27 Jan 2021 17:13:59
Thoughts on playing matip and Phillips (so can’t understand why he’s not getting games) and play fabinho, Henderson and Thiago in midfield. Fabinho will offer protection giving others to offer more going forward.
Must be worth a go with our recent form.

27 Jan 2021 17:21:48
I have been saying this for weeks, but obviously kloppo sees something in trying we don’t as Phillips is not even being considered!

27 Jan 2021 17:33:06
Makes sense to me. Play Thiago a bit further forward so a 4-2-1-3 formation when attacking and drop back to a 4-2-3-1 when defending.

27 Jan 2021 17:35:42
I would love to see this happen.
I don’t understand why Phillips isn’t getting games, there must be a reason though.
But he looked ok when I’ve seen him.
Playing Fabinho back in midfield seems to make sense to me, at least on paper, for starters the midfield is fixed again, a midfield of Fab, with Thiago and Hendo ahead is really strong and balanced, this in turn makes the attackers more confident going forward knowing Fab is behind them to mop up, plus it gives the shaky defence confidence knowing behind them is arguably the worlds best goalie and in front of them is arguably the worlds best defensive midfielder.
So playing Matip and Philips in defence with fab in midfield is what I would like to see, then when Matip is injured Fab can drop back again, but would also be nice to get a CB this month and play him with Matip with Phillips as the back up so Fab can just stay in midfield. Williams being the absolute last resort.

27 Jan 2021 18:02:15
The entire thing (be it certain players in defence or midfield) is a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul though.
There’s always a deficit somewhere.
4-3-3 is high risk, harum-scarum football.
We gave up chances last season, even with the full team out, but relied on Virgil and his CB partner to take care of it.
Asking a very makeshift CB pairing to do the same is hugely risky, more so when opponents’ front 3 are high quality.

27 Jan 2021 18:27:58
Btw johnnyr, 4-2-3-1 in defence? Lol.
We’re conceding on the break, so it’s the two CBs and deeper midfielder at home, everyone else is up the pitch somewhere.

27 Jan 2021 18:31:03
It is strange how Klopp has played Matip, Williams and Phillips at different times but always alongside Fab who is a centre mid. I’m surprised when Matip has been fit he’s not put Williams or Philips alongside him which would then give us 2 recognised centre half’s. You think if Klopp doesn’t trust Phillips and Williams 100% then playing alongside a centre back (who despite is injury prone is still a very good centre back) would be better for them from a talking guidance point of view and on the other hand allows us to put Fab back into the centre.

27 Jan 2021 18:41:04
Not sure this is a good idea going against Son and Kane right now. Klopp had a chance to pick a partnership and stick with it but he didn’t. If we err winning and scoring goals then you have more lee way to try diff things. This is not the time to do such things so we go with what ze think can work.

27 Jan 2021 18:42:30
I do t want to tempt fate. but I think it’s because Fabinho is less likely to get injured than Matip. So Klopps thinking maybe get Fab used to playing CB all season instead of one week midfield then the other week Defence, because Matip gets his usual 2 game injury a month.
That’s my guess, even though personally I’d just play the Defenders in defence and the Midfielders in Midfield.

27 Jan 2021 18:54:20
I would say something needs to change, or need tweaking, the last time we won in the league was on the 19th December.

Maybe we need to be less on the front foot, let teams come on to us a bit more. Our success has been smothering teams and winning the ball back in the opposing teams half, something that’s difficult to do with any success with teams practically playing 11 men behind the ball. No VVD switching the play and stretching the opposition and no Hendo and Fab in midfield, makes it difficult

It’s something we need to deal with and think about, even more so now so many teams have nullified our attack. Tomorrow night will be no different, except we have Kane and Son to deal with.

27 Jan 2021 19:43:19
Totally agree Clee Red! Don’t know why this hasn’t be the case when matip has been fit 🤷‍♂️.

27 Jan 2021 22:04:35
Juicer, it was more about having our 2 wide forwards and attacking mid dropping back when we didn't have the ball and pushing forward when we did.

27 Jan 2021 22:29:14
If I remember rightly didn't Philips get man of the match in his last game against West ham and then dropped next game.

27 Jan 2021 22:51:58
I think Thiago is a top player but not in a deep midfield role, maybe in Germany but not here. So if Matip is fit I'd play Henderson alongside him, Fab in DM and Thiago further forward alongside one of Gini, Milner, Curtis.

28 Jan 2021 00:00:49
Juicer we are not conceding on the break at all. We’ve conceded 3 goals in the last 7 league games all from set pieces.
Even the goals in the FA Cup weren’t from breaks they were from defensive errors.
We are defending well on the whole but when we have struggled it’s when teams are direct as we don’t have a decent header of the ball in the DM position to mop up so the ball gets flicked on or the CB has to come out to challenge for the header leaving a hole in behind him.
As for Philips he hasn’t played since the Newcastle game and rightly so. He was awful that day. For me Williams has had better performances than Philips has so deserves to be ahead of him but neither are at the level we need. Playing Philips against the strength of Kane and the pace of Son would be suicide and they would target that all day long.

28 Jan 2021 10:25:28
BP Philips has what 2games? A man of the match performance and a bad one. Rhys had like 15 or something, I struggle to remember a decent one. Probably he had a moment or two but most of the time he struggled. I can remember 3 mistakes when he cost us a goal. Definitely Philips deserves another chance.

28 Jan 2021 11:11:41
I understand it’s not without risk but it would give a stronger midfield than we have had all season fab holding allows full Backs to bomb on hendo and Thiago to join the attack more and maybe give better opportunities for our forward 3.
Must be worth a try if not against Spurs then maybe upcoming games.