I heard a start last week that mig touched the ball more times than wini. I don't think those stats improved much today especially 2nd half. Can was awful against spartak. Don't understand the reluctance to play boring james milner. I can understand Klopp's reluctance to start Ox as he was awful at leicester in the league cup,
perhaps not fully fit, just really disappointed with wini who can be great at anfield.
Lallana at this rate will breeze back into the team half fit in november. It really is a chance for all these other midfielders to claim the spot for themselves but non are.
I've defended Gini a lot in the past but it's become farcical at this point, it's simply inexcusable to be turning in such anonymous performances at this level. In the summer I was very much an advocate of him being a squad option but to be honest, if he can only find it in himself to turn up once in every four or five games then frankly he has no business being at this club.
He, like Can, gets heralded on a handful of strong performances, but if you look at the entire body of his short LFC career, it's not good enough. Bit like how Can has 1 or 2 good games and everyone forgets that he's played over 130 games for us and been rank average in over half of them, and actively awful in probably as many as he's excelled in. I can see why people make arguments to persist - surely if they are capable of top class performances (and they are) then it's just a case of consistency, or waiting for them to click as they mature as players. But the more time that passes it becomes evident that they just aren't that good, and the odd class performance doesn't mitigate the majority of their time here, where as a whole you'd have to say neither have been good enough.
Thing is, Milner was never that good in midfield for us either. We don't yet know if AOC will be any good for us there (though I'd like to see us try). Grujic might be worth a shot were it not for the fact that he's weak off the ball and we're doing badly enough at that at the moment. And that's it - all we've got. I mean it's pretty grim to be honest.
I'm not sure Lallana and Coutinho can play together in midfield as it's a bit too lightweight but at this rate it's probably worth a go as what we have isn't working, at all. I don't see how we turn it around either, which is worrying, cos I'm starting to sense this season could be a write off before we even reach January and have a chance to change anything (not that we will). It's hard to see where the change in fortunes will come from, because Lallana is good but he isn't the saviour, and the rest are the same players they've always been. Consistently inconsistent and truth be told not as good as we like to think they are.
Problem with Ox is he's defensively pretty suspect, especially positioning wise - for a team which is leaking defensively I can see why Klopp wouldn't pull the trigger on that.
Seems Klopp will trust him on the wing or busting through the middle but not sitting in a number 6 or 8 role. That said, obvious he needs minutes, and in such a shaky run the pressure will be off him individually to put in a stella performance.
Fair, but Can is an utter liability defensively and I'm not sure what Wijnaldum actually does, but it isn't winning duels/tackles or tracking runs and it doesn't
look like defending, so I'm not sure AOC could actually be any worse.
