09 Jan 2023 02:23:57
Poor results are one thing, but poor performances are the real concern. Wolves were better than us, we got extremely lucky with the decisions, and it was another incredibly underwhelming display. It's been like this the entire season - I don't think a midfielder solves this. We seemed to have stopped pressing, and stopped playing with high intensity, and it allows teams to come onto us, pressure us, score. The old adage about defending from the front was a real strength of ours, and it helped protect the backline and helped us dominate possession. Our defensive line is now deeper, opposition players have more time on the ball to pick a pass, and we're conceding more as a result. We need to find that aggression, work rate, willingness to press, otherwise results will continue as they are. A Bellingham or a Caicedo isn't going to make a huge difference when the entire team is lacking in intensity.

1.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 04:25:31
totally agree. The whole team is falling apart and not working hard enough.

2.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 08:15:16
What worries me is that some of the senior players are not stepping up.

3.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 08:23:10
"The whole team is falling apart" - is this Monday morning dramatics?

4.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 08:39:18
For me, it was noticeable that the front 2/ 3 do not track back anywhere near as much as they used to. They seem easy to bypass and once that has happened they just watch and hope that the defense deals with it. If we do win the ball back, they are ready for an early ball but that doesn't seem to come most of the time. We just play out slowly from the back and it gives the opposition time to get back.

There is quite a lot not working at the moment, is it just small fixes. I am not sure. I hope the powers at be can solve this and it may well all be forgotten by the summer.

5.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 08:50:16
Seano, Wolves were only better than us (marginally) cos we literally refused to put up a fight and Klopp mentioned that. We made it TOO easy for them to push us around cos we ain't even trying to NOT get pushed around.

We don't press, run hard or play with any high tempo anymore hence, we are a soft touch. When you have teams like Leeds outworking and outrunning us at Anfield then, why are we surprised that we have Wolves and even Brentford doing it to us. We can complain all we want BUT until we start actually competing physically and go back to working teams to their knees, expect more of the same. Oh and like you said, NO signing is going to save us from ANY of this.

6.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 09:02:24
Thiago made 6 tackles against Wolves. Hendo? 0. Fabinho? 1. Keita? 1. Elliott? 1.

There is your problem. Thiago is the only midfielder with both the physical power to get around the pitch and the tenacity to actually put in a tackle. And he's due an injury any time now so we could well have nothing in there soon.

Fabinho and Hendo are done as key players at this level. That's a Wolves team in the relegation zone who can't score goals and they put 3 past us at Anfield, were it not for a dodgy VAR call. We had absolutely no control of that game at any point contrary to Klopp's propaganda spin post-game. Thiago actually had a poor game with the ball but at least he tries.

Elliott and Keita are not Klopp midfielders either. Keita needs getting gone ASAP and Elliott should be right wing cover or a number 10.

It's truly horrendous watching Hendo and Fabinho play nowadays. I'd genuinely rather recall Morton and him with start Bajcetic with Thiago. At least they all get about and aren't scared of a tackle. Fabinho baffles me. From a tough tackling mentality moster to an immobile coward. He never tackles hard when face on, he only ever goes in hard from behind to wipe out unsuspecting opposition players. It's genuinely embarassing watching him turn into a bang average hatchet man.

Fabinho wants selling and Hendo needs relegating to the Milner role; a dressing room leader who plays with the kids in the early cup rounds or comes off the bench for 20 minutes to organise the team.

This is the worst Liverpool midfield since the days of Poulsen, Shelvey, Spearing, Adam, Allen etc.

7.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 09:46:47
That confirms it then, Monday morning dramatics it is!

8.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 11:08:45
I don't think Poulsen played with Adam and Allen, did he?

9.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 11:47:15
No Rigsby, i was just referring to that whole 2010-2012 period where it was a mess in midfield except on the rare occassions Lucas and Gerrard were both fit.

We're sleepwalking back towards that level of midfield in my opinion.

10.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 11:54:02
@mk scouser you are bang on with your post, totally agree with what you said. In all honesty, since the World Cup, whilst we have only lost to, we could have easily have lost the games against Villa, and Leicester too (were it not for poor finishing on their part) . In all these games, the opposition team has created numerous clear cut chances and if they had been able to finish better (especially Villa), we could easily be on a three streak losing run. We were lucky to draw against brentford in the cup. Teams don’t fear us anymore, they can see that we don’t press, we don’t have the manpower to do that any more, and so we try to be more technical but we aren’t the old Barcelona where they could just walk goals in with the likes of xavi, iniesta and prime messi. The Brentford game showed how far we have fallen from the tree, the previous result just covered up the huge cracks that have been appearing. Say what you like, you cannot go from nearly winning the quadruple the season before to becoming a midtable team unless something is broken. I don’t think the style of football we now are playing helps, as it allows opponents to press us. Plus we create so many chances but our conversion must be one of the worst in the league. Whatever needs to be done to fix this needs to be soon.

11.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 12:48:01
My only disagreement is that prime Christian Poulsen walks into our midfield.

12.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 13:41:45
I agree the style/ tactics don't help KloppisTopp. However i am also not going to let Hendo and Fabinho off the hook that easily. If Thiago can regularly make tackles and interceptions this season, they should be able to as well. Yet players are breezing past them unchallenged, and often when they do put in a challenge it's half hearted and weak. They're constantly miles out of position and ambling back. Playing a different system doesn't prevent them doing the bare minimum; working hard and not bottling tackles.

13.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 14:40:19
MK, do you not think that Klopp will address the midfield problems in the summer? It's already been clarified that he attempted to address them last summer and we currently have midfielders injured.

KloppisTopp, you're getting confused about our results and moaning about games we won. Would you prefer us to play well, in your mind, and lose?

14.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 15:47:36
MK Scouser, and yet some people on here would come tell you that Thiago is the problem or that he was a luxury player we should NOT have signed. Absolute rubbish, really.

15.) 09 Jan 2023
09 Jan 2023 17:17:34
Thiago.1 of those tackles was when he messed up and tried a skill move and gave the ball back to wolves leading to their first goal. Blame alli for the rest but let's start where the rubbishshow started from.