Pre Match - Villa (A) - Tues 20:00
- Thread starter Brizzle
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Sounds more like a description of Purple Aki.
Surprised at the relatively low ratings for Hendo, the game changed when he came on, we were picking up the ball more positively from deep positions for starters. Their gameplan was to stop us building from deep in midfield, Fabinho couldn't turn on the ball without being hounded before he went off. Keita improved hugely from that point too.
We're still not right as a unit defensively though. Lots of good individual moments, offside traps, etc, but early balls over the top for chasers, we're always a mess.
We're still not right as a unit defensively though. Lots of good individual moments, offside traps, etc, but early balls over the top for chasers, we're always a mess.
Something we did a lot better in this game than many previously was hold our width on both sides. In the past month or so i've noticed Trent does a lot of drifting inside and there have been countless moments where we should naturally spread the play out to the right but there is no one in that big gap. Width is integral to our system and we need to be disciplined with that (imo).
Hendo was probably our best midfielder. I think thiago coming on was the catalyst for keita to improve, as then he could hide more and defer to better players
Width is important for sure but sometimes I think teams realise excatly that that our biggest punch comes from wide areas and that if you can nullify Trent and Robertson and the front three then that's pretty much it because that's 95% of the way we attack.
I've been banging on about Klopp tweaking good system a little to allow for a creative dribbler from midfield. We've been starved from that for a while, seeing Coutinho yesterday reminded me how much we have missed that type of dynamism. Keita and Thiago occasionally show us how important and effective is to be able to beat your man but they don't do it enough unfortunately. Instead they are more inclined to look for the through ball but that is something that teams look to anticipate. Maybe Carvalho and Elliott will eventually be those guys that can offer that dribbling threat in the future but we will see.
I agree, and really do feel like Keita was meant to be that man, however he's mentally passive so doesn't do it nearly enough. I think thats why Elliott coming into the team at the beginning of the year was so refreshing, he had the skill, but also the willing to keep driving forward.
I'd be interested to know the number of successful long passes completed by Trent. He had 79 passes altogether drifting in from that RB position, with the midfielders seemingly content to defer to him conducting the play. Hendo had 42. Keita 45, Jones 35, Thiago 23.
We were able to put together a number of sharp passes through the middle after scoring the equaliser, simply because Trent was not involved, in my opinion.
We were able to put together a number of sharp passes through the middle after scoring the equaliser, simply because Trent was not involved, in my opinion.
I actually thought van Dijk was a monster last night (I missed the first 20 though)
He was, although I can understand opposition fans getting aggravated with him always getting benefit of the doubt with borderline fouls from the referee.
Yeah I wonder if that works against Spanish teams or not...
Ollie watkins double hattrick on the cards
He only plays like Messi against us.
Thats a shame because messi tends to be shite against us
It’s like the end of Bullseye game show when they run throught the prizes contestants could have won, “here’s what you could have won Phillip lad…”
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