Have a more defensive midfield to protect the defence? Can we continue to afford playing 3 up front? Should we start looking for boring 1-0 wins for a while?

Klopp has to rethink the tactics if VVD is out for long. We need Fan in cb but also neet to keep the front three to get some goals as others do not really score. Midfield needs to play further back and try to attack at speed and then back to defending.

CB - Matip and Fab
DM - Thiago to play really deep

Until Matip gets injured in the next game...unless in training before the next game

We must start the search for a centre back ideally bring someone in January

Will be interesting to see what Klopp does with the tactics, VvD is a great player, but we have not been defending well since the return from lockdown and have conceded allot of goals, so it is not like we were doing well defensively anyways.

I think he will move Fab back to a regular CB this season, with Matip & Gomez injury record, we need someone stable there, like VvD was until his injury.

Hopefully we can bring in a decent reliable CB i January, it's only 2 months away.

Good news is Thiago looks like he had a nasty collision, will miss Ajax game, but should be back soon.

Alisson is ahead of schedule and will be back early at the end of October:

https://www.caughtoffside.com/2020/10/18...-van-dijk-news/

It's stupid really, we know we have injury prone players, it might look like we have squad depth, but a lot of our players are injury prone, or just not good enough

Edwards needs to start the negotiations now for Koudibaly in January. Hopefully we are still in contention for the PL and not too far off the pace to be able to reinforce with the quality CB we need.

We are not going to see VVD again this season, the rehab is arduous and we may never see the same level of VVD again after this inury. 90% who suffer an ACL suffer with chronic knee arthritis later in life.

Well, at least now we will surely sign another cb?

Should have done it in the summer, but a nasty injury had to occur before we decide to replace Lovren?

I think the number 1 priority is getting Ali back as I've said before we have options at CB, no one will replace Vvd of course but at least we have options there even playing midfielders, the problem is having a non league level gk behind those defenders that is making them more nervous than they should be.

It's a bitter blow to our season, my confidence has been shot regarding retaining the title, I'm not sure anymore with this weird season.

your a cheery soul aren't you ? I agree we need to sign another centre back we needed one anyway to replace lovern

All the clubs in Europe will be adding �20 million to their CB value awaiting our call in January !

What about Nat Phillips? he's done well on loan at Stuttgart, he's 23 now so should be ready for the first team, if not, he will never be good enough, whenever I have seen him play in preseason, he looks good.

I presume we will remove VvD from our named CL squad now?

We'll be looking for free agents and players whose contracts have only 6 months or less left.

Ditch the high line. Play with fab, Thiago and hendo rotating with gini in midfield with instructions to protect more. Have fab play a few games at the back to rotate/rest the cbs every now and again. Tell salah to track back more to help trent out. Give trent a kick up the ass to sort his for out, same for Gomez. Go back to a pressing/counter attacking side. Other teams in or around the top 10 will think they can get at us now. I say we try and use that to our advantage By shielding and hit on the break when winning the ball back in dangerous areas. Allison is due back which is a plus. This is what we need to do to get us through til January. Matip looked good on his return. Let�s pray we can get through til then and buy a quality cb addition.

Klopp has a plan because he didnt think necessary to replace Lovren, he is not foolish enough to think that VVD will never get an injury.

I think Thiago has a big part to play in the new plan as well, as he keeps the ball and passes so well, but at the weekend I was surprised at how good he is to intercept the ball and break up play with his movement and positioning.

VvD is a huge loss, but I think as a team we are good enough to compensate and strengthen in other areas, hopefully VvD will be back for the CL final !

Just an update: Matip is already injured!

So I think we can forget about Fab playing in midfield for the remainder of the season. Better to stick him permanently in the defence, and play in Thiago and Hendo as dm's. Chop and change around for every game just interrupts our flow.

It's a joke, the whole world knew how brittle Matip is and Klopp has gall to say that we had 3 world class defenders

The club have been completely negligent in this matter, in the summer we were speaking about how the club can build a lasting dynasty by signing a top CB and a solid backup goalkeeper to keep every player on their toes. Now we are in tatters with only a fit CB and I wouldn't be surprised if we're playing Milner or Henderson very soon once Gomez has his usual injury and once that happens we can forget about retaining the league or doing anything major in the CL. Frustrating.