Southampton (H) - Sat 8th May 2021, 8:15pm

[dockers_strike]

2 hours ago, Code said:

Both Williams and Phillips are way too slow to play CB for a team with any other ambitions than purely existing. 
 

Their defending last night was abysmal, and we can thank Alisson for the clean sheet. 

That's utter nonesense. Williams and Phillips didnt put a foot wrong. In contrast Allison's kicking was substandard and again, nearly lead to a goal when he passed straight to a Southampton forward. Robbo was again a bit careless when he sliced a couple of balls and Trent was once again caught out of position. Yet you say the 2 CB's defending was abysmal?

 

Fucking hell, half our problems this year at the back arent that we've missed van Dijk and \ or Matip and Joe. It's Allison whose form has been very patchy to say the least, Trent out of position and caught ball watching when defending. Robbo has suffered dips as well with some very rash tackles.

 

I find it incredible people continually blame Williams, Phillips and Kabak while the 'favourites' get off virtually scott free for the mistakes they are making.

 

 

[Code]

3 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

That's utter nonesense. Williams and Phillips didnt put a foot wrong. In contrast Allison's kicking was substandard and again, nearly lead to a goal when he passed straight to a Southampton forward. Robbo was again a bit careless when he sliced a couple of balls and Trent was once again caught out of position. Yet you say the 2 CB's defending was abysmal?

 

Fucking hell, half our problems this year at the back arent that we've missed van Dijk and \ or Matip and Joe. It's Allison whose form has been very patchy to say the least, Trent out of position and caught ball watching when defending. Robbo has suffered dips as well with some very rash tackles.

 

I find it incredible people continually blame Williams, Phillips and Kabak while the 'favourites' get off virtually scott free for the mistakes they are making.

 

 

This is the problem with people who think football actually consist of what they watch happen in front of them, thats basically just 50% of it. 
 

 

[dockers_strike]

2 minutes ago, Code said:

This is the problem with people who think football actually consist of what they watch happen in front of them. 
 

 

Haha. In denial, I see. Yeah whatever. But what you going to say when van Dijk is back and Trent and allison in particular repeatedly make mistakes you ignore?

[Code]

Just now, dockers_strike said:

Haha. In denial, I see. Yeah whatever. But what you going to say when van Dijk is back and Trent and allison in particular repeatedly make mistake you ignore/

No denial at all, but what should have been done and could have been done, is a massive part of how you judge a performance. 

[aws]

Rhys got done badly for pace once but apart from that I thought the two CBs did well. As a pairing they'd frighten me to death against top sides but I think Nat would be a useful squad player next season as we see how everybody else recovers. Rhys needs a couple of years on loan.  

[Scott_M]

Although it doesn’t feel it, we’re actually in good form. Results wise anyway. 
 

4 wins from 6 and the other 2 were late equalisers. 

[Pete]

4 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

Although it doesn’t feel it, we’re actually in good form. Results wise anyway. 
 

4 wins from 6 and the other 2 were late equalisers. 

Championship winning form there! 

[aws]

4 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

Although it doesn’t feel it, we’re actually in good form. Results wise anyway. 
 

4 wins from 6 and the other 2 were late equalisers. 

Would have been six on the bounce if Nat had played. 

[dockers_strike]

5 minutes ago, Code said:

No denial at all, but what should have been done and could have been done, is a massive part of how you judge a performance. 

What should and what could have been done? What kind of babble is that?

 

The fact of the matter is any player, even van Dijk, will get outpaced, lose a header or be out of position during a game. That's football.

 

If Phillips or Williams had been caught out repeatedly in a game, that's a cause for concern but they were not last night and more established players in the defence made more errors.

 

You can either recognise that or continue to hide behind absurd claims that the pair's defending last night was 'abysmal.'

[Code]

16 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

What should and what could have been done? What kind of babble is that?

 

The fact of the matter is any player, even van Dijk, will get outpaced, lose a header or be out of position during a game. That's football.

 

If Phillips or Williams had been caught out repeatedly in a game, that's a cause for concern but they were not last night and more established players in the defence made more errors.

 

You can either recognise that or continue to hide behind absurd claims that the pair's defending last night was 'abysmal.'

Its called football knowledge, not babble. 

[sir roger]

I'd be happy with Phillips as 5th option playing mainly cup games , and they weren't abysmal by any means ( Although I don't think Williams will ever be a normal option for us ) . Soton were streaming through the press a fair bit and they were exposed at times as inexperienced cb's will be , particularly if forced into a high line which doesn't suit them. Can't understand fans who love to over-criticise our players to make themselves look clever.

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

4 minutes ago, sir roger said:

I'd be happy with Phillips as 5th option playing mainly cup games , and they weren't abysmal by any means ( Although I don't think Williams will ever be a normal option for us ) . Soton were streaming through the press a fair bit and they were exposed at times as inexperienced cb's will be , particularly if forced into a high line which doesn't suit them. Can't understand fans who love to over-criticise our players to make themselves look clever.

Now you gone done and did it!

[Code]

22 minutes ago, sir roger said:

I'd be happy with Phillips as 5th option playing mainly cup games , and they weren't abysmal by any means ( Although I don't think Williams will ever be a normal option for us ) . Soton were streaming through the press a fair bit and they were exposed at times as inexperienced cb's will be , particularly if forced into a high line which doesn't suit them. Can't understand fans who love to over-criticise our players to make themselves look clever.

If that was aimed at me, then I dont think I have criticised them, they do their best, but their best is simply not good enough. 
 

These are obvious facts.

 

You could turn it around though, why do people make out certain players are better than they actually are, just because of some Nice storyline/underdog factor?

 

I have absolutely no expecatations whatsoever when it comes to Phillips and Williams, they are what they are. Its a bit like playing VanDijk, Gomez or Matip with 20 kg rucksacks on their backs, still they would do better. 
 

Our goal for next season must be to never have to rely on players with such limited ability ever again. 

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

To be fair Code,Williams runs like a flamingo on ice carrying 50kg rucksack of rocks.

Philips headed the rocks into the rucksack

[TheHowieLama]

Saw a blip on the text of the match that this was the first gola that Salah and Mane have hooked up togerther on in the league this season.

 

That cann'ae be true can it?

[an tha]

Phillips will have a decent enough career playing for teams in the lower half of the PL who employ the 'low block' a lot.

 

He is decent at heading balls away from his goal, decent at clearances and will do a sound job defending his penalty area under pressure.

 

But for a team who employ a high line like we do and rely on centre halves to carry ball out and provide quality distribution he hasn't got the pace or the quality required.

 

You see him sometimes for example carrying the ball into midfield and trying to ping a pass to one of the forwards, and he gives the ball away and is 20 yards out of position which leaves us vulnerable to a counter attack - and he lacks recovery pace.

 

He tends to vacate his position a bit too much - charging across to stuff and then leaves us exposed because he can't get there or makes a foul trying to - teams end up in behind us quite a bit as result.

 

He's a bit of a nuts and bolts defender though and does the last ditch stuff/stuff in his own box ok - but we need somebody more refined than that and we aren't a team who should be dropping deep and trying to hang on, something we have seen a fair bit this season.

 

He's become a cult hero and i get it - but for me people are getting a bit carried away about him.

 

Attitude is good and he's done ok, maybe he could be 4th/5th choice for us, but my guess is he'd be better off at Burnley or Newcastle or somewhere like that where he could do a job and play week in week out.

 

 

[3 Stacks]

Burnley should give us their whole transfer budget for Phillips, that's how good he'd be there. He should not be staying here to be 5th choice if he knows what's good for him and while he's done a decent job, we shouldn't be keeping him either. 

[Jairzinho]

Yeah he scould get himself a 40k p/w four year deal at somewhere like Burnley. 

 

Best of luck to him. If everyone had played as close to their maximum ability as he has we'd be about 20 points better off. 

[clockspeed]

56 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

Yeah he scould get himself a 40k p/w four year deal at somewhere like Burnley. 

 

Best of luck to him. If everyone had played as close to their maximum ability as he has we'd be about 20 points better off. 

Second paragraph best analysis of season so far.

[dave u]

Nat Phillips has been absolutely heroic this season.

 

What that means beyond this summer I don't know and I'm fine with whatever Klopp decides, but the fact is that lad has performed way above and beyond what anyone could have expected him to.

[Guest]

@Trumo to start the next match thread. Someone also tell @dave u that we won the match and that normally should mean we see a match report... 

[dave u]

1 minute ago, Shooter in the Motor said:

@Trumo to start the next match thread. Someone also tell @dave u that we won the match and that normally should mean we see a match report... 

Working on it. Will be posted up in the morning.

[Razoray]

1 hour ago, dave u said:

Nat Phillips has been absolutely heroic this season.

 

What that means beyond this summer I don't know and I'm fine with whatever Klopp decides, but the fact is that lad has performed way above and beyond what anyone could have expected him to.

Not fair on the lad to be 4th/5th choice here unless he really wants it. I'd say at his age he wants to play. He should be allowed move on with a massive thanks

[Tj hooker]

Anthony Taylor is the ref and Tierney is the Var ref 

[TheHowieLama]

On 09/05/2021 at 16:26, Shooter in the Motor said:

@Trumo to start the next match thread. Someone also tell @dave u that we won the match and that normally should mean we see a match report... 

He is 14 paragraphs into a story about recyclable tees.