The second I saw the same exact lineup as last week with Adam Lallana AND Jordan Ibe I knew this wasn't going to be pretty. Lallana just isn't good enough and is too similar to Coutinho and crowds his space to warrant a regular spot in this XI.

The problem was though, we saw today why he is playing. wtf was Firmino doing? You would have thought he'd played the whole game and had put in a real shift but after 2 minutes on the pitch he's walking around. That was shameful. I know the stats guys are high on him from his Hoffenheim time, but I've watched him with Brasil (albiet not in his natural position) and he did not look good.

I'm not as down on Ibe as most. He can beat a man but agree he needs to do more than just that. Think Lallana is a way bigger problem.

On the positive side I thought Benteke looked really good, the few times our midfield was able to get involved and he was lively in the box. Think he'll come good. I'm ready to partner Ings with him, though obv BR won't do that for Arsenal. Ings for Lallana would be my change, at least while Firmino looks like he can't be bothered.

Clyne is a stud. Such a solid RB. Probably just made more obvious by years of Glen Johnson. Really good buy

Lovren actually did ok again. I think the pulled back goal for Bournemouth actually was a foul, but that would have been on Lovren. Otherwise he's winning a lot of in the air and hasn't had his LOL Lovren moment yet. It's coming and I certainly don't want to board the Lovren hype train for a full season yet.

Moreno looked very lively and good getting forward. We actually needed someone to take the game by the scruff of the neck like he did. Can and Firmino should take note. But he had little defensive resposibility and came on after the Bournemouth players were knackered. Gomez did well again I though. He still makes some poor passes but overall solid defensively. Not ready for the Moreno lol defending just yet.

Arsenal could be ugly. Think BR is gonna play it very defensively, maybe even the same lineup again.

Feel pretty confident about getting something at anfield next week.
I don't expect a beat down like last time, but I'm definitely expecting a good performance and to expose pool a bit.

Ain't nobody playing at Anfield next week bro

just finished watching the game, happy to see that benteke was borderline great and all other liverpool problems were Rodgers/lineup-related

newly promoted side coming hard at passive/unorganized liverpool is fairly predictable, but should have been a draw at least for bouremouth obv.

Makes sense to me. Firmino will probably make his first start against West Ham.

their whole approach is ****ed. Assuming you want to get the best out your most expensive and or best players, I see the following:

- Firmino needs to play centrally
- Coutinho needs runners in front of him to play through balls for
- Milner and Henderson need to use their legs
- You paid 32.5 mill for a big beasty striker

The only way the pieces fit is if you resurrect the diamond and probably bench 1 of Milner/Henderson unless you think one is capable of playing at the base. Or you play them both ahead of the base and put Coutinho ahead of them at the top of the diamond (but i'd argue against all but the best sides he should play deeper like he did 2 years ago).

I dunno 6 pts is 6 pts but there are some dynamic players at the midtable - Shaqiri, Payet, Mahrez to name just 3.... gonna be some serious flies in the ointment imo.

I think it's pretty clear that the problem so far is that rodgers has been playing Lallana and coutinho with no one centrally in between them and the CBs to distribute.

When Lallana is on with coutinho and it's like Henderson and Milner only, there is zero link up coming out from back so what happens is the more spacially aware coutinho brings it all the way up and distributes, rendering normally-marked Lallana pointless.

When Can is on he alleviates the defensive responsibilites of the midfield but also brings it up centrally instead of Coutinho, and can distribute to either "number 10" or feed it out wide which is a way more optimal approach imo.

I think the best LFC lineup currently is:

---------------------------------------------------------- benteke---------------------------------------------

------------------------Firmino-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------Coutinho---------------------------------

----------------Henderson---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Milner

------------------------------------------------------------Can-------------------------------------------------------


------------------gomez--------------Lovren/Sakho---------------------------------Skrtel-----------------------------------Clyne


This covers the wide spaces but also lets play develop up the middle where the creativity of Firmino and Coutinho can be an end result for the CMs and not the entire build up, which frees them up and also takes full advantage of benteke.

Currently he's been (I hope) simulating firmino with the spacially obtuse Lallana and having coutinho be the only central player bringing play up the middle and distributing to a marked benteke and an lolLallana which is not a good look imo.

Have the transfer committee shot at dawn?

Nah, I think Liverpool are nailed on for a top ten finish.

Oh it's at the Emirates? I think that's actually better for Pool tbh.

You could score at Anfield next week

Chelsea panic buying news incoming.

cliffs of the season so far?(arsenal excluded, mainly wanna know how utd/pool/everton/southampton looked)

Think Arsenal will roast us all over the pitch except maybe on the right hand side where Clyne looks a rock. Have to try and exploit long shot opportunities and set pieces. We also don't have the pace in behind to exploit their high line. If we can overload Monreal with Milner/Clyne/Coutinho there's a chance it could lead to some decent moments. See a brutal 90 minutes for Liverpool.

Guys, my flatmates and I are looking to visit Dublin come November, my main question is how ****ty is the weather around that time? It is not a huge problem if it is rainy-damp, mainly I want to know if it is unbearably cold or snowing in making transport and sightseeing impossible. Thanks in advance


I can see it becoming a terrible night for Plop, but I can also see us being in trouble if we don't take our chances a'la WestHam. Overall Plop looked a lot worse away to Stoke than yesterday where they created a decent amount of chances- I guess that is expected vs Bournemouth but still...also why was Coutinho subbed? injury or tactical reasons?

Utd: back 4 looking decent with the addition of Darmian, but this could be due to the defensive cover which Schneiderlin provides, he is a top top player(stole it from experts). Schweini looks overweight, Depay played impressively and I expect him to do well in Utd, most chances came from Mata, Rooney looked terrible in the striker role both games. Not really creating many chances though which could mean "Siegetower" in when they are chasing games

Plop: Plopped pretty hard in the 1st game, struggling to create real opportunities- took a Coutinho wondergoal, look decent enough in the 2nd game, but not utterly impressive. Wasn't really a textbook steamrolling with Ritchie causing all kinds of problems at the back. Clyne an incredibly big improvement over Johnson. Almost forgot lolRodgers not rating Sakho and playing Lovren instead- could be costly vs teams who actually attack.

Southampton: Defensively shaky vs Newcastle and in shambles vs Everton. Struggling to finish (Mane-Pelle should have scored in both games, Pelle possibly missed 4-5 chances which he usually takes), Tadic being out of form doesn't help at all. Defensively Soares looks like a great addition, he is confident going forward, they lack that on the left with Bertrand out. Expect Caulker to take the place of Yoshida in the coming weeks. He is just making so many mistakes which are not acceptable on this level

So is Benteke confirmed as real deal already after scoring that winner last night?

@MindFckr: November to February is probably the worst time to visit Dublin for sightseeing purpose only, but the experience can easily get fixed with a couple of Guinness.

Nathaniel Clyne appears to be a Dapper Dan man.

Philippe not injured, Henderson however felt his leg and came off which changed the midfield setup. Coutinho was replaced with Moreno to assist Gomez vs. Ritchie.
Which changed sides right after and caused another tactical change.

You'll be fine. Shouldn't be any snow in November, rainy-damp is probably an accurate description. It'll probably be chilly but not freezing.

@Dublin: cheers 39s and TP!

Also a bit offtopic, but did Gary Neville really say "Cock about the offside rule every year" ?

Fantastic the player benteke has become since joining liverpool. Some Awesome coaching+scouting to bring an unknown talent and making him an immediate success. All credit to LFC for this one

I forgot to mention, how did Arsenal hardman (an oxymoron if ever there was one) Francis Coquelin manage to Jedi mind trick his way out of a second yellow card on Sunday?

let me answer with a picture:

Arsenal and Arsenal -1.5 will be the freest of money on Monday.

Formation looks good on a phone lol

Left hand side is generally Sanchez and ozil prefers drifting that way because of it. Don't see Clyne being too adventurous at all.