I don't even know what that means.Funny coming from the serial whinger
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Proved to be the right choice for this game.
Good to see he was back on the same form as before the injury. His block in first half was awesome to watch. I generally prefer Lindelof over Bailly, some other prefer Bailly over Lindelof. If we’re going to have a chance to win this league we need both perform as well as they have now.
I've criticised lindeloff in the past and I was disappointed Bailly didn't start. However, Lindeloff was very good today and has been when fit this season. I'm gad that it seems we have 3 good CBs.
Its good. Bailly will keep him on his toes. Competition is good and healthy. Solid game.
Excellent today. Part of an overall excellent unit at the back. All three of our CBs are in very good form.
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I really don’t get the partisan views of some. Isn’t it great to have two really great options to partner Maguire for different games?
I’m genuinely just so pleased to have such solid options with different skills that we’ll need throughout the season it’s such a squad game now that having a fit Bailly occasionally play is really good and so is having a more composed and tactically minded CB too.
Delighted we have 3 quality options with some young talent coming up too.
He was great. I've been critical of him but even his biggest detractors have to give credit.
If we want Bailly to stay fit he can most likely not play too many games, and Lindelof has his back issues, and suddenly Maguire gets injured. We need at minimum 3 plus Tuanzebe for cups.
Ole was proven right today. Lindelof’s calmer aproach worked well.
Axel coming in too!
Did very well today. we need all or CB’s fit and in form. We’re starting to pick up more clean sheets now and conceding less in the league, which is a must if we’re gonna push on from here.
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Definitely a good prospect. I do just get quite tired of having to defend Lindelof. Feel like I do more work than he does on the pitchAxel coming in too!
In all seriousness though we’ve got players for different games and hopefully fans will get behind whoever is on the pitch rather than moaning that their favourite isn’t on.
Agreed, we should be delighted our squad is class.Definitely a good prospect. I do just get quite tired of having to defend Lindelof. Feel like I do more work than he does on the pitch
In all seriousness though we’ve got players for different games and hopefully fans will get behind whoever is on the pitch rather than moaning that their favourite isn’t on.
We need a few more and I think we could easily win the whole thing.
Great performance today, really saved our bacon a few times and his distribution was top class. One great ball for Pogba in first half.
These are very enjoyable perspectives: Players raising their bench marks and consistencies. If only Axel can grow a centimeter in stature and a year in experience, we are not looking bad in central defence.
Excellent
Thought he did alright, some very good some not so good. I think we'd have dominated the game more with a higher line though.
I really wasn't happy that Bailly didn't start today. But that was a topclass performance from Lindelöf!!! Looked calm and always in control. Happy for him. I hope the competition continues to push our CB's.
Well well well.... Ice man shows once again how good he is under pressure. Mentality wise he’s really good. No mistakes today, good positioning as usual, good with the ball, nice cross, showed some speed at times and he even won a few headers. He shut down his critics, including me, today.
Proved me wrong today, glad for it and hope to see more.
Good form of Bailly made Lindelof shift up a gear today. Excellent performance
Lindelof is good with the ball at his feet so this whole idea that he would be the reason for our low defence is weird.
Good game but I still think Bailly is the better partner for Maguire.
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Teams who try that against Liverpool lose. Space in behind for Salah and Mane? Liverpool had Henderson and Fabinho as CBs they would have played balls over our back line with ease had we pushed too high too soon. We did the right thing waiting later in the game to push up as you are less likely to concede from high intensity sprints.
Another excellent performance. I do wonder if there's something in that old argument that managers prefer defenders who are excellent positionally rather than those who play the game with more edge (see SAF's praise of Maldini who barely had to make a sliding tackle at times).
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There’s a reason for it. Positional play lasts longer than physicality. A defender with excellent concentration and positioning is the hardest thing to create against.
A stronger and quicker defender who loves a tackle is more liable to make an error or leave space in behind. This is why you always need a balance and different characters suit different games
Defended well, blocked a shot from Firmino and cleared a dangerous cross in the 2nd half, but lost several duels that you'd expect your CB to win, leading to Liverpool attacks.
Maldini played with edge and went to ground often to win the ball. It's a myth to say otherwise.
I don't think that's what he is saying. That Lindelof is the reason in itself. I think he is saying that we would probably dominate more if we played a high line. Lindelof isn't the choice of playing a high line and you know this, and Bailly is a lot cooler on the ball as you know and much quicker but that's a bit beside the point. Lindelof is cautious and it fit the criteria for this game in particular when our strategy was to be exactly that, however I agree with the poster if he meant that going out there to win the game, playing a higher line with Bailly and maybe Matic instead of McTominay then we would probably have more possession and attack better. Liverpool defence was there for the taking, but they dealt with our hoofs well.
There was a block that was very Bailly-esque. Threw himself at it. Thought he was generally excellent today.
You seriously mean we would have played a high line and dominated Liverpool if Bailly /Matic had played instead of Lindelof and McT?
And Bailly cooler with the ball? He’s good with the ball but as soon as there is pressure he gets stressed.
What teams play a high line at Anfield? Not us, that’s for sure. We couldn’t even keep a high line against Burnley and Villa.
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I didn't say we should have been playing in the half way line, I just think we could have pushed a yard or two up at times and stopped them strolling around the midfield with the ball doing what they liked.
He played well and it was a sensible decision to play him because we set up to play in a deeper defensive line with both fullbacks and both midfielders defending in tandem which meant we were setup to counter which was the correct approach for this game IMO.
Ole has said that he wants to press high and play a high line but unfortunately you can't play that way with Lindelof and Maguire as your CBs and McTominay and Fred as your midfield. So it's sensible to adopt a more conservative approach until you improve the midfield and back line which will then give you the defensive balance on the turn over in such a setup.
Ole has said that he wants to press high and play a high line but unfortunately you can't play that way with Lindelof and Maguire as your CBs and McTominay and Fred as your midfield. So it's sensible to adopt a more conservative approach until you improve the midfield and back line which will then give you the defensive balance on the turn over in such a setup.
Maybe. Liverpool played very well, kept the ball very well as they primarily focused on protecting their fragile defence by keeping the ball, while we protected our defence by defending with our whole team all game. Pressing them higher could have worked yeah, I think it would be a different game but I'd much rather have Bailly in 1v1s than Lindelof. I also think that we could have conceded a goal that way and in retrospect our attackers didn't look dangerous at all so maybe the cautious approach was right by Ole at this moment.
Great on the ground, good at reading the game and below average in the air. That has not changed for the past few years.
All that changes is the opposition. Sometimes we play teams that keep it on the ground, making him look good and then we play teams that bully him in the air, making him look shite.
No surprises
All that changes is the opposition. Sometimes we play teams that keep it on the ground, making him look good and then we play teams that bully him in the air, making him look shite.
No surprises
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Nor did I suggest you meant that. You push higher up even by those yard or two you suggest and you have space in behind. Against Liverpool those extra yards of space in behind will get punished and yet offer relatively little benefit to our forwards who also operate best with space to counter with.
They strolled around midfield with the ball and where did it get them? Liverpool are not Man City where giving them possession plays into their style. There is a reason Thiago and Shaqiri played Klopp was desperate to get more creativity into midfield knowing he’d have a hard time breaking us down and low and behold he had a hard time and we kept a clean sheet and threatened several occasions on the counter.
Ole got it right tonight we could have played better but the tactics were spot on.
Never hurts to have 3 CBs all in good form, a good headache to have. I wonder if we've done some tactical defensive adjustments which explains why we're suddenly defending really well and all our CBs are looking solid. He did well tonight, Solskjaer vindicated with his selection choice.
I doubt we would be playing a higher line with Bailly. And 1v1, it depends on the situation. In the box I prefer Lindelof by far. Chasing a forward, I prefer Bailly.
It’s not just to move up the line. Liverpool are great at pressing but ( except one poor pass from Maguire) our four defenders at the back didn’t make any mistakes. Remember we just had 3 matches where we barely won against Burnley, Villa and Wolves. Those matches were not really any power demonstrations.
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