13 Sep 2020 11:02:54
Morning all!
3 points and a sunny day!
I think a bit of reality is needed and stop slagging off individuals. To put it into perspective, this is an unusual start to the season after an extremely unusual end to last. Leeds is arguably the hardest start to the season and to say they were up for it is an understatement. I think they would have beaten most teams yesterday with that effort, confidence and energy. I also think they were a bit naive and that's why we scored 4 and won a very difficult game.
I always try to take the positives and first and foremost it was a win. Secondly we kept coming back and in the last 20 minutes always looked like scoring. For me Salah was outstanding except for their last goal for the throw in. If you watch him he played that full back nearly every time and showed how to turn a player with that tactic. Awareness let the fullback dive in and Salah turn him. brilliant.
Thirdly we won with a lot of players not at it- which will improve. Gomez kept going out of position when he didn't have to, Van Dyke over confidence. Jones and Wijnaldum switching off. Trent was not fully focused and ready. There are quite a few small errors due to position and concentration which can easily be worked on and corrected.
Leeds played in a different way, played well, at a strange time with no crowd and we WON!

13 Sep 2020 11:37:00
Seen at least 3 posters say we need a striker as a Firmino replacement/ alternative now. All we've ever needed was someone equally as adept at dropping off to create, because we miss Bobby when he is out. Well we have Jones and Minamino now who can both create things and receive the ball in tight spaces.

Nought wrong with Bobby. He just needs to be backed and he'll do fine. He still got about 12 goals and 12 assists last season when he was apparently bad. If that was 20 goals and 4 assists like Kane or Vardy normally get, nobody would bat an eyelid. For me creating a goal is just as good as scoring one so let him crack on and hopefully he'll find his finishing touch again.

13 Sep 2020 11:48:38
Just on the subject of a striker it’s interesting to see Brewster didn’t make the squad yesterday and Origi was picked ahead of him despite no pre season game time. Also the other noticeable thing was minamino stayed on the bench despite a good pre season and us needing a goal to win it at 3-3.

13 Sep 2020 12:18:33
I think Klopp just realised we didn't need to change the frontline JK23. The attack was working. We scored 4 and it could have been 8.

I saw Keita getting some stick after the game. He's the new scapegoat i guess but although he made no tackles, he intercepted a lot of passes in the final third and it would have led to a few goals if we'd been at full sharpness. He also played in Bobby for chance after about 3 minutes, and Mane for the chance where he was wrongly flagged offside. Now everyone is all over the rumour page saying we should sell Keita. Rather than just say Leeds played well, people need a scapegoat. How many players did Leeds have away on International duty? Not their entire back 4 i'd bet. So obviously they were better prepared but we still won and that's all that matters.

{Ed001's Note - Keita is not a scapegoat, he pulled out of tackles he should have won. He was cowardly and that is not made up for by picking off a few passes any player in his position would have got to. You can put up with poor performances, but not bottling challenges, that is unforgivable from a midfielder. You have to win the midfield battle to be able to play and he made sure we struggled to win anything.}

13 Sep 2020 12:20:56
On the Brewster/ Origi thing, i'd guess Klopp will now let Brewster go and hold on to Origi. The difference in ability is so minimal i can't decide who is better anyway. However there is interest in Brewster and we need to sell one of them to re-invest the money in the players Klopp wants. Be a shame as i really wanted Brewster to get a chance but Klopp knows best.

13 Sep 2020 12:45:32
Definitely room for improvement Ed but i saw a lot of our players weak in the tackle yesterday. I'm one of Keita's biggest critics normally but i don't think he was awful yesterday. Certainly not bad enough to sell him off that performance alone. The whole team was losing their 50/ 50's except for Salah and Jones when he came on. I do personally think Jones or Minamino should start ahead of Keita or Wijnaldum though. Hendo and Fabinho should be able to hold the midfield well enough to allow a more attacking option some forward freedom. I'd say this season is last chance saloon for Keita to be fair. For £60m we should have seen more from him for sure.

{Ed001's Note - I am not talking about being weak. Read what I say! He pulled out of tackles. That is not the same thing. I would have sold him anyway, he is far more interested in flashing his money than he is in being a footballer, but yesterday was his chance to prove me wrong, instead he made it even worse. He bottled out of a header he was 90/10 on to win. He ducked out of the way of a long pass that ended up creating a goal, which wasn't exactly smashed at him. And then failed to even go in for a challenge at any other point, even though there were a few he could have made. It is unforgivable in midfield. You have to fight to get the ball first before you can play on it in our system.}

13 Sep 2020 13:16:35
I did notice him ducking that pass to be fair Ed. That goal was a catalogue of errors though. After Keita ducked the pass, Trent and Robbo played him onside, and then Trent stick to his task and was putting him under pressure until Gomez ran straight across his path and that split second Trent lost avoiding Gomez gave Harrison the space to shoot.

I do get your point now though. My biggest criticism of Keita is his lack of effort. He does seem to deliberately avoid 50/ 50's. If he doesn't improve this season then i think he'll be frozen out though. Klopp is not one to tolerate abject performances.

{Ed001's Note - I just think he has had enough time and he is clearly not that bothered about improving on his faults. We carried him until he went off yesterday, you can't afford to do that in the tough games, which is 99% of Premier League and European ones. So we would basically only be keeping him to be an impact sub. I just think you have to say enough is enough now. He is on big wages and is not earning them. Having him and Wijnaldum (who was having one of his anonymous days yesterday) in the centre allowed Leeds to stay in the game as they could keep the pressure on us and were not being stopped at source.}

13 Sep 2020 13:32:31
I thought Hendo was anonymous yesterday in midfield. But I 100% accept that it was because of match fitness. I was very surprised to see him start to be honest. I suppose it goes to show how important Klopp believes he is to the team. His fitness will come but it was a gamble to start him with the risk of aggravating the injury. A gamble that paid off as he got minutes under his belt and didn’t aggravate it. Even though it wasn’t one of his best games.