This has been Fabinho's best game for us so far – his passing, tackling, aggression, multiple dangerous shots at goal – this game showcased an impressive range of skills and he was exactly the kind of a well-rounded midfielder that we needed to take advantage of United dropping deep to defend, helping us win the midfield battle physically as well as technically. I loved how his first touch was always positive – setting up the next pass or movement designed to hurt the opposition rather than just to protect the ball.
All this being said, I still think his positioning is a weakness – we cannot afford our DM to be stuck in no-man's land multiple times per match while opponents drive at our back 4. The goal we conceded is a typical example of this – Fabinho gets sucked in, trying to challenge Lingard, even though he has no realistic chance of winning the ball. Lingard makes an easy layoff to Herrera who bombs into the space where Fabinho should have been, which eventually leads to the goal. In the 2nd half, before Henderson came in, I was quite worried about the lack of protection from Fabinho for our back 4 – even with United's lethargic attack, they managed to run directly at our back 4 through the middle several times, which means our midfield wasn't doing its job in those moments.
I think defensively the main difference between Fabinho and Henderson is that Hendo knows he's not a great tackler and therefore he's worked on his positioning to the point where he is almost always able to pop up in front of the opponent with the ball, not necessarily winning it straight away, but preventing the most dangerous option of developing the attack. Fabinho is naturally a far better tackler, but it looks like this quality led to some bad habits, where he thinks that losing position is not a big deal as he can always recover and win the ball with a sideways or from behind tackle – not such a good idea at the top level, especially with the way referees are adjudicating these incidents nowadays! I'm being pointedly critical of him here, because I think this is the one remaining obvious weakness in his game and one he should be able to improve with coaching – he's got everything else in his locker to be one hell of a midfielder.
Now to Keita. He also showed an impressive set of skills – but overall had a far less effective display than Fabinho. He was determined to take the ball forward and run at defenders at every opportunity, which certainly showed some guts and impressive dribbling ability, but the end result of all this effort was I think one solitary earned free-kick; rest of the time he just turned over possession to Man United. His passing was what let him down time and again – the timing or the accuracy was just off, where someone like Shaqiri in the same position would have probably created a few clear-cut chances for Mo and Sadio. We saw how effective he can be against the likes of Burnley, but he needs quite a bit of growth and coaching to understand how to use his skills against better opposition. In this game, United just had too many bodies behind the ball for him to be able to dribble his way beyond the defensive line.
Finally, I thought Shaqiri had his breakthrough moment as Liverpool player yesterday. To make THIS kind of impact after coming on as a sub, scoring twice in front of the Kop in a hitherto frustrating game against United – you couldn't have dreamed it up any better. I guess his bicycle-kick goal against them in the pre-season was a precursor of things to come. His personality didn't seem like a natural fit in this team, but when things are tough you do need this kind of ruthless mad fucker who thinks he's better than everyone else and plays like it. If I'm asked to select our strongest 11 for a title-deciding game right now, Shaqiri would be in it.
By the way, in the post-match interview on American TV, the first question they asked him was whether this was the best moment of his career – to which he couldn't help but laugh and said he's won Champions League with Bayern Munich and while this was important, it's just one PL game. Other questions were similarly condescending overtones: "how does it feel to come from Stoke to play at a big club like Liverpool" – but I thought he dealt with it graciously enough and said all the right words.
All this being said, I still think his positioning is a weakness – we cannot afford our DM to be stuck in no-man's land multiple times per match while opponents drive at our back 4. The goal we conceded is a typical example of this – Fabinho gets sucked in, trying to challenge Lingard, even though he has no realistic chance of winning the ball. Lingard makes an easy layoff to Herrera who bombs into the space where Fabinho should have been, which eventually leads to the goal. In the 2nd half, before Henderson came in, I was quite worried about the lack of protection from Fabinho for our back 4 – even with United's lethargic attack, they managed to run directly at our back 4 through the middle several times, which means our midfield wasn't doing its job in those moments.
I think defensively the main difference between Fabinho and Henderson is that Hendo knows he's not a great tackler and therefore he's worked on his positioning to the point where he is almost always able to pop up in front of the opponent with the ball, not necessarily winning it straight away, but preventing the most dangerous option of developing the attack. Fabinho is naturally a far better tackler, but it looks like this quality led to some bad habits, where he thinks that losing position is not a big deal as he can always recover and win the ball with a sideways or from behind tackle – not such a good idea at the top level, especially with the way referees are adjudicating these incidents nowadays! I'm being pointedly critical of him here, because I think this is the one remaining obvious weakness in his game and one he should be able to improve with coaching – he's got everything else in his locker to be one hell of a midfielder.
Now to Keita. He also showed an impressive set of skills – but overall had a far less effective display than Fabinho. He was determined to take the ball forward and run at defenders at every opportunity, which certainly showed some guts and impressive dribbling ability, but the end result of all this effort was I think one solitary earned free-kick; rest of the time he just turned over possession to Man United. His passing was what let him down time and again – the timing or the accuracy was just off, where someone like Shaqiri in the same position would have probably created a few clear-cut chances for Mo and Sadio. We saw how effective he can be against the likes of Burnley, but he needs quite a bit of growth and coaching to understand how to use his skills against better opposition. In this game, United just had too many bodies behind the ball for him to be able to dribble his way beyond the defensive line.
Finally, I thought Shaqiri had his breakthrough moment as Liverpool player yesterday. To make THIS kind of impact after coming on as a sub, scoring twice in front of the Kop in a hitherto frustrating game against United – you couldn't have dreamed it up any better. I guess his bicycle-kick goal against them in the pre-season was a precursor of things to come. His personality didn't seem like a natural fit in this team, but when things are tough you do need this kind of ruthless mad fucker who thinks he's better than everyone else and plays like it. If I'm asked to select our strongest 11 for a title-deciding game right now, Shaqiri would be in it.
By the way, in the post-match interview on American TV, the first question they asked him was whether this was the best moment of his career – to which he couldn't help but laugh and said he's won Champions League with Bayern Munich and while this was important, it's just one PL game. Other questions were similarly condescending overtones: "how does it feel to come from Stoke to play at a big club like Liverpool" – but I thought he dealt with it graciously enough and said all the right words.
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