Critical thinking…

[BOBPAISLEYFAN]

Whenever I watch our games i become so agitated that I swear to god my fit bit is showing numbers that are just not healthy for a man of my age …..

So on reflection I am trying to assess whether my agitation with our play and certain players is justified or whether I am just being hyper hyper critical because I am so desperate to see our players play at a perfectly consistent high level that is a simply unfair expectation.

I often compare how Man City’s players look after their possession of the ball and how they execute each pass with a care and attention that seems absent when I watch a lot of our periods of play…. maybe tbf I watch Man City from a completely different perspective, wanting them to fail in all elements of their play and because they are far superior to lots of the teams they play and retain the ball so well, I simply fail to apply the same level of intense critique with their failings, that I do to ours….

Recently I have been possibly overly critical of certain players, namely Gomez and Tsimikas … granted Tsimikas has been getting better with each passing game recently but he has never convinced me enough to believe that even if he played to his absolute best he will ever be more than a squad player, and certainly never be good enough to either challenge or threaten Robbo’s position in the starting eleven… which imho is a problem going forward.

However, my biggest problem is with Joe Gomez, he burst onto the scene under Rodgers and I was convinced he was going to be a top top player for years to come. I know he has been cruelly cursed with some horrendous injuries which have hampered his progress, but my critique isn't about his physicality as he seems just as quick and as mobile as he has ever been, my problem is his attitude, his mindset and his lack of technique all the attributes I would expect to get better under Klopp, but to me imho he is regressing…

Last night his control at times was worse than Sunday league level, his inability to retain possession at times was woeful, his inability to sense danger is another major concern and more worryingly whenever he was caught out of position I see him just jogging back seemingly without a care in the world, happy to let others cover for his defensive naivety… finally like the rest of our squad, he seems incapable of actually winning a tackle when required, he is happy to dangle his leg in the hope that he will block a cross or pass but seems incapable or willing to actually execute a proper tackle.

In his defence I too have suffered several ACL injuries so I can understand and empathise with the self preservation bias to avoid further injuries, but at the end of the day he is handsomely paid to defend and if that requires executing a tackle, then so be it….

I often watch the fantastic Social media of LFC and Joe Gomez to me seems to come across as someone who is so chilled and relaxed he seems almost horizontal, which is a great attitude off the pitch, but not so great on the pitch, unfortunately it’s this sense of a laid back attitude on the pitch that drives me to distraction and I am sure
that if Jamie Carragher was still playing he would be constantly screaming at Gomez to fucking wake up and concentrate….

The only reason I am writing this post is because last night I saw a post that gave his performance a 10/10 score and was quoting stats that were just not consistent to what I witnessed…

My question is, am I allowing my unconscious bias towards the likes of Gomez and Tsimikas to adversely affect what I am actually watching, or was the writer of the post guilty of the same ….. ?

[sydenham red]

Great post BPF, Gomez still looks a lot of the time like the raw,naive teen on his debut. He may get another new contract as a utility defender but Bradley or Ramsay are gonna be the backup/competition to Trent imo.On Tsimikas I think he improves every game with a run of games but is never gonna fully be a world class or even a consistently very good LB/LWF. I doubt FSG will sign a proven high level player for that position, when Robertson finally can't keep going it'll be chambers and Kostas vieing for that spot.