DID it happen to you at the weekend? The realisation that we didn’t actually have a game this week? The disbelief that we weren’t going somewhere mad, in some competition or another, on Wednesday or Thursday? A whole week. What will we do with ourselves?
Well, in the case of the players you would hope it would be get some rest, recover from a few knocks and work on some things on the training round. For fans? Well we can stay in and rest up for the punishing Christmas drinking schedule. Or, if you don’t fancy that, the Under-18s play Ipswich in the FA Youth Cup tomorrow (kick off 7pm at Langtree Park, St Helens, fiver for adults, three quid for kids). Depends how much you like your house.
I don’t subscribe to the notion that a big gap between games is always a positive. For a start momentum is always a good thing, and nothing gets momentum up like wins in quick succession. In 12 days after the last international break Liverpool won four games of football. Remember how it felt? Like we were going to win the lot.
Jürgen Klopp used 21 different players for those four wins. That’s 21 players the manager got to have a look at on the pitch; lads he knew more about; players who got to win for Liverpool.
For some on the edge of the squad, it’s not a great stretch to say their performances in that period could have been career defining for Liverpool. If Divock Origi notches 50 for Liverpool, people will talk about the hat-trick at Southampton as the time it all started. If Brad Smith makes the left-back role his own, people will talk about his cross for the sixth as a time when they thought we might have a player.
These extra games have helped these players along the way. Made us realise we have more options than we might have thought. Helped a few feel more involved, more like Liverpool players. But it’s still nice to get this week now. This week off that’s come out of nowhere, like a Bank Holiday you didn’t know about.
Klopp will be relishing it, I’m sure. And not just to give the players chance to practice throwing their hands up in the air (among all the fuss on that, not enough has been made out of the fact the players were completely rubbish at it).
How little time Klopp actually gets to work with his players can’t be understated. Between recovering days, travelling and not wanting to slog your players the day before a game, how much time is there to create real game situations? Especially for players who need longer to recover than others.
You’ve seen tactical switches the manager has been able to make, as well changes in attitude and aggression, but little yet in developing patterns of play. Hopefully this week is a chance for that. You’d like to see greater understandings between attacking players forming next time we take to the field for the serious stuff. Sharper movement and touches. A clearer idea what a Liverpool goal looks like.
He may also decide to have a look at set pieces, where so many of the goals we concede come from, and a problem that is hiding the fact that how we defend as a team in open play has actually improved under him. Whether this is personnel, organisation or a bit of both is up for debate. But I’m sure Klopp feels he can find a way to improve the situation.
The positive for Klopp is that our best team performance under his management so far came after an international break when he had many of his players to work with for a sustained period of time. A week of planning and work on the training pitch saw an immense attacking unit unleashed on to Manchester City. And what a night that was.
Unfortunately, this kind of all-action performance faded when others who had been away on international duty were introduced and opponents lined up in a different way.
This time they are all there, so you’d hope something more long lasting could emerge from the sessions. Whether Klopp can make something work with Christian Benteke and the players behind him is the most intriguing. How Roberto Firmino’s career moves ahead from something of a crossroads is another.
Maybe only one can move forward with us, and the other will suffer. But that week on the training ground in December might be key when we look back on what Jürgen’s Reds look like for the next few months.
Watford should be quaking in their boots.
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Pics: Propaganda-Photo–David Rawcliffe
I’d like to see Klopp post two of our (shorter and) speedier attacking players wide at midfield on corners per Graham Taylor. Helps avoid the clogged box that spells doom for LFC on corners.
http://www.fourfourtwo.com/performance/tactics/defending-corners-essentials
I’d like to see Brad Smith given a run. Albie, for all his improvement, doesn’t offer much at either end.
The comment about improved defending (quite right) and set pieces tells you the root of the problem: the keeper. He doesn’t get that much of a chance to confuse his defenders in open play, so they deal with everything that’s thrown at them.
Jeez. Leave it alone. One step removed from still blaming Rodgers.
Get off it for fucks sake.
Balls.
To all intents and purposes Albie scored at Soton and Newcastle. He has his faults, but let’s remain objective.
Look at the first West Brom goal again. Benteke blocks Mignolet fro getting to the ball while doing nothing helpful. He barely moved except the step he took was right into Mignolet path.
Can gave away 2 free kicks in first half alone to a team that he should know wants only that. He’s still an overly emotional player but some people act like he had a great game.
We have not only this whole week, but an entire week next week as well. And then the holiday chaos begins.
One major difference now is, most fans aren’t ‘hoping’ the Liverpool manager will sort these things out they ‘know’ he will.
good point, Robin. possibly he will fix it during the next two weeks! (Hope he is training with Bogdan in goal too)
2 full weeks of training with full squad will make miracles for us. Since Klopp joined he has not had a chance to train with full squad at his disposal for two weeks.
He will definitely use this period not just for specific preparation for the nextmatch , but also for team defending, switch for quick counter attack, and possibly even personal psychic session with Ming :))
Maybe some.of the regular guys at outside Malwood walls (standing on the bins) can report back here for all of us?…
Benteke looks more like a Liverpool CB, than a Liverpool forward. Play him at CB and see if that works out better. If it does (and he doesn’t moan too much), keep him there. If he moans too much, or plays crap as a CB, then sell him.
A solid CB, who can chip in with 5-7 goals a season. That’s what we need. Benteke looks as likely to be that, as anyone else we end up signing.
“Benteke blocks Mignolet from getting to the ball while doing nothing helpful.”
Not sure if serious. What would you like him to do, get out of the way, be on the lookout for Mignolet and anticipate if/when he decides to come for the ball?
Come on, now.
“Work on patterns of play and understanding between the players” – this is exactly why we shouldn’t rush to judge Benteke or Firmino.
Both are new to the club and have played in front 3s, as false 9s, played with a 3 behind, played with 2 DMs or 2 attacking FBs, or a combination of all of this as Klopp works out his best way forward.
It takes time for these lads to get the understanding, and to start to make calls on them after less than 20 games, a manager change and a fluid system is a bit harsh.
You could say the same applies to lovren, lallana, Moreno etc. Whatever the merits of all three, you can see that a year at the club and they are getting it. We can see what lallana brings wide in a 3 with license to cut in, we can see lovren improving in a settled 4 – same with Moreno. For those 3, you can now judge whether they are LFC quality or not.
For Benteke and Firmino (and Milner) – I think its too early. Time to judge is when Klopp has had almost a full season with his ideas imbedded in the players.