Hanshithispantz

I honestly just think he's prohibiting Joelinton from taking his final form.

Obviously hope he smashes it out the park today like

He's like Pirlo, if Pirlo had no technical ability, was completely useless when we don't have the ball, and needed winding up before knocking one of his delightful 60 yarders over the defence.

I'll be honest like I really don't understand Shelveys role in the side He's defensively shite and takes about 20 minutes to pick a pass.

Willock replacing Longstaff or Shelvey is positive like. Not a great deal more you can do really It's all sideways at best, just hope we can play more to the plan.

Think we've probably moved on from the times you could get a Premiership club playing by sending a big, angry Scot in to shout at them like.

Flashbacks to the Harper Elbow Drop.

A proper left wing-back who's good on the ball gives us a lot of flexibility like, I know it doesn't outright improve our starting XI to the extent a central midfielder would but we cannot really go the rest of the season with Dummett and Lewis. Dummett especially is a great stand in (and probably a more than capable starting LCD) but it means that our attacks down the left will always have to come from the winger and whoever plays LCM (Joelinton).

If we're playing an out and out winger then 100% Murphy over Fraser.

Bentley had a decent ball on him but Alli was pretty much world class. It's not like he's been fucked by consistent injuries either is it? I dunno, something has went on with him but I deffinitely think he's worth the risk. If you can get him playing again he's a completely different level of footballer to anything we've had probably since like Shearer

I think people are underestimating just how good Joelinton has looked like. Up until the final 3rd he's visibly been the most consistently dominant midfielder I've seen us have since like early Tiote.

If you're wanting to play a number 10 though then you have someone creative ahead of them. It's never really 2 in the middle anyway unless you're playing 2 out and out forwards, but that's been largely phased out. You would basically have Joelinton playing the box to box role, with his defensive duties dictated by whoever was alongside him, with a CAM/CF ahead of them.

I think what we've realisedd is that no matter what any of us or Howe try there's just no way of fielding a midfield that isn't completely diabolical Deffinitely think 5 at the back is the way to go but cannot see Howe doing it.

Ah sorry, I forget football existed during the 2 year period I pretty much never watched any

That nick and ball to ASM is the only thing he's done though isn't it? I'd still probably play him like which is depressing as fuck.

Aye, Longstaff was actually really advanced but brings absolutely nowt in the final third.

I'd try ASM on the right side to see how he links with Trippier. Hopefully 'Trips' can suss out whatever the fuck is going on in his head.

I'd take them both

Who has went backwards under him like? Arguably ASM but even his stats are better. He made some weird lineup choices early on and his in game decisions have been questionable.

I agree, Howe seems very rigit in implementing his style but I imagine Klopp would be the same (I'm not saying Howe is at Klopps level). He was a gamble in hindsight the more you look into it but now that he's here I cannot see much point in booting him out. As a coach everything seems possitive and will hopefully get exponentially better.

Why can you not play him in a 2?

So you think Fraser, for example, looks no different?

They're training to play high pressing football, not just to 'work hard' though. I know everone thinks Liverpool are on PEDs but it's a completely different level of fitness and mobility required to effectively play football like that. Howe's having to do it with Jonjo Shelvey. Like granted, he should probably just drop Shelvey, but the other options are also terrible.

Aye I already edited my post as there's context which I thought you'd miss. It's not like we're just training to go running. We're in the middle of a season.

You can't get a squad in shape over the space of a few months man. They have elite level, 90 minute matches to play every week ontop of everything else they do. It's obviously a process. Ideally you want a proper pre-season with them.