started the game in the centre with too many passes gone astray. Not his day.

I think we're seeing a team in progress and as a result players make a lot of simple mistakes that is out of the coach's control. From the Chelsea game onwards (and even before that), it's game after game of sloppy passing not only in the final third, but also in our own half, and with the intrinsic frailty of our defence it is suicide. In the previous two games we got lucky but this time, not so much.

This may well be due to confusion and low confidence so I have almost nothing against our players, only hope that they learn as quickly as possible. And I will give the same amount of patience to Pep as I do to the players, for some of the things he has acheived since he arrived show promises of a great future. Yaya is one, and the Barca game another.

Good(ish) post mate,but in a game / league of very fine margins (Kevs miss v renters), Zabbas role in the goal was decisive & ultimatly cost us the game.

However, Kolorov losing the ball in space & with time, level with their box & Sterling covering with his head up is arse didn't help either.

Yaya is better but only a sticking plaster & 45 minutes agin Barca & Arse & rags isn't good enough after 30 games imo.

Best to you.

 

[geoff clipp]

Shame we didn't have a strong manager to see what Klopps seen and put Milner at full back, he can do that in his sleep and for a few years yet

Are you kidding? You do remember the reasons he gave for leaving right?

 

[YaYa's Left Peg]

Pep is proving all the cynics right. It's hard to argue with them really.

I was talking to an Everton fan last night. He was saying how he couldn't understand where Koeman was taking the team. Constant chopping and changing. Plays a back three, then a back four, never the same personnel. Persists with players out of form. Asks playes to do things they're clearly not capable of or suited to doing. No bite, no rhythm, no consistency. I honestly thought he was talking about Guardiola at one stage.

I have to say I've lost all faith in Guardiola, along with the last remnants of faith I had in Txixi. I know I'll get brickbats for that but honestly that's how I feel. As far as I can see, they are both proving to be clueless.

Honestly can anyone say with any confidence that we'll beat Burnley, or anyone for that matter? Or even predict with any level of surety what team and formation we'll play in the next game? That's a sorry state to be in given the money and resources we have at hand.

Luckily we still have Khaldoon and the Sheik, so at least we know things won't go spiralling completely out of control. I trust they'll make the right decisions at the right time.

 

[Blueblood88]

I suppose the silver lining is next year we'll be a saturday to saturday team. Plenty of time to prepare for each game.

Next year there will be no European advantage for any of the top 6 teams as they'll all be in Europe. No matter how bad City are they're not going to drop out of the top 6.

 

[flb]

where's the Txiki thread gone?

Is he being afforded the benefit of not having people rightly commenting on him or something ?

 

[Ashleymcduff]

How kolarov and zaba got the nod for the full back positions is beyound me.
Not saying clichy is much better but when he has a run of games he plays steady.
Which was the case versus hull Arsenal and Watford.
Zaba has gone sad to watch really, like a old boxer having one last pay day

 

[@BluePhil8]

One thing I cannot get my head around.

During our 10 game winning run we played with a very specific strategy. When we had possession of the ball our back 5 moved in to the following positions:

Stones Fernandinho Otamendi

Zabaleta Kolarov

It sounds really stupid, but just a tactical tweak like this that has never been seen in England really bamboozled pur opponents. All of a sudden we had 2 extra men in midfield launching attacks and our opponents didn't know whether to mark them with their wingers or what. Fernandinho was great at launching attacks from defence as well.

Yet now we just seem to be playing the same boring rigid 4141 every week with a flat back 4.

Am I going mad, did this never happen? It's not necessarily about formations though it's about what our players do whilst in those formations.