Well, well, well... It's been only a week since I wrote that our midfield's attacking contribution has been "dire" and perhaps this is by design, and right on cue they have delivered their 2 most productive attacking performances of the season. Keita's goal, and Hendo goal and assist vs Saints and another goal by Naby and a very meaningful "hockey assist" by Hendo vs Porto nudged the midfielders' attacking stats into a more respectable territory, but more importantly, finally it's starting to feel that our midfield can be a source of goals and creativity – and the opponents so far are finding themselves at a loss about what to do about it.
After years of methodically removing any hint of risk from his game, Hendo is finally asked to show what he can do in an attacking role – and turns out it's a lot! His passing is quick and crisp, he has excellent vision for teammates (best illustrated by that floated pass from the right side of the penalty area to Firmino that he blasted over – that was not an obvious pass at all and he executed it quickly and flawlessly), he is genuinely fast and physical and best of all kind of unpredictable for the opponents (at least so far). I loved the bits of interplay with Salah making himself a decoy and dragging his marker out so Hendo could bomb into the space beyond him – I don't think I've seen a midfielder run into these spaces with such regularity since Emre Can left. Sometimes Hendo's advanced positioning left too many gaps on the right flank, leaving Fabinho, Trent and Lovren exposed – but this was a fresh idea and Porto genuinely didn't know how to deal with this. Look at them moments before Hendo's pass for the 2nd goal – they are not even trying to challenge the player with the ball and the 2 seemingly tight lines are about to be dissected by 2 simple passes:
In other good news, Naby Keita's stats almost for the first time show the kind of "2-in-1" player we've all been waiting for:
According to Squawka Football, those 8 tackles are the most by any player in a CL playoff game this season and his 6 tackles in the first half was more than the rest of the team combined. The great thing is that he still has so much to improve – but finally, you're starting to see the outlines of a player we thought we had signed.
This episode shows the value of a midfielder who is able and willing to run with the ball. Keita has dribbled past a Porto forward and is about to find Hendo in that space he was running into time and time again. Naby is still in his own half (just about) and has 8 Porto players in front of him (not counting the GK), yet this is already a dangerous attack that put the defending team in kind of a disarray – because a player dribbling past the first line of press and carrying on running with the ball starts a chain reaction of Porto midfielders scrambling to block his path and so leaving their man (in this case Hendo) in a huge amount of space, which Keita was able to find with a superbly timed pass. If one episode could encapsulate what Keita's role in this team should be in my opinion, it's exactly this – to glide through the press and create numerical advantage, to be the instigator of these chain reactions. No other LFC midfielder can do this as well as Naby – whereas the likes of Wijnaldum, Milner and Ox could be used in the same role that Hendo performed in this episode.
So is this the way forward for our midfield? And which 3 would you start against Chelsea?
After years of methodically removing any hint of risk from his game, Hendo is finally asked to show what he can do in an attacking role – and turns out it's a lot! His passing is quick and crisp, he has excellent vision for teammates (best illustrated by that floated pass from the right side of the penalty area to Firmino that he blasted over – that was not an obvious pass at all and he executed it quickly and flawlessly), he is genuinely fast and physical and best of all kind of unpredictable for the opponents (at least so far). I loved the bits of interplay with Salah making himself a decoy and dragging his marker out so Hendo could bomb into the space beyond him – I don't think I've seen a midfielder run into these spaces with such regularity since Emre Can left. Sometimes Hendo's advanced positioning left too many gaps on the right flank, leaving Fabinho, Trent and Lovren exposed – but this was a fresh idea and Porto genuinely didn't know how to deal with this. Look at them moments before Hendo's pass for the 2nd goal – they are not even trying to challenge the player with the ball and the 2 seemingly tight lines are about to be dissected by 2 simple passes:
In other good news, Naby Keita's stats almost for the first time show the kind of "2-in-1" player we've all been waiting for:
According to Squawka Football, those 8 tackles are the most by any player in a CL playoff game this season and his 6 tackles in the first half was more than the rest of the team combined. The great thing is that he still has so much to improve – but finally, you're starting to see the outlines of a player we thought we had signed.
This episode shows the value of a midfielder who is able and willing to run with the ball. Keita has dribbled past a Porto forward and is about to find Hendo in that space he was running into time and time again. Naby is still in his own half (just about) and has 8 Porto players in front of him (not counting the GK), yet this is already a dangerous attack that put the defending team in kind of a disarray – because a player dribbling past the first line of press and carrying on running with the ball starts a chain reaction of Porto midfielders scrambling to block his path and so leaving their man (in this case Hendo) in a huge amount of space, which Keita was able to find with a superbly timed pass. If one episode could encapsulate what Keita's role in this team should be in my opinion, it's exactly this – to glide through the press and create numerical advantage, to be the instigator of these chain reactions. No other LFC midfielder can do this as well as Naby – whereas the likes of Wijnaldum, Milner and Ox could be used in the same role that Hendo performed in this episode.
So is this the way forward for our midfield? And which 3 would you start against Chelsea?
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