FT 4-1 to Spurs. Poor goal keeping. Even worse defending. Gifted them all their goals. Kane is a great striker but he looks better when he isn’t marked. Midfield completely overrun. No one seemed up for the fight. But they had a plan. They got 3 around Coutinho when he had the ball knowing he wants to take a touch or two. It helps when the ref allows anything to be used to stop him. I think that except for maybe a step out of line on the first goal Gomez had a good match. So did Moreno. Salah was very good and unlucky not to get another goal. Ox and Milner didn’t do much. Can was absolute shit both ways. Spurs are a very good team and with our help they played a great game Klopp has to admit that the defense needs a complete overhaul. Also it may be time to give the kids a try. Ward in goal. TAA in the midfield.
Wouldn't mind seeing Grujic start in place of Can if Can continues to play like he did today... Is losing Wij that big of a disruption?
That was utterly unforgivable. At times like this, I'm glad I'm on half term break. I can now drown my sorrows and reflect on this one later.
Was scared to come into this thread. Very happy to have missed the match. This is reminiscent of Klopps first season - sort it the ******** out Juergen for several reasons: - you have the pedigree and track record - don't let the lunatic fringe run you out of town like Rafa - let the ego go a bit - our defense CBs and whoever pretends to hold are the worst. Ever. - buy all the players in January. - we know the scintillating type of football we can and have played. Come on!!
Obviously the situation we're currently in is solidly on Klopp. He is the guy who thinks we have the horses in midfield, defense and goal. It's on him to get it sorted. Just sent the new son-in-law who is a Spurs fan a congratulations text. Really don't want to do this too many more times.
Pffft- you haven't had to too much recently. Its their first win in 8 against us. And we gave it to them- they didn't really have to play well.
The bottom line is Klopp must retool the def, we can't continue leaking goals like this. It's an area that he has barely addressed and yesterday of our back five only Matip has been brought in by Klopp. Gomez,Lovren,Moreno and Mignolet we all signed by Rodgers. However until Jan his options to change are few. I agree with those calling for Ward, I think he must get a proper chance. Also time to drop Lovren , we might as well deal with mistakes made by young Joe Gomez as he learns rather than mistakes by Lovren who isn't improving. I'd also play Can less often, the guy still refuses to sign a new deal so why invest more playing time in a player who likely is planning to leave. Give Grujic more minutes or even consider Trent in mf . Hopefully in Jan the scouts can target some help and I'd include a holding type of mf'r in that too.
It's not all lost but, my goodness, there is a lot of work to do and I just wonder if we have the personnel to deal with it mid season. Graeme Souness, for all his faults as a manager, said that it only takes one poor player to destroy a team completely. We have at least two in Mignolet and Lovren who are just inconsistent when the pressure is real. Address that at the very least. There is also an urgent need to look at just what our midfield brings to the table-- it neither protects the defence nor supports the attack very well. That's another urgent issue to address.
Begging your pardon for letting off some steam, I'm not as sanguine about the situation as you seem to be. This false dawn stuff is getting old.
Lovren's mental fragility added to the fact that he needs a healthy dose of pain killers to suit up = he shouldn't play again until healthy. Let Gomez have a run at it with Klavan as his backup. Can was crap. I wanted him out before he was shunted to RB. But we do have to ask Klopp why put him there? Fish out of water. TAA was on the bench and Milner was on the field - two better solutions than Can in the situation. Our midfield trio went missing - against a twosome of Harry Winks and Christian Eriksen. Very disappointing. I kept seeing Hendo popping up all over the field pressing players and then when there was a ball played into, or a 2nd ball bouncing in, a central area he was nowhere to be seen. Spurs tactic was to surround Cout whenever he was on the ball. First time - I'll let it slide that he wanted too much time on the ball and lost it. But after the 4th time and he hadn't yet adjusted I was yelling at the TV. If Barca were watching, they saw a head-to-head matchup as to who would be best for their system - and Eriksen handily won that duel. Why didn't Mings just catch the ball for their 4th? He was under ZERO pressure and tried to punch. Why? Salah has been a fantastic pickup.
This is absolute shambles and (IMO) it's all on Klopp. Are you telling me on this entire planet there wasn't ONE bastard we could've picked up to give us an option at CB that was better than mother F'n Lovren?!? Come off it. Can can f uck right off at this point. His constant flirting with other clubs and putting in these half-assed performances. He's not as good as he thinks he is and his stupid smug smile makes me want to punch him in the face. We were outcoached and outplayed yesterday. This is unacceptable when the top 4 is going to be such a tight race. I'll tell you right now, on the form we're on we are not making top 4 and will struggle to even keep pace with the Arse. I'm sick of the same talk about "we know we're weak defensively and we need to fix it" out of both of our defenders' and manager's mouths. Stop talking and show us. Klopp wanted to turn skeptics into believers but right now he's turning believers into skeptics. I love the guy but my love only goes so far when Mo Salah is our savior and every time Mane goes down injured we all hold our breath about our form. It should've never got to this point. We all knew our shortcoming coming into this season yet here we are watching them all get exploited.
This isn't Klopp's team, this is the team Klopp is managing. He wants better CBs -- he got us Matip for nothing really -- and went all in for VVD. Lovren has a horrible game and y'all are yelling at Klopp. If he had his target that would not have happened. Seeing what's up he pulled Lovren at 25', which was a bold move. He's not blind to the problem here. He's the one who wanted a new CB. He wants a three midfielder system but he's been forced to select three MFers without a creative, attacking flair. He tried hard for Keita to fix that problem, and then Lallana went down. So it's Emre-Hendo-Wiji for now, only Wiji's hurt and we have to ask James Milner to win a footrace with Son, 2-0 Spurs. Next year we should have Keita and VVD in the side. Judge him on that. He knows Lovren isn't an every game defender. Notice Can doesn't have a new contract. Klopp brought us Salah and look how great Moreno is playing. We had 64% of the ball, more shots on goal, more accurate passes away to Spurs.
We haven't lost to Spurs in 5 years in the EPL. We now can't win against the top 4 and we still struggle with everybody else. The big concern is we have slipped and fell behind in the league and didn't do enough in the summer. Anybody who graded our summer transfer a success is delusional. We needed defenders and only got offensive players. Lovren needs to check into Rehab so he has an excuse not to play for us anymore. Migs is not the solution to anything. Salah is great but he can't score all our goals. Firmino doesn't score enough and drifts into oblivion most matches. Can Hendo make a tackle and stop anybody anymore? Things are seriously regressing from previous seasons. Our defense is the worst I can ever remember. We need a minimum of 2 top defenders in the Jan window. Otherwise top 6 is not gonna happen.
Lovren won't get any better at this stage of his carreer. Let Gomez make the mistakes and learn from them. Short term consequences can't be any worse ........ Same can be said for Mignolet vs Karius/Ward.
So VvD was the only CB on Earth who could come here? We're also forced to wait another season in hopes that Keita will come rescue our midfield?
OK - so they've got a week now to prepare for Huddersfield - who are flying high after their win over ManUtd... This is the kind of thing Klopp has asked for - time to work with the players between games... We are suddenly short on players...Mane, Clyne, Lallana, now Wijnalden... Let's see what Kloppo can do...I'm betting he can make it happen...
I am 100% behind Klopp. But no this is Klopp's team. He's made all the personnel decisions long enough that a largely Brendan Rodgers defense is now his. He's done a lot to transform the offense and the system, and he has identified what's needed to improve the midfield and defense. But the fixes aren't in for at least another half season most likely a full season. By the time the cavalry arrives the battle will be over. He's a great coach but we've debated ad infinitum the limits of coaching, he's badly overestimated the impact he can make in the short term on the Lovren's and Mignolet's of the world. If we fall too far off the pace Europe won't be in reach, then a lot of his progress will be severely compromised. It's very frustrating.
If Gomez plays CB that leaves us short at RB. Klopp seems unwilling to play TAA every game and burn him out. I would use Milner as a RB option. I was surprised he put Can at fullback and not Milner.