LILLE vs REAL MADRID | UEFA Champions League - League Phase Match #2 | 02.10.24 | 21:00 CET

Agree with this

 

Kante is good, but he also isn't a ball distributor/creator like Madrid need. Neves would've been a good option I guess.

 

Nah, it's little to do with formations etc and more attitude. With that said, we definitely need a creative midfielder. Yes, good to have Valverde the workhorse, but who is putting the strikers through on goal?

 

Pedja Miatovich yesterday in El Larguero:

 

Been saying it since pre season.
We need 1 baller in the midst of the “athletes” lol. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they’re not great footballers but a bit of creativity is clearly missing.
If we had prime Modric it would be perfect. Since we don’t the solution is the diamond Mr Arda Guler.

Arda + Jude + Fede + Tchou/Cama

That is it.

Carlo needs to stop being scared and decide to make Arda a world class player like he has done with other greats in the past.

We have the potentail solution….give it a chance FFS

 

Fair enough….but whatever we have going on right now simply isn’t working and it’s indisputable that we need more creativity in the midfield.

How do you solve that…within Carlo’s style right now?

 

I am concerned by the focus of our players. Too many times I've seen everyone just play shitty passes, forget about positioning, getting unnecessarily carded and being emotional out there.

I love Carlo and I think he should get the respect he deserves, I personaly really dislike the comments that call him names etc. And a lot of responsibility lies with the players. However I was just thinking and couldn’t help but notice in yesterday's game when we were misplacing passes, complaining, throwing fits etc how much we're missing a player/presence like Xabi Alonso was.

I already said this many times here, Xabi Alonso didn't care if you were Cristiano Ronaldo, Granero or a youth player. If you were not tracking back, if you didn't pressure, if you were misplacing passes or getting yellow cards for silly tackles - he'd shout at you and tell you to get your shit together. I remember in this one game he was giving Cristiano a full blown verbal smackdown cause he wasn't tracking back to help Marcelo in that specific situation. Nobody dared talking to Cristiano like that, but Alonso didn’t give a fk.

We are now a team of friends and that's all good and well, but you need some grit and to stay grounded when shit hits the fan. You need some strong characters in the dressing room, and not just someone like Rudiger who will slap you for no reason lol. It seems that as soon as it's not "good vibes" the players are losing their cool now and it's costing us so far this season. At this point I would be shocked if we get out of el classico without a red card or two.

All this doesn't mean Xabi Alonso would be the perfect fit as a manager, but the thought has crossed my mind.

Carlo and the players could still figure this out, and I really hope they do. But this feels like we're coming down off that high of just winning the league and CL and we're not as motivated as we should be. I mean we're sleepwalking through every 1st half now. It's not just one player and it's not just one game.

 

You can forget about that part. Yamal is the real deal, as much as I hate to say it Barca has gotten themselves another WC talent for free.

 

All this “physicality” and we still don’t press……so strange.

We should be absolutely suffocating teams.

Mendy-Jude-Fede-Cama-Tchou-Carvajal

and aggress CBs like Militao and Rudiger…..

Imagine what Klopp would do with that in terms of the press lol

 

I’m actually really looking forward to the next game: hoping on a big response from the team. Playing home should also help.

They can still turn things around, up to Carlo and the team to make things click. We have talent. It might not be our best ever team or just lacking in some departments (game controlling CM) but we should be able to make it work regardless. To some extent at least.

Yesterday was also one of those times where everything goes wrong. Simple passes etc. Admittedly we’ve had a lot of that for the past two months and it might be hoping against hope but I still trust Carlo unlocking it all some way or another.

And if not: owh well, bad seasons happen. We’ve been incredibly fortunate the last decade. No reason to lower standards of course; that’s how you end up in a United situation.

 

That's on Carlo. The club knew what they were getting when they signed him and gave him an extension so there's not much of a point in complaining now.

 

Yeah, this squad is pretty one dimensional in that regard. All our starting mids are essentially the same profile, ditto for the front 3 trio who all prefer the LW and same play style. It just doesn't mesh so far and makes for chaotic football. These are all high IQ footballers, but the margins for error in La Liga are razor thin and there isn't much time to figure things out on the fly.

Compounded by all of this is that our bench simply isn't very strong and the starting 11 have no competition to worry about here.

 

Klopp made a machine out of Liverpool with a donkey midfield of Fabinho, Henderson and Wijnaldum. He reached 3 CL finals, he’s my guy in the summer. Imagine what this guy can do with all the talent we have in midfield.

We press like amateurs and that’s why we get played often by mediocre teams, with a capable manager. it’s quite disturbing that after 3 years there aren’t any automatisms in the team, press is shit.

We played Jude Vini ball last year and it somehow got us the CL and La Liga. They delivered tho, when they don’t you get to watch this shit.

And stop this 442 BS, it’s crap. We don’t create enough, Benfica put 4 past Atlético, we barely managed one. And if you insist on 442, at least drop Tchou and let Arda play with Belli behind Vini - Mbappe.

 

3 CLs finals vs. 5 CL trophies with two teams. Klopp not even close to what Anchi achieved.

 

in what world will Vinny and Mbappe press like Salah/Mane?

klopps team also burn out by the business end of the season. I’m not saying we shouldn’t press more but Klopp benefited from the luxury of great recruitment and playing for underdog clubs that matched his personality.

Klopp would flame out here faster than Benitez

 

There is still time to delete this.

 

In a world if they want to play for Real they will press. Salah and to a lesser extend Mane had egos too.

If they want to succeed they have to run. In the end if they press up high, it’s less tiring than getting their ass back to our own half to defend.

 

just completed watching replay -"The only thing that bothers me is the collective mess."

 

Salah and Mane were nobody’s before they played for Klopp. imagine klopp walking in and shouting at Vinny/Mbappe to run and press…. Then benching them if they don’t?

I agree, effort needs to improve but Klopp is not the solution.

 

The physical approach can work, Carlo is just not the coach to make it work though.

 

Again, it will only benefit them. If they press up high, we win the ball back high up the pitch, which makes the distance between us and the goal less. They make less KM’s in comparison when now they have to run all the way back to our own half when we form a low block and when we win possession in our own half they have to cover a lot of ground to get in the oppositions box. This is the tiring thing, watching Fede and Bellingham gassing themselves up running all over the pitch, because there is no clear (press) system.

And after Salah and Mane became ‘somebody they still played the same football, same press.

Haaland, Salah, Robben, Ribery, Messi etc, names don’t matter when a coach tells you to play a certain way or to press you do it, for the club, as they should.

We agree to disagree then.

 

Disagree, Salah was putting out respectable numbers in Serie A before Klopp.
And Mane likewise had G+A numbers in the double digits for Southampton.