Pre Match - Brentford (H) - Sun 14:00

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Do you think Rafa would have persisted with Trent at right back?
I have a feeling that he'd do what he did with Gerrard.
 
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I don't believe that's true. He took a decent Spurs to the CL final but Chelsea have the money and players to be far superior to that team. I can see them challenging for the PL and CL again within 2 years and with Poch at the helm.

Let's wait and see. His initially excellent work at Southampton petered out after he got them up into midtable, then after sterling work to get Tottenham to the CL Final against us he failed to take the final step in a match they should have won, given how we played on the day. Not all managers can do every kind of job - GH for example was what we needed to clean the stables and win cups but wasn't able to take us on to the biggest prizes. Time will tell.
 
I think the Trent criticism is overdone. Let’s not forget he’s being tasked with this hybrid role by Klopp and not just swanning around the pitch as his desire takes him…. And he’s about 20 games into the new role whilst playing alongside a brand new midfield.

There’s plenty of room for improvement but there’s not many in the world that could play that dual role effectively.
 
I just find it interesting that when Trent was criticized before this season, for being a shit defender and was lacking in effort, posters get alot of stick for it, including myself. I actually thought he has defended much better this season. He still gets skinned rather easily by just anybody, but at least he is covering his blind side and trying to play like a defender when he finds himself back there. How often he gets back though is another question but we won't know exactly what are Klopp's instructions for him.
 
I also find it a bit strange that people have gone back to asking that he play as a RB high up the pitch, when our problems began with teams learning to exploit the space behind Trent when he was high up the pitch.
 
I think the Trent criticism is overdone. Let’s not forget he’s being tasked with this hybrid role by Klopp and not just swanning around the pitch as his desire takes him…. And he’s about 20 games into the new role whilst playing alongside a brand new midfield.

There’s plenty of room for improvement but there’s not many in the world that could play that dual role effectively.
Yes but here's the crux - he isn't effective. At either position. We've lost 'brilliant attacking RB Trent' and have some weird hybrid. We're winning despite him - not because of him.
 
Thats not true though. You dont get a well functioning team to perform like we are now if we didnt win because of him as well.
 
So a great result against a tough top 10 opponent last weekend - resulting in us being 1 point behind citeh with 1/3 of the season gone.

huge improvement on this time last year - with a rebuilt midfield
 
I must have been one of the few who thought Trent did well this game after the initial dodgy 20 mins.
He was back covering the Alisson save and sprayed some great passes around and got us on the front foot. One of his better games this season and that’s not saying much. Not sure I get the Szbo praise yet, he yet again last the ball in defensive third trying silly things.

Yes, he did finish up what Ali started with that save, that's fair. He was also the player asleep at the wheel to allow the unmolested run on our goal in the first place.
 
Oh, and for the record, I thought that this was one of those 'the score makes it look like an easier game than it actually was' results...

They missed several very good chances and that Bmeuma (I think - #19, up front) was superb all day long. They had us struggling a lot on set pieces, especially n the first half, and Ali made more than one good save to maintain the clean sheet. That could easily have been a 3-2 nail-bitter going into stoppage time. Or worse.

Very happy that we're back to winning (most of) these types of games, but our defense is still a huge concern (even though Virgil is showing signs of getting back to his best again recently), and if we play cheaters FC in two weeks like we played Brentford today, we'll need to score five to get anything outta that one.

On a very positive note, that's as cohesive as I think I've ever seen the front three... All were mostly outstanding, and I was really hoping that Darwin could get a late goal to cap off a brilliant outing. And Endo, though very slow, grew into the game and was quite decent by the time all was said and done. Gakpo was quite but effective.

And we have, without question, the best goalkeeper on the planet. Love that man.
 
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I don't believe that's true. He took a decent Spurs to the CL final but Chelsea have the money and players to be far superior to that team. I can see them challenging for the PL and CL again within 2 years and with Poch at the helm.
Totally agree. Their underwhelming start is a red herring.
 
So what’s the verdict on Endo? Definite improvement v Brentford?

As opposed to his first half catastrophe in Toulouse? Yes. Definite improvement.

His stats in the Brentford game pretty much told the story....he had a lot of touches, kept it tidy and simple...never really gave it away but on the flip side he didn't cover himself in glory trying to intercept play or making tackles and at times was played through too easily.

We really need to think about switching to a double pivot or tightening it up somehow because we're relying too much on Virgil and Ali to bail us out.
 
Oh, and for the record, I thought that this was one of those 'the score makes it look like an easier game than it actually was' results...

They missed several very good chances and that Bmeuma (I think - #19, up front) was superb all day long. They had us struggling a lot on set pieces, especially n the first half, and Ali made more than one good save to maintain the clean sheet. That could easily have been a 3-2 nail-bitter going into stoppage time. Or worse.

Very happy that we're back to winning (most of) these types of games, but our defense is still a huge concern (even though Virgil is showing signs of getting back to his best again recently), and if we play cheaters FC in two weeks like we played Brentford today, we'll need to score five to get anything outta that one.

On a very positive note, that's as cohesive as I think I've ever seen the front three... All were mostly outstanding, and I was really hoping that Darwin could get a late goal to cap off a brilliant outing. And Endo, though very slow, grew into the game and was quite decent by the time all was said and done. Gakpo was quite but effective.

And we have, without question, the best goalkeeper on the planet. Love that man.

I get your point, but we also missed a few good chances including two defo offside goals. Could have been easily 6-2 too against a decent Brentford who have won last 3 including two away at Chelsea and Hammers.
 
So do you think are we likely to buy someone for defensive midfielder in the January Window?

If that question is for me, I'd love to see that happen, but I don't think we're gonna do a flippin' thing in January... We're 2nd, for goodness sake - What additional help do we really need?
 
Thats not true though. You dont get a well functioning team to perform like we are now if we didnt win because of him as well.
We've won CL & PLs with some right dolts in the team (not that he's that at all - he's a world class player that isn't playing like one because of the 'system') so yes, he can be dysfunctional and we can still win. Which is the case.

2023/4 season : 3 assists (almost ⅓ season gone)
2022/3 season : 10 assists
2021/2 season : 19 assists
 
If that question is for me, I'd love to see that happen, but I don't think we're gonna do a flippin' thing in January... We're 2nd, for goodness sake - What additional help do we really need?
A better LB than Tsimikas (unless Chambers is that man - and I wouldn't put that past our youth coaching setup).
 
I think the Trent criticism is overdone. Let’s not forget he’s being tasked with this hybrid role by Klopp and not just swanning around the pitch as his desire takes him…. And he’s about 20 games into the new role whilst playing alongside a brand new midfield.

There’s plenty of room for improvement but there’s not many in the world that could play that dual role effectively.

John Stones, and that Lewis kid can both do it.
 
If that question is for me, I'd love to see that happen, but I don't think we're gonna do a flippin' thing in January... We're 2nd, for goodness sake - What additional help do we really need?

For me, we could be higher if we had a better DM.

I dislike the attitude of "we're 2nd so why?". Hell, I'd dislike "we're first,so why?". We should always be looking to improve or develop. We needed a DM and a CB at the end of the window. Thankfully quansah looks decent, so that just means we need to replace matip. DM however we're still very dicey
 
John Stones, and that Lewis kid can both do it.

The problem (for me) is that pep is fantastic in turning players into automatons.he has a vision, he drills it into the players core.

Klopp is much more emotional and explosive. If we have a RB who's fed up of being an RB, you bench him until he accepts it, or improves in concentration. We can't have potentially 2-3 players out of position when defending just to make Trent feel better
 
For me, we could be higher if we had a better DM.

I dislike the attitude of "we're 2nd so why?". Hell, I'd dislike "we're first,so why?". We should always be looking to improve or develop. We needed a DM and a CB at the end of the window. Thankfully quansah looks decent, so that just means we need to replace matip. DM however we're still very dicey

My sarcasm didn't translate to the page... I want what you want, I was just aping what our owners are most likely saying of our current situation.
 
The problem (for me) is that pep is fantastic in turning players into automatons.he has a vision, he drills it into the players core.

Klopp is much more emotional and explosive. If we have a RB who's fed up of being an RB, you bench him until he accepts it, or improves in concentration. We can't have potentially 2-3 players out of position when defending just to make Trent feel better
Well, we have been doing that and I dont even think the player feels better.
 
John Stones, and that Lewis kid can both do it.
Stones has surprised many and Trent’s quoted saying today how much he admires him.

Lewis is a stretch. He’s played a grand total of 168 minutes in the league for them this season without exactly pulling up any trees…unused sub yesterday.
 
The game is about more than that, and trent's assists from when he is at right back mostly.

Shame Trent is looking at Stones for inspiration then?
 
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