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Our "shitty" defence

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Hansern

Hansern

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Maybe it isnt so shitty after all?

Only three sides—Arsenal (8), Chelsea (7) and Spurs (7)—have conceded fewer Premier League goals than #LFC since Joel Matip's debut (9).
So thats 9 conceded goals in 10 games.

We conceded 5 goals in the first 2 games but after that it has looked pretty solid.
The clean sheet on Saturday was pretty impressive.


Could it be that our defence is slowly starting to look pretty good after the key additions of Milner and Matip? A case could be made for Karius aswell who has started to look pretty good, at least for the last two games.
 
Certainly seems to be improving, but if you ignore your obvious caveats ("since Matip", "pretty solid after the 5 goals in two games") we've still conceded in every game apart from 2.

So that's one or more goal conceded in 80% of Premiership games so far. So any improvement has to be consistent, continuing and measurable.

What's possibly concerning is that the only times we have actually managed a clean sheet has coincided with games we also failed to score in, and against teams that don't really have much interest in attacking and created hardly any chances. So you'd expect a clean sheet there.

Overall, way too early to say anything really positive.
 
It has improved. Its a decent amount of games (10) to compare against other teams in the league. We then have the 4th best defence. Thats a decent record and clearly an improvement.


The important thing is that there is a positive development, and that we seem to be more solid defensively.
 
stats aside, we still look shaky when teams cross the ball in the box.

the chance we gift charlie austin at the weekend is sitter for someone like him.
 
Hansern said:
It has improved. Its a decent amount of games (10) to compare against other teams in the league. We then have the 4th best defence. Thats a decent record and clearly an improvement.


The important thing is that there is a positive development, and that we seem to be more solid defensively.
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This. The job's not done yet, but we're going in the right direction.
 
Well it was called a 'shitty defence' long before we had any idea how good Matip would be and before we knew how well Milner would adapt at a LB.

Both have been a pleasant surprise and have made us much more solid at the back. To have any confidence in us achieving a clean sheet, Karius needs to continue his improvement and individual errors must be reduced. If we can do so then we could compete for league. Fingers crossed.
 
Quite agree Hansern. I've made this point before but initially our defence was Mignolet, Moreno, Klavan, Lovren and Clyne (I think for the opening two games) and even after that we've only been able to field an unchanged back five once in the PL so far this season. So the comments re. our defence were way OTT. These last few games clearly show how good our defence actually is, i.e. pretty damn good.
 
Frogfish said:
Quite agree Hansern. I've made this point before but initially our defence was Mignolet, Moreno, Klavan, Lovren and Clyne (I think for the opening two games) and even after that we've only been able to field an unchanged back five once in the PL so far this season. So the comments re. our defence were way OTT. These last few games clearly show how good our defence actually is, i.e. pretty damn good.
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Injuries aside, if you look at the stats from the early games, it's not even like we let loads of shots in, the opposition was just ridiculously clinical

I said at the time Mignolet was being harshly treated because all the goals he had no chance of saving
 
Fabio said:
Injuries aside, if you look at the stats from the early games, it's not even like we let loads of shots in, the opposition was just ridiculously clinical

I said at the time Mignolet was being harshly treated because all the goals he had no chance of saving
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Indeed. I remember posting somewhere that Mignolet had not been, IMO, responsible for any goal we've conceded this season. However I do believe that integrating Karius was a better proposition for our long term growth. Possibly even Klopp didn't realise we would be motoring along this well this early.
 
At this rate Matip must be a candidate for premier league XI of the season.
 
Yeah I'm loving Matip at the moment. He's like some kind of modern day cross between Jockey and Sami.

I thought Lovren was very good this week as well despite the amount of shite he was getting from his ex fans.
 
Another thing is while he's not rapid he seems to be quick enough to deal with counter attacks too, which is really great.
 
Ryan said:
I do worry that at some stage Matip is going to come up against a top class striker that causes him to have to slightly adjust the pocket square in the fucking dinner jacket he's wearing during these games, the effortlessly cool cunt.
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He is indeed one cool motherfucker
 
juniormember said:
Another thing is while he's not rapid he seems to be quick enough to deal with counter attacks too, which is really great.
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I suspect he's quicker than he looks. Most people don't think of Jocky as having been rapid, but I saw him live once or twice and let me tell you, he could switch on the afterburners if he had to, though he didn't much because of his superb reading of the game. Hopefully Matip's shaping up on similar lines.
 
I also love the way he hates conceding goals and gets upset with himself when he over hits a pass etc. Always wanting to improve and keep a clean sheet.
Big difference to a lot of our other defenders who have seemed more than satisfied with just being on the pitch.

Cool motherfucker is right.
 
Ryan said:
I do worry that at some stage Matip is going to come up against a top class striker that causes him to have to slightly adjust the pocket square in the fucking dinner jacket he's wearing during these games, the effortlessly cool cunt.
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What do you think of Virgil van Dijk, @Ryan?
 
Hansern said:
What do you think of Van Dijk and Matip as a CB pairing?
If it was up to me I'd replace Lovren next summer with either Van Dijk or Sule.
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Klopp's first-choice CB pair at Dortmund were the same age, so that makes me think he would go for a CB of a similar age to Matip rather than a 20-21 year-old like Tah or Sule. Another factor is Joe Gomez; Klopp recently mentioned that he followed him even before he came to Liverpool, so he will definitely give him a chance – meaning there is already one young long-term CB project at the club.
 
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