Sibierski

Murphy the surprise change to what I felt.

Come on, let’s be realistic. Howe isn’t scouting and putting ground work in for players, guy is busy training and working on plans for opposition and day to day management of team to be doing that stuff Then again, maybe that’s why the form has nose dived and we stick with same tactics, because he’s too busy on teams calls with agents and putting in ground work for summer transfers.

This is where we potentially need to be ruthless. Europe or not Europe, they're good enough to be back ups, reducing the wages and freeing up capital to make 2 out right signings that are first team XI. Longstaff/Almiron should be moved on, as Anderson/Minteh can do no worse.

All the manager should have input on is, the type of player/position they want (which is still restricted to a certain criteria as club will have a primary identity it will want to stick too), everyone does their thing to source potential targets, manager then having final sign off on that player (if it’s a first teamer). Doubt they should on youth signings, which is where Hall may have fell under. Like I doubt Howe pinpointed Tonali as the one he wanted, but it would’ve been a CM he wanted, then Tonali was presented with overall package, then Howe provided final agreement. May be odd signing over the years, where manager explicitly states he wants X player because of encounters/agent links, but should be the rarity rather than the norm, and only if the deal is financially sound. Giving power more often to managers for those always ends up bad.

And that could’ve been done by not being naive. Milan main strength was counter, they too wanted to stay in and had to push for a win. Shift the game style and overall game management, instead we went gung-ho, and early too in that approach, and played right into their strengths. Then we were shattered to try and break them down just to get back level.

Think we’ll see the main XI thrown out. Karius-Tripps,Schar,Botman,Burn-Willock,Bruno,Longstaff-Gordon,Isak,Almiron Big game, back to the ones who delivered under Howe last season. Same approach as to Sunderland away.

I don’t think our set up under Howe away to Milan/PSG was wrong. Yea it was negative and we rode our luck, but anything more than 0 points was a bonus and we got 2 points (should’ve been 4) with massive luck needed. It was at home in UCL where we got things badly wrong and what cost us. How we set up against Dortmund and played the game throughout was naive, despite the constant threats. Then Milan, we again were naive. We should’ve dropped off, accepted that Milan had to push if they wanted to stay in Europe at all and play on counter for final 20, instead we basically handed on a plate for Milan to win and we had no Europe.

The power of fresh legs in kids. Who knew.

Some faith from Klopp. Elite coach when you are not afraid to use youngsters.

Back ourselves against anyone at home in QF. Just need to get through this game first with a professional job. Still have nightmares about Sheff Wed away.

Apart from push him repeatedly when they got up? He could’ve just got the ball and got on with it but didn’t

Amazing the run Chelsea had. Lucky win against us how it ended, then M’Boro in SF where they lost first leg. Then near enough Liverpool kids in final.

Injury has ruined them, lost their shape and patterns of play now. Need HT for Klopp to sort it.

He would often go 4-2-4 in some form though, as the central striker was always someone who could drop off out of possession.

If FFP wasn’t an issue, you’d keep him for back up minutes, local player etc. but he’s one that probably can bring in money to a lower end Prem side, and so we should be ruthless. Longstaff/Almiron/Wilson/Lascelles should be moved on in summer. CB/ST/RW in. Don’t know what we can expect from that, £50m? (15-15-15-5) as realistic aims. Need to nail the buys as money won’t stretch far. Ashley era going to hurt us for so long as after that, it’s the big guys that will only bring in the good money. Edit: Scrap CM. Only need to get one if Joelinton is moved on.

He deserves time for when main guys are back, but that’s only then to play his number one system to maximum effort. Not showing any indications of changing things up in meantime which isn’t doing himself any favours. Need to beat Blackburn, then hope we get a home tie in QF. Get us to SF at Wembley will paper over the cracks, but could be what’s needed to keep everyone together.

Jo Willock is mustard. Him, Tonali and Bruno in the midfield three next season when all fit.

Need some positive results and importantly performances over next few months otherwise it’s going to be grim. Need something to give momentum into next season. Bruno getting slapped, then going into international duty with Vini Jr hearing about life in Real Madrid, or Marquinhos in PSG

I would not be surprised if he’s not fully recovered from knee injury, and he has surgery before season ends.

Think I’d trust Miley more than Longstaff deeper to get on the ball and not make a mess of it. Then have Almiron off Gordon (Get Isak off before we break him) and Murphy on the wing. Best of a bad situation. Would even say Hall as CM is probably our 2nd best player after Bruno for taking ball in tight areas and moving it.

On top of our defence, it’s such a slow unit Not even great moving ball around as a unit, so can’t mitigate it by playing around teams. Not ideal when Arsenal are pumped up and got Rice/Saliba.

One positive how recent months have gone and likely next few months, there’s no pussy footing about how we need to get rid of a lot of players, even ones starting. Howe got most out of some guys, but their natural levels are below where we need and want to go so need to be ruthless in waving them on.

Ah, so that excuses rocking up with little plan and unable to string couple of balls about.

The whole chat in recent months has been going back to one game a week, more time on training ground, and if anything, we’ve looked worse for it over past month

All predictable unfortunately. Get main guys off and focus on Wednesday, no point running half broken players down further for lost causes.