So, somethings been a bit off with how little he's played this season, how Origi and even Lallana seem ahead of him in the pecking order, then there was this strange, but quite nice story last week that he was skipping international duty to train harder to earn his place in the Liverpool team.
Why would he need to do that though? He's been here a year now, surely he knows what his role is, and what he's got to do in this team?
On the side, a minor disappointment of mine this season has been the lack of time Brewster has had, I was thinking he would get some substitute appearances, I was quite hopeful going into the season we could see a mini breakout from the lad, but clearly Klopp doesn't think he's ready, and he'll probably be relegated to the league cup games.
How do this tie in with Shaqiri? Well I think the game yesterday told us something, when he came on, he came on from Firmino, and I'm pretty sure he was playing in Firmino's position, as the false nine, whilst Brewster remained on the bench.
Now we all know Shaqiri's weaknesses, and we've been pretty certain that that's why he's been out of the team. Tactically, he's not the smartest, and by that I mean he doesn't know quite how to defend when out wide, which then leads on to the next weakness, and that's that he's not the greatest presser, not due to a lack of effort, but due to the lack of awareness mentioned before.
Now, obviously he's replacing probably one of the best in the world at those two things, however as much as we love and benefit from Bobby doing it for us, maybe it's not an area where it's quite as important as out on the wing. That's probably unfair, maybe more what I mean is that it's an area where understanding how to press and defend is more straight forward, and as Shaqiri's issue isn't effort in my opinion, maybe Shaqiri would prosper more in that position for this particular facet of play.
Then we come on to his strengths, he's got a great eye for a pass, he's a good finisher, he's very composed, intelligent, he's got great strength for his size, he's a clever and quick runner and he has a good knack of scoring. It's a great list of strengths to have for a person in the Firmino role, and I think he could make quite a success of it there.
Maybe I'm looking for something that isn't there, maybe he played on the wing yesterday and I'm an idiot, but I quite like this idea, so I hope there's some truth to it.
tl;dr I think the reason Shaqiri hasn't been playing too much, is because Klopp's been trying to train him to be our backup false nine, and I'm very happy with the idea.
Why would he need to do that though? He's been here a year now, surely he knows what his role is, and what he's got to do in this team?
On the side, a minor disappointment of mine this season has been the lack of time Brewster has had, I was thinking he would get some substitute appearances, I was quite hopeful going into the season we could see a mini breakout from the lad, but clearly Klopp doesn't think he's ready, and he'll probably be relegated to the league cup games.
How do this tie in with Shaqiri? Well I think the game yesterday told us something, when he came on, he came on from Firmino, and I'm pretty sure he was playing in Firmino's position, as the false nine, whilst Brewster remained on the bench.
Now we all know Shaqiri's weaknesses, and we've been pretty certain that that's why he's been out of the team. Tactically, he's not the smartest, and by that I mean he doesn't know quite how to defend when out wide, which then leads on to the next weakness, and that's that he's not the greatest presser, not due to a lack of effort, but due to the lack of awareness mentioned before.
Now, obviously he's replacing probably one of the best in the world at those two things, however as much as we love and benefit from Bobby doing it for us, maybe it's not an area where it's quite as important as out on the wing. That's probably unfair, maybe more what I mean is that it's an area where understanding how to press and defend is more straight forward, and as Shaqiri's issue isn't effort in my opinion, maybe Shaqiri would prosper more in that position for this particular facet of play.
Then we come on to his strengths, he's got a great eye for a pass, he's a good finisher, he's very composed, intelligent, he's got great strength for his size, he's a clever and quick runner and he has a good knack of scoring. It's a great list of strengths to have for a person in the Firmino role, and I think he could make quite a success of it there.
Maybe I'm looking for something that isn't there, maybe he played on the wing yesterday and I'm an idiot, but I quite like this idea, so I hope there's some truth to it.
tl;dr I think the reason Shaqiri hasn't been playing too much, is because Klopp's been trying to train him to be our backup false nine, and I'm very happy with the idea.
