Thank God. Someone speaking sense.
Just looked at the replays of both goals:
That first goal is 90% down to Gomez. He plays the offside trap like every other LFC player was doing, we wouldn't even be speaking of it. Everyone then has to rush back into position, Klavan hurries back, is in no position to win that header (How could he even be?) and Henderson is no where to be seen for the knock down, harsh on him maybe, but still. Robertson perhaps a little too late, but same reason as everyone else, he was getting into position, so no blame on Andy there.
If you actually look at our shape there. Imagine Gomez being where he should be, you'd have the perfect triangle of our two CB's with the #6 in front of them.
I found our DM jumping around the box (should look at the replay, funny as f**k.):
Second goal:
Throw in, Robertson challenges for the header and loses. Klavan is defending on Slimani, doing what he should be doing. Robertson reacts too slow and Okazaki runs off him (top of the picture). Slimani turns Klavan (he gets beaten too easily there) and runs past. Okazaki plays it to Slimani. Grujic has a chance to stop the attack by making a little foul that will most likely never be a second yellow. Think Gomez drops a little too deep there and maybe should have stepped out to make the foul there himself. Also possible.
Possibly Grujic's responsability in that area though after Henderson was positioned as the left midfielder there.
Yeah, those photos of the first goal show it pretty clearly. As you say, Gomez fails to play the offside trap. But, also, our midfielders just wander off. Not just Hendo but Gini ( who'd otherwise had a good match) as well.
When the ball is being played in the first one, we have 5 players along the edge of the D ( plus Gomez deeper) and Leicester have 5 up. A couple of seconds later, there is a circle of about 10 yards radius centred on the D with the Leicester players all still there, converging on the ball, and our guys all gone. Hendo for some reason has actually moved wider, and Gini has just run off up the pitch.
Ok, they were playing an offside trap and their momentum was taking them away, but for FFS once the ball has been played back in, you've got to get back in there. [Edit: Klavan has managed to turn round and go back about 10 yards to try and help Gomez - why did our midfielders just keep drifting away?]
An individual mistake by Gomez, yeah, but also a total lack of organisation once again. Not so surprising this time, given Gomez is not our usual starter in that position.
Was Matip injured? If not, I don't get dropping him. We need to establish a settled, well drilled back 4 as fast as possible. The problem is finding a partner for Matip and then sticking with that partnership. [Edit: trying Gomez as a partner for Matip I could understand. But Gomez and Klavan - what was the point? Even if they'd had a good game, that was never going to be our first choice CB pairing for this season. And we need to get that first choice pairing working quick.] Rotating in attacking positions I get, but CB's really don't need as much rest as other outfield players and we should be looking to groove a partnership there.
« Last Edit: Sep 20, 2017 12:11:07 pm by sore monad »
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