Y.N.W.A Thread III: Enter 'The Normal One'

[Foz]

Eventually teams with quality attackers get found out if they have b grade defenders.
We can say missing Matip hurt us but conceding 4 goals to a team that weren't even at the races in the first half is unforgivable if you call yourselves title contenders.
There's games you play in when there's periods you're under the pump.Its these moments you look at the guy beside you and ask if you can rely on the guy going into battle with you.Wonder what our back 4 were thinking in that second half?

 

[cb4]

The real Dejan Lovren stood up today.

 

[saint.nick]

I don't get it, for such an outgoing guy, Lovren seems to have the shittest organisation skills.

What a nightmare that was. Lose Matip and concede 4 goals to Bournemouth. We need another centre back if Lucas is preferred over the back-up centre back we bought in the summer window.

People can go on all they like about how we were due for a loss, but title challengers don't lose when they are commanding the game against lower-table opposition. If title challengers lose, they save it for their worst performances or matches against top-table rivals. You don't go 2-0 up and then collapse like a stack of cards as soon as there is the slightest hint of adversity.

 

[cb4]

It was just a truly pathetic display.

 

[Captain Apollo]

What a nightmare that was. Lose Matip and concede 4 goals to Bournemouth. We need another centre back if Lucas is preferred over the back-up centre back we bought in the summer window.

There has been much media talk saying LFC are looking for another CB, with Southhampton's Virgil Van Dijk the name being much bandied about in the press.

Klavan was only a stop gap signing. I think he may have blotted his copy book as far as Klopp is concerned due to his performances against Burnley and he was not so great against Leeds if the EFL Cup either.

 

[saint.nick]

There has been much media talk saying LFC are looking for another CB, with Southhampton's Virgil Van Dijk the name being much bandied about in the press.

Klavan was only a stop gap signing. I think he may have blotted his copy book as far as Klopp is concerned due to his performances against Burnley and he was not so great against Leeds if the EFL Cup either.

That's the thing, Lucas has actually proven himself as CB more at Liverpool than Klavan has.

Van Dijk is definitely not the answer.

 

[cb4]

Lucas is a terrible footballer. He is not quick enough to be a CB, and not strong enough to be a midfielder. him and Martin Skrtel have the worlds best player agents.

Van Dijk would be brilliant next to Matip.

 

[saint.nick]

Lucas is a terrible footballer. He is not quick enough to be a CB, and not strong enough to be a midfielder. him and Martin Skrtel have the worlds best player agents.

Van Dijk would be brilliant next to Matip.

Van Dijk would be decent next to Matip but shit without him. We don't need another defender who can perform next to Matip, because we already have one in Lovren and the Matip/Lovren partnership based on current evidence is very satisfactory. How much better could a Matip/VD partnership really be? The problem is that Lovren isn't as good without Matip, and Van Dijk would be no different. If we buy someone to replace Lovren then it needs to be another organiser with good, composed defensive discipline.

If Lucas didn't suffer that bad injury then he would be more mobile. The thing which confuses me about Lucas is that he grew up and developed as an attacking mid, was bought as an attacking mid, yet when put into an attacking situation these days he is so f**king useless that it's like he's useless just to take the piss. He'll receive the ball on the edge of the box and say 'lol wtf you want me to do with it?'

 

[cb4]

VD is doing just fine at Southampton, although I am not sure I would go shopping there again.
I think we more need to invest in a proper DM to shield the defense as sometimes Hendersons tracking is non-existent.

 

[saint.nick]

VD is doing just fine at Southampton, although I am not sure I would go shopping there again.
I think we more need to invest in a proper DM to shield the defense as sometimes Hendersons tracking is non-existent.

Van Dijk may be doing fine right now but that's because his flaws haven't caused much problems for Southampton. Fonte and their DM cover his mistakes.

 

[Captain Apollo]

That's the thing, Lucas has actually proven himself as CB more at Liverpool than Klavan has.

Van Dijk is definitely not the answer.

Only other CB I've heard mentioned the club are looking at is Jonathan Tah from Bayern Leverkeusen, but I have no idea about the veracity of those reports, especially considering Tah is 1 year into a 5 year deal with them.

 

[saint.nick]

Only other CB I've heard mentioned the club are looking at is Jonathan Tah from Bayern Leverkeusen, but I have no idea about the veracity of those reports, especially considering Tah is 1 year into a 5 year deal with them.

I can't give an opinion on him as I've never seen him play, but I do hear good wraps on the player.

Our number one problem is complacency. If we don't get complacent then we don't fall into these nerve traps that make us capitulate. But in saying that, we need players who, if need be, can calm the nerves and steady the ship when we get stung because of our complacency, and Lovren has never been the guy to do that.

 

[Jack_Napier]

Tah and Sule are the 2 young gun German CB's apparently. Would going down the young/potential route be beneficial to the side or would getting in a good older head be what we need.
I saw someone like Benedikt Howedes mentioned by someone on another site and that wouldn't be too bad at all really.

Hopefully Klopp, Edwards and co are prioritising fixing the defence and bringing in someone who can boss the defence around when Matip isn't there.

 

[Haffa]

I think every top club in Europe is looking at Tah. He's only 20 he's certainly one for the future.

 

[saint.nick]

Tah and Sule are the 2 young gun German CB's apparently. Would going down the young/potential route be beneficial to the side or would getting in a good older head be what we need.
I saw someone like Benedikt Howedes mentioned by someone on another site and that wouldn't be too bad at all really.

Hopefully Klopp, Edwards and co are prioritising fixing the defence and bringing in someone who can boss the defence around when Matip isn't there.

Seriously, the problem is too obvious for them not to be closely looking at it. I can't see Lovren being a mainstay at Liverpool. I love his passion and he seems like a good guy, and he has put in a few great shifts, but his cracks are too wide. We need a Matip mk2, except preferably someone with a battlefield voice too, which Matip doesn't have. We also need more fullback depth.

I wouldn't worry too much about buying attackers in January. The rationale for some fans is to buy a winger to replace Mane while he's in Africa. Mane comes back from Africa, and then what? Assuming everything goes to plan, he's only going to miss about 4 league games.

Defence has to be a priority, the attack is fine. If Liverpool can stop conceding goals when Matip is not there, then they're a serious chance for the title. For the time being, that can be fixed without buying anyone, by ending the complacency. It's taken them a few games to learn their lesson, i.e. vs Saints, Newcastle, but those games had little bearing on their season, they forgot about it the next week and therefore they didn't try to learn their lesson. They didn't learn their lesson after Arsenal either because they got away with it. Now, with a legitimate title challenge on the line, here's hoping they actually reflect on it.

 

[saint.nick]

Adding to what I said, I'd rather get Fonte over Van Dyke. Fonte may be 32 but is a great centre back, and centre backs last a little longer than attackers.

 

[cb4]

So why did Lucas play against Bournemouth when Klavan had a cracker of a second half?

 

[Captain Apollo]

Today's game, Karius has to take a fair portion of the blame, especially for the first goal. He stood so far to his left for Payet's free kick you could for see what was going to happen - and it did. The second West Ham goal was not completely his fault, but if he had come for the ball instead of hesitating, he may have cleaned it up. I can't believe I got up at 3.30 am this morning to watch this crap they served up.

The team seem to have hit the wall.

 

[saint.nick]

Today's game, Karius has to take a fair portion of the blame, especially for the first goal. He stood so far to his left for Payet's free kick you could for see what was going to happen - and it did. The second West Ham goal was not completely his fault, but if he had come for the ball instead of hesitating, he may have cleaned it up. I can't believe I got up at 3.30 am this morning to watch this crap they served up.

The team seem to have hit the wall.

Wasn't able to watch the game, but after watching ext. highlights here are my thoughts on how the game seemed to play out:

- I've seen some fans acting hysterically over the defence, yet judging by the highlights WH didn't actually have that many opportunities. I think their second goal was unlucky on our part, the preceding pass took a deflection and it tripped up Matip. If that doesn't happen then I doubt he is able to get through on goal and score. Karius' role there was questionable, but that's another story

- Liverpool still seemed to create a number of good opportunities, and scoring two goals at home against WH should normally get you over the line. But a bit of bad luck and bad goalkeeping cost us

- The people saying to drop Karius need to give themselves an uppercut. It is weak knee-jerkism. Mignolet is the most error-prone goalkeeper in the EPL, what happens if he comes back and continues making errors? Back to Karius we go? What a farce that would be. Karius is out of form because he's out of confidence, and it doesn't help when the 'fans' are on his back like this. Karius was rated well for his shot-stopping in Germany, he hasn't suddenly become a bad shot stopper, he has lost confidence, I'm sure partly in blame to his broken hand. If we want this young goalkeeper to shake off cobwebs, gain confidence and fulfill his potential, then that is not going to happen by dropping him.

 

[Captain Apollo]

I'm not advocating dropping Karius at all. I just thought he had appalling judgement on where to position himself on the free kick. Don't take what I said as in anyway advocating that.

The bad goal keeping showed up for Origi's goal, as had the West Ham keeper not flapped at an innocuous cross Origi would have been nowhere near the ball.

The player who seemed most off the boil in attack was Firmino. He just didn't seem to click today. Playing wide left today he didn't offer much.

Laughably whoever did the pictures for the announcement of the team line up on the TV coverage should be given a crack across the buttocks. When they showed "Firmino" it wasn't Firmino shown but some player from Man Utd (the kit was a dead give away with the Chevolet sponsor logo).