03 Sep 2022 16:10:51
Seen a lot of posts complaining about how we were poor until the final minutes of either half, which is a recurring theme.

What people aren't taking into account is that teams are playing high energy pressing against from the first whistle. This upsets our rhythm and makes it tougher to play.

This is also why the dying minutes of both halves open up as those teams get tired from the excessive pressing and suddenly we find space again.

It's hard to tell if it's by design or not but we seem happy to keep possession for long periods this season while the opposition chases the ball around. It seems obvious this is why we "start slow" and finish stronger.

Whether people like it or not we are light on bodies so we can't run around at full tilt for 90 mins like we used to, you can argue that approach is what cost us so many injuries in the first place (though you could equally argue it didn't)

While we didn't win I felt there were a lot of improvements from past games. Virgil wasnt dragged out quite as much (though still needs work) Elliot started very strongly until everton started roughing him up, Nunez looked like he wanted to be involved and was pressing more as well as winning back possession a couple of times (his finishing is really poor though, but I remember Suarez being very poor in first season too) and if it weren't for loops weird full back change I think we would have controlled the game pretty well. Both WB on 60 mins suggested planned change to me.

Bobby looked sharp and I'd actually prefer him to play that no.10 role arriving late rather than up front, I'm surprised it's not been done more often since it suits his skillset far more.

1.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 16:36:30
We should have the technical ability to play around a high press. We will certainly need to have it if we want to salvage a successful season from this poor start.

2.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 16:50:09
Just played cr@p.
Some players still think they are in pre season friendlies, some look sluggish and some have yet to fit in properly yet.
It’s a slump we will get out of.
It’s a bit of a shame we didn’t get to see the new lad today, wanted to see what he’s got in his locker.

3.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 16:55:48
We are talking about a shocking Man U side, a poor Everton side, Palace and Fulham. Are you saying that if a team works hard against us we can’t overcome it? We are in more trouble than I thought.

4.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 17:03:35
Or it could be that we have a number of players out of form and due to injuries we’ve had no real options to massively rotate.

5.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 17:11:07
Honestly I think we've been worked out, everyone tries to press the life out of us now and sit back to hit us on the break, we seem devoid of a plan b and maybe its high time we employed a new formation, we've had a problem with block teams for a long time now and it does seem to be an ongoing issue,
I don't know what the answer is but they need to pull their socks up and fast, it just looks so stale, 2 up top maybe? Nunez and Jota with Bob behind?, I dunno but the 9-0 aside we look to have regressed and some players don't look to have the same energy.

6.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 17:11:13
Markp08, I agree. I’m sorry but even with the injuries we should be beating all those teams. So many things wrong at the moment, from tactics, to players appearing to have lost the ability to play football, to formation for me, to hunger and desire which should be a minimum. It’s not like we can say, well we had a million chances on goal, or we created loads of chances, or we were unlucky to draw or lose that game. All of the games we dropped points in we deserved to and that’s the most worrying thing.

7.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 17:13:05
Salah been dog rubbish, for months now. Constantly losing the ball, more predictable than ever. I would be playing an extra body in midfield at the moment and dropping an attacker 2 dms and 2 trad wingers to get balls in, we are so far up the field when we get the ball there are are no run in behinds which is why I couldn't understand why we got Nunez it's not his game to be playing with his back turned.

8.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 17:15:15
You saw positives ? change your glasses mate.

9.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 17:27:38
This is what 95% of the fans wanted. No midfield.
I blame them.

10.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 17:54:27
We don't have the right to beat anyone, we haven't been good enough but there's plenty of quality in the team to turn it around.

It's probably similar to how we start most seasons but we haven't had the odd piece of magic to get the win and brush over the poor performance.

I believe it will change but we desperately need numbers back and I think we also have too many players struggling at the same time.

11.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 18:17:13
It will change I am sure as well WY but it better be very very soon.

12.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 18:18:51
Sadly the team is in decline. Its what naturally happens when you don't refresh things every season. Klopp works the players extremely hard and the majority of them are there at least 5 years. Had Gini's contract ran out and Sadio looked to move we'd still have 8/ 9 players in the first 11 that played the 1st CL final against Madrid. Hopefully they prove me wrong and I'll be delighted if they do.

13.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 18:22:22
WYred. No one is saying we have a right. You earn the right. What we are saying is with the players at our disposal even with the injuries - if we played well, deployed the right tactics we would have seen better results and yes, if you look at it like that we should be beating those teams. Take the Man U game as an example. We got our pressed, let alone outplayed. Hunger and desire is a bare minimum and we couldn’t even show that in a derby match? how someone can analyse things like that and brush over it as it’s all fine is confusing to me. That’s not aimed at you btw or anyone in particular I’m just speaking in general. But everyone has the right to their views and opinions., which makes the site what it is. My opinion is not only have the results been disappointing but it’s the manner in which we are dropping points that’s concerning. Sad thing is we deserved to drop points in all those games and for the players we have and manager that is simply not good enough.

14.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 18:42:47
OMM, I disagree. I think the team is going through an evolution but I wouldn't say its in decline. Don't forget only two seasons back we lost 6 in a row at home and then last year didn't go too badly (obviously could of been better) .

All teams go through natural ups and downs, that's football but the levels we have put in previously to be so consistent makes this look worrying. Whilst it's frustrating I am far from at the stage of worrying about this bunch just yet but I do get why some are.

15.) 03 Sep 2022
03 Sep 2022 18:57:18
Hope you're right WYred mate. Really hope it's only a blip.