maybe it's more that he is aguy who was once the main go-to sub on probably the best team ever............ bound to be capable of giving any team fits....
A few observations: My guess on Ox playing in the front 3 is that Klopp wants to get him minutes, but he's not fit enough to go 90 in the midfield just yet. Also, because the front 3 haven't really had a full preseason Klopp is trying to be careful with their minutes. I think his ineffective play had as much to do with the midfield struggles as much as anything he did or didn't do. There is every chance Klopp was planning only playing him 45 anyway. The simple answer to our midfield problems last night is that man for man, Chelsea's players are better than ours. Kovacic absolutely dominated Hendo and the less said about Milner vs Kante the better. Jorginho almost never loses the ball. Fabinho was left on an island most of the time. We lost a ton of 1 v 1 battles we normally don't which gave the chance to drive forward and time on the ball to pick out passes. By the sounds of it, we are tweaking the way the back line is going to play. That may be the reason for giving up so many chances, but fundamentally it appears none of the defenders are really in form. They seem a bit complacent in their defending. The passing is slow and generally poor. That could be a function of the midfield or just early season getting into gear. If the analysts think we need to modify our approach to stay out in front, I can see the logic in that. Hopefully what we are seeing are the growing pains in working out a new system. Preseason was a bit disjointed and having the front 3 all playing dramatically changes how the rest of the team works. Klopp hasn't had the benefit of having them all available for weeks of work on the training ground or for any of the games so far. We saw the difference its makes after the half.
That was a pretty bad call. If it's a peno in the CL final then its one in the Super Cup Final... (protecting your face with your hands is still a handball...)
Henderson had a pretty good 1st half, and got into some dangerous positions.... and played some good stufff...... Milner was getting overrun though....
As time goes by and Hendo continues to play on the right, we are going to see his technical limitations come to the fore more and more. He was okay going forward, but in order for him to be effective on the attacking side, he has to cheat forward (and his finishing is still fairly crap), which leaves our right side of defense exposed. It can work when the rest of the team is on it, but if we are willing to give up defensive cover in that position for attack, might as well put the Ox in as he's fair better from an attacking perspective in that position.
It's a fair enough point, but I don't think he's out of place defensively all that much.... but maybe it will become a concern.
So is protecting your nuts. But women are allowed to protect their breasts. Another nonsensical post from Ken.
I thought that once the attack didn't result in a goal, the AR was supposed to raise the flag. The reason to keep it down is if it's too close to call and they let VAR sort it out if the attacking team scores.
My understanding, via UEFA, is that distance between players, between struck ball and perhaps offending player, is a consideration. Last night’s overhead kick was on top of the Chelsea player, no time to react, whereas in the CL final, Sissoko was far enough away from Mané to react, plus his arm was in an unnatural position. Not saying I understand the rule any better, that’s just what I read by way of explanation.
Chelsea had just got beat 4-0. This is a fairly common occurrence in football, decent team gets humiliated, and they are more motivated for the next game. This has happened to Liverpool frequently over the last decade were we've had a poor result and bounced back with a great performance against a better team. I'd not swap our midfield for theirs despite being hugely critical of how they played in this match. For all the deserved plaudits our attack has had for the last two years and the defence had last year our success under Klopp has been down to the constant running, positioning and intensity of our midfield.
There may be something in this and i think we have better midfielder than played, but Kante won the 1v1 battle with Milner and probably does 9 out 10 times. Kovacic bossed Hendo as well, and while that is much closer, Hendo is by no means clearly better.