KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Our defence

I think we should all agree that our main issue this season and even the last has been the amount of goals we have been conceding. The main problem in my opinion is our very high line of defence and every team just try to ping the ball behind it with relatively good effect. I don't know why we play such a high line all the time, is it that Klopp is worried the defence cannot hold pressure, is the problem with the full backs too high and struggling to run back, especially TAA? City plays like that but their defence seem to soak pressure better than us. Any thoughts?

I don't understand it either, especially when you have 2 tanks in Vvd and Konate. They should drop a bit. Having a high line negates some of their abilities.

I think we have suffered badly by replacing the ever present Gini with the almost always injured Thiago. The midfield is not giving the defence as much protection as it used to. I don’t think Henderson has been so good defensively either.

What midfield, the opponents are just bypassing our midfield with long passes behind our defence, it was the same last season with Gini in, but worse because our defence was even slower than this year. Players are basically running from their own half almost, so high is our defence

But the high line is pinning our opponents in their own half. The reason we conceded v Palace was because we were running on empty after about 55 mins. Virtually same team that played v Arsenal was expected to go again against fresher players.

We may look back on that gift from Kevin (not my) Friend (now known as Kevin (my) Friend) as the points that won us the title.

We have not conceded that many goals to be fair when we compare it to other teams.

Alot of pundits and fans crying about the penalty but people forget we were winning 2-1 on 85mins, yes it was soft but we were leading.

So? Most people are saying it was not a penalty and i would agree

I think the high line and playing offside is a strength rather than a weakness.

It allows us to suffocate the opposition with pressing. It’s instrumental to our style.

It’s a bit of a false feeling at times, that our defence is worse than it is… the late offside flags these days giving the illusion that we are conceding more chances than we actually are. VAR plays in our favour.

Liverpool - Home GS 70 / GA 20 - Away GS 34 / GA 13
Man City - Home GS 63 / GA 17 - Away GS 27 / GA 8
Chelsea - Home GS 49 / GA 18 - Away GS 22 / GA 8

This shows our high line is a contributor to more 14 goals scored than City and 33 more goals scored than Chelsea.

And I'd have to agree with Stan our high line is well organized, catching opponents offside more often than not. VAR does cloud things when they allow play to continue until passage of play ends and gives a false impression that we are shipping more chances than we actually are.