by South Coast Royal »
05 Jan 2021 11:34
URZZZZ Ascotexgunner Trent Arnold has never impressed me as a defender. Going forward he is one of the best but he has been utterly shocking tonight. Since Van Dijk has been injured he has bang average.
I'd rather have Bertrand.
Lost the ball 38 times tonight, the most in any game this season, and was at fault for their goal
Whilst Trent isn’t the greatest at defending, he usually has the extra cover of Fabinho and Henderson ahead of him who are good at sitting in where gaps are left by Liverpool’s high positional fullbacks. Obviously, with them both playing at CB last night, there was less cover for them
Whilst I’m reading a very small minority of Liverpool fans saying “Klopp is finished” - which is ridiculous, not sure about the XI and subs yesterday. Surprised he didn’t start one young un at CB, missed the presence of Fabinho/Henderson in midfield. Never rated Chamberlain, it’s always one good performance from him followed by five average ones, and given his injury tendencies, not sure what he’s still doing there. Milner was a strange sub too, was awful when he came on
Do feel a bit for Minamino, scored the first in the 7-0 win against Palace, and set the tempo in a good performance, yet hasn’t been seen in the last three games where they’ve picked up 2 points out of 9, whilst seeing the likes of Jones, Origi, Chamberlain and Shaqiri all on ahead of him
Big game for Liverpool next, at home to United - but I suppose they’re a lot stronger at home so can see them still winning
Agreed that Henderson should have stayed in midfield (not just an after the event comment-see my fear yesterday over set pieces) and one of the young centre-backs to have started.
I don't generally like players playing out of position whether it be right-footed left-backs or centre-backs pushed into midfield or midfielders playing centre-back and prefer sometimes players with lesser overall ability being selected for their specialist position.
All the talk early on in the season was how badly Liverpool would do without VVD but as Sangers pointed out yesterday the defensive record without him has been excellent and without him they have been at the top for months.
What I feel has contributed lately to the stutter in results is the injury to Jota.
He arrived at just the right time and produced the spark from day one, giving Klopp the option of changing or subbing the fab 3.
It worked better than anyone might have imagined and he was playing so well that Klopp accommodated him in midfield as he felt that he just couldn't leave him out.
Since his injury Liverpool have been the Liverpool that we have come to expect in thrashing Wolves and Palace but have struggled to break down the obstinate defences of WBA, Newcastle and now Southampton.
Nobody can be sure about what might have happened in any game but I do feel that at least one of those games would have yielded a win if not two, making Liverpool 4 points clear at the top.
Unfortunately he did get injured and with the fab 3 being a bit predictable of late Liverpool have dropped points.
City , Spurs and Man Utd have all had similar poor spells this season-hopefully Liverpool will be back on song against Man Utd shortly with the fragile Matip returning and the influential Henderson playing in his right position.
From a neutral's perspective this bad few games from Liverpool makes the season more interesting but cream normally reaches the top and, as posted elsewhere, I don't see beyond City or Liverpool to be champions.