KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Majority of the 1st team is still Rodgers

Changing doesnt mean it will work immediately.

However, people moaning about the same tactics is not true for sure.
In some games, you can definitely see our players didnt press and run as much as others. We operated a low defence line in some games and opted for a counter attack chance.

The poster said that he saw different tactics in the 6 games he watched which means a different tactic every other game. Do you think it's the case? I agree we have for example against United played a lower line without committing 7-8 players forward but doesn't mean very frequent changes which would also be destabilizing if true. One most utilised tactic however is not working and it is nothing new after 2 seasons

Absolutely. No guts. No strength. No leadership. No control in the middle in front of the defense.

I think we have 2 major approaches, one is full court pressing and the other one is sit back and do counter. We normally do much more pressing in our home game and sit back a lit bit and be a lit more patient in our away game.

I dont think our pressing system is not working though. In the games that we decided to do pressing, we normally did get some results. (We sometimes being punished by counter and park the bus team though. But to me, when we do pressing, we get results in general)

However, the problem appears when we decided not to press. There are a few games that I can name that we didnt press as much and decided to have a more patient approach and slow tempo like, against Citeh/ Scum/ Spurs. Some may disagree about Spurs one. But actually we wanted to sit back and do a slow tempo game at the start of the game. We tried to play possession football but our game plan ruined because of the mistake of Lovern. Our first goal was actually not a result of high defensive line. It was just mistake due to lack of concentration of Lovern and Migs decided to come out at the wrong timing (He had options to choose to stay on the line or make a quicker decision to rush out). With one goal down, sit back and wait for counter attack wont work anymore. Lovern's second mistake made things even worse.
Citeh game is similar. We want to have a possession game and play counter attack but being scored an early goal ruined the gameplan.

Our result is clearly not good enough this year.
However, in terms of performance, I would say we have two and a half bad games (against citeh/spurs and second half of Newcastle).
In other game, I think we are still a team that can play proper football and our tactics is still working.

It is not usual when your opponent can make every of their shots and our team failed to score a goal for every 10 attempts. Things will get sort once the confidence of the team is back. All we need is a good run. I dont think our tactics is not working. Most of the time, we still play decent football.

To press or not to press, that is the question!!! Ha ha, I have to laugh at this view that to a decision to press or not to press represents the neplusultra in tactical nous. And that it somehow represents Klopp's superior tactical brain!! Some guys seriously need to get a grip. I want Klopp to remain here and be successful, but the dogs in the street know that thus far he's shown very little variation in his tactical approach. Someone trying to point to switching between "High Press" and "low Press" as evidence of superior tactical know how is laughable.

It is not simply about high or low press.

It is about the defensive system. To play with high line with high tempo or play with low defence line and sit back to wait for counter attack. Sometimes we play with a more direct style while sometimes we want to play with possession football. Those are different tactics and game plan.

The only game we didn't play a high line is against United. I would even say Mourinho was not brave enough and should he have put a bit of pressure against our brittle defence, he might have won the game, but in any case he got the draw he wanted. Our team is not organised in our half, we leave lots of space behind our defenders. They will always tend to make mistakes because they end up panicking as there is nobody covering them. Take the 2nd spurs goal, Lovren had only one thing in his mind, Kane shouldn't get the ball as he was afraid he wouldn't be able to run with Kane and that was from the midfield. It's all in our defensive organisation and Klopp is the culprit

I dont agree about the second goal.

I think Lovern realised he did a silly mistake in the first goal and he wanted to compensate his mistakes by making some good performance. He wanted to perform and therefore he played with high risk and misjudged the header.
He could have forced Kane and made him couldnt turnaround to run as most of the players would do. I think it is not about no one cover him and it may not even relate to a high line defence. It is merely an individual error.


However, I do agree that we didnt have enough covers in some other game and that's why I am calling for Karius to be number one. Migs didnt take the responsibilities as a GK for a strong side. Unless you are playing in Scum who like park the bus, a lot of strong play a high line and their defenders dont run a lot faster than ours. However, a lot of through ball of counter attacks were cleared by the GK as their GK is willing to rush out and come out a lot faster. Say the red card for Mane as an example and there are a few occasions againts Spurs as examples too. For any of those through balls would result in a one-on-one situation against us with Migs as the goalie.
Migs is actually letting the whole defend down. We need to get it sort quick.

Karius has shown he is a worse shot stopper than Mignolet and also not a good judge on when to come out. Lovren was afraid to be on one on one on Kane, this is why he wanted to get the ball at any price for our second goal, our system allowed a situation where a quick CF could be on a one on one and a GK cannot cover a player at the centre of the pitch. WE are not a well organised team and it's so obvious, there is no balance between attack and defence, it's all attack, it might not even be a player problem. Lovren in the hands of Pochetinno was a different player.

I always say Lovern is not that bad, but to me it is more like he cant cope with the pressure with playing in Liverpool.
He did not have a good start with us under Brendan ages and he is always a target for being criticised. I somehow think that he wants to prove his worth by doing some defensive moves that he is not able to do well. For the second goal, if he afraid of Kane, he wont go straight to rush for the ball. He rushed for the ball because he wanted to do a great job by intercepting the pass to Kane. He took unnecessary risk and he paid for the price. Simple as that. If he was afraid of Kane, he would simply force Kane to get ball and dont allow him to turnaround and do a foul to stop Kane if necessary.

For the cover of GK, I dont mean the second goal. I mean the season in general. We seldom see Migs come out to catch a through pass. Look where Ederson rush out on the occasion that Mane being sent out and you would know. If that is Liverpool facing that through pass the ball would pass through and Mane would get a one-on-one chance and then our centre back will be blamed on lack of pace or poor positioning etc. That's the situation.
Karius is a young GK who adapting a new style of league. He was good in bundesliga and he beated Neuer to be the best GK in bundesliga before he came. His errors were one of the least too before he came.
He didnt have a great start with Liverpool as there are pressure and a different league style. However, he did show a lot improvements during his spell at liverpool. Look at his performance in CL this year comparing to last year's when he first arrived and you will know how fast is his learning curve.

We all know keeper needs to adapt to the game and adapt to pressure. Friedel was once a very bad keeper when he played for us. I remember how he failed to save a single shot in those days. He turned out to be one of the best in EPL in his later stage of career.
Gomez in Watford was a similar case.
Another is De Gea.
There are lots of examples.

Migs have already been given too much chances and he didnt show a learning curve. He is also not the GK style that fits to our system. I would say it is the time to give chance to Karius.