Chris Hewitt, Adam Smith and Phiillipa Smallwood join Neil Atkinson for ‘The Pink’ after Liverpool drew at home to Bournemouth by two goals to two.
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Chris Hewitt, Adam Smith and Phiillipa Smallwood join Neil Atkinson for ‘The Pink’ after Liverpool drew at home to Bournemouth by two goals to two.
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Felt a lot like West Ham in December. Same scoreline, similar questions about the lack of subs, leaking goals in the same self-inflicted ways. While it doesn’t suddenly mean we’re gonna miss top 4, we’ve missed a big opportunity to make our path much smoother. Could look objectively at the last 5 and say we’ve done well to take 11 points from a block we were anxious about after Leicester. But how things *feel* matters, too. I’m now doubting whether they’ll have it in their legs and minds to get the win at Stoke.
Well done for translating my grumpiness and disaffection into something approaching eloquence and analysis.
Couple of points:
We know were shite without Sadio so why persist with 4-3-3?
We know Bobby and Origi’s strengths and weaknesses (one’s ineffective out wide, the other’s good at hold up play but slows us down), so why persist with a 4-3-3?
Both Adam and Philippa were right about the tempo: started well until Mignolet’s antics resulted in both the crowd and the team’s collective heads falling off. We should go more direct with Divock: note the first goal came from a goal kick
Can’t keep making excuses for Klopp either. I love him, but he’s failed to solve a series of problems this season. Conte didn’t need 18 months to learn (better players, I know, but Costa and Hazard aside, that much better?)
On the Conte point: I think it’s easy to forget that this Chelsea side will have won 2 out of the last 3 titles. Few additions to it in between their last title win & this one.
The Conte / Klopp comparisons don’t work for me for that reason. The Italian inherited a squad that knows how to keep clean sheets, how to see out games and how to win titles. Klopp got one that hasn’t conceded less than 40 goals since 2010. We’ve conceded around the 50 mark for three seasons running and have finished outside the top 5 six times out of our last eight.
That was the point I was trying to make regarding it taking time for managers to get their methods across. If you’re walking into a title winning team that basically downed tools last year but is still full of quality it will always be easier than joining a side that hasn’t finished top four consistently for nearly a decade.
Agree with all that, nonetheless, he saw a problem and solved it by imposing his tactics and strategy on a group of players that he hadn’t signed. What’s more, he’s made Victor Moses and Marcus Alsonso look like world beaters.
And Klopp has made Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino look like world beaters. Defensive organisation is significantly more difficult than getting attacking players to click. That is especially the case when a number of your defensive unit are utterly stupid at least once a game.
Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino scored 15 and 16 goals respectively for Southampton and Hoffenheim. As stated, Costa and Hazard excepted, are Chelsea’s players any better than ours?(Ok Courtois clearly is)…Both managers have improved underperforming squads, Conte has got lucky with injuries, but has also been more ruthless. Much of our defensive frailty is down to the way we set up.
Having said all that, I wouldn’t swap Klopp for anybody and we may find his insistence on a specific pattern of play pays off next season.
By the comments and questions that some people put forth, it becomes evident that people are willing critically to opine on matters of which they are completely, embarrassingly ignorant.
As a regular listener of the empire podcast it was good to hear Chris Hewitt, get ben jonno down to empire to rip into the lastest movies. BTW Neil were you more bladdered than usual.