Naby Keita

[RedReet]

In all the excitement of signing him for next season, we somehow forgot how incredibly dire our current midfielders are. Not buying a midfielder was almost as not buying a couple of defenders.

What absolute nonsense. We're close to losing two of our midfielders to two of the best teams in Eurpoe (Can/Coutinho) and the other spots are filled by Henderson, Gini, Lallana and Ox who when on form would walk into most other teams.

Argue hypothetical **** about needing a DM or that the balance isn't right but you cannot call that group of players dire.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

What absolute nonsense. We're close to losing two of our midfielders to two of the best teams in Eurpoe (Can/Coutinho) and the other spots are filled by Henderson, Gini, Lallana and Ox who when on form would walk into most other teams.

Argue hypothetical **** about needing a DM or that the balance isn't right but you cannot call that group of players dire.

Only because most others are lower league sides

[baitman]

What absolute nonsense. We're close to losing two of our midfielders to two of the best teams in Eurpoe (Can/Coutinho) and the other spots are filled by Henderson, Gini, Lallana and Ox who when on form would walk into most other teams.

Argue hypothetical **** about needing a DM or that the balance isn't right but you cannot call that group of players dire.

Henderson, Gini, Lallana and Ox.

lallana on form is great, but being a regular sicky means he isnt available enough and its a great disruption to the team.

gini isnt great, but does have the odd good game.
henderson is also a bit of a sicky, often not at his best when in the team and a few good games a year seem to ensure he manages to keep the rose tinted spec wearers happy.

ox isnt great but has shown he can have his moments. a great MOTD player when you see his highlights. another regular sicky and we have coughed up a crazy amount of money for a very average player.

i wouldnt be too arsed to see any of them sold, except maybe lallana when on form and fit which isnt a regular enough thing.

[danperkins]

Take Coutinho out of our midfield and it is pretty ordinary. Henderson and Can have been asked to curb their natural game and play deeper. Wini is hit and miss and doesn't really like away games. Lallana is a crock, Milner is a squaddie & Ox is also hit and miss.

So we have 2 box to box midfielders who have been asked to play different roles that isn't their natural game & we have 2 blokes in Milner and Ox who want to play CM but aren't good enough. Take Phil out of the mix and there isn't really any quality there. Can has been our best midfielder this season IMO but we do not have a good balance in there IMO. I have my issues with Can but at least he has some aggression and gives it everything.

[Mark79]

Take Coutinho out of our midfield and it is pretty ordinary. Henderson and Can have been asked to curb their natural game and play deeper. Wini is hit and miss and doesn't really like away games. Lallana is a crock, Milner is a squaddie & Ox is also hit and miss.

So we have 2 box to box midfielders who have been asked to play different roles that isn't their natural game & we have 2 blokes in Milner and Ox who want to play CM but aren't good enough. Take Phil out of the mix and there isn't really any quality there. Can has been our best midfielder this season IMO but we do not have a good balance in there IMO. I have my issues with Can but at least he has some aggression and gives it everything.

Dunno, overall the midfield performed very well last season and that's without counting Coutinho who only featured there in the last couple of games.

Gini's dive in form and Lallana being out is probably making things look worse than they are. But generally I think we're pretty strong there. That said, I agree that a natural No.6 would be ideal.

[RedReet]

Dunno, overall the midfield performed very well last season and that's without counting Coutinho who only featured there in the last couple of games.

Gini's dive in form and Lallana being out is probably making things look worse than they are. But generally I think we're pretty strong there. That said, I agree that a natural No.6 would be ideal.

Was about to make the exact same point. Take Coutinho out of the midfield and you more or less have the same midfield that finished 4th last year and for the earlier parts of the season were the best team in the league. It's also the same midfield that are unbeaten in 8 games this year when we've had 11 men playing.

This season, we're adding Coutinho to that midfield, a truly world class player, Can is looking much better and fitter and Ox is adding to the numbers.

Or is that us just being silly and forgetting how dire our midfielders are?

[Doc_Piptorious]

I don't think too many would call our midfielders genuinely dire players because that is simply not true.

But I do think an arguement could be made for what Dan said about how we can look unbalanced at times in the centre. For me Can and Henderson often look out of synch when they are played together and both are prone to chasing the ball rather than plugging gaps. When one goes chasing the play, the other rarely looks to guard the space made by the other and instead goes and chases play himself.

Wijnaldum is actually quite good at moving into the space created by a midfield partner and he seems to have good awareness of his teammates movements, but when he is part of a trio with Henderson and Can he gets to watch two teammates moving that way and he can only cover one.


Does not make them bad players, but it might make them an average pairing in terms of how their skill sets mesh.


In my eyes Keita is a step in the right direction. He is a box to box midfielder who is fast, agile, that attacks well and links play well in the final third, but he is very proactive when his team does not have the ball and he wins the ball back through interceptions probably as much or more than he does through tackles (and he wins a fair share of tackles).

But I would see both Can and Henderson as not being a great fit alongside Keita. Now one of them plus Keita is still a much better pairing imo than Can and Henderson, but it would still potentially leave us with the issue of one of them chasing play when Keita is gone forward and the same problem of attacks coming through our centre using that space.

I would love to see us bring in a player for whom a deeper midfield position is a natural fit and that has a track record of being very aware from that deeper position. Now that could be a mobil ball winning and intercepting type like Saul or a deep player maker type like Jorgino, but either way it would be a player that sees space being created by his teammates chasing forward and he then looks to that space himself to prevent the other team pklaying through it.


Our midfielders are not dire though. They are not poor players, they are not bad players, they are good players in their own right. But sometimes you can have good players that just don't compliment the play of the player's they are partnered with well enough and often enough if the aim if to win titles or cups. That is where I think we are right now with our current CM choices (I am not looking at the AM choices in Coutinho and Lallana as I think both of those guys are easily good enough for an AM role).

[Irishnev]

I don't think too many would call our midfielders genuinely dire players because that is simply not true.

But I do think an arguement could be made for what Dan said about how we can look unbalanced at times in the centre. For me Can and Henderson often look out of synch when they are played together and both are prone to chasing the ball rather than plugging gaps. When one goes chasing the play, the other rarely looks to guard the space made by the other and instead goes and chases play himself.

Wijnaldum is actually quite good at moving into the space created by a midfield partner and he seems to have good awareness of his teammates movements, but when he is part of a trio with Henderson and Can he gets to watch two teammates moving that way and he can only cover one.


Does not make them bad players, but it might make them an average pairing in terms of how their skill sets mesh.


In my eyes Keita is a step in the right direction. He is a box to box midfielder who is fast, agile, that attacks well and links play well in the final third, but he is very proactive when his team does not have the ball and he wins the ball back through interceptions probably as much or more than he does through tackles (and he wins a fair share of tackles).

But I would see both Can and Henderson as not being a great fit alongside Keita. Now one of them plus Keita is still a much better pairing imo than Can and Henderson, but it would still potentially leave us with the issue of one of them chasing play when Keita is gone forward and the same problem of attacks coming through our centre using that space.

I would love to see us bring in a player for whom a deeper midfield position is a natural fit and that has a track record of being very aware from that deeper position. Now that could be a mobil ball winning and intercepting type like Saul or a deep player maker type like Jorgino, but either way it would be a player that sees space being created by his teammates chasing forward and he then looks to that space himself to prevent the other team pklaying through it.


Our midfielders are not dire though. They are not poor players, they are not bad players, they are good players in their own right. But sometimes you can have good players that just don't compliment the play of the player's they are partnered with well enough and often enough if the aim if to win titles or cups. That is where I think we are right now with our current CM choices (I am not looking at the AM choices in Coutinho and Lallana as I think both of those guys are easily good enough for an AM role).

If Klopp sticks with his (now) preferred 4-3-3 then you would suggest the balance to be:

Number 6 DM - Henderson, Can
No 8 B2B - Keita, Hendo, Can, Gini, Grujic
No 10 AM - Coutinho, Lallana, Woodburn, Ox

I'd love us to buy a proper ball playing DM to compliment Naby and Phil next season but we will most likely sell Coutinho so let's see what happens.

If we got Lemar instead of Phil then happy days.

[baitman]

i thought grujic might have been our Dm as he played there for red star.
i also think that maybe milner might also be adaptable to play there.
milner doesnt have the pace and power that grujic has but he does like a tackle and is a bit more mature and maybe more intelligent than his 'interesting' persona suggests.
other DM players havent necessarily been the quickest but just need to make smart movement to cover the space to intercept the through balls or block runners.

klopp only seems to want to bring these 'non flair' players on in the last 15 minutes or so but often we have been giving up too much midfield space to the opposition and leave ourselves wide open to counters by not being pragmatic enough.

[Fierce]

If Can stays, and can become the DM (ish) that we're all hoping he can be, then Keita and Coutinho makes a genuinely world class central midfield

If he goes, can Henderson be that more defensively minded player? I'm not entirely sure, but the balance would that much better if there was a player able to play the more specifically defensive role

[Doc_Piptorious]

If Klopp sticks with his (now) preferred 4-3-3 then you would suggest the balance to be:

Number 6 DM - Henderson, Can
No 8 B2B - Keita, Hendo, Can, Gini, Grujic
No 10 AM - Coutinho, Lallana, Woodburn, Ox

I'd love us to buy a proper ball playing DM to compliment Naby and Phil next season but we will most likely sell Coutinho so let's see what happens.

If we got Lemar instead of Phil then happy days.

Yes but the balance would be off in my eyes as we would have five players who can play in the traditional no 8 role (some better than others) but nobody that would be a natural fit for the No 6 role.

[Gray]

Phil will be gone in January for sure

[Mark79]

For sure??

Next summer more likely.

[Fredo]

He won't.

[Pablo]

No chance we'd let him leave in Jan. Extremely likely he'll leave, amicably, in the Summer though.