by Luis Sat Jan 02, 2016 5:46 pm
Isco Benny wrote: Luis wrote:It's pretty clear that we need major reinforcements now. The injury list is bad though to be fair:
Sturridge
Ings
Origi
Henderson
Skrtel
Gomez
Milner
The bench today was ghastly because of this list.
But the players we had out there aren't good enough.
Lovren and Ibe aside, and Smith when he came on, I don't think any other player showed anything at all today.
I think we have a full back problem - Moreno and Clyne have no assists or goals all season. They bomb forward but are so ineffective in that final third. If you're going to be stuck with Benteke up front you have to have good delivery. Brad Smith's delivery was better than both our full backs were all game.
Midfield was poor and misplaced many passes.
The creative sparks should be Coutinho and Firmino. They have both been garbage for 6 weeks now. Coutinho is like Hazard at the minute, completely devoid of confidence and easily picked off by defenders who get close to him.
We were slightly better for spells in the second half but West Ham easily scored their goals - routine cross for the big men to head home. Clyne was awful trying to defend these.
I'll say it again - if the owners aren't prepared to give Klopp a good 50 million to spend in this window then we may as well have stuck with Rodgers.
I'll give you the injuries upfront, but really they are little excuse for Liverpool's poor defending. That's just down to poor squad balance - you have 6 bloody strikers all decent on paper must have cost near 60million to sign, yet little cover at the back or in defensive midfield. None of that is Klopps fault, I personally don't think it's fair to judge him too heavily yet as its relatively early days, but what you would expect is some improvement in Liverpools organization off the ball, which as of yet not really seeing. That would worry me if I were a Liverpool fan. 19 games he's had now with those players. Either it means an entire squad overhaul is needed or it's going to take some serious time before the real benefits start to emerge.
Well the defending and goal keeper has been an issue since Benitez left. At its worst during Rodgers' era of course - we were able to patch over it when Suarez scored 3 goals to win a game 3-2 but not any more.
What baffles me is that we were able to dismantle City, Chelsea and Southampton and keep Leicester from scoring whilst being only the second team to beat them yet we looked so abject vs Newcastle, Watford and West Ham today. To me that's a mentality thing - look at Arsenal today; they have a weak mentality against teams they should walk over many times but the difference is they have Ozil or Sanchez or Giroud to pull them out. One of those players will always deliver the goods. For us it was Suarez, Gerrard, Coutinho or Sturridge. We now only have Coutinho left and he's clearly struggling trying to carry this team.
The injuries clearly play a part. Yes it was the defence that cost us today ultimately but the pressure on them is immense when they know we'll probably only score one goal a game at the minute. We don't seem to have any real sense of scoring when Sturridge and Henderson are out. We roam clumsily forward, pass it around a few times then either Moreno, Clyne or Firmino/Coutinho will be poor in the final third. Benteke needs quality service or we may as well just play Coutino Firmino and Lallana/Ibe until we sign a striker or Origi or Sturridge return.
I don't really think we need to sell that many players. I'd sell: Enrique, Skrtel, Allen, maybe Lallana.
Strikers: Sturridge, Benteke, Ings/Origi and we need to sign one more.
Attacking wide players: sign 1 to replace Sterling.
1 ball playing central midfielder.
Another full back and another centre back.
New keeper.
Klopp needs to decide whether to gamble with Sturridge anymore or sell him to America or City. Likewise Benteke. As a plan B yes, as a plan A no; I doubt he'll be happy to play second fiddle though.
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