Our style of play

[Doc_Piptorious]

We are out run and out sprinted in most games and I think the tot started last season as well. Arne said it openly that teams changed how they played vs us the second time they played us by going long and bypassing our press which could also explain the lack of running I.e. no opportunity to press.

We just seem poorly coached right now which is so surprising given the full pre season and lacking it physicality which is also surprising as we have big lads everywhere. Grav, Cody, Isak and Hugo all seem to be quite soft and not aggressive for their size

Hardly surprising we are being out ran if we are giving toddlers starts in the first team.

[little dave hedgehog]

we do look spent somehow. virgil's brain farts look like mental fatigue to me. i saw us not bothering to challenge for loose balls as well, and just watching their defenders mop up when we could've at least tried to put them off. maybe someone with no connection to jota is an idea just for the sake of everyone's sanity.

[peterbread]

We are out run and out sprinted in most games and I think the tot started last season as well. Arne said it openly that teams changed how they played vs us the second time they played us by going long and bypassing our press which could also explain the lack of running I.e. no opportunity to press.

We just seem poorly coached right now which is so surprising given the full pre season and lacking it physicality which is also surprising as we have big lads everywhere. Grav, Cody, Isak and Hugo all seem to be quite soft and not aggressive for their size

We’ve lost so much physicality in the squad. I don’t remember the team getting bullied or outfought in the past.

There was a real fighting attitude in so many players which is what this team needs big time. Gakpo is one who’s been talked about a lot in this area. A big guy who should be using his physicality to dominate but he doesn’t have that attitude in him.

Kerkez looked like that type of player at Bournemouth but the way he’s being coached is taking all of those qualities out of his game.

It’s one area you need to make sure you have in this league. You aren’t getting away with a soft team. It may work in European football but love it or hate it that’s what it takes to win in England. The type of football he seems to want to play doesn’t suit the league Liverpool are in. Everything the squad had that let them dominate is being taken away for stuff that doesn’t work.

[vlahka]

Slots trying to make us into a nice play fair team who isnt rough or cheats or anything. Proper pinky out tea drinkers. Like this is going to get us respect from teams and refs or something.

[baitman]

The drop off since we were confirmed as champions has been alarming.
The end of last season sown a lack of solid management and allowed the players to turn up and play with their slippers on. That's just not good enough.
Then at the start of this season we were known for last gasp winners, but why were the players not showing as much fight and directness for the rest of the game...
Not enough effort from the established players and the management allowing this to happen.
And this rot has continued and festered and now we are showing relegation form!

[Exiled_red]

The drop off since we were confirmed as champions has been alarming.
The end of last season sown a lack of solid management and allowed the players to turn up and play with their slippers on. That's just not good enough.
Then at the start of this season we were known for last gasp winners, but why were the players not showing as much fight and directness for the rest of the game...
Not enough effort from the established players and the management allowing this to happen.
And this rot has continued and festered and now we are showing relegation form!

It started before we were confirmed as Champions, probably dates back to around the PSG games last season. We somewhat limped over the line, not necessarily in terms of results but certainly in terms of performances.

[Doc_Piptorious]

It started before we were confirmed as Champions, probably dates back to around the PSG games last season. We somewhat limped over the line, not necessarily in terms of results but certainly in terms of performances.

We did have an awful lot of games between January and April too though as we had the PL games, CL games, FA cup and league cup games along with an internatinal break or two forcing a lot of our games to be close together.


Just looking at those PSG games on the 5th and 11th March.

We had games on the 5th March, 8th March, 11th March and the 16th March.

Then straight into an international break followed by 5 games in April.


Yes more games is the price you pay for success, but we were running on fumes by the time we came out of March imo.

[Exiled_red]

We did have an awful lot of games between January and April too though as we had the PL games, CL games, FA cup and league cup games along with an internatinal break or two forcing a lot of our games to be close together.


Just looking at those PSG games on the 5th and 11th March.

We had games on the 5th March, 8th March, 11th March and the 16th March.

Then straight into an international break followed by 5 games in April.


Yes more games is the price you pay for success, but we were running on fumes by the time we came out of March imo.

Yes tiredness and squad size etc due to large numbers of fixtures were an issue, but that is something that we have dealt with before the year we went for the quad until late on in the season for example we were knackered but the performances weren't as bad as last season.

Obviously you can say Klopp was happy to use more of his squad, but despite the amount of money we have spent in the summer we haven't increased the size of the squad really. We brought in Isak, Ekitike, Wirtz, Frimpong Kerkez, Mamardashvilli and Leoni to replace Nunez, Diaz, Elliott, TAA, Tsimikas, Kelleher and Quansah. Quality wise (on paper at least those are improvements in many cases) but numbers wise we are back where we were

[danperkins]

Hardly surprising we are being out ran if we are giving toddlers starts in the first team.

Kerkez does have the leg length of a toddler in fairness

[danperkins]

We’ve lost so much physicality in the squad. I don’t remember the team getting bullied or outfought in the past.

There was a real fighting attitude in so many players which is what this team needs big time. Gakpo is one who’s been talked about a lot in this area. A big guy who should be using his physicality to dominate but he doesn’t have that attitude in him.

Kerkez looked like that type of player at Bournemouth but the way he’s being coached is taking all of those qualities out of his game.

It’s one area you need to make sure you have in this league. You aren’t getting away with a soft team. It may work in European football but love it or hate it that’s what it takes to win in England. The type of football he seems to want to play doesn’t suit the league Liverpool are in. Everything the squad had that let them dominate is being taken away for stuff that doesn’t work.

there is an obvious lack of pace & balance in our setup but 100% there is a lack of passion and balls this season. Every team needs a bit of nasty & if you are not nasty well at least be willing to put in the hard yards and get stuck in. The only one that can say he's given everything this season is Szob, the rest have been fairly pathetic. Now is a time when we need fighters and lads willing to put their bodies on the line & that kind of commitment inspires others & that can spread throughout a team aswell. I think we all know Endo & Chiesa are not worldies and are limited but we are so desperate to see some passion and fight which both have in abundance but whom Slot just genuinely seems to not rate whatsoever. It's all very strange.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Kerkez does have the leg length of a toddler in fairness

Could you not have picked one of the shorter players? Kerkez is just an inch under six foot tall.

At 5'7 Frimpong and Rio are your men.

[Cerbie]

there is an obvious lack of pace & balance in our setup but 100% there is a lack of passion and balls this season. Every team needs a bit of nasty & if you are not nasty well at least be willing to put in the hard yards and get stuck in. The only one that can say he's given everything this season is Szob, the rest have been fairly pathetic. Now is a time when we need fighters and lads willing to put their bodies on the line & that kind of commitment inspires others & that can spread throughout a team aswell. I think we all know Endo & Chiesa are not worldies and are limited but we are so desperate to see some passion and fight which both have in abundance but whom Slot just genuinely seems to not rate whatsoever. It's all very strange.

100% agree on the Endo and Chiesa comments.

You are being generous there with the bit in bold!

[baitman]

We've gone to **** again.

No eagerness to get stuck in and press, this slotball tika taka **** is the death of football.

Watched motd, they showed the man City highlights, a stark reminder of how far we've fallen.
They play to get the ball forward, not scared to lose possession as they have so much movement and bodies willing to press and recover the ball.

[Catrin]

I have this feeling of Déjà vu regarding our squad.

Back in the 90’s we had Barnes and Redknapp in midfield and things were great when we had the ball but ****e as soon as we lost it. Defending for them wasn’t a natural part of their game. They tried, they did their chores, but it wasn’t what they were good at. We signed Paul Ince, who wasn’t good enough on the ball when we were in possession so he disrupted our passing as much as he did the opposition. It wasn’t until Rafa brought in Mascherano that we had a properly solid midfield between him, Alonso and Stevie. Then later Jurgen with Fabinho, Gini and Henderson.
Alexis and Ryan are both forward-thinking players, both playing as six-ish but the former more of a ten and the latter more of an eight. Fabinho and Mascherano would anticipate where the second balls would drop and react before anyone else saw what was happening. Alexis and Ryan don’t have those instincts. I think a proper six who can pass would transform us.

[Exiled_red]

This is not so much of a style of play thing but a squad issue, I am looking at the squad and feeling there aren't alot of players in there who can play a full 90 mins (or 100+ however long football games really are these days...). It feels like our struggles in later parts of games are due to not having the ability to have 11 players who can go for 90mins or subs of sufficient quality to bring on as replacements. I don't think this is due to the way we play as there intensity of our play has dropped over the last couple of years, but I am wondering about fitness and so on, perhaps partly due to what happened in preseason and players coming in who aren't used to the league, plus the usual injuries and niggles.

It feels to me that the likes of Ekitike, Wirtz, Frimpong, and before his injury Isak all needed to be replaced between 60 and 80mins as they were knackered, Isak perhaps due to his short pre-season the others less so. MacAllister hasn't looked on it fitness wise this season, Jones perhaps because he hasn't been used to playing full games back to back, then there are the guys who pick up injuries (Bradle Konate etc who need easing back, on top of trying to give players breaks and rest because of the amount they have played. It feels to me that we probably need to be making 4 or 5 subs a game, but we don't have the numbers to avoid a drop off in quality and worry about burnout or injuries to key players as the season progresses. I really feel we need a number of additions in this window.