I thought our midfield struggled today and I thought Hendo in particular had an absolute mare, in a season of being way off his best.

I thought All 3 were poor in defense and dribbled past too easily at times. On the ball, thought Jones was good and brave - and remember a few
moments were he was trying to escape the last man to set us away and lost it - and I don't mind that.

But Hendo was even worse on the ball than off the ball today. So many times he lost it and we were countered almost conceding.

I still think that Fab-Hendo conundrum can only
be solved by them simply not being on the pitch together. At least not in a 433.


For me our midfield depth is

Thiago - Fabinho - Jones
(Elliott) - (Hendo) - (Keita)

then Ox/Milner picking up mins from injuries when needed.


This goal kinda encapsulates a problem I have. Watch Hendo the whole goal - only Hendo. Now watch Jones.

Hendo caught ahead of the ball, Jones steps out to press the ball, then runs back to cover de Bruyne in the box.
Hendo at no point gets back behind the ball despite Jones ending up ahead of him, stationary and facing the City goal at one point.

My concern is Hendo is a player who solves problems running. And his legs aren't getting him to where he needs to be right now.


People highlighting how Klopp wants Jones and Hendo to 'step out' and 'push higher up' as proof that all the problems we see stemming from Henderson today are 'instructed'.

First, players are not micromanaged. This isn't FIFA where Klopp has a controller
to decide when they are to step out and when not to - it is an individual choice.

On 28 seconds he even says it himself "in specific moments". So how do you know if the player is making good decisions or not - simple. Are they consistently getting it wrong and being ahead of
ball?

Elliott? No, he's not. Jones? No, also. Henderson is though.

But as mentioned above, that isn't entirely decision making. On the second goal he just needs to run in a straight line and get back behind the ball - he can't.

Jones steps out, presses the ball, is ahead of
Hendo, turns, runs back and gets back behind the ball to TRY and block KDB. But Hendo running in a straight line never gets behind the ball in that attack.

And it was same as the Brentford goal last week where the whole midfield drops and he never makes it.
Which means if you know that your legs aren't doing what you need them to and you keep getting caught ahead of the ball you have a problem. You either need to be perfect in your decision making or realise you are no longer suited to that role that you asked for after Fabinho
joined because you were no longer getting games as a #6.

I still don't think Hendo and Fabinho can be on the same pitch together for that reason. How Hendo plays makes Fabinho struggle. How Fabinho needs us to play isn't something Hendo is comfortable with.
So it looks like our midfield is at cival war... two contrasting needs battling it out to see which prevails.

Will our midfield be open and full of running - I fucking hope not. This isn't the Milderson+Gini midfield of 4 years ago that can cover that space.

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More from @babuyagu

5 Oct
The unescapable reality of the Salah situation is:-

- We need to give him a new deal
* but doing so may mean pay bumps across the board and we may end up no longer having revenue to cover our wages

- Or we sell him in the summer

- Or we lose him for free the following summer.
Those are literally the only 3 options and people making out like it is a simple thing and just give him whatever are perhaps not considering the knockon effect.

Do guys like Virg, Ali, Trent, Hendo etc have parity clauses in their contract. Maybe not to be the highest earner
but to say that they never earn <75% what the highest earner does.

And even if not, does it create a problem when you come to renegotiate with guys like Firmino & Mane and new signings in the future. Suddenly the upper limit in wages isn't 200k but 500k+.

Saying to Mane you
Read 23 tweets
5 Oct
People need to stop looking at the end and ask how to solve that problem.

Rather - start at the beginning and asked what caused the problem and how to avoid it.

Best way to fight fire is to prevent fire. If you are always fighting fires you get burned from time to time.
If Henderson is essentially starting fires in our midfield - and I honestly don't know a more apt way to describe what happened against City - then surely the onus is on finding a way to stop that happening rather than complain that Fabinho isn't great when in a forest fire.
If you have Fabinho in your time - you already KNOW he isn't a lateral player. So if you are putting him in a team where he has to cover laterally because the rest of the midfield get caught ahead of the ball it is just setting him up to fail.

Hence why I said you cannot play
Read 5 tweets
5 Oct
There is a narrative that Hendo was motm against Milan - and he just wasn't.

He was the match-winner for sure. But if I had to ask anybody to remember now what he did that match literally all you will remember is that goal - because that is how memory works. You remember those
big moments, particularly if they are anchored in a big emotion - the absolute joy of someone scoring a worldie to win a game. But that can't be literally the ONLY thing we consider judging motm.

And in truth he was the player who starts the chain reaction for us to
concede both goals. That isn't to say he is entirely at fault, or other players shouldn't have done better in their situations - just that his movement and positioning causes a collapse we never recover from.

First goal, he never presses the ball and the Milan player can take
Read 6 tweets
5 Oct
Simple... instead of 2 midfielders trying to cover the width of the pitch, you have 3. So instead of Fabinho being the most-right midfielder and having to contest the ball on the right side of the box, and Jones needing to be near him to keep some shape in our system and fill the
gap behind him... Hendo is challenging where Fabinho is, or if Fabinho has already moved out, drops into the #6 spot and allows Jones to stay the left-CM and fill that half space.
Go back and watch the Brentford goal again - Hendo starts the play in a line with Jones. Ends up 30 yards behind play. Even the referee is moving quicker than him.

But worse, he isn't dropping back but moving laterally across the pitch stacking our midfield in a vertical line.
Read 7 tweets
3 Oct
I love this from Klopp... but here is why you don't get this too often? Shit questions.

Journalists have a headline and then ask Klopp to confirm it. Or ask about transfers. Two things you can do with Klopp to shut the conversation down - they are closed questions. You are
telling Klopp EXACTLY the soundbite you are after from him and he ain't giving that to you.

Here... he gets asked a football question and asked to explain what the problem was.

He answered talking about football. Not transfers. Not depth. Not Trent backup.

He talks football.
And as we showed second half...we solved the problems in the first half with adjustment rather than change. Because as fans we only understand the game in terms of players. So to affect change you need to make changes. That means subs. That means transfers.
Read 9 tweets
3 Oct
This is my match thread for today 1/? 🧵

Thoughts on the lineup?

No big surprises. I thought Firmino might start.

Good to see Keita on the bench - that must be a nightmare for the injury conspiracy theorists.

Lets batter them! Come on you Redmen!
Also this will be the 3rd full 90 minutes in a week for Matip - assuming he completes the game. I can't remember the last time he did that. With the Int break it means he can rest before our next game mid-October.

#LIVMCI #LFC #EPL2021
I see a lot of people mentioning Grealish v Milner.

I would honestly be more worried if it was Sané. If it was Sane v Milner I'd be having a quiet little cry before kickoff. Or Gnabry. Anybody that has an insane amount of pace and the technical and tactical ability to hurt you
Read 69 tweets

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