Preseason Friendlies

[fabinho]

Empty seats everywhere, thought the game would be a bigger deal over there?

[fidget]

Amazing how much better we look with a midfielder who can play an incisive pass.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Absolutely. There is no control in the transitions really. Worrying.

But good stuff at the other end!

And the thing is that it is easy enough to see as well, and if sods like us on a forum can spot the gaps on a tv screen before a ball or man goes that way, then pro players and managers must have it twigged so much quicker.


Think we are trying a bit too hard to copy what City were doing a couple seasons ago when they had Cancelo playing in an inverted role but forgetting that Cancelo would bust a nut to get back into the FB slot and he instinctively seemed to start moving towards the flank as soon as he laid off a pass so that a break in that direction was removed as an option for the other team.


The oddest thing about our inverted set up is that we at times, when heat maos are looked at, seem to be almost copying the way City did their overloads last season with Stones being the one that went into midfield. But that worked for City as when they lost the ball all Stones had to do was drop backwards and slot into the back line in a similar manner to how a DM dropping back to spilt the CBs would do. TAA does not do that, and not sure if he could comfortably do so anyway, so he when he looks to get back does this diagonal track back that seems to place him neither in the RCB slot nor the RB slot and ends with him and the RCB being very close together and a big space for a few seconds on the right flank and also in the central spot that TAA vacated.


It just looks so off when it happens and looks so obvious on a screen as the vacant space is so big. The reduction in turnovers ahead of the space thanks to the lies of Jones and the new guys means that space may not be expoilted as often as last season, but the space is there and as Nev said it is something elite teams will target with more success than the weaker teams as against weaker teams our firepower will keep them back. Plus a weaker team trying to exploit it risks conceding two or three goals in quick succession.

[fabinho]

Robbo looking to be carrying a little timber

[Irishnev]

Absolutely. There is no control in the transitions really. Worrying.

But good stuff at the other end!

Leicester clearly learning a new way of playing out from the back under Maresca…… it’s v easy for us to press them and turn them over. But if they break the press they are running through our midfield. It’s only pre season but the seeming lack of urgency to buy a specialist DM is a bit worrying. We might not win the league in the opening weeks but we could lose it if we are v wide open against good teams

[RedReet]

Still very much of the thinking we need to reset to our old back four set up.

When on the ball TAA is at home in the inverted role, but when under pressure he shows himself to not really have the sort of spatial awareness and instincts for the dual role, and that then has the knock on effect of throwing three to four other players into half and half positions and the balance of the team looks badly off when that happens.

In that case TAA found himself in the sort of 2 vs 1 that his new position often causes for other players.

We generally will have the firepower to handle that against "lesser" teams but the elite teams would have a field days if that happened against them imo.

It's clearly still a work in progress and Klopp is obviously no fool, so must be confident that he has an answer for these issues.

What it does remind me of is when we first played the extremely high line in the first VAR season and everyone was saying how easily teams were getting through and how better teams would destroy us. Pundits had a field day for a while. We soon proved everyone wrong, so much so that commentators continued to highlight all the offside chances to give the impression we were under pressure.

If we sign a DM (I bloody well hope we do) then regardless of game time they need to start vs Chelsea…..our midfield (friendly aside) is so porous and good sides will destroy us in transition

Nunez - fast!

Klopp made a fair, but obvious point pre-match. Said doesn't matter who plays DM if the whole team isn't compact, as they'll be exposed. Good example here, as Jones didn't do much wrong defensively not not sure how much difference a quality DM would have made in those instances we were cut open.

[Irishnev]

I

Klopp made a fair, but obvious point pre-match. Said doesn't matter who plays DM if the whole team isn't compact, as they'll be exposed. Good example here, as Jones didn't do much wrong defensively not not sure how much difference a quality DM would have made in those instances we were cut open.

I saw that and it’s a fair point but a specialist DM might have more instinct to be in the right position, might have more physicality to “get there” or the tactical awareness to just foul them! Fab was often last man in the midfield but his long leg would get there!

[danperkins]

I saw that and it’s a fair point but a specialist DM might have more instinct to be in the right position, might have more physicality to “get there” or the tactical awareness to just foul them! Fab was often last man in the midfield but his long leg would get there!

[Venton]

Gakpo, Elliott, Doake... Lovely interplay. We're all over them at the start of the second half

[Irishnev]

Gakpo, Elliott, Doake... Lovely interplay. We're all over them at the start of the second half

Doak is electric and he’s still only 17 right? Clearly he needs to improve his decision making but his ability to beat players is impressive

[Irishnev]

Wow Szobozlai….. almost

[Venton]

Big Dom wins the ball on the half way line and instantly tries to lob the keeper who manages to just head it wide as he's out of his box.

[Venton]

Doak is electric and he’s still only 17 right? Clearly he needs to improve his decision making but his ability to beat players is impressive

Yes. In terms of beating a man there's no one better in the squad I think.

[Venton]

And Doak heads home from the corner to make it 4.

[Irishnev]

4 nil - Doak! Nice set piece…..

One grumble is that the stadium isn’t full, I saw on Twitter people moaning about the price of tickets