Our style of play

[Mark79]

We are definitely starting to see what the outcomes are without this solid approach. It seems to me that the fit with Julian Ward has not worked out and the transfers he has arranged have not been as successful as the Edwards golden era. He seemed specifically only able to leverage the Portuguese market.

We also struck gold with player like Mane, Wijnaldum, Virgil who all knew the League.

I like the sounds of our transfer plans this summer, and hope they can be as transformative as we need them to be.

This season cannot end soon enough.

Not sure how much we can pin on Ward with effectively only 6 months in the seat. The process was clearly fractured long beforehand.

Also the signings under his tenure have come from the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Italy and one from Portugal.

[The_weatherman]

I'm now at a point where I'm just satisfied that we're probably safe from relegation, this is a weird season after strange seasons of Covid and general overplaying and fixture congestions. We have a record number of sackings and other teams are in trouble, Arsenal's resurgence was perfectly timed tbh.

Klopp himself seems lost in his own thinking but he'll of course get this summer and next season to put things right. Don't really care anymore where we'll finish, just want a brutal clearout in the summer.

[Shaggy]

Can anyone explain to me what the plan is supposed to be with Nunez and Gakpo? Because I've tried, I really have, but I don't get it. Nunez was playing up front until we signed Gakpo, and now he's shunted to the left.

Most of our attackers would suit playing centrally - Salah included - and we don't have that explosiveness out wide, that we used to have under prime Salah and Mane.

The midfield is done. I'm not even mad at Fabinho and Henderson. I had a brief moment during the game when I thought maybe Fabinho could be our 4th CB alongside Gomez, but then he did some daft things, and I slapped myself across the face with a piece of salmon.

I've pointed this out with Trent, but I'm worried that our youngish players look like they're running with cement in their boots. Tsimikas, Gomez, Konate, Jones, they all look like they don't have that agility, as though they've tucked into a buffet pre-match.

We're struggling to create, and we're easy to play through.

I don't understand what we're even supposed to be anymore.

It's a bit of a mess alright. We've ended up with a load of players who can/like playing from the left - Diaz, Jota, Nunez, Gakpo - and only one who is comfortable on the right in Salah.

We clearly bought Nunez as a CF and we've ended up shunting him out wide. He's done ok there but let's be honest, he's a striker who wants to play through the middle and I'd rather see him through the middle too, especially when Diaz is back.

[Buzzo]

Not sure how much we can pin on Ward with effectively only 6 months in the seat. The process was clearly fractured long beforehand.

Also the signings under his tenure have come from the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Italy and one from Portugal.

I'm still blaming him and Peps book personally. Scapegoating is the only way forward here.

[Exiled_red]

It's a bit of a mess alright. We've ended up with a load of players who can/like playing from the left - Diaz, Jota, Nunez, Gakpo - and only one who is comfortable on the right in Salah.

We clearly bought Nunez as a CF and we've ended up shunting him out wide. He's done ok there but let's be honest, he's a striker who wants to play through the middle and I'd rather see him through the middle too, especially when Diaz is back.

We have Carvalho as well who prefers to play from the left (although we have barely seen him since the first few weeks of the season). At the start of the season I thought our preferred front line would be Diaz, Nunez and Salah, obviously Diaz has been injured, Nunez has been shunted to the left, Gakpo who we though preferred to play from the left has played through the middle.

We have Diaz, Gakpo, Jota and Carvalho who would all prefer to play from the left, Nunez and Firmino who play through the middle and Salah who plays from the right, given Firmino is probably leaving in the summer and we desperately need to strengthen elsewhere the forward line has good players but the distribution of where they want to play is very unbalanced.

[Exiled_red]

In terms of what we need to do going forward from here we need to sort the midfield out we need to have quality players who can play the game at the right tempo, but we need options I think we need to have the ability to switch between playing two number 6 types and two number 8 type midfielders as the games require it, we need to get our fast free flowing attack and pressing game going again, because all have been lacking this season.

[Mark79]

I'm still blaming him and Peps book personally. Scapegoating is the only way forward here.

There’s always some ******* who’s presumably responsible.

[Tribute]

Right now, we could play any formation you want and we'd still be absolutely ****ing terrible. It's gone passed the formation discussion now, it's a general malaise/burnout of the whole squad - mentally and physically - that's playing out in front of us now.

I think the United game was a complete fluke result and papered over the gaping cracks. For some reason, everything clicked in that game. Everything since has shown signs of fatigue, lack of desire and depleted energy levels, irrespective of who starts and who comes on. Mind boggling.

Arsenal will take us to the cleaners on Sunday. If they get an early goal, we'll go out with a whimper and lose five or six-nil. I really don't know what Klopp can do between now and then to improve/reenergise at least some of the individual performances. After every game he talks up that performances like that can't be allowed to happen again. Then they happen again. Rinse and repeat for the season.

For me, Arsenal is a free hit. We're expected to lose so why not change it up properly... switch out some players, change the formation and play to the strengths of the team selected, not a preferred formation... it can't be any worse.

[Harv]

Ive always been anti Trent in midfield....but im starting to think he might actually be decent there. Its surely worth a shot to see how he goes now that the season is pretty much done.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Ive always been anti Trent in midfield....but im starting to think he might actually be decent there. Its surely worth a shot to see how he goes now that the season is pretty much done.

Think he would be utter muck in the middle. If he cannot track a runner on the flank and is limited in his movement/mobility on a flank, then how bad would be be in the centre when he is responsibe for tracking multiple runners and needing far more mobility?

He would also get far less time on the ball if he played in the middle.


He might be 24 but he currently plays like he is 34 and an old 34 at that.


A spell on the bench might be better for him and leave Gomez at RB for a run of games. Might light a fire in TAA and get him going again. Gomez might not offer the same going forward as an inform TAA but then again TAA does not really offer that anymore either.

Gomez was solid at RB last night and right now simply being solid beats being poor/out of form.

[Angryred]

Definitely don't want us to finish in the conference league places as rather we go into the Europa league if the CL place is not attainable in the next 10 games.

It's a trophy Klopp has not yet won although we gave it a good go in his first season!

[Doc_Piptorious]

Definitely don't want us to finish in the conference league places as rather we go into the Europa league if the CL place is not attainable in the next 10 games.

It's a trophy Klopp has not yet won although we gave it a good go in his first season!

[baitman]

All the talk about who we play in the middle, who prefers to play on the left, etc, we can re-jig until it goes dark.
The one area we can't offer any options is midfield.
If we swap A for B we are still ****e...
We have no quality in this area.
We have a surplus of attackers and, at a push, attacking midfielders too.
We need to move a few players around so we can introduce some fresh legs who can actually move around the pitch...
We'd do better with a midfield three of gakpo central and carvalho on the right and robbo on the left. The current midfield has **** all to offer.
We are short on options (fitness, ****ness) but klopp can't keep serving up the same **** without trying some other options.
Or even play 442 to give us a bit less ground to cover and stop us being so easy to play through.

[Irishnev]

I might be in the minority here but I do hope we get Europe, even the conference league. Go and win the ****ing thing and play all the back ups - they’ll get games and hopefully confidence from it. It would be another trophy in the board and those aren’t to be sneezed at. In addition, Klopp has gone back to his flogging players to death policy with no rotation. Keeping the first team fresh will help plus as we know in this club EVERY PENNY counts - some Europe is better than no Europe

[greenturnip]

The Europa is tricky in the final stages due to the CL dropouts. But it's the Thursday nights I don't like.