ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Mon Aug 28, 2017 7:59 pm wrote:Not necessarily, at the start of the summer the plan was to pair Keita and Coutinho up in the same side. Yes we are after Lemar but he could be coming to bolster our options out wide.
Jurgen obviously likes to have pace on both flanks and Mane and Salah can't possibly play every game especially given the style and intensity of our play (they'd be burnt out by November). We have no one really outside of Origi, Kent and Ojo that could come in and do a similar job so Lemar could be brought in to share the workload.
Jurgen said himself that the reason we looked better defensively yesterday was because Mane and Salah both got back to defend, our wide forwards are going to have to get through a Herculean amount of work this season if we are to be successful so we are going to need more that 2 pacey wide players. The Lemar signing makes perfect sense when you think about it.
He'll be out the door before the deadline. Same question we'll have as that of Barcelona, are we better off with the 2 new players (Lemar, Salah vs. Coutinho; Dembele, Coutinho vs. Neymar) than we were with what we had ?
I think we've changed our style around a bit this season and are looking to play a much more direct game (potentially the loss of Coutinho and Lallana's injury might have forced our hand a bit) but I can see us not replacing Coutinho with a playmaker type of midfielder or forward. Lemar, Salah and Mane are all wide forwards, you could add Kent to that equation as well. I can see us going all out for another midfielder though to add a bit of cover to what we have. Ultimately, Keita imo is Klopp's idea of a Coutinho replacement. I can see us persisting with system of playing 2 #8s ahead of Henderson rather than a Coutinho type playing a free role and controlling the tempo and possession.
Against the top 6 it shouldnt be a problem, we have always conceded possession in those games for a pressing/counter attack style and it has worked well. Against the smaller sides we'll need to make sure we have solutions.