An extremely low bar, yes. Two of their back four were hooked at HT, and Konate was absolutely atrocious.
Trent can’t defend
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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Wondering if klopp has ever thought about a 352 / 532 with the players he has.
You would think the way taa and Robertson like spamming the ball in, that them out wide with three cbs would help protect them.
You can flood the midfield and then have Salah and caroll up top
You would think the way taa and Robertson like spamming the ball in, that them out wide with three cbs would help protect them.
You can flood the midfield and then have Salah and caroll up top
That's going to be an issue for several reasons:
1) Most of their players cut in from the wide to create space for others. 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 will basically render Diaz, Salah, Jota, Gakpo etc useless. They'd be caught out and will stop scoring.
2) They'll need better midfielders than the lot they have for this formation to work. There's basically no creativity from midfield - just work horses who (used to) run the length back and forth for 90mins. All their creativity is from out wide, so the opponents will need to just mark the wing backs out of the game.
3) They'd now have to depend on actual center forwards to score (Nunez...)
Liverpool will struggle to get back to where they were full stop. It’s a lot more simple as far as I can see it.
Liverpool had Salah and Mane scoring for fun and seemingly always fit. In the year they won the league both played every single game I reckon and scored 20+. That’s a perfect storm.
Their current team is still capable of playing decent football and winning matches but without those two at their peak and in good health…their way of playing is shown up because they don’t have those extraordinary players causing such a huge threat and forcing other teams to really adjust. Teams can defend against top full backs and creative midfielders - it’s those mercurial talents that make the difference and Liverpool had two at once…often getting early goals and killing games before they even started…changing other teams week long preparation game plans in the first 5 minutes. That’s just how good those two were. Without them - Liverpool were playable.
it’s what’s made/makes City a different prospect. They are not so reliant.
No matter what they do…unless Salah suddenly starts carrying them again…they are gonna struggle to challenge for major honours because Nunez/Gakpo/even Diaz are not ready to fill the gap left by Salah and Mane.
I honestly don’t see it as being more complicated than that.
Liverpool had Salah and Mane scoring for fun and seemingly always fit. In the year they won the league both played every single game I reckon and scored 20+. That’s a perfect storm.
Their current team is still capable of playing decent football and winning matches but without those two at their peak and in good health…their way of playing is shown up because they don’t have those extraordinary players causing such a huge threat and forcing other teams to really adjust. Teams can defend against top full backs and creative midfielders - it’s those mercurial talents that make the difference and Liverpool had two at once…often getting early goals and killing games before they even started…changing other teams week long preparation game plans in the first 5 minutes. That’s just how good those two were. Without them - Liverpool were playable.
it’s what’s made/makes City a different prospect. They are not so reliant.
No matter what they do…unless Salah suddenly starts carrying them again…they are gonna struggle to challenge for major honours because Nunez/Gakpo/even Diaz are not ready to fill the gap left by Salah and Mane.
I honestly don’t see it as being more complicated than that.
Great points. Where's a nail when you need one?
He thinks he's a 35 year legendary attacker Ala Messi or Ronaldo. So weird.
I also don’t think it even suits Trent either. He’s not really a player who would excel as a wingback — when he’s actually playing well he’s at his best exploiting the high central-ish right sided areas that Salah and the RCM vacate for him to cross spam. As a wingback he’d be tucked a lot wider and find himself stuck in a lot of 1v1 scenarios (attacking wise) where his dribbling ability is somewhat average when you compare him to other top fullbacks
It's not like he could have prevented that goal, but the way he just completely zones out sometimes is quite a common problem for him. It's honestly like watching kids play.
Wow ... This is terribly damning. I remember games in past seasons where pundits have done pieces on Rashford or Martial with very similar attitudes in similar and we've been up in arms. Thing is they're attackers, and usually they've been ahead of the ball and not tracked back - not that it's acceptable in the least.
Here's a defender actually initially in position but refusing to do anything until the phase of play passes him, they get into the box, and actually score.
Gary Neville probably think he's writing poetry in his mind. Either Liverpool are scared to upset him, or he just doesn't take criticism on board.
You can see him defending like this in every game, for the good he brings in attack he sure does outweight it defensively.
You can see him defending like this in every game, for the good he brings in attack he sure does outweight it defensively.
Wow, that is actually such terrible defending, I can't imagine any of our players standing still throughout that play and getting away with it.
Liverpool fans also seem to not want to criticise their players, I hear them say yh he's playing shit but this is more than that, this is attitude.
Liverpool fans also seem to not want to criticise their players, I hear them say yh he's playing shit but this is more than that, this is attitude.
He's incredibly lucky Welbeck doesn't square it to the 2 teammates for an open goal and instead scores it himself. Otherwise the entire media would be out there killing him for his defending.
Forget passing, Becks might be the better defender. 
Can't remember a defender standing static for 5 seconds whilst they're being attacked.
The ego and what he’s allowed to get away with is shocking. Surely pundits will start calling him out eventually?
Don't think it's that simple, nor easy to correct. He's been trained and honed as an offensive threat - every sinew poured into attacking contributions and it even being arguable if he's even an actual fullback or someone who should be in midfield, and probably would be in a flat 4-4-2 era.
I don't think it's unique to him that it's really difficult to train someone to be rounded in a position they're on the periphery of at the best of times.
Wouldn't be surprised to see him moved forward at some point in his career; he's just not a natural two-way fullback and never got praise in that capacity when he was flying.
I find it odd Klopp is not all over this. Surely he doesn’t accept laziness from his players?
EtH would have gone ballistic and I’m sure the old Klopp would too…
If one player does this, it's easy to pull him up on it. But almost their entire team is playing pretty much like this. Who's he going to chew out?
He's just defensively thick. He ball watches and his attitude comes across as not giving 2 shits to be honest.
I'm amazed Liverpool fans have put up with it for so long. Seeing him do it in their current plight i'm sure will piss many people off.
Feckin cnut face and cnut hair.
It's dogshit defending. His positioning there is the mind of an attacker rather than a defender - i.e. "we are 2 goals down with not a lot of time left, I need to gamble and so I'll position myself where I'm in a great position to counter attack the second ball." Whereas with natural defensive instincts a full-back would typically tuck in and assume the worst (that the centre-halves would make an arse of it). Problem for Liverpool is there doesn't feel to be much accountability for repeated feck-ups as the same players keep their shirt irregardless. Can't be doing much for the morale of the players on the bench.
I don’t know if it’s laziness or loss of concentration.
Recording his laptop screen playing a youtube video with his phone. Genius.
As bad a RB display as a I have seen
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Mitoma didn’t even do an awful lot to get past him. Trent playing as a false full back is one of the most amazing things to witness in football
Wow. Look at him at 1:40. At the edge of the box while the action is inside the box, as if he were the RW not RB. I can't believe it. Surely he has to be dropped. That's criminal.
I think he's just given up (for the time being at least).
Whether thats due to personal issues , issues with tactics or with the management team who knows but at the beginning of the game he was their most "active" defender and by the end he's just walking around not giving a shit.
He's not the only player I feel this way about at Liverpool, I would say the majority of their players are acting the same way game in, game out.
Compare that to the Arsenal side (Jesus even the Brighton side which played them off the park) and it's night and day.
Theres something going on behind the scenes there IMO because if one player is out of form you can blame the player, if 11 are out of form then it has to be the managers problem (they are every bit as Bad as United were at this time last year).
They should move to a back 5 with 2 of Henderson/ Fabinho/ Thiago sitting in front of the CBs and give their full backs defensive freedom until they stop the rot but they won't because the moment Klopp changes anything they fall apart (which is why I rate Pep higher as he is flexible, though a little too flexible at times
) which is why it's the same mistakes being repeated over and over again.It’s a larger issue, though: if so maaaany fans are putting value on the attacking part of the game and the entertainment value, why players should bother to waste their energy to defend?
He's not very good, is he? Individually, he just isn't a top class player, but is capable of top class performances when his team is on-song, and everyone is playing well. His deficiencies have been badly exposed since Liverpool have started to fall away.
They are worn, the long cycle has ended. The sooner the club acknowledges it and moves on, the better for them.I think he's just given up (for the time being at least).
Whether thats due to personal issues , issues with tactics or with the management team who knows but at the beginning of the game he was their most "active" defender and by the end he's just walking around not giving a shit.
He's not the only player I feel this way about at Liverpool, I would say the majority of their players are acting the same way game in, game out.
Compare that to the Arsenal side (Jesus even the Brighton side which played them off the park) and it's night and day.
Theres something going on behind the scenes there IMO because if one player is out of form you can blame the player, if 11 are out of form then it has to be the managers problem (they are every bit as Bad as United were at this time last year).
They should move to a back 5 with 2 of Henderson/ Fabinho/ Thiago sitting in front of the CBs and give their full backs defensive freedom until they stop the rot but they won't because the moment Klopp changes anything they fall apart (which is why I rate Pep higher as he is flexible, though a little too flexible at times
His mate on the left hand side is just as shite, and just as much of a twat. You love to see it.
For sure but when a player reaches the end of their career we praise the ones who adjust their Game (Messi, Giggs) and bash the ones who don't (Torres, Owen) and I think if the manager is putting a bunch of old broken down players out there and expecting vintage performances then there is an enormous underlying problem there.
In fairness, I thought Mitoma pretty much ran through their entire team although Trent was probably the easiest target and up against him more often than not considering the position he plays. He's an excellent dribbler and if he had a better shot on him he'd have scored a few that day I think.
Well no. Crossing and Freekicks aside. Pretty niche player
Was considered the epitome of a modern fullback just a season or two ago and the kind of player we should be replicating and building a team around. Now that the Liverpool machine seems to have come off the rails a bit, a lot more of his limits and flaws are getting exposed.
I was going to say the same. It's hard to judge.
I'd lean towards laziness because he'll burst a gut for overlaps and attacks so maybe he's just not arsed defending. I'm surprised Klopp allows it.
I saw that while watching the game even not being a Liverpool fan it still maddened me just looking at him standing there.
He does that a lot, gets beat and just stands there almost expecting someone else to deal with it and give him the ball so he can start a counter. I'd hook him off for it.
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