{"id":1554,"date":"2019-07-01T14:31:24","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T14:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=1554"},"modified":"2019-07-01T14:32:28","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T14:32:28","slug":"looking-at-liverpools-squad-the-midfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/looking-at-liverpools-squad-the-midfield\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking At Liverpool\u2019s Squad: The Midfield"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s fair to say that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/looking-at-liverpools-squad-the-defensive-third\/\">my look at the defensive third<\/a> caused some issues for some people. I\u2019ve never done player ratings, so I hadn\u2019t previously experienced the righteous manner in which some supporter react to the assignation of arbitrary numbers based on one person\u2019s experience. The fact that I gave the defence a rating of seven, based on my opinion that we need to bring in a back-up goalkeeper, a player who can cover both fullbacks and that only Virgil van Dijk has shown any degree of reliability in terms of fitness saw quite a lot of people on Twitter take the hump. In fact, the entire enterprise caused a chap called Dave, who I have had a number of perfectly pleasant interactions with over my time on Twitter, to inform me that I was guilty of writing \u2018clickbait\u2019 and that he was \u2018muting and unfollowing\u2019 me. Sufficed to say that I wasn\u2019t expecting such a remarkably polarised reaction to a piece that was simply me expressing my opinion.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-cards=\"hidden\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Getting a bit click baity now.<br \/>\nDecent is a nonsense description.<br \/>\nI am officially out. Muted and unfollowed.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dave Almighty #pleasebanNazis (@davealmighty10) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davealmighty10\/status\/1144640761360789507?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 28, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>For those of you that consider yourselves to be regular readers of my work it should go without saying that I don\u2019t do clickbait. Whilst everyone who writes stuff is pleased when someone reads it, I\u2019d like that to be because the feel I\u2019m a good writer rather than I\u2019ve written a headline designed to drag people in that bears no relation to the actual words in the piece. I\u2019m sad to have lost Dave as a follower, of course, but I won\u2019t change my opinion because it doesn\u2019t please someone else. These pieces aren\u2019t based around what the team achieved in winning a European Cup, but rather how I interpret the state of things moving forward. Of course I\u2019m aware that J\u00fcrgen Klopp and his team know what they\u2019re doing. I have a huge amount of faith in Michael Edwards. That doesn\u2019t mean that I don\u2019t think we got lucky at times last season with injuries and that we can\u2019t <strong>improve<\/strong>, which is the whole point of these pieces. With that in mind, then, here\u2019s my take on the midfield.<\/p>\n<h2>There Can Be A Lack Of Creativity<\/h2>\n<p>J\u00fcrgen Klopp sets up his teams in a manner that facilities things for the front men. That means that the job of the men in the middle is to get the ball forward as quickly as possible and hope that the likes of Mo Salah, Sadio Man\u00e9 and Roberto Firmino can produce something special. Don\u2019t get me wrong, 115 goals across 53 games in all competitions is nothing to turn your nose up at, yet of those 115 goals just 23 were scored by players you\u2019d say played in the midfield, with six of them coming from Xherdan Shaqiri who most people thought was being signed to rotate with the front men. Add into that the fact that only two of James Milner\u2019s seven goals were from open play and you can see that it\u2019s not exactly the most unfair thing in the world to suggest that the midfielders that the manager has at his disposal aren\u2019t the most creative group in the world.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-cards=\"hidden\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">While Liverpool&#8217;s midfield don&#8217;t really offer much creativity through d middle (Fabinho is actually incisive as a CDM &amp; improved Liverpool&#8217;s midfield a lot), the midfielders are athletic, physically dominant, agile &amp; offer work rate. Most of their creativity comes from d wings.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adewale busayo (@Intuitive_boy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Intuitive_boy\/status\/1144528701104803841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 28, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>As I say, the manager doesn\u2019t ask his midfielders to be creative but that doesn\u2019t mean that we can\u2019t be disappointed in the fact that they aren\u2019t. When the front three struggles for whatever reason, either because they\u2019re well marshalled or because they\u2019re up against a deep-lying defence, it would be nice to know that one of our midfielders could stick the ball in the back of the net on a fairly regular basis. It will be interesting to see whether the manager decides to continue to deploy Jordan Henderson in the more advanced role that we saw him take up towards the end of the campaign. Even his most ardent critics weren\u2019t too disappointed to see him there and his surging run is part of why we were able to open the scoring against Barcelona at Anfield. I love watching the captain play and think that he has adapted brilliantly to the more defensive role the German assigned him, but he\u2019s exciting to see when he\u2019s in the attacking third.<\/p>\n<h2>Injuries And Age Are My Main Concern<\/h2>\n<p>My concern moving forward is that, just as with the defence, we seem to be putting a lot of faith in players being injury free despite the evidence suggesting that\u2019s unlikely to be the case. John Henry spoke over the weekend about how Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain\u2019s return and an injury free Adam Lallana would give us midfield creativity, which will definitely be the case if either of them are ever fit enough to be selected. For Oxlade-Chamberlain the criticism is perhaps slightly unfair, but after missing a year of football there\u2019s no guarantee that he\u2019ll come back into the team in the same form he was in when he left it. As for Lallana, he\u2019s getting older all the time and age doesn\u2019t tend to increase the body\u2019s ability to recover from injury. He was the embodiment of Klopp\u2019s football when the German arrived in 2015, but since then the team has passed him by and I\u2019m dismayed by suggestions that he won\u2019t be moved on this summer.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Right, why would you not, for example, get rid of Lallana for say \u00a315m, then replace him with a Tielemans or a Ziyech? Why? Why would that not make total, complete and utter sense? In what world is keeping Adam Lallana a better idea?!<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Trombone (@PlayersTrombone) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PlayersTrombone\/status\/1145086047547736064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 29, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Then we come to James Milner. I\u2019ve had a love-hate relationship with the journeyman during his Liverpool career. I\u2019m more than aware that he\u2019s a class act, but there have been times that he\u2019s looked so off the pace of the game that it\u2019s not even funny. Mention anything along those lines and someone will inevitably point to the fact that he is apparently always the fittest player in pre-season, but that\u2019s a bit of a flawed take in my opinion. For starters, a 95-year-old man can run a marathon but that doesn\u2019t mean I want him playing against Man City. On top of that, we seem to rely on the former Leeds man to cover a myriad of sins in our squad, being the main cover for both fullbacks. He\u2019s had hits and misses on that front, but he\u2019s only going to have more of the latter with each passing year. I thought the idea of him moving back to his former club if they\u2019d got promoted would have been perfect for all parties, but it wasn\u2019t to be.<\/p>\n<h2>Overall Score<\/h2>\n<p>Midfield is a tricky one to evaluate. I haven\u2019t spoken about Gini Wijnaldum or Fabinho, nor have I gone into much detail about Naby Keita. Shaqiri had some excellent performances at the start of the season but stank the place out against Barcelona in the second-leg, only to put the cross in for the third. The reality is that I think we need to freshen things up based on my lack of faith in Lallana and co, but I can see why the manager doesn\u2019t want to.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_1299\" style=\"width: 277px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1299\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1299\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Xherdan_Shaqiri_2018-267x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"267\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Xherdan_Shaqiri_2018-267x400.jpg 267w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Xherdan_Shaqiri_2018-133x200.jpg 133w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Xherdan_Shaqiri_2018.jpg 423w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 267px) 100vw, 267px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1299\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">By \u0410\u043d\u0442\u043e\u043d \u0417\u0430\u0439\u0446\u0435\u0432 (https:\/\/www.soccer.ru\/galery\/1055626\/photo\/733817) [<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/copyleft\/fdl.html\">CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\">CC BY-SA 3.0 <\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/copyleft\/fdl.html\">GFDL<\/a>], <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Xherdan_Shaqiri_2018.jpg\">via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p><\/div>I\u2019ve no idea how much trouble this take will cause, but based on my overall opinion I\u2019m going to give the midfield moving forward a 6.5 out of 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s fair to say that my look at the defensive third caused some issues for some people. I\u2019ve never done player ratings, so I hadn\u2019t previously experienced the righteous manner in which some supporter react to the assignation of arbitrary numbers based on one person\u2019s experience. The fact that I gave the defence a rating of seven, based on my opinion that we need to bring in a back-up goalkeeper, a player who can cover both fullbacks and that only Virgil van Dijk has shown any degree of reliability in terms of fitness saw quite a lot of people on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1554"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1556,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions\/1556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}