TRon

You'd want your keeper to be claiming crosses in the six yard box like.

All three of those will be back by the summer though, so I wonder if we'll even be looking at midfield for new signings next time round. Unless of course we decide to sell one or more of them.

If it's an arm muscle then it's less likely to keep him out than a shoulder anyway. Hope so anyway, even a less than dangerous Wilson is better than no striker at all.

Is that likely to keep him out of the next few games or is it not considered serious?

It's nice to dream but with Hojlund scoring goals for Man U, I think it's more important we stay ahead of them than look too far ahead. Top 5 is unlikely due to the massive gap the teams have built up in those CL positions, and we still don't have enough midfielders or strikers to string together a run of 6 or 7 wins on the bounce to close it.

On the game itself, we didn't play particularly well, but we didn't play badly either. These are the sort of games you just take the three points as payback for all the times we've been done by bad decisions or injury time losses. Great result, that's all that matters.

Didn't he get described as crisp packet hands when he was here? That goal didn't do him in any favours if he was looking to show he's gone on to be a better keeper.

Yeah I don't think there was any issue with his shoulder prior to that, the only thing he's done well since he's come back is hold the ball up, don't see how he'd be carrying defenders if his shoulder was knacked. He doesn't look like he's capable of running beyond defenders any more though, he's basically reduced to being a poacher these days.

The biggest plus of that formation is that it closes the space where Dan Burn would get exposed in a 4-3-3. Midfield wise we don't have the players fit who can press effectively anyway, and it also means we don't have to play at 100mph when we don't have a squad with enough fit players to implement it over 90mins.

Wasted on Jacob Murphy tbh.

My recollection in those games was that we performed pretty well for about 75 mins then we started flagging visibly. I can understand that we would be reluctant to change from a winning position, but sometimes you can see some players are out on their feet and that's when you have to make some tough decisions. The PSG game, I agree we were robbed but in some of the others I just think we ran out of legs. Having two keepers on the bench isn't going to solve that.

It's just an opinion, but I always prefer resting players and losing the odd game than risking a player breaking down for a longer period. Or making the subs a bit earlier for the same reason. As TCD already pointed out, we ended up losing most of those games anyway.

Well that was my argument, less about getting the result, more about protecting our actual match winners.

Based on what? Has he been winning rave reviews for his performances this season?

Burn has his limitations but he's quite a capable defender as long as we aren't pushing a high line. If he was operating in a Rafa defence of a back 5 for example, would be much harder to get beyond him. If we are going to press high, then I don't think he's the right defender because he will get exposed for pace. I would personally prefer to see Livramento start left back against teams with a known pacy right winger.

Do you think we are in a position to spend £30m+ on a player only to send him out on loan the following season? Considering we need a striker, midfielder and a RW, I'd say it's unlikely. I would have thought we'd expected him to be the left sided version of Livramento, who hasn't started loads of games, but he's clearly an asset already. Spending £6-8m on a young prospect like Minteh or Guareng then sending them out to loan is fair enough, but when you part with serious cash you want them around your first team squad.

Yeah there's been talk that the deal is going to be made permanent, but I'm not sure we've actually confirmed it. I'd say if we haven't invoked the clause yet, then it's more than likely we won't keep him. It's a lot of money for a player who hasn't been able to make much of an impact in half a season.

Those are probably the only two games I've missed all season due to prior commitments.

The reason has to be that we haven't triggered our obligation to buy yet. Maybe it was based on a certain number of starts.

But surely random kids could at least press or close down more effectively than exhausted players who are barely moving after playing twice a week for a month?

Liverpool are in a position they can buy 200k/week players, they are one of a handful of clubs who can buy the very best midfielders in the world. While I love Joelinton, I just don't see him as that. Sometimes he's got great feet, other times it bounces off and he ends up cleaning someone out trying to recover the ball. I'm always keeping one eye on how he's doing for Brazil as well, can't be easy maintaining your place in a side where they are used to technical perfection from their midfielders traditionally.

I'd be very surprised tbh.

I don't think anyone can complain too much about results, because as you say, injuries have played a massive part. Only questionable things for me has been, given our high intensity football philosophy, were we not just compounding it by continuing to run the remaining fit players into the ground over 90+ mins game after game? I get that we had inexperience on the bench, but we have dropped a lot of points towards the end of games when players have been absolutely exhausted, I just think there must be a way to use the subs better if only to replace the tired ones and maintain running and energy levels. There's also another argument that when you have a lot of key players missing, you can adapt your style by not pushing forward so relentlessly and maybe slowing the game down and waiting for space to open up. I thought it looked like we did that at Villa Park and it was the most in control over 90 mins I'd seen us for a while. Whether that was by design or just chance I don't know.

I do think there's been signs of it, maybe the players just haven't worked it out yet. At times this season it looked like they were getting caught between two stools, neither sure when to drop back and when to push forward. I think against Dortmund we looked particularly two minded. But then against Villa in the away fixture we got the balance right and felt like we were much more in control.

You aren't going to win many games if you concede 4 goals regardless of if you are home or away.