Our style of play

[DeeTheDog]

i actually enjoy watching us under Klopp , he tries to win games and play attacking football.

Plus he seems to get the best out of players and improve them.

Just frustrating as **** that we gift goals to the opposition instead of making them work for the goals .

That's it in a nutshell, we play great attack-minded football (some of the best I have seen from a Liverpool side) and unlike past seasons we never look beaten, even when going a goal down; however, we are prone to giving away the weakest of goals.

I just can't fathom the level of negativity and despondency with fellow supporters. I recognise some of the names from the dark days of Koptalk, so they have been through the last few years of Houllier when we were constantly turning corners. The end of Benitez were politics and point scoring appeared more important than football. Hicks, Gillet and near bankruptcy with horror show which was Hodgson's reign running concurrently. With all this in recent memory, how people can see our start of season in negative light in beyond my understanding.

[labourRed]

That's it in a nutshell, we play great attack-minded football (some of the best I have seen from a Liverpool side) and unlike past seasons we never look beaten, even when going a goal down; however, we are prone to giving away the weakest of goals.

I just can't fathom the level of negativity and despondency with fellow supporters. I recognise some of the names from the dark days of Koptalk, so they have been through the last few years of Houllier when we were constantly turning corners. The end of Benitez were politics and point scoring appeared more important than football. Hicks, Gillet and near bankruptcy with horror show which was Hodgson's reign running concurrently. With all this in recent memory, how people can see our start of season in negative light in beyond my understanding.

I'm pretty negative about this season I guess but the level (or scope of that negativity) is key. While I think this is a transitional season (as will next year FWIW) I'm happy with the current direction of the club.

We can't use Hodgson and the club nearly going bankrupt as the base of which to judge a season or else we'll celebrate mediocrity every year. If that's what you're willing to settle for then fair play to you. But currently we have a dreadful defence that will undermine us and we didn't see fit to address in the summer, so that's frustrating. We scraped one win this month and with that there's always going to be some negativity - as there should be with a month like that IMO.

[DeeTheDog]

We can't use Hodgson and the club nearly going bankrupt as the base of which to judge a season or else we'll celebrate mediocrity every year.

It wasn't to be used as a barometer to judge a season (we are not even at the end of September) just as a point in time reference against some of the negative hyperbole by some fans on forums and phone-ins. This was to highlight what a struggling Liverpool team is like.

Results have not been ideal during September but barring City with 10 men we have been the better team in all games. We are a young team and can only get better. We went away in Europe to the top seeds and they kept 11 men behind the ball and celebrated a home draw as an achievement, they can see we are a strong team on the rise. Why can't our own fans?

[baitman]

That's it in a nutshell, we play great attack-minded football (some of the best I have seen from a Liverpool side) and unlike past seasons we never look beaten, even when going a goal down; however, we are prone to giving away the weakest of goals.

I just can't fathom the level of negativity and despondency with fellow supporters. I recognise some of the names from the dark days of Koptalk, so they have been through the last few years of Houllier when we were constantly turning corners. The end of Benitez were politics and point scoring appeared more important than football. Hicks, Gillet and near bankruptcy with horror show which was Hodgson's reign running concurrently. With all this in recent memory, how people can see our start of season in negative light in beyond my understanding.

the attacking is great, the goal scoring is a little less positive though.
also, its worth remembering that the game of football is played all over the pitch... we only seem to function in the oppositions half but go to **** when the opposition have the ball and get into the final third.

thats not being negative, its calling it how it is.

[labourRed]

It wasn't to be used as a barometer to judge a season (we are not even at the end of September) just as a point in time reference against some of the negative hyperbole by some fans on forums and phone-ins. This was to highlight what a struggling Liverpool team is like.

Results have not been ideal during September but barring City with 10 men we have been the better team in all games. We are a young team and can only get better. We went away in Europe to the top seeds and they kept 11 men behind the ball and celebrated a home draw as an achievement, they can see we are a strong team on the rise. Why can't our own fans?

I largely agree we're heading in the right direction but there's still a lot to do. We've been worked out for one.

Everyone knows how to play against us and we know Conte spoke to Moscow's manager... Low block and counter. We're tactically inflexible and don't have the right players at either ends of the pitch and arguably in the center as well (). Again that's not particularly negative, that's just pretty clear to anyone who watches us. We'll need to be patient while Klopp builds a team capable of competing.

[RedReet]

I largely agree we're heading in the right direction but there's still a lot to do. We've been worked out for one.

Everyone knows how to play against us and we know Conte spoke to Moscow's manager... Low block and counter. We're tactically inflexible and don't have the right players at either ends of the pitch and arguably in the center as well (). Again that's not particularly negative, that's just pretty clear to anyone who watches us. We'll need to be patient while Klopp builds a team capable of competing.

Who do you think Klopp would change from our front 4?

[gratziani]

The thing is people said we have been found out but we created a **** load of chances against Spartak with their 11 behind the ball.

When games are over and we don't create anything worthwhile is the time to start worrying.

[Roboklopp]

I’d be very surprised if anyone here is advocating getting rid of Klopp or not giving the due levels of praise he should get for getting us back into the CL. And yes sometimes we play the best attacking football we’ve seen in decades at LFC. If anything though, that adds to the frustration for some because the volatility of our levels of performance from game to game & our quality throughout the different areas of the field is huge - unacceptably so for a team of our standing & ambitions. Klopp himself has said as much in terms of defensively at least.

The frustration is increased cos the problems we have which undermine a huge proportion of the good work we have done are glaringly obvious to even the most casual of football observers & have been endemic within the team since way before Klopp took over. Aye, the optimum level of improving these areas (especially in terms of keeper and defence) might not have been available but there’s no way we couldn’t have improved at least a little over the 4 windows Klopp has had in both personnel and execution.

I don’t know exactly where our defence ranks in the league terms of porousness but it must be within the lower half- say 12/20? That equates to a 4/10. Aye, our style of play might well limit us to being a 7 or 8 but instead of trying to improve to a 5 or 6 we’ve chased an all or nothing approach which has again seen us with a defence that effectively hamstrings us so they still have a negative rather than even a neutral contribution.

Last season we kept bringing on Lucas as a DM & CB & whilst sadly he wasn’t up to the requisite standards, at least DM was his default position. So bringing him on to see out games - whatever the success levels - was at least a tacit admission of the need for such a player as well as another CB. Yet then we sell him with no back up whatsoever, leaving us in an even worse situation.

Transfer window wise, we secure a great CM for next season and a great winger for this but none of the painfully obvious & fundamental issues that have been hampering the team since Rafa’s last season 7 years ago have been addressed properly. Goalie, CB, LB, CM & striker are all still huge issues for us. For the millionth time in our history we **** up the major game changing transfers we are - or at the very least should be- pursuing & leave things to the very last day then publicly secure **** all.

This is the type of ****wittery that’s been endemic within the club for over a decade shows little if any sign of abating. Obviously this is on the club as well as the manager but we still don’t seem to have learned the lessons on or off the pitch. So the fans’ long term frustration bleeds over from previous tenures cos we feel like we’ve seen it all before. Over & over again.

We had a fantastic chance to take the next step and secure ourselves as as real a CL regular as our financial resources allow but whilst we’ve improved some areas of the team, the real problem areas are, if anything, worse; and because as a whole we have at best made small steps forward in absolute terms, relatively we’ve gone backwards because teams around us have either improved or been so far ahead of us as for their status quo not to affect us.

[labourRed]

Who do you think Klopp would change from our front 4?

I think he'll have no choice but to replace Coutinho next year and he'll replace Sturridge when he/the club is able to offload his 150k/wk wage - with a bit of luck this replacement is able to compete with Firmino.

He's also got the burden of Can leaving, a DM/controller need and the obvious issue of the defence is why I point to at least two seasons of building.

[baitman]

our style of play

so [v huddersfield] was gomez used as a third CB, playing a back three.

cant trust moreno to get back so let him run around chasing the bubbles and let klavan [left footed CB] cover the left hand side.

https://www.thisisanfield.com/2017/10/joe-gomez-liverpools-back-three-shape-huddersfield/

a back three means we are less vulnerable to long balls into the space left unoccupied by our full backs, and the central CB [matip] can step forward 10 yards and become a virtual DM.

i think this set up better suits the personnel we have available and also addresses our weaknesses.

we can play taa on the right as a right winger, salah or mane on the left, bring cout or firmino into the 10, with three from can/henderson/grujic/wijnaldum in the middle. mane/salah and taa as wingers.
solanke needs a turn up front.

solanke
salah - coutinho - taa
wijnaldum - henderson - can
klavan - matip - gomez
mignolet

[SB]

If we were to try that I’d prefer this.

Mig
Gomez Matip Klavan
Milner Can Coutinho Wijnaldum
Salah Sturidge or Solanke Firmino

[Norbs]

If we were to try that I’d prefer this.

Mig
Gomez Matip Klavan
Milner Can Coutinho Wijnaldum
Salah Sturidge or Solanke Firmino

Playing with 10 men would seriously hamper us

[baitman]

Playing with 10 men would seriously hamper us

i did see that but i thought i'd let it ride to try and encourage some debate

and possibly spare SB's blushes. ahh **** it

[labourRed]

I think he means Sturidge or Solanke as one player, flanked by Firmino and Salah.

[baitman]

I think he means Sturidge or Solanke as one player, flanked by Firmino and Salah.

which makes 10

****in hell, we could be here all night