Our style of play

[baitman]

Carra has been firmly whipped to tow the Sky line, why not show Messi, Suarez and Neymar or Ronaldo, Bale and Benzema or Neymar, Mbappe and Cavani.......

Spitty has been emasculated.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Carra has been firmly whipped to tow the Sky line, why not show Messi, Suarez and Neymar or Ronaldo, Bale and Benzema or Neymar, Mbappe and Cavani.......

I get the impression it is as much him showing his own character and lack of any original thought or insight regarding the game as it is towing a company line.

He seems to like pushing himself as some kind of football guru and being full of tactical insight. Shame all of it with him is after the event and even then he can still come across as clueless and/or badly out of touch with anything modern in the game.

[Buzzo]

His point was that most successful forward lines get broken up after 3 years.

I’m not sure how much substance there is to his point. Plus we have brought Jota in, just unfortunate he is injured.

[vlahka]

Ignoring other leagues as they are different, and ronaldo and messi are just so good they'll make anyone below them decent, when Jota came in he started scoring every game while our forwards were all over the place. Since he left they've still been all over the place. If our injuries mattered that much then Jota should have also had a hard time. Theres clearly a problem with the front 3. And besides, you cant argue the goals have gone down each season. We were destroying teams last season and the one before. Surely our goal tally should have been higher than previous seasons, not the other way round.

[baitman]

Ignoring other leagues as they are different, and ronaldo and messi are just so good they'll make anyone below them decent, when Jota came in he started scoring every game while our forwards were all over the place. Since he left they've still been all over the place. If our injuries mattered that much then Jota should have also had a hard time. Theres clearly a problem with the front 3. And besides, you cant argue the goals have gone down each season. We were destroying teams last season and the one before. Surely our goal tally should have been higher than previous seasons, not the other way round.

Salah and, to a lesser extent, Mane started playing for themselves to possibility (definitely) steal all the glory and get themselves a mega move.
Im not too sure whats the issue with Bobby, maybe he has lost his mojo because he feels the animosity between the other two

[Fredo]

Bobby has never been a goalscorer and he hasn't been playing that badly lately.

[Tribute]

Our style of play

Hardly statistically valid, that table. This seasons numbers include our current stink patch which we could easily turn around again... Statistics can prove whatever you want if you choose to spin them a certain way. Carra is a droning bore now, Neville - even with his more Utd bias these days - is easier to listen to and makes decent points. Carra’s performance has fallen off a cliff more so than ours on the pitch. Starting to believe his own hype...

[Charly]

Bobby has never been a goalscorer and he hasn't been playing that badly lately.

He has gone from better than a goal every three games to every four. He has been in decline over the past two seasons. Been very poor the last month. I really hope he gets back to his best form. He is 30 this year. We should definitely be looking for a long term replacement. Youd think he would be able to play into his mid 30s, but I think unless he regains his form from 2 years ago, we need better to compete at the top.

Seems cold, but he has no real competition for his place. Not sure that a Jota-Mane-Salah front three is workable from a tactical stand point, but hopefully we will get to try it out a bit more. Perhaps Firmino just needs a good rest.

I dont think it has been a problem as our supply lines come from our fullbacks, but this past month has exposed our lack of creativity through the middle (and maybe that is harsh, as we have created chances). Firmino should be the focal point for our attacks, but I am not seeing a playmaker, just a cog in the machine. Be interesting to see how much time Firmino spends on the ball before playing it. Perhaps we need to slow it down a bit, and allow him a bit more tie and space to pick the lock. All the one touch football is nice to look at, but not always more effective if the movement is lacking.

Sorry ... that turned into a disjointed ramble, most if which is inaccurate, or misremembered. Must be the snow. And old age.

[Maxiedge]

Bobby has never been a goalscorer and he hasn't been playing that badly lately.

Fredo, I'm with you on the optimistic front but Firmino has been awful* this year. It's been a major factor in our level drop. It's been so long that it's easy to forget how good he used to be.

*relative to the standards he's set

[Fredo]

I think the evolution of this team is quite clear; ball playing centre backs and playing total football, keeping possession and controlling the intensity levels during games. I have a feeling that Fabinho as a centre half was already something Klopp thought about last year, with Virgil his partner. The advantages of having him there is that we have a lot of the ball in these positions and it's crucial to our forward play that we control our attacks and know when to attack and pass well in certain situations. And that is maybe, in my opinion, the reason why we are being fussy with signing a centre back right now.

I thought we were excellent at that last night, as Hendo took that mantle and we absoutely cut through them with brilliant incisive passing from the back into midfield and into our front 3. Spurs could not live with us and we should have really won that game 4-1.

[Buzzo]

I think the evolution of this team is quite clear; ball playing centre backs and playing total football, keeping possession and controlling the intensity levels during games. I have a feeling that Fabinho as a centre half was already something Klopp thought about last year, with Virgil his partner. The advantages of having him there is that we have a lot of the ball in these positions and it's crucial to our forward play that we control our attacks and know when to attack and pass well in certain situations. And that is maybe, in my opinion, the reason why we are being fussy with signing a centre back right now.

I thought we were excellent at that last night, as Hendo took that mantle and we absoutely cut through them with brilliant incisive passing from the back into midfield and into our front 3. Spurs could not live with us and we should have really won that game 4-1.

Hendo was in full Libero mode last night. I suspect he might have to get used to playing at the back.

[Norbs]

I think the evolution of this team is quite clear; ball playing centre backs and playing total football, keeping possession and controlling the intensity levels during games. I have a feeling that Fabinho as a centre half was already something Klopp thought about last year, with Virgil his partner. The advantages of having him there is that we have a lot of the ball in these positions and it's crucial to our forward play that we control our attacks and know when to attack and pass well in certain situations. And that is maybe, in my opinion, the reason why we are being fussy with signing a centre back right now.

I thought we were excellent at that last night, as Hendo took that mantle and we absoutely cut through them with brilliant incisive passing from the back into midfield and into our front 3. Spurs could not live with us and we should have really won that game 4-1.

Last night's success was more about how Spurs were playing than how we wanted to play. Had their goal stood we would probably have been frustrated again. They were trying to hit us early and in the first 15 minutes it looked more when than if they'd score. Once we went ahead Mourinho risked it for once as he knew they needed something from the game.

[Exiled_red]

Last night's success was more about how Spurs were playing than how we wanted to play. Had their goal stood we would probably have been frustrated again. They were trying to hit us early and in the first 15 minutes it looked more when than if they'd score. Once we went ahead Mourinho risked it for once as he knew they needed something from the game.

I agree that that contributed to the situation, but I think (hope) that the issue was also confidence, which a number of players were lacking prior to last nights game, hopefully the good performances that those guys put in will give them the boost in confidence that they need to push on and put the bad spell behind us.

[Norbs]

I agree that that contributed to the situation, but I think (hope) that the issue was also confidence, which a number of players were lacking prior to last nights game, hopefully the good performances that those guys put in will give them the boost in confidence that they need to push on and put the bad spell behind us.

I hope it helps with confidence too, we'll see soon enough

[Paul12]

We have started to struggle against teams that (a) pack their defence and (b) those defenders do an average job. Spurs did not do (b). We will find out in due course whether we have solved (a).