20 Oct 2020 19:18:03
I keep seeing the stats banded about regarding how many goals Klopp's Liverpool have conceded with and without Van Dijk.

This is just a prime example of statistical nonsense. If you look at our defence pre-Van Dijk it was far cry from what it is today.

The most used defence by Klopp pre-Van Dijk was Mignolet behind a 4 of Clyne, Matip, Lovren and Milner. Others who played include Karius, Klavan, Sakho, Skrtel and Moreno.

Even in the midfield, we had players like Lucas and Can due to Henderson struggling massively with Plantar Fasciitis in those early Klopp years.

Fast forward to the Van Dijk era, and in almost coincided with the emergence of Trent, Robertson breaking into the team, and Gomez making the position his own after his own injury difficulties. 6 months later we signed Alisson and Fabinho to had greater protection in front of and behind the defence. Henderson found his fitness and started playing 40+ games a season again.

Now we have Thiago in the midfield to help us dominate the ball and in theory do a lot less defending.

I guess my point is, these context-less statistical overviews of Liverpool without Van Dijk are thinly veiled attacks on the rest of the team that we can't cope without him. The reality is that this crop of players have never been asked to so to blame them for the goals conceded by a completely different squad, is just shocking journalism at best.

Please don't buy into this fear mongering. We have elite players all over the park and Van Dijk was just 1 part of a well oiled machine that deserves a lot more respect as a unit.

1.) 20 Oct 2020
20 Oct 2020 20:05:52
Well put MK and good to see you back.

2.) 20 Oct 2020
20 Oct 2020 20:06:02
Posts like this is why it’s so good to have you back, MK Scouser. My sentiments exactly. 😘.

3.) 20 Oct 2020
20 Oct 2020 20:44:15
I agree with a lot of that MK but he is our best player IMO. Even if you don’t agree with that everyone has him in the top 3. We can get past this and I trust Klopp to figure it out. But we will need our other main players to stay fit.

4.) 20 Oct 2020
20 Oct 2020 21:50:17
And it's a team that's been together a while now. A few additions this summer but the boys know each other well. They'll know what they need to do.

5.) 20 Oct 2020
20 Oct 2020 22:03:19
Agreed although, I always liked Lucas in midfeild.

6.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 11:12:27
Spot on, MKS. The these mindless stats they put out, they fail to mention that a good size of these games are Cup games where we lose and concede for the most part and where more importantly, the kids/ reserves play and VVD does not.

The real stat they will not tell you is that LFC have the best defence in the PL SINCE that Wembley Debacle at Spurs in 2017 and has only been enhanced since VVD arrived BUT hey, why present this stat if your goal is to assail VVD and LFC?

7.) 21 Oct 2020
21 Oct 2020 21:54:52
Great post MK.

I do think we will need a slice of luck on injuries/ fitness with the rest of the squad now though! 🤞🏼.