Man Utd 2-1 Liverpool - Monday 22nd August, 2022

[Waylander]

I was thinking yesterday whether Ten Hag would go counter attack against Pool.

Looks like he did to an extent with McTomminay the card risk yet with a good engine and bringing in the fast attacking players in Elanga, Rashford and Sancho.

It did surprise me Utd replaced Fred for Eriksen yet it worked.

See the premier league pundits are now in full swing TTA gets caught up field leaving gaps and as other LFC fans have said injuries to key players.

Now Utd go to the Saints next and the Saints often play a pressing game, will Ten Hag keep the same line up?

[OrangeKhrush]

Liverpool are missing players but damn that central midfield looks like it needs some spring cleaning 

[MUFC]

As much as I enjoyed the win I'm avoiding Sky Sports today. We have Southampton next and these are the sides who usually outwork us and hustle us. Just as Brighton and Brentford did. Not being too negative but I'll wait till we've played some of these smaller teams before getting too excited. 

[OrangeKhrush]

5 minutes ago, MUFC said:

As much as I enjoyed the win I'm avoiding Sky Sports today. We have Southampton next and these are the sides who usually outwork us and hustle us. Just as Brighton and Brentford did. Not being too negative but I'll wait till we've played some of these smaller teams before getting too excited. 

the league is tough.   We beat Forest comfortably but since then they have been good.  Brighton winning away makes them legitimate this season, whether they have depth is the issue but they are a hard to play team.   the draw at the Amex is a fantastic result.

Brentford got caught napping taking their demolition of Man United as gospel.

Leeds sold their show ponies and actually got better players while making City and Barcelona fork out serial overpay.

[OrangeKhrush]

Liverpool play straight into Martinez's strength, Brighton and Brentford bullied him in the air, Liverpool can't play that way.

I can see City walking it.   Haaland gives them an edge the rivals don't have and they can play hoof it up when needed as his hold up play and aerial game is scintilating.   if Haaland gets injured there are issues.

[Lucas]

4 hours ago, OrangeKhrush said:

Leeds sold their show ponies and actually got better players while making City and Barcelona fork out serial overpay.

Firstly, Phillips and Raphinha were never show ponies. I don't think they had ever been described in that way. The latter kept us up almost single handedly last season, the former was key in getting us as far as we went.

Secondly, when you see potential bids of Anthony Gordon costing more than Raphinha, and Morgan Gibbs-White costing more than Kalvin Phillips, I'd say we should be crying into our cornflakes we've let them go so cheaply.

Full internationals we are talking about as well.

Thirdly, I kinda agree that we have utilised the money well to replace Phillips, Raphinha we do not know yet as Sinisterra has hardly featured.

You seem a nice guy and are a positive addition to the forum but some of your opinions feel backwards, particularly when you seem happy to pay £50m for two Championship players from Watford, but that's none of my business.

[Stan]

8 minutes ago, Lucas said:

Firstly, Phillips and Raphinha were never show ponies. I don't think they had ever been described in that way. The latter kept us up almost single handedly last season, the former was key in getting us as far as we went.

Secondly, when you see potential bids of Anthony Gordon costing more than Raphinha, and Morgan Gibbs-White costing more than Kalvin Phillips, I'd say we should be crying into our cornflakes we've let them go so cheaply.

Full internationals we are talking about as well.

Thirdly, I kinda agree that we have utilised the money well to replace Phillips, Raphinha we do not know yet as Sinisterra has hardly featured.

You seem a nice guy and are a positive addition to the forum but some of your opinions feel backwards, particularly when you seem happy to pay £50m for two Championship players from Watford, but that's none of my business.

It's fine when Newcastle spend big money.

Other clubs doing it is blasphemy

[OrangeKhrush]

25 minutes ago, Lucas said:

Firstly, Phillips and Raphinha were never show ponies. I don't think they had ever been described in that way. The latter kept us up almost single handedly last season, the former was key in getting us as far as we went.

Secondly, when you see potential bids of Anthony Gordon costing more than Raphinha, and Morgan Gibbs-White costing more than Kalvin Phillips, I'd say we should be crying into our cornflakes we've let them go so cheaply.

Full internationals we are talking about as well.

Thirdly, I kinda agree that we have utilised the money well to replace Phillips, Raphinha we do not know yet as Sinisterra has hardly featured.

You seem a nice guy and are a positive addition to the forum but some of your opinions feel backwards, particularly when you seem happy to pay £50m for two Championship players from Watford, but that's none of my business.

I don't necessarily agree with them,  but you got to find talent at different levels and some players are curtailed by the limits of the teams they are in. 

[RandoEFC+]

I have to echo what others have said. When you play a three-man midfield and ask as much of them in terms of intensity as Klopp does, you need to have at least five players in that position that can come in and perform at a top level. Fabinho, Thiago, Keita, Henderson, Milner seem to be the five senior players with other options mostly kids or others playing out of position, unless I'm missing someone obvious. With Keita having been a bit hit and miss since he was signed and the other four of those the wrong side of 30, it's clearly an area of the squad that had the potential to cause Liverpool a bit of a headache this season. Harvey Elliot has at least done fairly well in there in the two games I've seen.

I have to say I don't really get the argument about defensive injuries. Three of the back four that played last night and the goalkeeper are Liverpool's undisputed first choice and Gomez surely isn't deemed to be that far away from Matip or Konate to make a huge difference.

[Dr. Gonzo]

19 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

I have to echo what others have said. When you play a three-man midfield and ask as much of them in terms of intensity as Klopp does, you need to have at least five players in that position that can come in and perform at a top level. Fabinho, Thiago, Keita, Henderson, Milner seem to be the five senior players with other options mostly kids or others playing out of position, unless I'm missing someone obvious. With Keita having been a bit hit and miss since he was signed and the other four of those the wrong side of 30, it's clearly an area of the squad that had the potential to cause Liverpool a bit of a headache this season. Harvey Elliot has at least done fairly well in there in the two games I've seen.

I have to say I don't really get the argument about defensive injuries. Three of the back four that played last night and the goalkeeper are Liverpool's undisputed first choice and Gomez surely isn't deemed to be that far away from Matip or Konate to make a huge difference.

I don't think the defensive injuries are that big of a deal, other than the fact we're still just one injury away from having to rely on Nat Phillips again... and I don't think he's terrible, but I also don't think he's closer to the level of Matip, Konate or Gomez. But the defenders are always going to look poor when they've got a midfield that was as dysfunctional as last nights.

We've also lined up a bit differently, with the wingers staying more wide than central, this season and I'm not sure it's that great of a tactical move tbh. I'm sure it's got something to do with the limited options we've got at midfield with senior players - but I think we might be wanting a more drastic change to our system with this many injuries to our midfield. Playing Henderson and Milner in the centre hasn't worked for a long time, before the concerns about their age ever popped up. I get that Fabinho was awful against Palace, but I'm sure he would have been a better option as a starter than Milner and we probably would have had more presence in the centre of the pitch if he'd started - like we did when he came on.

I think there's a big risk in our transfer policy with regards to Bellingham being: "we'll just wait until next year" - there's no guarantee he'll join us next year and we need to qualify for the CL still to probably dish out the cash and look appealing to him. And there's no guarantee a club like Real Madrid or Man City won't swoop in - I suspect he'll be one of the hottest players available in the market next year. And it's not like we wouldn't need another central midfielder in a season or two anyways after we get him.

It's a big gamble putting our eggs in the basket of injury prone players who can potentially spoil a season when it looks like we need reinforcements now. Thiago's world class at his best, but I think at this point we should only expect to have him around for 50% of available matches. Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain we basically just pay to keep our physios well worked. Milner's approaching that point of his career where I think we'd get best use from him as a substitute. Fabinho's the only one under 30 of our midfielders & we should probably be buying players to build around him in the midfield for the next few years.

After 3 matches of the players coming out and saying "we need to get improve" and looking worse by the week, I hope FSG back Klopp and get him a midfielder. He's basically come out and said "we should sign a midfielder" as clearly as he will ever say to the media.

[LFCMike]

On 23/08/2022 at 10:53, RandoEFC said:

Mike has been quiet on this one. If this doesn't work to summon him I might actually get worried.

 

I'm assuming this is aimed at me. If so, I have far too much shite going on in my personal life at the moment to be arsed with getting into arguments about football. 

[RandoEFC+]

11 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

I'm assuming this is aimed at me. If so, I have far too much shite going on in my personal life at the moment to be arsed with getting into arguments about football. 

Was only a slight WUM fella. Hope all is well.