How many does he play before he gets injured again. Shall we wait and see? Not only the injuries now he's slows us down, also seems to lose the ball now far too often, he's too weak on the ball. I can't think of any moments he lost the ball on Saturday? Unless you're counting an attempt here or there to create in the box? Unfortunately Leicester got his ideal replacement before us. Maybe harsh but he's living of that 6 months he had where he was to be fair to him one of best players in league. But again it was 6 months out of all the time he's been here. Also to be fair to him, it wasn't until 16/17 that he was surrounded by any sort of consistent quality upfront. His best performances for us have come in an advanced midfield role with pace and quality ahead of him, intelligent players alongside and just general intelligence in the side. This has either not been there, or been inconsistent, prior to Klopp's first full season. It's a hell of a difference playing with Coutinho, Firmino and Mane than to an injured Sturridge or Origi/Benteke with next to no other pace in the side.
He needs to bin England off imo. That will help him. agree Just don't think he's up there with our other players now, we've gone up a level. Maybe.
And saying he isn't quite good enough for us anymore isn't an insult we're top 5 in Europe at the minute.
Other than the bits in bold - just how about giving the lad more than around 120 minutes of football to work his way back? Best part of a season out means it will take more than a few games, weeks, maybe months to get sharpness, rhythm, full fitness back. Add to this, he's had very, very little match time with players that are now a big part of our team - Salah, Van Dijk, Trent, Robertson in particular.
Yes - I'm a fan of Lallana. That doesn't mean I'm blind to the big challenge he faces, but, the thing that gives me hope is the lad was never about pace. He was sharp, ran his nuts off (think he was our hardest worker in that 16/17 season) and had elite quality, on either foot, when he had good players
ahead of him.
Saturday wasn't a great performance, it also wasn't anywhere near as bad as people have made out. First half in particular he was doing a fine job of moving laterally across the pitch, supporting fullbacks/inside forwards, creating overload situations and getting into the half spaces to give options to deeper lying players. He had a goal cleared off the line and was unlucky with a little cut back early in the first half from the right side of the pitch. Second half he noticeable tired, struggled to affect the game and was rightly substituted for the excellent Shaqiri.
Give him time? Why write him off? Look for the positives? Try and see a way back for the lad? IF he doesn't, he doesn't. We have the squad to cope.