Rimbeux

Almost staggeringly unlucky with two defections and a handball

Well overdue, he looks like he’s forgotten how to score, think two complete mss-kicks in front of goal last month

Zeljko Buvac, Liverpool’s assistant manager and the man Jürgen Klopp calls “The Brain,” will not work with the first team for the remainder of the season and appears to be on the verge of leaving the club. Liverpool have said the matter is due to personal reasons and that Buvac’s position at Anfield is not affected. However, his absence at such a crucial juncture of the season — Liverpool face Roma in their Champions League semi-final, second leg, on Wednesday — is extraordinary. Buvac’s standing, and the regard in which he is held, means the timing of his decision is a significant blow and pushes more pressure on Klopp to steer the ship in the run-in. It is understood Buvac has become increasingly distant and withdrawn around the club, and visibly less engaged during matches of late, and it is that, rather than any specific fall-out with Klopp, which has resulted in him stepping back from first-team duties in the aftermath of the stalemate with Stoke City on Saturday. Liverpool’s players were informed at training on Sunday. The Liverpool manager Klopp will hope his right hand man can return, but if Buvac feels he does not want to be around the club at present when European ambitions are on the line it is difficult to envisage that changing. Klopp and Buvac met as team-mates at FSV Mainz 05 and struck a pact that whoever went into management first would take the other with them. Premier League clips powered by Sky Sports Battling Stoke keep Liverpool at bay The transition of Klopp from player to coach at Mainz in 2001 made good the agreement and they have worked together ever since, enjoying success at Borussia Dortmund and arriving at Liverpool in October 2015. Peter Krawietz – “The Eyes” – completes the triumvirate, but it is Buvac who carries most influence. It has been previously been unthinkable to consider either Klopp or Buvac — whose relationship is more professional than social — working without the other. When Klopp signed a six-year extension to his contract in in the summer of 2016, he insisted Buvac and Krawietz were given the same contract length. Buvac, a Bosnian Serb, operates above the level of a normal assistant and Klopp has not hid the importance of a man six years his senior. During matches he was usually heavily involved in which substitutions take place and at what stage of a game. He was furious with the goalkeeper coach John Achterberg in a game against Chelsea last November when the Londoners scored an equaliser while Liverpool were trying to bring on the substitute Adam Lallana and switch to a five-man backline. Buvac refused to speak to Achterberg, who liaises with the fourth official over substitutions. Buvac was heavily involved in Liverpool’s tactical work Buvac was heavily involved in Liverpool’s tactical workRIchard Sellers/EMPICS Sport Overall, Liverpool’s secret lies in their training, the repetition of attacking movements behind their relentless approach, and Buvac is central to everything that happens on the training pitch. Klopp has been weighing up tweaks to his backroom team during the season, especially in the physiotherapy department. Andy Renshaw, the head of physiotherapy, left the club in October and there have been continued discussions on how to improve the department. There will be disappointment among Liverpool supporters and a sense of uneasiness also at the prospect of history repeating itself. Gerard Houller won a cup treble in 2001, including the Uefa Cup, but lost his assistant Patrice Bergues, who returned to France. The club was unable to maintain the same level of progress going forward. In 2007, weeks after the club’s Champions League defeat to AC Milan, the assistant manager Pako Ayesteran quit Liverpool after a fall-out with Rafa Benítez. Ayesteran was perceived as crucial to the club’s success under Benitez and the club never managed to replicate the heights they reached in the years after his departure

Joyce saying it is about football, speculating he's feeling marginalised and thinking of quitting

I do hope it's not too serious a personal issue. Remains open it might be about football

Yep would be, draw would be all but done too as we’d need a point to get over the line. Chelsea have to win every game, if they pull it off it would be something like 7 or 8 wins in a row. Three more points and they can’t pip us in points and if we draw with them it’s done too

Yep, clearly need two quality forward players, either Lallana back for or someone to replace him in midfield, and another quality centre back at minimum. Can’t afford to carry this drop in quality of we want to win the league

Also known as lacking squad depth & having injuries.

Been poor hasn’t he. Really uncertain handing under no pressure bar the occasion. If that what he’s like around mere speculation...

Thing is Stoke need to win, so don’t think they’re looking to take time out. Looks like two genuine injuries. Groin and Allen’s toe/foot

Stoke have set up to use a lot of energy, pressing us really high up, both forwards booked and them and the midfield having to cover a lot of distance getting up and down the pitch. We lack a lot of intensity and seem wary of getting into physical confrontations in midfield, but when we do and beat the press, they are wide open. Hopefully we can be a bit braver on the ball, get get two up by 60, then see what they’ve got left and if their forwards can last the pace and not get 2nd yellows trying to press us.

We need to win this ideally, a point or loss might have us needing to win the last home game. We’ve got a three day gap either side of this game, so fatigue shouldn’t be the concern, it’s getting more knocks, which is just luck really. Go strong and get the job done by 60, then Moreno can play left midfield for the last half hour.

Feel like there’s a lot on him to close out the season for us. Illness or whatever, he’s had less football than most, no WC, so has a big five games to step up for.

We need at least a point, needs must

Haven’t you ever wondered why a top manager just doesn’t bin the entire idea and clean up? He’s way ahead in terms of game understanding, has rapidly caught up as a defender

Absolutely no idea, even if it wasn’t intercepted the state of the pitch today meant that sort of play was at best pointless and money likely dangerous

Not a good advert for full back depth. Left back was poor all game, is a continuing liability and will be off, right back knocked off at 2-0. Gomez is a worry, he’s first and foremost a defender, he’s not good enough on the ball to be carried or tolerated as a fullback and has concentration issues. He’s got a struggle on, Trent is a far better footballer, Clyne is a far better defender and there’s no way he’s going to be even third choice centre half any time soon.

Not sure about that, and also record chasing, he looked pretty anxious to score last week and admitted as much. He’s on the cusp of making club and league history, not just finishing top this year. Seems a similar sentiment from the manager that allowed him and Mane to travel to the awards ceremony and come back on the day of a game

That and he really wants to

Dunno if it’s better if Stoke come chasing a win or are done and pissed off when we meet them

Scepticism seems right despite them being on the points they are in 2nd. They got a lot of points on the board early on, without being anything more than efficient it seems, and there's a lack of ambition about their play that's blunting very good players. They don't lack attacking talent, they've got a solid midfield base, and the best keeper in the league. I severely doubt it's having a couple of aging wingers playing at fullback that's holding them back, or that two new ones are going to transform how they play, this is them under Mourinho, and yes they might be able to grind out another half dozen points next season, but maybe they can't.

It's a funny one, they're pretty much already down so might be liberating for them in ways, but their main issue has been scoring; don't think they get hammered often, there are quite a few worse defences but nobody with fewer goals. As we've got form with them from the cup, they might think we can be got at again, which might open it up

Full on right? Get three points, challenge Chelsea to win two away in a week to keep it alive

Yeh granted, but they’re not as potentially porous as the others in how they play, sitting in quite a lot

Is it weird to think this is the toughest draw for how we play? Thing is Roma likely think the same.