Gazzaniga stood on his head today to keep Spurs in it. He made the most saves in a match all season so far IIRC. Good thing Son missed that golden opportunity though. The defensive lapses are not encouraging. When will Matip be back?
Is there a better defensive midfielder than Fabinho? He was dominant today. His passing is outstanding. It’s no wonder nobody can play with us. We have world class players all over the pitch.
We have world class players that the majority of opposition supporters refuse to admit are world class. I kind of love it.
I got up at 3:20 for a 3:30 am kickoff this morning. At 3:31, I was wondering why the ******** I'd bothered Lucky by 5:20ish am I was happy.
Maybe we shouldn’t fret so much, I know I know ... 10 - Liverpool are unbeaten in their last 10 Premier League games when conceding the first goal at Anfield (W7 D3), winning each of the last six. Fortitude. #LIVTOT pic.twitter.com/AgGCV6E8PS— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 27, 2019
Pre-VAR these were somehow a huge talking point! See VVD-Lamela 1.5 seasons ago. Honestly, I've seen a lot of people shitting on Henderson lately... someone tell me, wtf am I missing? The guy is being asked to do something he's not really good at, ie send in crosses. That said by the numbers his last few matches are quite good overall, he runs his ass off, and he's combined incredibly well with others on the right flank which (while not reflected in the stats) DIRECTLY relates to Trent being able to get forward, get involved in the play, and have matches like he had today with 7 key passes from wide areas. The work that contributes to that display today shouldn't be overlooked. I'm a total Hendo superfan, admittedly... but I also have no problem calling things as they are when the reason is there. As for this I don't see it! His passing wasn't great today, but he had a good match! Why is he getting a bunch of crap everywhere I look online and according to my other LFC supporter friends? Don't get it. He didn't have turnovers, he pressed well, tackled successfully, won aerial duels, covered well on counters, intercepted balls... forget the goal, that's what that CM needs to do in order to facilitate the play of a guy like Trent. Gini does the same thing (even more under the radar) to "free" Mane and Robbo. Near as I can tell, Hendo gets a ton of shit because he's not Fabinho and for little else...
LFC finishing sure helped. I think 1 or maybe 2 of his, what, 12 saves (?) were real good ones, Trent's rocket and VVD's header. But even those were too close to the center of the goal, IMO. He made saves you'd expect a keeper to make IMO, they just piled up. Tim Howard set the World Cup record for saves on the back of a similar middling finishing performance by Belgium.
The publications rating him low (this is why I don't give a shit about ratings...) are citing him for the goal against... a good tackle/dispossession near the attacking 3rd, which is then recycled and long-balled forward, which he then recovers from enough that Son takes a shot on his weak foot, which deflects off another defender, which hits the post, which falls to Kane when VVD has kept him on and is kind of sort of ball-watching... that's somehow on HENDO? Even if I granted that one fluke play as a mark against him (which is stupid, but whatever)... what else besides that? I don't see anyone here calling him a donkey or anything... but others have called him "extremely poor" to my face and I'm just baffled by that opinion. The last match he played, same thing, he was pretty ********ing good and a lot of people just like "that Hendo, eh... just not good enough these days, needs to pick it up!", mostly rubbish I say.
I've always thought Eriksen had not the mentality to be in a team challenging for honours. Dele Alli, though-- he's basically just collapsed in the last season.
Henderson divides opinion, no doubt but it's not a binary situation. He's had poor last few games but so have a few of his teammates (van Dijk, Lovren, Robertson etc.) The gripe which I have with him is that he's not always aware what is around him and often ends up passing the ball (sideways or backwards) when there is an option to break forward with the ball or he takes takes an extra touch which slows the build-up. When Firmino or one of the forwards drops to get the ball, Henderson (or whoever) is the most advanced midfielder must break forward beyond the line and provide options (look at how we beat Barcelona at Anfield.) Yesterday, I though he was poor with the ball in the first half; he was also dreadful against Man U (is that the last match you're talking about?) He definitely improved when pushed wide against Rose, pinning him back and basically nullifying him. Interesting that was his best position when at Sunderland when we got him but everybody yearns to lay in central midfield where they see a lot of the ball. The strike for goal (great technique, by the way) is something he ought to be doing more often but he's seemingly lost his confidence to make a clean hit of the ball in central positions. I'm hoping this goal and the competition from Oxlade Chamberlain and Keita re-ignite him as we need everybody to step up their performances.
An area of concern for us had been the lack of midfield goals. When you have FSM, that obviates a huge part of the need for the midfield to show up on the scoresheet. But it always helps. So it’s been good to see Lallana, AOC and Henderson scoring in recent games. Now for Keita and Wijnaldum. ETA: A better game than the CL Final? I thought so, even though the Final gave me 2 coronaries more.
This was much better than the final as we looked ragged in that final, lacking control and (except for the goals) generally quite slipshod. Firmino and sometime Mane drop deep quite often to get hold of the ball. We have lacked somebody breaking beyond them when they do and you can see the surprised looks when Lallana or Henderson and, sometimes, Wijnaldum score.
Henderson blamed himself for their goal right after the game in the Sky/NBC interview. As noted - there was a ton chances to stop the play after that and it took a fluke for the goal to occur any - so I think he's being harsh on himself. But I think people don't appreciate that he's that type of player that will not shy away from criticism and will do the things that make the rest of the teammates appreciate him as a captain.
Yeah - it was a damn weird foul. The guy basically didn;t know he was fouling until it was done. Still, whether you intend to foul or not isn't really relevant.....
Wasn't trying to crap on Hendo. But it's undeniable that he doesn't score much. Which is fine to the extent that what Klopp asks of him doesn't put him in the role of goalscorer very often (and, to be fair, he's never been a great finisher even when he's had opportunities). Admirable as much of Hendo's play is, a goal from him is definitely a goal from an unexpected source.
I agree with EH here, and think the key sentences here are "that's what a CM needs to do..." and "Gini does the same thing..." In the current 4-3-3 set up, 1-2 of the midfielders will play further up the pitch, and their primary jobs are support oriented. They provide an outlet for advanced players and attacking fullbacks, and cycle the ball with the focus on maintaining possession. In this respect they are less likely to make a "killer pass" because we don't really play that way from the midfield, and neither really truly have that passing range - they are good, but not exceptional. Firmino plays this creative role to a greater extent in attack, and you see that he is often involved, particularly when we're linking up through the center of the field. Hendo and Gini are more involved when we're setting up passing triangles on the flanks and trying to pull defenses out of position so we can either go around them (using our FBs) or through them (using Firmino). But their job is not primarily to make that killer pass, instead it is to maintain possession and cycle the ball in these passing triangles. Similarly, Hendo and Gini's main roles during transition and defense are 1) to provide cover for the attacking fullback, and to funnel opposition ball play to places where they can be challenged by the other defensive midfielder and/or the other advanced midfielder or a pushed up CB. As such, you see Fabinho making the awesome tackles, and you don't see as much of the Hendo/Gini/Millie players doing this. They do occasionally, but that's not what they are really set up to do if our positional play is working. All this said, I do think that Hendo and Gini are more the class of player that they will mostly give you an effective, workmanlike performance with the occasional exceptional game. I also think that while they are probably better positionally in defense than AOC, they don't bring the creative passing and goal threat that players like he or Shaqiri do to these advanced MF positions. It'd be really interesting to see how someone with exceptional passing and shot-making skills (e.g. Kevin De Bruyne) would fare in one of those advanced MF positions. I personally think they'd be amazing, although I think KdB would probably break down as he's more injury prone than either Gini or Hendo. What I'd really like to see is Curtis Jones get some opportunities in the first team, as he seems to have the ball handling/shot-making skills of an AOC, but is a bit bigger and if he learns how to use his body could provide the physicality that Gini and Hendo show in their positions.
Klopp has often said he’s not a huge believer in the No. 10. Primarily because with the high press, his forwards often/usually recover the ball in positions of strength. Same for the midfielder with the killer pass. Of course there are times when you do need both a la Coutinho; then again when the game at OT was crying out for a No. 10/Coutinho, he rejigged the midfield and Lallana did the necessary. Then there’s the not insignificant fact that TAA is beginning to run the game from RB, like Phillipe Lahm or if you want to go back another generation, Paul Brietner.