‘Klopp plays a high line; why does our keeper not sweep?’

Manchester United have not been tested yet, but when they are will Jose Mourinho park the bus? Our forum users discuss it and Jurgen Klopp “keeps making huge mistakes”. 

Join in the debate here…

 

Martial has filled Perisic void

Perisic would definitely have been an important signing had Martial not stepped up this year; thankfully he did so the failure to sign Perisic has gone totally unnoticed.

Mourinho has been excellent overall in the two Summer Transfer Windows – he knows exactly what we need and gets the right players for it.

I have full faith in him taking us a step up next season again with more funds and more space in the squad to work with (with Carrick and Ibrahimovic undoubtedly being released and possibly even Young – three players on high wages overall).

Sympathy for the devils

 

United haven’t been tested yet

It’s been a very encouraging start for Mourinho and Utd. We look truly energised and revitalised from the side that struggled to put teams away last season.

Each of the players in this team has looked improved and summer signings Lukaku and Matic have been outstanding during the first few weeks of the campaign.

However, we’re only 7 games in and there’s 31 to go, there is a sense that we haven’t truly been tested as yet and tougher fixtures lie ahead. far too early to talk about who the contenders are just yet, us and City have had good starts but its just that, a start we’ll see where we are once Liverpool, Chelsea and City have been played.

TheMartial art

‘Matic, what an upgrade on Carrick’

Agree. Yes,i am one of the anti Mourinho. Never liked his personality and with load of excuses if we lose a game. Havent seen much of this because we havent lost yet.

Brilliant start of the season,goals galore and very very little conceded.

A better spine in the team,DeGea back to his best,CB´s looks solid,Matic what an upgrade from Carrick(told you he was sh*te) Lukaku more mobile than Ibra.

Confidence high not the least on our attackers but Miki can do better than the last games.
Lets see how it pans out,tougher oppoents to come but a brilliant start no doubt.

Zico

 

‘Will he park the bus against the bigger teams?’

hatters – what has surprised me is that based on last season I couldn’t see him getting the best out of Martial and Rashford and Mkhitaryan. The only players who seemed to have progressed under him were defensive players like Rojo and Valencia. The attacking players IMO regressed from the year before.

This season though they have all flourished which I never expected so well done to Jose for doing this. Pleasantly surprised.

He still annoys me with some of his press antics and it is still to be seen whether or not he self destructs over the next few seasons but all is rosy. The other test is to see if he still parks the bus against the bigger teams which I still don’t think a club like Utd should be doing.

manthistle

 

United just lacking ‘quality full-backs’

@manthistle. Fair points. I think ika has explained the reason for the upturn in the form of attacking players perfectly above. Matic has been an absolutely key signing and has released the flankers and Pogba from defensive duties while also screening the defence so well.

Another key signing has been Lukaku who stretches defences instead of dropping back like Zlatan does. Lukaku playing off the shoulder has left a lot more space in and around the box for Mkhitaryan, Mata, Martial, and Rashford to attack.

All in all, though. I was patient with Mourinho last season because I could see he didn’t have the ingredients to play the defensive counter attacking game he wants.

We are now looking a lot more like his successful Chelsea sides – tall, powerful, and solid through the centre with pacy attackers out wide – it makes for a devastating counter attacking side but also a formidable side when the ball is crossed into the box in open play or in set pieces. We are just lacking the quality in the fullback areas.

hatters

 

Need for a striker at Liverpool

I think this thread is fundamentally correct:

It’s true that we’re like a ship with 2 whacking great holes in our hull – but if we go fast enough and work hard enough to pump the water out, everything is OK whilst we motor along. But if we slow down even a little and/or lost focus, we start taking on water and potentially face big trouble.

This is basically the Klopp way. He thinks the answer lies in the attack with pace but with energy/hard work throughout the pitch. Hence his major signings over summer were two more fast hard working wingers. Even Keita is a high energy player who likes to come forward – again, we see the focus on attack and energy.

This is *why* Klopp was happy with the defence he has – because to him the defence is only a small part in his overall philosophy. He probably got away with it in Germany because there’s less physicality when defending corners and also because the opposition is of lower quality.

Now of course if you added some clinical finishers to our side, we’d no doubt be better off than we currently are. I think Ginger said our conceding of 2 goals a game was unsustainable and I don’t disagree with him. But in Klopp’s mind, if we had clinical finishers, we’d win games more quickly and the defence would have less pressure on it. Thus the adding of quality in attack would make his philosophy sustainable.

It is true as others have said that he is building from the front instead of the back. But we don’t yet have that quality in attack. Why did Klopp not look bring in another striker? Probably because to him they also need to have the workrate to go with the quality, and over summer he couldn’t find that dual combination of attributes.

We may well try again for VVD in January, but don’t be surprised if Klopp again focuses on bringing in more attacking high energy players. Because that’s ultimately what he’s all about. It is as though he’s waiting for his Suarez.

Mikus

Liverpool need to ‘find a gem’

I cant remember a team wining the league without a good striker/strike partnership so sooner or later we need to find gem the sooner the better.

Why did Fergie buy van Persie simply because he knew that would mean a league title. The two season we have come close in recent history we had our two best strikers Torres & Suarez that’s no coincidence.

AK

 

Klopp needs two centre-backs and a striker

Nine, we don’t know how good or not Robertson will be so not sure on a left back so may not need a left back (thou agree odd that he’s not getting more games).

Keitas coming in anyway and will improve the midfield no end. A keeper would be great as Migs is not in the top 4 to 5 keepers in the EPL (somewhere underneath) but as I’ve always said I’d like to see him given a regular chance with a settled defence and 2 dominant cbs.

So for me that leaves as a priority 2 cb and a striker.

Bob-Notts

 

Robertson/Moreno debate

Bob,if Robertson can’t displace Moreno that would be a worry if I was a Liverpool fan. Robertson imo is a reflection of Moreno far better in offensive mode than defensive mode.

How many of Mignolet/Karius Clyne,Lovren,Matip and Moreno/,Robertson would get into any of the top 5’s defences in the PL? Not many if any imo and that tells it’s own story.

Liverpool fans understandably want a team that can regularly challenge for the title and tbh I would question whether the current Liverpool team can regularly challenge for a CL place let alone regularly challenge for the title.Joey Barton said the other that Liverpool have a CL attack and a Championship reference and it’s difficult to argue against that.

Keita as I acknowledged in my post above is seemingly coming but he is not an out and out defensive midfielder and even if he was imho that still leaves Liverpool 5 players short of a genuine and regular title challenging team which is really where a club of Liverpool’s status should be and worryingly only West Ham and Palace have shipped more goals than Liverpool this season and this is not a one season issue either.

Also I’m not sure Liverpool’s defensive problems are all personell related and that signing better defenders will totally solve it because I think that it is also a philosophy problem and a defensive Coaching problem which is down to Klopp and his Coaching team.

nine nine nine

 

The Liverpool Standard

I come in as much peace as possible here on the threshold of our upcoming match. I got drawn in by the “50/50 Klopp will be at Liverpool next season” feature on the front page.

For a large part, it’s a discussion of signings and the players you have available to you. It mirrors some of the debate on the United forum: Specifically what is sometimes referred to as the United Standard.

It’s a nomenclature used as short hand for where fans want the club to be. For most, it means something along the lines of being able to consitently challenge in both PL and CL. In order to do that, you need to compete at the same level as clubs like Barca, Real, Bayern, Juve and whichever English teams one is willing to admit perform like that.

To that end, discussing players becomes a little less vague. For me, at least. It becomes necessary to ask yourself the question: Looking at Barca, Real et al, does X player perform at a level or will he realistically start to perform at a level so that he helps the club achieve the United Standard?

At United, I’d say that only DDG, Bailly, Matic, Pogba, Miki, Martial (signs are there, anyway) and Lukaku regularly perform that way. Players like Rashford and Shaw may have the potential but are still too much of a question mark to make that particular cut yet, so to speak.

If, for arguments sake, you were to adopt such a standard at Liverpool (consitently challenging for PL and CL) and you ask yourself the following: Looking at Barca, Real and other teams that consitently challenge domestically and in the CL, which of your players perform at a level that help Liverpool reach the Liverpool Standard?

nil

 

Klopp keeps ‘making huge mistakes’

Nine, i believe our main problem at the back is that the lads are not clued in enough. Its clear to see which way klopp wants us to play. If lovren and matip were on the ball , they simply step up on sundya and the chap is offisde. Same againest leicester when gomez kept 4/5 players on side. We play a high line but why does our keeper not sweep?

klopp is making huge mistakes. He keeps rotatin g the full backs and keepers. Its not working os why persist with it. People keep saying we have a world class attack but they are not showing it. Salah has started well but he should have ten goals this season. He gets 2/3 huge chances every game. Mane has had two bad games in a row. Sturridge cant finish and is done. Firminio is not playing well.

We have good players but i agree. We need a host of players but no sane liverpool fan should be thinking of a pl challenege for a years considering who we are up againest. We are still only a few points behind spurs,aresnal and chelsea but that gap will grow in th enext few games. i be more confident of getting points againest spurs then utd.

its klopps fault he focused on one particualr centre back and we needed two in anyway. It looks like we cant handle two games a week already. We are not in a crisis but we are on a bad run yet are still 2nd in cl group and 7th in pl. A crisis is everton who spent a truckload of money and are 4th bottom.

were ox and robertson even klopp signings? they dont play. Its just bizarre especially robertson who has looked our best defender in all the games he has played. The players cleary are to stupid to follow simple instructions from klop and klopp is to blame because he believes in some of the asbolutle shite we have in the team.

next few weeks is huge. Im finding it hard to be positive as ive seen this all before. I thought we would have got our act together by now at the back. Its a disgrace that we have conceded so many goals already and klopp, the players etc afre all to blame

better players can follow instructions. You follow the ball out from a corner and play the high line. City played it to a tee againest chelsea. Spurs do it al lthe time but we cant.

Sean the Sailor

 Morata blow

1905, his tweet that said that was latterly changed from being available for the Palace game to being available soon.

I think we have to wait for our own medical people’s analysis of the injury but it’s positive that Morata himself doesn’t think it’s as bad as the Spanish Doctors have suggested and I would imagine he is back at Cobham having around the clock treatment which is good news . Fingers crossed eh. Cheers 999

nine nine nine

 

Batshuayi must step up

Batshuayi need to step up ASAP. He has qualities, but even vs Nottm.F, a game in which he got a hattrick, his attitude wasn’t right.

Whenever he went “challenging” for a high ball, this wasn’t done with any real determination, and he was often ballwatching without making moves/runs for a better position.

He need to improve in that respect, as I see it. That said, I still think he should have replaced Morata vs City in stead of Willian.

hyllested

 

Chelsea ‘will bid for Sandro and Sanchez’

I read today that Chelsea will bid for Sandro and Sanchez in January in a way to try and appease Conte and get him to stay

Maybe the board feel the reasonably poor showing in the Summer transfer market is the real reason behind Conte “looking to leave” rather than just being homesick…? KTBFFH

CFC1905

 

Conte exit rumours

I believe this story is pure guesswork/lazy journalism. It’s no secret that Conte misses Italy.

He said so recently, but at the same time, he said that he would honour his contract. It’s seems that there are certain things at Chelsea that Conte isn’t happy with though.

Then Ancelotti is sacked by Bayern Munich, AC Milan have had a so and so start to the new season, and voila!!! “We can make a story with this”.

AC Milan want Conte, and Ancelotti will return to Chelsea, and there it is. Every man and his dog could write that story.

hyllested