coachpotato

But we’ve got a right back to cover Trent, and Gomez has played there for us and England, he could even be put into midfield to cover there, the difference is that even if we put square pegs into round holes in midfield, we still have round pegs in round holes behind them whereas last season we weakened both midfield and back four through injuries and moving midfielders back there.

Brighton targeted us down our right side, as lots of teams do because Trent gets caught forward, a lot, and unless there’s a midfielder to cover that, then a CB has to come out of position as Konate did yesterday. Lallana might have given Potter more insight into how certain players play and that might have led to them finer tuning their tactics, they did play a very good game to be fair and were opening us up way too easily. We’re still getting van Dijk up to speed, Robbo has been out of sorts, an ineffective midfield, they met us at the right time and still didn’t beat us.

Craig Hignett on Radio Merseyside last night said that Bellingham was in the bag, he couldn’t say who his source was (hmmm) but it was happening. I know, I know, but if it’s true, then we would appear to be changing the guard in midfield with the likes of Jones (20), Elliot(18) and Bellingham (17) to a much younger profile. It would at least show the club has recognised the need to move on (probably) Milner, Henderson and Chamberlain for age/unreliability reasons, possibly Thiago as well as he’s 30 and injury prone. Keita is 26 and cost £52m, he has finally shown some form, Klopp appears to like him, so he’s likely to stay. Fab is just turned 27 and our best midfielder IMHO, probably one of the first names on the team sheet when fit. There’s couple of the kids who’ve look promising and who might step up into squad places to maintain numbers such as Conor Bradley. Problem is that right now we’re down to bare bones and so perhaps the need is to either draft in defenders to cover in midfield, or change formation to make use of who we have got fit. I could see an argument to move Trent into midfield and play Williams or Gomez at right back, which could strengthen our defensive cover in an area many teams target us, and allow Trent to still use his undoubted attacking skills. We could try three centre backs as we have an abundance there (oh the irony!) and go 3-4-3 or 3-5-2. Yet, we’re still unbeaten, but while draws are better than losses, they’ll damage us, as we’ve seen in the past. Losing one, drawing one and winning one is better than drawing three. Despite all the above, Klopp never appears to be panicking and if he isn’t then maybe we shouldn’t be either.

After the United game I thought we might give these a good hiding, after today it could go either way if we field the same midfield. It won’t be a pretty watch, it’ll probably be frustrating too, even more than usual against these, so a point pretty much guarantees us through to the knock-out stages and that’ll do. Just don’t let them win.

Firstly, fair fucks to Brighton for having a go, Potter is turning out to be a decent coach and from Klopp’s comments during the week, he rates him and the way his team plays, and no doubt it will have annoyed him that Brighton were able to play their game and be so effective, I don’t think anyone could deny Brighton deserving a point from today. It’s always annoying when the likes of City drop points and we don’t fully capitalise, especially when we’ve been 2 goals to the good, and as for the disallowed Mane goal, not one Brighton player thought that was a handball, even the keeper, so if, technically, it was a handball then once again the law is being seen to be an ass. I thought we were pretty much in control until Keita went off, and I never thought I’d say that at one stage of his career at Liverpool, but even before then, Firmino and Jones played with little positive effect to the team and often, forward momentum was halted by their tardiness and mistakes. When AOC came on it left Hendo fighting an increasingly losing battle in midfield and Brighton got a grip that didn’t drop until a couple of minutes from the end. No team will do consistently well if a big part of one area of the squad is overly affected by absenteeism through injuries or suspensions, we don’t have to look too far to see how that pans out, so I fully expect the mistakes made last season in procrastinating over whether to strengthen will not be repeated, and if midfield continues to be badly affected then reinforcements should be identified and brought in at the earliest opportunity. Having said that, we’re only 3 points behind Chelsea, so they’ll have to live with the pressure of leading the field and it’ll be interesting to see how that pans out, on the bright side we are a further point ahead of City, and as I believe every point will count this season then that’s a small bonus on a disappointing day.

And then he woke up…….

Might be an idea to ask Klopp who he thinks might be the best person to take over from him, I don’t think he’d like it all to go shit shaped when he eventually decides to make the break.

Midfield is offering nothing currently. No chances made going forwards, so it’s difficult to see what the kid Blair is like and Divock won’t do anything unless it’s put on a plate for him. Thought Jones and Oxlade might have been more influential.

Sad. Seemed an all round good guy.

Be called Cristian Ronaldo.

Telling that Klopp said after the game that once we’d scored the fifth, it wasn’t about humiliating the opposition, but more about trying to ensure we got no more injuries. Almost like a tacit agreement that if we don’t take the piss, you don’t take any more liberties?

We lose and they get 5 more nails to hammer into Rafa’s coffin lid.

Redshite behaviour.

Would be interesting to see where Samuel’s income comes from. All of it. I don’t read him, other than what’s quoted on here, and certainly nothing from the Daily Xenophobe, in fact the last time I remember hearing him say anything was on Sunday Supplement years ago. He was arguing how “bigger” clubs should be handicapped to give the likes of Everton, Newcastle and West Ham, “real football clubs”, a fairer crack of the whip. Think it was when City were just beginning to gather momentum. I haven’t missed him at all surprisingly.

Poor finisher. Dives far too much. There are better players around for the money he’d cost/want. Bellingham for a start.

Don’t know if this has been posted, but the Fire Alarm was set off in the Atalanta teams hotel during the night. One of the wives was quoted as saying she didn’t think it was accidental. Desperate?

Kicked the ball away and their players were up in arms, strangely.

And Griezeman will be out for the return. Horrible bastards deserve fuck all with their shithousing tactics, they’d be a good team if they concentrated on playing football.

Mcmanaman “Jota got away with one there” Twat. Their player dived you prick! And also Griezeman was”unlucky” to get sent off, yet Mane deserved to be walked against City that time I suppose? Best listened to with the sound off.

Just blow the whistle now and get out with the three points.

Biggest bunch of shithouses in European football these, and that’s taking PSG into account too.

Wouldn’t be surprised to see Trent walked here.

Opened up far too easily after going into the lead. Getting between the man and the goal is a basic skill and too many of ours are being run past because they won’t adhere to that. There’s nobody exempted from that either, Virgil was turned completely the wrong way when Griezeman went past him to score the second. Alisson has prevented us from conceding another two, but there’s a need for more cover in midfield as they’re running through us because of a lack of pace from Milner and Hendo and apart from the goal, Keita hasn’t added much if anything. Since we scored our second we’ve hardly threatened, which is disappointing to say the least, and our usual build up play has been negated by their dropping and playing a back five, which is exactly how they have played against us previously. Some changes required to get out of this with a draw or, hopefully, a win but this is where Klopp earns his corn when presented with this kind of problem.

Just hope we get through tonight’s game against Atleti with no injuries. Simeone knows our game against United is big and they, and United, will try to stop Salah by any means necessary and not always within the laws of the game. The United game likely won’t be a cakewalk as they’ll line up not to get a pasting and hope for a break or two, they have enough to suffocate us and more than enough to nick a goal or two. Taylor could play a major part in how much United get away with or not. Probably find a draw would be the best we could expect, even though on form, we should twat them.

I recall back in the old Shanklygates days, when rival supporters could “banter” with each other on the same website, Toon and Ev fans used to go at each other about who was the biggest club out of the two, well, it was really who was the least unsuccessful. Our blue brethren would argue they’d won the Cup Winners Cup and FA cup more recently, the Toon would argue they had bigger support even though they hadn’t won anything since the Cities FairsCup in 1969. There was a young chap called Dave Kelly in the Blue corner who seemed to be right pissed that we had won anything. Happy days.