Georginio Wijnaldum

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Underrated somewhat and a key player for Liverpool. Good player IMO.

[SEMTEX]

You doubtin' our bulletproof Hayden-Diame partnership!?

[tinoasprilla]

Makes you laugh when you see him and Sissoko playing centre midfield every week for Liverpool and spurs.  But McLaren preferred Anita and Colback whilst leaving Thauvin to rot on the bench. 

 

£80 million well spent.  The Genius that is Mike Ashley and Lee Charnley.  Meanwhile give rafa fuck all

[Sho Time]

Sissoko and Wijnaldum were probably the most used players by McClaren, in completely different positions to Anita and Colback.

[tinoasprilla]

That's the point.  He played them wide or as a 10.  Totally out of position whilst Anita and Colback were out midfield generals

[The College Dropout]

He does seem to play well for them when I see him but I will always despise him

 

Seems a nice lad. Just don't rate him much as a player.

 

Sissoko and Wijnaldum are good, functional players. Seem like good professionals and can lay a foundation for more talented players to shine. Having them as your main wide man and AM in a pap team - they will clearly struggle. Would've been interesting to see them play in the middle together.

 

Football is a team game. They are functional pieces of great sides. They're not great players. Still feel like if Liverpool need to rely on Wijnaldum in crunch moments, he will become invisible.

[The College Dropout]

That's the point.  He played them wide or as a 10.  Totally out of position whilst Anita and Colback were out midfield generals

 

Rafa too tbf.

[xLiaaamx]

I still think Anita-Colback is the biggest reason we were in that mess.

[xLiaaamx]

Realistically, Abeid shouldn't have been let go, You couldn't play an attacking, less defensively switched on player with Anita or Colback because they were both so anonymous that they had to run around trying to cover the other.

 

Sissoko-Wijnaldum wouldn't have worked, but Abeid with one of them might have.

 

 

Basically, McClaren was a fucking idiot and getting that squad relegated was criminal. Don't care that the players were cunts, it was his job to get them playing.

[Sho Time]

That's the point.  He played them wide or as a 10.  Totally out of position whilst Anita and Colback were out midfield generals

 

Not sure who else there was tbf to McClaren. Ultimately though we were in that mess and still in a mess because of one person and one person only.

[The College Dropout]

That's the point.  He played them wide or as a 10.  Totally out of position whilst Anita and Colback were out midfield generals

 

Not sure who else there was tbf to McClaren. Ultimately though we were in that mess and still in a mess because of one person and one person only.

 

Thauvin first half of the season.

[jollof rice and pea]

Their only midfielder who always plays

[54]

Nominated for the Ballon d'Or.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

He was class against Man Utd, probably the best I’ve seen him for Liverpool.

[Optimistic Nut]

Imagine if we’d used Sissoko & Wijnaldum as a central two instead of Colback and Anita man. Thauvin (then Townsend) and Perez either side of Mitrovic. Thauvin might still have been crap, Mitrovic would have still missed chances, but I bet we’d have been able to threaten teams more and create more chances where even just 2-3 more goals would have kept us up and given Rafa a higher platform to start from.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

He was class against Man Utd, probably the best I’ve seen him for Liverpool.

 

Thought he disappeared myself and although he’s a quality player and how he plays obviously helps them or gives the team more, he has zero creative effect and he needs someone like that buzzing all over around him further up and the team needs that as well. He’s a bit like Park was for Man Utd in many ways. They need a Maddison in there or an Eriksen.

 

They should look to pay the going rate for someone like them. I rate Henderson but Gini and Fabinho can do what he does, although they don’t quite have his leadership and no nonsense when needed qualities, but on the ball, in the pass, in discipline towards shape/role/position etc they can do it and lately when Henderson moves up Matip steps in to do his job and effectively too.

 

Henderson is the odd one out at the moment long term against more organised teams or teams deploying a higher quality level of tactics, as proved when he does go more advanced tasked with creating more, as Gini does or Fabinho or Kieta, he has zero creativity like them. Ox does have creativity, but he’s more of a free ACM who drives forward into shooting areas or into the box, he doesn’t make the play, so they need a playmaker who does. Had they kept Coutinho, maybe Klopp could have turned him into such that player? Maybe resigning him could fix this creativity problem from central midfield?

 

Maddison has impressed me, but can he play make on the move in a quicker more non stop pressing of the ball, never mind pressing off it, as that’s easy. Eriksen can, he’s brilliant at it as is Silva at Man City and DeBruyne, as Hazard was at Chelsea.

 

For all of how good Liverpool are, it’s their front free who provide the creativity which they do better than anyone else and allows Liverpool to have 3 central ball recyclers behind them, who get the ball give it, get the ball back, give it. Moving the ball around until one of the front free combine and open up the opposition. If that’s not on, they look to the flanks for the full-backs for creativity, for service and as good as they are, restrict them and it’s literally down to Salah, Mane and Firminho.

 

Tactically Man Utd pushed their wing backs deeper or narrow into more centre areas than wide and in the end Gin more than anyone the most become a nothing player and disappeared, hence why he was brought off.

 

Liverpool will wear any team down and because of their defensive strength and ability to be a goal threat they will not be beaten by anyone no matter how good they are or will be kept out. They are a great team, but tactically they can be quietened and their weakness exposed. Ironically the man who got their equaliser is someone who can fill that creative gap, but he’s never fit and doesn’t have the stamina for their system anyway.

 

Maybe Grealish at Villa could be who they are looking for?

 

Add that kind of player and this Liverpool win the league, right no a long term injury to Salah or Mane and they have problems. City don’t have that because even their none playmakers have sone degree of creative forward quality, whether it’s out wide, deep lying, up front or central. That’s why they can get by without De Bruyne still. That’s why they will win the league unless Liverpool keep their front three fit and they produce the goods or they get a playmaker in in Jan.

 

Cheeky loan for Foden...

[Guest Howaythetoon]

England have the same problems in midfield especially centrally as Liverpool, only Liverpool have the likes of Allison, Matip, Robertson and Virgil in defence and England have Pickford, Stones, Maguire. Not bad players, but not exactly top players. A playmaker alone for England would make all the difference the most though.

[Guest reefatoon]

Imagine if we’d used Sissoko & Wijnaldum as a central two instead of Colback and Anita man. Thauvin (then Townsend) and Perez either side of Mitrovic. Thauvin might still have been crap, Mitrovic would have still missed chances, but I bet we’d have been able to threaten teams more and create more chances where even just 2-3 more goals would have kept us up and given Rafa a higher platform to start from.

 

Shit the bed, we did actually play Colback and Anita ahead of those two in the middle.....Absolutely terrifying man.

[Optimistic Nut]

Not saying they’d have been the greatest and they’d have still had their lazy days but it would have been a shitload better than Anita & Colback. Thauvin with regular game time might have been a different story too.

[loki679]

Nobody remembers Wijnaldum being completely absent in every away game then?

 

With better management it could have worked but at the time we had what we had so it all went to shit.  Don't gloss over the fact that both him and Sissoko couldn't give two shits while they were here, bad manager or not.

[Optimistic Nut]

Like I said, even taking that into consideration it would have still be a massive upgrade on what we had in there.

[TRon]

Nobody remembers Wijnaldum being completely absent in every away game then?

 

With better management it could have worked but at the time we had what we had so it all went to shit.  Don't gloss over the fact that both him and Sissoko couldn't give two shits while they were here, bad manager or not.

 

I just saw a good player and a really shit management set up. Probably every post in this thread that I made even when he was here was along those lines.

 

We'd find a way to make Mane look shit.

[HawK]

I remember seeing him play once for us in central mid, in an almost holding role, did better than he ever did before for us.

 

Where he played and how he contributed for us meant he was a completely irrelevant player. Under a different manager, he might have done a lot better, or maybe he would still just go through the motions in using us as a stepping stone. At least Sissoko gave us an out-ball, like Jonas did before him. Wij was our modern-day Kevin Nolan, except he contributed even less to overall play and only turned up for the cameras/big games (I've included some analysis in an older post in this thread).

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I never really rated him for us, but he clearly has quality.

[Happinesstan]

He's a bit like Paul Ince. One of the best at keeping things ticking over so that the creative players can express themselves. He's not going to look very good in a team that lacks creativity.