Liverpool fans debate just how much they miss £105m midfield ace

Oli Fisher

Liverpool fans debate whether they are still missing Philippe Coutinho, while our Man Utd readers preview their clash with Fulham in Your Says of the Day.

Got something to get off your chest? You can join the debate on our forums here.

 

Missing Coutinho?

Read a lot about how we miss Coutinho and yeah I agree in some instances we do. But I also remember how fragile we looked with him in the centre and how he often ran into traffic cutting in from the left into a low block narrow defence.

I thought Ox was great for us last season. Gave us something different in midfield. The ability to drive at the opposition, to commit defenders freeing up our other attackers and to change the pace of our transition.

I didn’t see the game vs Burnley but heard Keita was good both in defence and attack. This is how I saw him play for RBL, similar to Ox for us. We look best when we play a high tempo and I think Keita could do that. Some creative flair players need more time on the ball to do their thing, especially if they come from a slower league like Spain or Italy.

Whilst in an ideal world we’d have a player for every situation, I say Keita will be our missing link between midfield and attack, and will suit our style more than a Coutinho type.

threeps

The thing is that both Ox and Keita are similar players to Coutinho and we have missed Oxlade very much since his injury and Keita has taken some time to adapt to a new league so some of our posters here mix that with us missing Coutinho.

It was the best game I´ve seen Keita play and he proved to be a goal threat, unlucky not to get the goal, Hart really had to step up to deny him, another shot from him got cleared off the line as well.

It also seems to me that Trent is a much better set-piece taker than Coutinho, its something that has escaped most of us this season but we are proving to be a real handful at set-pieces this season.

notorious bingo

Excellent post bingo and yes I agree that Ox and Naby are wonderful players for that system. But for me to have a complete midfied tactically I still feel we need a Coutinho type. For me Naby is no where near Coutinho in terms of dribbling, Ox and Naby are “power runners” more so than dribblers. Of course we could get into a debate about what is dribbling, but I feel Coutinho is the type of person that even without pace he is still a tricky player but take pace away from Ox for example and you lose the forward thrust and creativity that makes ox so good. As I said ox and Naby overlap each other in terms of attacking qualities but what we still need is a Trickster a Maverick. Just like how Kevin debyrune gives Man City that extra alternative “edge”. Man city I know haven’t looked like they missed de bryune lol but when he is back in the team he gives pep another alternative weapon that they don’t really have.

Regardless, I think if Naby can play like that more often then we have enough to win the league this year and also as you said Bingo previously it looks like we may be waiting for Pulisic to provide the extra creative edge from deep in midfield.

mwake

Trent is a better set piece taker than Coutinho? Are you on crack? How short people’s memories are!

nediarb2

More from Planet Sport: EXCLUSIVE: Tommy Haas makes bold prediction over Roger Federer’s future (Tennis365)

Pulisic is a winger and has never played deep. Not sure why people keep mentioning him as an option in the midfield 3.

Coutinho is a great player, don’t think anyone can really deny that. But was he ideal for our team? Klopp likes his central players to have bags of energy and work their socks off, not sure if they are attributes you can associate with him. I disagree with the idea that Coutinho and Ox are similar other than they are attack minded, as mentioned already Ox is more about direct running. He also works very hard for the team. Don’t think I ever seen Man City scared so much as when Ox played against them. He gives our midfield a different dynamic, I am sure Naby will do the same, and still have the right work ethic for the way Klopp likes to play.

threeps

Trent Alexander-Arnold TEAMtalk

Trent has a good freekick on him sometimes but ya, nowhere near Coutinho’s level, YET. I think if he works on on this and with some luck he could be a fantastic set-piece taker though.

MrMakaveli

Actually in Trent I don’t know why Klopp doesn’t just play him as the attacking midfielder. This is his favourite position, this was the position he played in academy. Also his training defender would help us to press higher up the pitch. And not to forget Trent attacking abilities including long range shots would be an asset! Not sure that’s going to happen now that Gomez is injured but if Clyne the forgotten man came back then I’d like to see it as at least an experiment for ten minutes or so.

mwake

 

Get the latest personalised Reds products on our new TEAMtalk Liverpool shop!

 

Kepa regret?

And so I just thought I’d single out Kepa for our man of the match award for Fulham and present a statistic to you all…

But the signs are that our young, very expensive, “not all there to be a keeper” Kepa is raising his game to play for an elite football club like Chelsea.

Sunday’s clean sheet is zazazazaza’s seventh of the season. Only bettered by Liverpool’s Roma flop and girly named Allison and city’s Ederson who have 9 and 8 respectively.

Sarri said we won ugly but the points were massive. Hope he had a little pat on the back for Kepa who did everything he needed to do well. His two saves moved the ball away from the danger areas.

A post from the keepers union and I think he’s being doing the basics well and show glimpses of a little genius… been some good saves along the way. Impressive stuff and probably needs more time to build up his communication. But the signs are really positive we’ve got a super keeper in development. Looking a shrewd bit of business despite the price tag.

romansdirtypants

I have to agree that he was really good against Fulham. But if you watched Liverpool vs Everton, Alisson was even more massive and made crazy saves from Walcott one on one and more amazingly André Gomes header. Against us, Alisson saved one on one against Hazard too.

I can’t help to compare these 2 more expensive GK in the world. At the moment I rate Alisson way higher than Kepa. Kepa seems to have hesitations to go out getting the ball. His worst performance was against Spurs, I think that while we would have still lost anyway as everybody played bad: Spurs 2 first goals seemed to be preventable. But I have a high hope and expectation that Kepa will become an important player and a great keeper for us. Like Cech and also Courtois in the past.

aindro

Personally I do not think you can blame Kepa for Spurs as overall it was a dire performance from the whole team

Apart from possibly a goal against Arsenal I do not think Kepa has done much wrong and is slowly finding his feet and so far seems to have done his job well. Considering he is new to the country, the league etc. where it is more physical and he is far from the tallest of keepers I think he has done well

Only time will tell if he is worth the money or not but must admit that so far I am happy with his performances. KTBFFH

CFC1905

The first goal of Wolves, he should have gotten it IMO. It’s a relatively tight angle. I did not want us to buy Alisson as he was very expensive. Yet then we bought a smaller keeper with an even more expensive price. Granted we were in a difficult situation as Courtois engineered to move. But I think we shouldn’t have spent 70m for a keeper. Kepa is not bad IMO, but what does he have more than Butland or Nick Pope who should have been available for way less price?

And looking at their performances: Liverpool look clearly to have gotten the better deal than us. Alisson is big, massive with a special reflexes and good passing skills and he has won Liverpool points this season. Kepa is smaller, good reflexes I have to admit but very poor positioning and very poor cross-handling. At the moment they are not comparable. Alisson wins big time.

I don’t think we even bid for Alisson knowing that his heart seemed to go to Liverpool. And yes indeed, I did not expect the goal either. I thought it was a pretty tight angle but somehow the ball slipped between Kepa’s hand and body. And as Sarri said: we weren’t the same team anymore after that goal. And to the striker’s credit: he did hit the ball perfectly. Hard and low.

And I hope you are right, that Kepa will become like de Gea, a rock for our team. At the moment I am just a bit disappointed probably due to high expectation as his transfer fee was very high. I still think that the first and the second goal of Spurs and the first goal of Wolves yesteray should all have been preventable. Hope that Kepa will perform miracle and save us from a defeat against City !! Unlikely but never say never. When a GK is having his day everything is possible

aindro

 

Get the latest personalised Blues products on our new TEAMtalk Chelsea shop!

 

Fulham beckons

Surely we are due to whop somebody, and Fulham have to be the team to do it against, and we at home.

mufc

0-0 if Lukaku starts
3-1 if he doesn’t start
4-0 if both Lukaku and Matic don’t start

manthistle

Anyone care to predict the team which is harder than predicting the result these days?

yorkshireman200

Jose Mourinho Manchester United

Thought Bailly was pretty good last night, wonder if he’ll retain his place.
I’d say we’ll win this one 2-0

happyhurling

Impossible to know who will start against Fulham. As much down to injuries/recoveries as performance.
I’d love to see Shaw and Dalot at full back but looking at how Dalot faded against Arsenal I wouldn’t be surprised if he was rested and given a full 90 mins against Valencia

homerjay540

“Whop” somebody? Still waiting for this greatness to unfold i see MUFC? Keep hoping! I’m simply waiting for an absolution ;and if your after a pic MUFC picture me as the 84 year old lady from the film titanic!

united_we_win

Man Utd 3-0, our squad is better than Fulham’s and not winning would be down to either the players not performing or the manager po icing his favourites.

scholesy

if you play like you did against us you should win this at home, who ever he picks
Fulham are not doing well BUT they do have the new manager effect so may be better than before Claudio came in, i will still go for a 3-1 United win..

steveosnakeeye

 

Get the latest personalised Red Devils products on our new TEAMtalk Man Utd shop!