Rory Fitzgerald

78mins 0-0 A draw will be fine looking at that Arsenal line up. But I fear the worst and its priced at 7/2 at the moment

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West Ham came to Anfield having played 3 at the back almost all season with - Massuaku at LB and Cresswell at LCB Flipped to a back 4 in 8 of the last 9 games as Massuaku got injured and Cresswell moved to LB Craig Dawson has played the last 5 games with Ogbonna with 4 wins and a draw conceding just 3 goals Soucek and Rice are estabished in midfield, Antonio will be upfront and very likely Bowen on the right. Fornels and Benrahma likely to play but most at risk from Jesse Lingard - but its not clear if his deal was done before noon yesterday. These are very fast with quick free kicks if they get fouled on the break - players keep running when the whistle goes hoping the opposition stop. Below is the opening goal that Palace scored during week. Antonio doesn't have the legs to put in a shift, so his energy is spent being the outlet. Everyone else is deep & tight, Antonio will be the outlet against whoever we can keep back there

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Thinking outside the box, does TAA become an option at CB in the sense that he has recovery pace and is very composed on the ball. The hole in the thinking is that we miss him at RB. In that sense, we play more on the front foot in some games and Ox is someone that played RWB for Wenger in his final days. Its an "unusual" consideration and only driven by thinking of (a) defender with pace, (b) defender with passing and (c) fluid replacement at RB for a game like Brighton/West Ham whereby we control a game. Allows Henderson back into midfield with Thiago & Wijnaldum - our best 3 in midfield if Fabinho has to sit in the back 4. If we are playing a high line and dominating possession against West Ham or Brighton, Robertson and TAA have good recovery pace - but you lose alot of the rest of the game. So far Klopp has gone nowhere near those "options" but I am starting to wonder that - if he does - what is the logic and TAA on the right of defence has better passing as opposed to dropping Robbo back. Its more a case of "in the 1% chance he does it, what is Klopps logic"

Bit of a strange cut-off from BT Sport during that interview

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Kenny's 1st game in 2011. You must have blurred out too much of the Hodgson period, thats understandable.

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I wouldn't mind using the FA Cup next week to try a 4-4-2, seeing if there is something different in the players. Shaqiri on the left, Ox on the right and Salah/Mane playing upfront like the way Suarez/Sturridge did by splitting the pitch and operating almost like lone strikers in their own side of the pitch given they each have the ability to isolate a man and beat him pace/trickery. Ox & Shaqiri could tuck in and let the full backs do the wide work whilst they are available inside.

WTF with the whistle ref ?

Some pictures of touch maps when Rashford and Pogba played left & right vs Man City recently. The touches of Rashford on the left is when he got moved there on 75mins as Greenwood came on and went on the right (just in case it gives impression that Rashford was floating between left & right) Solskjaer has gone with 2 solid midfielders, 2 fast attackers, Fernandes was always playing and he has Pogba in there. Its the only part of the team/position that looks a bit unnatural. Not like us, with Henderson, Fabinho and Shaqiri in their natural positions of course

How is this working - back to the 4231. Is there another variation we can have with Shaqiri, has he ever played for us in a midfield 433 ? Alisson TAA Hendo Fabinho Robbo Thiago Wjnaldum Shaqiri Firmino Mane Salah

Virgil van Lesbian - F'king hell. The lad is 54 also if we read he was born in 1966. And what the f'k is he doing following Salah with the camara, we need to see if Matip was wrapped in bubble wrap at the back of the line.

Yes, I would prefer Mane to be sizing up Lindelof on a one-v-one rather than Bailly.

I thought Lindelof was out. To be honest, I think I'd prefer Lindelof to come back in.

I wonder how United will go. They came last season with a 5-3-2 and gave us a very good game. This season they have a full squad to pick from, confidence and an idea that they can beat us. The gameplan could be either/or in terms of trying counter-attacking (did'nt work for Leicester or Wolves at Anfield) or competing everywhere for the ball and trying to then take the game to us. Defence: Seems nailed on for - DDeG, AWB, Maguire, Bailly, Shaw Midfield/Attack: The only other players I'd be 100% sure to start are Rashford and Fernandes. Midfield: If he is going attacking, its 2 from Fred/McTominay/Pogba, not sure Matic is in the equation. If its all 3 would suggest he's more cautious. The other 3 would be Fernandes, Rashford and [would be interesting to see the 3rd] Attack: Rashford, Cavani or Martial could be picked as the central attacker. I'd guess if its Cavani, he's not going to sit deep as Cavani is not the player to spring a defence from 40 yards out. Wide Players: Daniel James would be the curve ball on the right. Rashford could play on the left. Pogba has played left of centre in recent big games. I am going to guess that he feels he has to play Pogba. I'd also guess he won't play him in a central 2 man midfield. De Gea AWB Bailly Maguire Shaw Fred McTominay James* Fernandes Pogba Rashford* *In the League game against Man City (0-0), it was 10 of those players with Greenwood on the right, not James (Rashford upfront) *In the League Cup game against Man City (0-2), it was Rashford on the right and Martial upfront. If Cavani plays - I'm guessing its not counter attacking. If James players, it could be counter attacking. If Pogba doesn't play, he's made a big call and must fully believe he has a gameplan to win the game and won't risk Pogba. Huge generalisations of course.

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Mine too if truth be told. Then I think that Klopp can't pin a gameplan on Matip. He's had a raw 2 weeks after that defeat which came off the back of 2 draws. I can bet he's talking about identity and getting back to who we are - which cant be based on Matip being back - so I am now convincing myself that the team has a point to prove irrespective of our team and who the opposition are. I remember the first 12-15mins at Goodison after the 2 week break from the Villa 7-2. They rapped that ball around fast, players were almost on autopilot to make sure they didnt hold it for more than 2-3 seconds. Van Dijk was in Everton's half clattering the back of DCL when Everton tried to get out. So I have tried to move past my gut-feel to the logic of what kind of message they are hearing - which I guess is - we've lost our identity with 3 poor performances and 2 weeks waiting to put it right. Thats all good for the 1st 15mins of a game maybe and I hope we can set a strong tone in that time and carry it through.

My gut feeling on this has swung significantly since yesterday. Looking at our line-up with Matip in it, then Thiago, hearing Klopp talking about the meeting and straightening things after Southampton, the break the players have had to work up to this game - as everyone else says, them talking a bit - and then Klopp's comment - "I know Ole said that this is the best moment to play Liverpool. Yeah? Let's see" - gives the feel that he is bursting inside to get the team on the pitch and take the leash & muzzle off because there is now a real question mark asked of the team. Really starting to look forward to this - hoping for the kind of performance that Guardiola has seen & talked about - scoring a goal and then feeling like Liverpool could get another 3 or 4 in the next 5mins....make their heads spin with Robbo giving the ball and just running and before you know it, collecting the ball and he's crossing from outside their box.

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The 4.30pm kick off this Sunday feels absolutely normal but the 5pm kick off for the FA Cup game annoys me. No idea why but it feels different.

I can't believe how often City has been mentioned in this thread - must be close to having this transferred to the General Football Forum. So we play them Anfield 17th and probably Sunday 24th. Klopp has played strong teams when he hasn't needed to. Irrespective of who we drew, we'd probably go almost full strenght. Because of that, I'm not bothered by this draw as at least there's a big win available by playing the 1st team (as opposed to playing the 1st team and beating a lower division team). Win on Sunday is a priority and so what if they get revenge in the Cup. Don't win on Sunday and we have a chance to get a good FA Cup win to get morale firing again and a decent draw in the 5th round.