Don't blame him today as he felt he had to drop into midfield to create something, hardly surprising we looked like a pub team in midfield with what Jürgen put out.
I think the other thing that this game highlighted was that Coutinho performs best further forward, not sure this experiment of playing him in midfield is going to work, I'm not inc the sh*t teams as no doubt he will look great in midfield against the dross.
In terms of midfield selection, I don't think Klopp had a lot of options today with both Wijnaldum and Lallana (our only genuine #8's right now) injured. The only other option I see is starting Coutinho in midfield and Chamberlain (who was a bright spot for me this game) out wide. In hindsight that might have been the better option, seeing as Chamberlain did well against Trippier. A midfield of Henderson, Can, Milner was never going to work.
I've been thinking the same thing about Coutinho in midfield. I don't like it at all when he drops deep and tries to get things started from there. We need him in and around the box, not picking up balls at the halfway line. That highlights another problem though, our midfielders (Can, Henderson mainly) just don't seem to be capable to find him between the lines, so he thinks, as you rightly point out, there's no other option for him than to drop deep and make things happen himself. That's just counterproductive because it takes away one of our biggest threats in and around the box.
Our midfield also seems to lack balance when he plays there. He's like this free roaming player, more a #10 than a #8 in our usual formation, with our other two midfielders limited to the more defensive side of things.
« Last Edit: Oct 23, 2017 02:19:00 am by Danzel »
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