Mostly lurker on here guys.
Been a great season up to the last couple of weeks. I think the inconsistency of the team has maybe led us to this disappointment. As in the inconsistency of selection. We've had a lot of injuries again and it must be hard for the team to keep the results coming in when there's so many changes week to week. The back line has been disrupted with Allison out for a good while, Robertson missing, Trent and Konate too! That's nearly all our backline. That's the most critical part of the team in terms of keeping clean sheets.
The midfield was suprisingly good having just been constructed last summer. Some have dropped off a bit now but they did really well all season for the most part.
Up front has been the big issue for me. Nunez was a poor signing. He was very raw and sadly hasn't come on the way maybe Klopp had hoped. Salah has dropped off a lot from where he was a couple of seasons ago. Jota has been injured. Diaz is more a winger who might score the odd goal than a true goal threat.
When you look back at Klopp's peak team he had a real work-horse midfield who ran themselves into the ground. Hendo was all over the park. Wijnaldum while inconsistent, was amazing at getting around the pitch too. That was a lot of energy to build off.
Up front we had the big three. I might be seeing with rose tinted spectacles but all three never seemed to get injured much. Mane was a big loss as he provided a great out-ball and was always a goal threat. He had the ability to create goals out of nothing when the chance seemed gone. Salah was at peak form and had the pace and a little bit of trickery to punish defences. Bobby tied it all together and popped up with some great finishes at times.
I think we've really struggled to replace that up front. We're a shadow of that cohesion that we had. You could even argue that we've lost something in midfield even though we maybe have better footballers in there in Szobo (when on form) and Macca.
So overall, a combination of a lot of injuries leaving a disjointed group and a failure to find the gems that we had in Klopp's 1.0 team.
From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend on reading it. Groucho Marx
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