Who'd have thought that Adrian would give us a lesson of how not to fuck about with the ball and keep it simple.
Sheffield United v Liverpool - Match Thread
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I think I've cracked it , I've been working on a theory that we never win when the missus is in the same room as me during the match, banished her tonight and no more than 2 minutes later Jones scored , incidentally she came back in 15 minutes they missed a good chance sooo, yeah
I've got this
I've got this
I mean we’re effectively playing with our 3rd choice keeper, and 5th and 6th choices centre backs....
No I don't think they were comfortable ... they were lucky against crap competition.
Considering we were on our 3rd choice keeper, and 5th and 7th choice center backs and with our 2 best center mids out not too surprising.
With great power comes great responsibility
3rd choice? He was 2nd choice at the start of the season.
And 5th and 6th? They're playing for LFC. They need to be good enough. We can't say to Chelsea, "go easy on us, we're playing with our 5th and 6th choice.".
Lovren, dare I say it, was a better CB than both and we sold him without replacing him effectively, knowing the injury record of Gomez/Matip.
Adrian wasn't good enough for West Ham. He shouldn't be at Liverpool.
I don't care where they are in the pecking order. It's either you're good enough for us or you're not. If Lovren was still here, you'd probably still say he was 5th choice, but he's better than Kabak right now.
We had the summer and January to address any gaps.
A lack of midfield is no reason for Kabak to constantly switch off and have to make last ditch tackles. Or Phillips to get too tight to Burke and get rolled.
7th choice is 7th choice for a reason. Doesn't have the skill levels/experience/concentration levels of the top players. Should we have used the summer to ensure our 6th and 7th choices were top class center backs? Even City can't quite manage that. Should we have improved in January - there can be an argument for that, but the club's ... successful ... model in recent times has been too avoid panic buys. If necessary, wait until the next window for the player you want, rather than over-paying for the player you don't want. We used January to bring in bodies at minimal price. Kabak is a work-in-progress. Your words sound impressive and uncompromising, but they are, ultimately, unrealistic.
Not sure where you're getting 7th choice from? Unless you're counting midfielders as CBs now?
United and City don't go into the season relying on Rodri, Gundogan, Matic or Pogba to fill in at CB (and when Citeh tried it with Fernandinho last year, it was a dramatic failure too; hence Dias). So we shouldn't be doing that with our midfielders. I don't count them.
Kabak is effectively our 4th choice CB right now. Phillips, the 5th choice.
Adrian is our 2nd choice GK.
We tried late in the window to sign Caleta-Car, but ended going with Kabak because we moved too late.
I'm judging Kabak on the required standards. There's no work-in-progress training wheels allowed at LFC, if we want to make the CL and continue our progress as a club.
Therefore, based on today, i'd give Kabak a 5/10 and Phillips/Adrian a 7/10. Although Adrian still looks very unconvincing whenever any shots come in.
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Fabinho is our 4th choice CB - We knew that as the season began. And, as double-emergency cover, Hendo was our 5th choice. So now, all FIVE of them are out. And, consequently, our 1st (and now 2nd) choice holding MF hasn't been available most of the season in his best position, and now, for several matches, not all all. And, regardless of where Adrian was ranked 6 months back, he IS our 3rd choice keeper now.
So, as we kicked off this game, it was without our 1st and 2nd keepers available, our 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th CBs available, and without our 1st and 2nd most influential midfielders available... No matter how you want to make it sound like our rivals - whose net spends dwarf ours by the way - could handle that better than we are, they simply couldn't. No team could. Just look at City last season, with far, far fewer injuries that we have this season.
This "you're good enough or you're not, we're Liverpool!" stance is fair enough if we're starting the season with these lad who started today as our plan B... But we didn't, and they're not. They're our plan Q at this point. And nobody could suffer the injuries that we're enduring this season and do much better than we have.
Phillips I will allow you. But he's actually done well when he's come in, even if he isn't top level.
Adrian, however, there is no excuse, he was our Plan B. the 2nd choice, going into the start of the season? For me, it was clear from the Atletico game (and even before that), that he wasn't good enough. Did we need the Villa game for further evidence? Today, he gave me the usual heart flutters, without making any glaring errors, or good saves. Fortunately, he had little to do.
As for Kabak, he's been linked with us for a while now, and we've had months to scout him as a 4th choice CB for January. We decided to go with him for whatever reason over others. So i'm going to judge the guy on the required standards for a 4th choice CB; a player who needs to be ready to step in and perform. He's played top level football for Schalke [. He's the same age as a Wesley Fofana, who did excellent when he came in for Leicester at the start of the year.
Today, he was poor positionally and poor concentration-wise against effectively a Championship side!? He was lucky to get away with not conceding an OG.
Heh, I am delighted we won, but this a big area of concern ahead of Thursday. He needs to improve, and fast. That's all I am saying.
We need CL football next year. If he's not good enough to get us there, he won't be at Liverpool for long.
Or maybe he will, because that's the level of quality we'll be able to afford.
Defenders and goalkeepers do better with stability. Personally I doubt Kabak will make it at Liverpool, but put him in a settled defense with Van Dijk to guide him he would certainly look better. But with a different defensive partner each week, and goalkeeper changing behind him, it is a very difficult way to try and settle in.
That's fair enough. I agree.
I just hope he manages the hold the forte until our more established players get back in.
I really don't understand your hang up with Adrian... He's our 3rd choice. Kelleher is better. Doesn't matter who started the season as what... This is where we are today. Our GK depth chart has been updated and improved since the season started. And so, our 3rd choice keeper scares you. Fair enough... Scares me too. But I'll wager he's no more (and probably less) scary than ANY other team's 3rd choice keeper. That's my point.
And as for our other defenders... When today was our 19th CB combination, nobody should expect too much. They're not elite players, but nobody's 6th and 7th choice players at any position are, AND they've been chopped and changed and replaced more often than Taylor Swifts's boyfriends - Of course they'll not have any real understanding of each other yet.
AND, they played today with the 3rd choice keeper behind them... And he's scary! 😉
I'm sorry but you can't just change the pecking order because Adrian proved to be so shite that he knocked down a place.
We went into the season with him as our number 2. He's being paid the wages of a number 2 GK. He's certainly on a lot more money than Keheller. That's unacceptable given his performances last year. We're just lucky Keheller isn't a total catastrophe and has done OK when he stepped in.
The way I look at it. Keheller is at the level of a number 3 GK, hence I give him the leniency of number 3 when assessing his performances. Or if he stepped in and made an error.
Adrian, I don't give that leniency. He's supposed to be our number 2. Therefore I don't expect him to be parrying easy shots away for cheap corners, as I saw today.
I've only given him a 7/10 because of the clean sheet and the fact he didn't make a massive clanger today. Though was very close to making one with the lack of communication on the OG.
I think people forget with Adrian that he actually started our title winning season after Alisson had to go off injured in the first game against Norwich, and we won all those games right ? - he made one mistake against Southampton, and yes I do remember his fuck ups in the CL game that really led to us going out. But hey - he can have good days and I thought he was very good today with no nonsense shit - just hoofing that ball if it got too tricky.
Also can I just say - what the hell is Gini made of ? - the man keeps going and plays every fucking game for us and never gets a break. Fucking hell - should we not be offering him that contract that will keep him ?
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