Football News

[faridtoxteth]

Naby throwing his toys out the pram
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/apr/16/keita-suspended-and-fined-by-werder-after-walking-out-of-leverkusen-game

[Steveo]

Can't blame the Werder manager - he knew he would need players ready to actually do some work.

[Nineteenx]

Has to be said though that Keita made more telling contributions in the games he was good than Thiago ever mustered

[Steveo]

For those who can see

[Nineteenx]

See what? Goals and assists? He couldn’t even play the switches we thought he’d bring too whippy flighty & in the air too long

Thiago looks great with a football, but the point is, did that translate into him delivering g what we needed & what he was bought for?

The answer is a pathetic no, so as we were he was a big fat waste of time money & opportunities a massive flop

[Steveo]

It was posted for those who can see

To those who cannot see - I would refer them to the fact that without Thiago there is no Final in Madrid - because without Virgil - Matip or Gomez - that zero senior CB’s AND no captain there is not a chance in hell we take 26 points from 30, unless Thiago is running games.

Add those 10 games to the next 26 he played in and we get 93 points - So despite an admittedly pathetic fitness record (and it is poor by any standards) when he played - he more than delivered.

Not his fault he had to chase down the loose balls given away by others rather than be a part of a midfield that controlled games. Yet still - look at us with him - we got to the highest level of football we ever managed under Jurgen. And once again - lest we forget - we went to the last game of every competition in the one season that he did manage a decent number of games.

That has never happened before in our history

[Nineteenx]

Who you and the TIA jokers who describe an over hit pass Salah can’t keep in as a glorious ball from Thiago?

That up & down ball with backspin so it slows up when it hits the turf or is far easier to control whether a ball over the top medium to long diagonal or switch was never ever in his locker he never hit one right

Actually, I’ll correct that he hit one right although there was acres in behind to play it into, Mane raced clear & Tierney blew up 15 seconds short of the MANDATORY 2 minutes he was obliged to add under the laws of the game as Mane was closing in on De Gea with only the keeper to beat

[Nineteenx]

We don’t actually have a player bar Trent who can play the up & down balls as necessary now, we have a few who can play switches & long diagonals of the required quality Mac Szobo Gravenberch Nunez Diaz Trent & increasingly Elliott & Robbo & even Jones on occasion but only Trent who can play that ball now

Just so difficult to defend as it drops down suddenly at a steep angle hit with backspin and if it’s just over your head even if you’re defending the edge of your area & a player well practiced & expert at making runs in behind is in your shoulder we were in & you were in trouble

Mac’s been practicing them with Mo by all accounts I’ve seen from interviews of the two, I’d actually rather he didn’t, because however well refined you get your technique at it, it’s still a real jar on the knee & thigh which I think is what buggered Hendo’s thigh up

We don’t really make runs in behind as we did anymore anyway, they started dropping off hugely when Thiago was consistently unable to connect the runs with the right kind of ball with the right kind of spin

Trent has dropped a few beauties right in the centre for Nunez & Diaz over the last season & a half

[Steveo]

I ‘m a huge fan of Trent going forward from wide areas. He can be sublime. But his overall quality is overrated in this nation - still waiting for a domestic manager to win a domestic title since the inception of the Premier league Or a European Cup since Joe Fagen Or a single international trophy since the home win in ‘66.

Great ball delivery without question but also - as a right back you don’t want to be exhibiting this too often:



I don’t like focussing on this aspect of his game because it has become so well documented but in light of the above I think it needs to be highlighted. We could alternatively blame Thiago though.

[miller0863]

Liverpool have two of the three worst tacklers in the Premier League right now, according to one dataset. The Reds just have to improve.

Whoscored had people guessing the players with the lowest tackle success rates (and at least 50 attempts) in the Premier League on Wednesday. The results didn't exactly reflect favourably on Liverpool.
It turns out they have Trent Alexander-Arnold down as the worst in the English top flight, winning just 36.8%. That's actually the lowest by far - the next worst is Mathias Jensen on 43.9%.
And then comes another Liverpool player. Dominik Szoboszlai is the third-worst as he's won just 47.7% of his tackles.
So one reason Liverpool players' success rates look so low is because they go for quantity over quality. The Reds have attempted 644 tackles against dribblers this season, per FBref, comfortably the most in the Premier League.

They've also lost the most, 358, and have the second-worst success rate as a team (44.4%) behind only Newcastle United. In other words, Liverpool aren't too concerned with missing tackles - they want to focus on putting in as many as possible.

And so a high-pressing player like Szoboszlai will naturally fail a lot as his job is to push up force the player on the ball into a decision. That won't always mean actually winning the tackle - but forcing the player to run into someone else is a job well done.