kazza » Thu Aug 01, 2019 5:14 am wrote:ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Wed Jul 31, 2019 6:57 pm wrote:Pig Catcher » Wed Jul 31, 2019 6:48 pm wrote:Not just the returning players. Everyone has looked fresher. Klopp said after Napoli that training would return to normal and freshness would return to the legs and it has showed today. Hoever looked good and Keita looks well up for the new season.
Hoever looked really good, he's grown a lot compared to how he looked against Wolves last season. He's developing into a real athlete. i was impressed by Lallana in MF as well, I wouldn't go as far as to say he adds more creativity to the side but he definitely gives us more ability on the ball. Wouldn't mind seeing a MF of Fabinho, Keita and Lallana against City.
I had considered Lallana in that position but he may be too lightweight. I remember once against Spurs a couple of years ago Wanyama came on and Lallana was out muscled off the ball every time like boys against men, He barged him once and Lallana went flying comically, i never got that image out of my head. He certainly has the engine and the vision but against mors athletic midfielders he may struggle.
Yeah he is definitely a bit lightweight in those types of situations but to be fair to him he is quite tenacious in terms of pressing, out of our current squad I think him, Keita and Fabinho are the 3 that offer a the best balance between workrate and ability on the ball.
Another thing I'd like to see us do this weekend is have a right go at City, in the past we've had a lot of success against them by really going after them, not just under Jurgen but under the likes of Brendan too, last season I thought we were a bit passive against them and they definitely had the better of the 2 games. Given this weekends game is meaningless and the result soon forgotten lets have a right go at them and see what happens, let's use the game as an experiment to see if City are still vulnerable to teams who really take it to them.
IMO City are top heavy, they generally have a lot of attacking players in their line up, sitting back and inviting pressure plays into their hands, the one thing those attacking players don't want to do is defend.Lets put them on the back foot and see how they react. There are no points to lose so let's go for it.