I only managed to catch the second half. It was truly a concerning performance. I have not seen the performance of the back-line since I missed the first half and the opposition spent the whole second half parking the bus so I won't talk about the back 4.
Midfield. Very unidimensional, nobody in those 3 can take the ball and effectively fill the space left between the forwards the and midfield (the no10 space). I know Shaqiri is the obvious answer, but what if he gets injured? Wijnaldum, Milner, Fabinho and Henderson are not creative nor very mobile with the ball in order to open up spaces for the forwards.
Since Ox got injured, we've been stuck with that problem. He wasn't super creative by any means but the fact that he had the speed and strength to make straight runs between the opposition full backs and center backs made all the difference. It usually opened up enough space for Firmino and one of Salah or Mane to move into dangerous positions and lose some of their markers in order to eventually receive the ball.
Unless Keita can come back soon enough and start producing that, we'll have to rely on Shaqiri in a 4-2-3-1 and forget about the 4-3-3. It's useless to have 3 midfielders who are all lacking in the same department playing all at the same time.
Forwards/Front Three. The thing that has been killing me the most since the start of the season is not the missed scoring opportunities or occasional faulty decision-making. It's that I actually feel that every time Salah, Mane or Firmino have the ball at their feet they lose it one way or the other. Don't get me wrong, this is the nature of the job of a forward. Having the ball in the most advanced positions on the field means that you're constantly pressed by defenders, midfielders and nowadays wingers rushing back to defend. However, on many occasions, all three of them can't seem to distribute a simple pass on the build up. Earlier this year Salah was plagued with that, but it seems Firmino and Mane caught up to him and in the past couple of games I would even say surpassed him.
With that said. I can't just dump it all on them. It's too easy. Fact is they are playing with no real support from our midfield. On many occasions, all three of them make little but intelligent calls and runs that could lead to opportunities if the ball is quickly delivered to them yet the movement of the ball from the midfield is too slow and nobody sees those calls. In addition to the lack of creativity, nobody can mimic Ox and cause havoc in the opposition's back line in order to create any kind of space.
Salah is constantly being marked by 3 players if not more, yet he is expected to score 2 or 3 per game with no creative support or smart movement from his teammates in order to alleviate some of the pressure that is on him. If anything I'm surprised he finds a way to get opportunities.
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