Naby Keita

[Shaggy]

Yep I agree. Henderson has been miles off it this season. It's a concern. We badly need Fabinho alongside Thiago imo, and whoever for the third slot.

[fabinho]

Naby was poor. So was Milner. So was Henderson.

As usually, only Keita’s thread gets lit up.

The midfield has been poor for a number of games recently. Particularly Brentford and City.
And our favourite scapegoat didn’t play a minute in either of those.

Not a single post in the Henderson thread after his Brentford showing. Eventually some reaction after City, but much of it discussion over his role rather than the outright blame and writing off you get in here.

I understand the likes of Henderson and Milner get much more good will, rightly or wrongly.
But it’s like ducking clockwork in here and the match threads, and often it doesn’t even take an actual bad performance like last night.

Milner and Henderson have proven themselves though, and nobody thinks they're the future. I would've let Henderson go in the summer too, so its not Nabby being picked on, he's just a very average player.

[Buzzo]

Playing Midfield for us is a totally thankless task.

We win and the forwards get the credit. We keep a clean sheet and the defence and keeper gets the credit.

Our midfielders, particularly 6 and 8 rarely get credit. Thats not to say that Hendo and Milner have been great, Hendo in particular needs to rediscover hs levels, but - we are unbeaten in 20 odd games and scoring 3 goals per game, so something is working.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Playing Midfield for us is a totally thankless task.

We win and the forwards get the credit. We keep a clean sheet and the defence and keeper gets the credit.

Our midfielders, particularly 6 and 8 rarely get credit. Thats not to say that Hendo and Milner have been great, Hendo in particular needs to rediscover hs levels, but - we are unbeaten in 20 odd games and scoring 3 goals per game, so something is working.

Nail on the head.

[Mark79]

Playing Midfield for us is a totally thankless task.

We win and the forwards get the credit. We keep a clean sheet and the defence and keeper gets the credit.

Our midfielders, particularly 6 and 8 rarely get credit. Thats not to say that Hendo and Milner have been great, Hendo in particular needs to rediscover hs levels, but - we are unbeaten in 20 odd games and scoring 3 goals per game, so something is working.

Overall, yes definitely. But we are conceding a lot of goals and chances lately and much of it seems to be stemming from off the ball issues in midfield.

It’s a concern because we were looking so good in that respect in the first 3 or 4 games at least, but losing Thiago and even young Harvey has caused us some problems. We’re missing Gini too, at least when Thiago isn’t available.

[RichC]

I said earlier I think the entire midfield was poor, Hendo hasn't been on it for a while for me and last night the 3 in midfield looked out of shape on a number of occasions and much like at the back it's about getting the right partnerships working, the 3 last night to me just felt disjointed.

We look much better when we have Fab sitting, I like Naby and he does offer things that most of our other midfielders don't the issue I guess is finding that balance to allow him to do that.

I'd be surprised if we looked to move him on.

[Irishnev]

Yep I agree. Henderson has been miles off it this season. It's a concern. We badly need Fabinho alongside Thiago imo, and whoever for the third slot.

Elliot

[labourRed]

Naby was poor. So was Milner. So was Henderson.

As usually, only Keita’s thread gets lit up.

The midfield has been poor for a number of games recently. Particularly Brentford and City.
And our favourite scapegoat didn’t play a minute in either of those.

Not a single post in the Henderson thread after his Brentford showing. Eventually some reaction after City, but much of it discussion over his role rather than the outright blame and writing off you get in here.

I understand the likes of Henderson and Milner get much more good will, rightly or wrongly.
But it’s like ducking clockwork in here and the match threads, and often it doesn’t even take an actual bad performance like last night.

Gee, i don't think scapegoating is right here.

During the first half in the match thread i think the whole midfield got it. But yeah, on balance Keita was probably the worst of the lot.

Everyone called for Fabinho in the second half. I even suggested it might be at the expense of Milner and go to a double pivot with Hendo and Fabinho, the thinking that Keita could provide some thrust from midfield. And well Milner always has a yellow in him.

As it turned out Keita was hooked for Fabinho and Hendo pushed slighltly forward and with the sending off Ox was also called on later on.

But yeah, the midfield will be improved greatly by Thiago coming back and Fabinho staying fit.

[Buzzo]

I said earlier I think the entire midfield was poor, Hendo hasn't been on it for a while for me and last night the 3 in midfield looked out of shape on a number of occasions and much like at the back it's about getting the right partnerships working, the 3 last night to me just felt disjointed.

We look much better when we have Fab sitting, I like Naby and he does offer things that most of our other midfielders don't the issue I guess is finding that balance to allow him to do that.

I'd be surprised if we looked to move him on.

Yeah I think the blend of the three is so crucial.

With Sadio and Salah not asked to defend at all it puts a lot of pressure on the three in midfield.

Klopp knows what he wants to see. He seems to almost have an algorithm and when you see him chucking out phrases like ‘the spaces between the defenders was all wrong’ you know he knows what has happened.

[Angryred]

So will Thiago be available for the Utd game

[RedReet]

So will Thiago be available for the Utd game

The Anfield one if we're lucky.

[Angryred]

The Anfield one if we're lucky.

Probably!

[Exiled_red]

Playing Midfield for us is a totally thankless task.

We win and the forwards get the credit. We keep a clean sheet and the defence and keeper gets the credit.

Our midfielders, particularly 6 and 8 rarely get credit. Thats not to say that Hendo and Milner have been great, Hendo in particular needs to rediscover hs levels, but - we are unbeaten in 20 odd games and scoring 3 goals per game, so something is working.

I said earlier I think the entire midfield was poor, Hendo hasn't been on it for a while for me and last night the 3 in midfield looked out of shape on a number of occasions and much like at the back it's about getting the right partnerships working, the 3 last night to me just felt disjointed.

We look much better when we have Fab sitting, I like Naby and he does offer things that most of our other midfielders don't the issue I guess is finding that balance to allow him to do that.

I'd be surprised if we looked to move him on.

I agree with both these posts people have been complaining about our midfield being **** for the last few years, in that time we've won the CL and PL, so it hasn't been as bad as many have been suggesting. Again this season we have been on a decent run but individual performances in midfield have looked dodgy at times. Henderson hasn't been great Elliot was looking good but got injured Thiago got injured, Fabinho has missed a few games too. There hasn't been a settled unit in there for much of the season and for me it shows.

Naby is a difficult one, as people have said the likes of Henderson and Milner have credit in the bank whereas Naby doesn't he's scored a couple of spectacular goals this season but it seems at times he just can't do the basics which is frustrating. I think that he is a player who would benefit from knowing his role and if he could get a run of games in a settled system I think he could do quite well for us. The problem is I've been saying that more or less since he signed and it hasn't happened yet...

[danperkins]

Milner and Henderson have proven themselves though, and nobody thinks they're the future. I would've let Henderson go in the summer too, so its not Nabby being picked on, he's just a very average player.

this

[danperkins]

I think a big issue is we can't seem to get our strongest 3 which imo is (Hendo/Fab/Thiago) on the pitch for any sustained period so we did look disjointed. We absolutely need another CM, personally I think Keita will be moved on in the summer & Milner will be phased out. Hendo has struggled a bit this season alright but I think his role has changed since Gini left, maybe he is finding it harder to adapt. Milner has had a brilliant career everywhere he has been & Henderson has proven to be a fantastic captain and been outstanding for us for years. Keita has done none of these things and we paid €50 odd million for him, he's either injured, coming back from injury or bang average in most games, fair play to anyone desperately trying to pull any sliver of positivity from his performances in a LFC shirt but there is a reason why people are pointing the finger at him. For value for money he has been a pretty bad signing.

He did cost us two goals last night and was whipped at half time.. that is why the thread was bumped