Liverpool v Villa (h) PL

[Buzzo]

Lineker, Wright and Shearer all slamming the offside decision for Bobby’s goal.

[calvoboy]

I just don’t see offside in these.

https://twitter.com/lfcnxsir/status/1380896830037368836

Actual photo of Mike Riley overseeing the VAR at Stockley Park

[dom9]

I met him on the way to school one day.

Davros, I mean, not Riley.

[BG1973]

Actual photo of Mike Riley overseeing the VAR at Stockley Park

That's a diservice to intergalactic evil overlords.

[Liverpool]

Didn't watch the game. For the offside goal is there not an argument the villa defence had the chance to reset so previous phase of play can't be offside?

[Irishnev]

It's usually at home against a defensive team where we've been having issues. Not been having issues scoring away from home.

Bielsa is not an idiot - I suspect long balls over our midfield to take pressing out of the game and exploit our high line.

[baitman]

Bielsa is not an idiot - I suspect long balls over our midfield to take pressing out of the game and exploit our high line.

Id have thought that someone at LFC Towers would have asked the defence not to play too far up now we dont have gomez and vvd to easily cover those long balls.

[Exiled_red]

Bielsa is not an idiot - I suspect long balls over our midfield to take pressing out of the game and exploit our high line.

We've done a good job of taking our own pressing out of the game this season

[Fredo]

Id have thought that someone at LFC Towers would have asked the defence not to play too far up now we dont have gomez and vvd to easily cover those long balls.

We can’t. If our high line plays deeper, we’re basically losing the ability to press and play on the front foot and the gap between our lines will get bigger. If we stay compact it will be from the perspective of 10 feet further down and we’ll let opposing teams play from the back as our front line will have to retreat as well.

[Fredo]

Compressing the play is part of our game and I don’t think that’s ever gonna change under Klopp. The key to avoid this is to counter press well and to keep the ball. The times when we’ve had problems are when one of these two elements have gone missing.

[Irishnev]

Compressing the play is part of our game and I don’t think that’s ever gonna change under Klopp. The key to avoid this is to counter press well and to keep the ball. The times when we’ve had problems are when one of these two elements have gone missing.

True and also having players who are comfortable defending wide open spaces and rotating in midfield

[Doc_Piptorious]

We can’t. If our high line plays deeper, we’re basically losing the ability to press and play on the front foot and the gap between our lines will get bigger. If we stay compact it will be from the perspective of 10 feet further down and we’ll let opposing teams play from the back as our front line will have to retreat as well.

Good point, we drop deeper and we need to switch to being more a counter attacking team than a team that forces transitions by pressing high.

Think if we do that a lot of teams simply will not come out at us and continue to use a low block against us and it will end up being a war of attrition between two teams sitting deep.

Plus other teams will be better drilled at sitting deep and using a low block so we try to go down that route and there is a higher chance that we as the team with less practise in playing that way would be the first of the two teams to make an error.

Think what I would be trying is to change something with regards to the more advanced personnel be it tactically and/or in terms of who starts to try and tweak what we are doing in terms of ball retention and also in terms of faster transistions of play. Think I would also try to mix it up a bit by encoruaging some players to shot from distance more often as we rarely do so and it would add some unpredicability to to our attacking threat. Teams are, imo, too used to us us passing the ball back and forth in front of a low block. We just keep swicthing play from left to right and right to left looking for a perfect pass, whereas someone being prepared to take a shot from 20 yards a bit more often would force the team sitting deep to commit a player or two to come out to block the potential shot which in turn may create a little space or force an error or the shot may result in a goal or a dropped save.

Just seems that we play the percentages as soon as we reach the final third an awful lot since January and nearly always we go with the safer pass now.

[Fredo]

Think better quality in terms of ball players would help. Take City for example, they have players like Mahrez, Foden and Silva who have that ability to keep the ball and create and are direct and help in transition. We just don’t have the backup when the first choice front 6 aren’t performing and the ability to rotate and keep everyone fresh which is paramount with our system, what Nev alluded to in his previous post. The system is not in doubt but the personnel is. Take our current centre halves and it’s clear they have limitations in that system and there’s no way we’d change the system to accommodate them.

[Buzzo]

There were a few examples yesterday of how the 6th string CB pairing affects the entire team. In possession a slightly misplaced pass from defence or a loose long ball puts us in trouble. The next pass is rushed or further misplaced giving away possession. As soon as we have lost control or if we give the ball away quickly we can be put in trouble. Phillips is doing a brilliant job as a defender, but as a distributor he is miles off. Kabak is slightly better. Slightly.

[Fredo]

Vs Real I would drop Fabinho back and play him with Kabak, but on the condition that we have Naby playing close to his potential, or Jones for that matter as they are similar players. It’s crucial we are very good in possession and in transition against these lot. I know it’s a controversial view but I completely get what Klopp was trying to do earlier with Fab and Hendo in defence. In theory, a midfield 3 of Gini, Thiago and Jones or Naby is good enough with Fab and Kabak in defence. Whether that translates to actual results is something else though.