I thought klopp changed the system because we had 3 centre mids who could barely run last year, so he copied pep/arteta; rather than us being figured out. Form wise robbo was in the toilet and trent was fucking shite. Weirdly, trent started performing when he was allowed to invert. Mad that init
Chicken and egg isn’t it.
There were so many things that changed last season in terms of system - the forward press wasn’t working as well, therefore more pressure on an aging midfield because teams could get through our lines, on top of teams targeting the space behind the FBs - the CB’s covering behind the CB’s created a massive gap through the middle leaving Fabs not only exposed from a dysfunctional high press, but too much space to cover on his own.
The high press becomes a trap - opposition deploy a low block, sit deep, cede posession, draw us onto them and then counter quickly into the space behind our high line.
I think the hybrid system is to get more solidity through the middle without having both FBs so high up the pitch - in theory when we transition to out of possession, Trent should be able to get back to RB quicker and with 2 in the DM area, it’s easier for one to plug the gap in between CB’s while the other can cut off players breaking through the middle.
The problem with the hybrid system is it can easily get too narrow - and we have inverted wingers who make that more of a problem.
Our issue is Mo is still our best goal outlet - so he can’t stay out wide AND score - City’s wingers aren’t prolific scorers and our problem is our Number 9 isn’t prolific either - neither is our False 9.
We haven’t deployed a False 9 this season and we’ve also struggled to find width in our play - I think that’s in part due to moving Trent more into the hybrid role, but also because the entire midfield is new - they’re not quite on the same wavelength yet and this system has a lot of moving parts which require players to adapt and move into different positions, often depending on where one of their other team mates is.
Like, if Trent inverts then Slobbers as the RM has to provide the overlap for Salah, which means Nunez & Diaz have to either go on a run to receive the ball in a goalscoring position or crest space for Salah to run into (and they both probably need to do it differently).
If Trent goes wide, the Slobbers needs to drop a little deeper to support the DM.
All this gets mirrored on the left with LB. and the LCM.
Then you get into each individual person’s skill set - Harvey is more comfortable operating out wide and running between the lines, Slobbers is an overall better B2B midfielder and great at pressing, MacA is good at shifting the ball and getting us moving, Endo is our best tackler in midfield, Trent our best passer, Jones is best providing width on the left and leading the press on the left and Gravy is good at carrying the ball.
They each have their weaknesses, Harvey is defensively poor, Slobbers (actually he has no weaknesses other than form), MacA is lightweight and tackling is poor, Endo needs time on the ball, Trent is Trent, Jones reverts to crab tactics and gets too many injuries and Gravy isn’t good at providing width (which means the LB has to do it which creates its own problems - thankfully we have a fully functional Virgil on that side).
It all strikes me that there’s not some great systemic problem here - all systems have strengths and weaknesses - it’s more of a team in transition - there’s only really Salah left from midfield & forward line of even the team that almost did the quadruple 2 seasons ago. (plus a few at various stages of decomposition).
That’s a lot of change - so I’m not surprised we have a few games against higher quality, well drilled opponents who set there stall out to above all else, not lose - it’s like someone said (poster or journo, can’t remember), Utd set up like a team in a relegation battle, but with superior players to teams generally involved in relegation battles and we didn’t quite have the answer of how to break them.
We don’t need massive changes in personnel or system - we just need time, consistency l, a bit of luck and some key players to find a bit of form - particularly the forward line so we don’t have to rely on Salah to do practically everything attacking wise.
