7 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Thinking more on this @Gol15. If we are to have any hope of not getting beat we must change the shape and we have to be smart about who plays where. 

Ideally that means no Alonso, but I just don't know who we can play besides him. Only other option is:

 

Mendy

 

Chalobah

Rudiger

Sarr

Dave

 

Then that means Sarr is in. So what is better, Alonso at left back against Salah with Toni yo try and help him while dealing with Jota, or Dave more comfortable with Salah cutting in but Toni and Chalobah shifted over?

 

Then there is midfield. We HAVE to leave Jorgi out he is physically spent and his back needs rest. So we have to push Kante and Kova as the 2 6s and hope.

Ahead of them we need our best 3 workers avaliable. Sadly no Werner but for me that means we go:

 

CHO

Mount

CP

 

More energy and pace than Ziyech and Havertz. 

 

Then we have Lukaku and hoping he really has a good go at them.

It may cost us more injuries, but that seems our best bet. Jsut not sure on defence.

I think we somehow have to play an open game, if we play too much defensively it's over we'll lose 0:3 but somehow we have to find a balance between not being exposed due to the backups playing instead of the first options but also we must try to contest the possession because teams that play too much defensively against Liverpool get destroyed regularly.

                          Mendy

Azpilicueta Chalobah Rudiger Alonso

  Ziyech      Kante  Kovacic          CHO
                        Mount

                       Lukaku

This would look on paper too much defensive, a counter-attackin 4-4-1-1. But this way the team can do the job when it comes to us pressing without letting Dave and Alonso getting into a very unfavorable 1v1s against Mane and Salah that have more pace.

A hybrid of 3-4-2-1 is needed and I think that a formation like this can do the trick because while we attack Ziyech and CHO act like the full-backs but they are more conservative otherwise and we can still press. Substituting later on Pulisic for either Mount there or rotate Mount to help out Alonso defensively and put CHO out for Pulisic that would be behind Lukaku since Mount anyway naturally goes to the left hand side. Also Jorginho for Kovacic if there are some problems with a yellow card.

Other thing I can think of to play a full open game and hope we score more:

         Kante Kovacic

Ziyech   Havertz   Mount
             Lukaku

Score 2 goals early on as a total surprise and then get Lukaku out and put Sarr, play Havertz up top with Pulisic instead of Ziyech and defend with the rest...

I'm suddenly quite confident.

Everytime the main theme of the thread is 'let's toss off our opponents' we tend to pull the rabbit out of the hat.

21 minutes ago, Argo said:

I'm suddenly quite confident.

Everytime the main theme of the thread is 'let's toss off our opponents' we tend to pull the rabbit out of the hat.

Ha. The mood is certainly downbeat. They weren’t all that v Leicester and there’s always the randomness of a single game to consider. Is anyone back from illness/injury?

31 minutes ago, Argo said:

I'm suddenly quite confident.

Everytime the main theme of the thread is 'let's toss off our opponents' we tend to pull the rabbit out of the hat.

27 minutes ago, Dean said:

Ha. The mood is certainly downbeat. They weren’t all that v Leicester and there’s always the randomness of a single game to consider. Is anyone back from illness/injury?

If we had a full squad fit there would be a chance to win but right now all points to a huge Liverpool victory at Stamford Bridge.

9 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

If we had a full squad fit there would be a chance to win but right now all points to a huge Liverpool victory at Stamford Bridge.

Yes you are articulating the consensus view and I see why that is so. But NB the point about randomness, or call it unpredictability. Anything is possible. 

3 hours ago, Gol15 said:

If we had a full squad fit there would be a chance to win but right now all points to a huge Liverpool victory at Stamford Bridge.

They've just lost to a team who started the night in the bottom half and had no centre back available. 

It will be a tough game but everyone banging on as if we're playing the 18-19 side is ridiculous. 

47 minutes ago, Argo said:

They've just lost to a team who started the night in the bottom half and had no centre back available. 

It will be a tough game but everyone banging on as if we're playing the 18-19 side is ridiculous. 

Between now and Sunday who knows how many more of our players might end up ruled out due to covid/injury. We might actually get to see Marcos Alonso at false 9.

26 minutes ago, Amputechture said:

Between now and Sunday who knows how many more of our players might end up ruled out due to covid/injury. We might actually get to see Marcos Alonso at false 9.

You joke but I have long wondered how well he would do in a forward position. Aside from Lukaku he is arguably the best finisher in the squad.

Postponing this game somehow would certainly go a long way solving some of our problems. Squad is currently depleted, tired and chaotic all over the place. They need a short retreat and regroup.

I wasn’t that impressed by them against Spurs or Leicester. Games with them are usually tight and quite often end in a draw. I wouldn’t be surprised to see another one here. 

Any chance of getting this game postponed?

other clubs with less covid and injuries seem to be getting games off 

Well, I think it is fair to say that our title challenge is 90% over. It is quite disappointing to say that when there is half of the season to be played, but this December was a nightmare which will probably cost us. Certainly injuries and covid haven't helped us at all, and as Tuchel said, it is very hard to compete with City and Liverpool with 6 or 7 players out.

As for this one, for me it is a 50/50 game, so I'm expecting a draw. Maybe even a low scoring one. A win is possible if we manage to avoid silly mistakes and be concentrated for every single minute of the game.

Honestly just hope Kante can make the game. Without him our midfield and attack is lost.

11 hours ago, Argo said:

They've just lost to a team who started the night in the bottom half and had no centre back available. 

It will be a tough game but everyone banging on as if we're playing the 18-19 side is ridiculous. 

I personally think they are smelling the blood and we have no reason to be confident after failing to win against a very average Brighton team and basically Everton's C team.

Just now, Gol15 said:

I personally think they are smelling the blood and we have no reason to be confident after failing to win against a very average Brighton team and basically Everton's C team.

The Brighton team also outplayed Liverpool at Anfield.

Furthermore football isn't so binary. Do I need to remind you Alex McLeish, Alan Pardew and Sam Allardyce have won at The Bridge in UCL winning seasons?

25 minutes ago, Argo said:

The Brighton team also outplayed Liverpool at Anfield.

Furthermore football isn't so binary. Do I need to remind you Alex McLeish, Alan Pardew and Sam Allardyce have won at The Bridge in UCL winning seasons?

Sure, but I still find it hard to see how we can win the game. Maybe vintage Barkley goes wild and scores a few from distance, it's maybe long overdue to see a goal like that...

Apparently Klopp would like to postpone the game? He's going to lose Mane and Salah later on which is more than we losing Mendy so maybe we can win more points than them anyway but if we somehow manage to win this one it would really be amazing.

Edited December 31, 20214 yr by Gol15

I simply cannot figure out how Salah and Mané can be stopped by Azpi and Alonso.
So hopefully Tuchel can do the miracle and find a solution.

17 hours ago, Gol15 said:

I think we somehow have to play an open game, if we play too much defensively it's over we'll lose 0:3 but somehow we have to find a balance between not being exposed due to the backups playing instead of the first options but also we must try to contest the possession because teams that play too much defensively against Liverpool get destroyed regularly.

                          Mendy

Azpilicueta Chalobah Rudiger Alonso

  Ziyech      Kante  Kovacic          CHO
                        Mount

                       Lukaku

This would look on paper too much defensive, a counter-attackin 4-4-1-1. But this way the team can do the job when it comes to us pressing without letting Dave and Alonso getting into a very unfavorable 1v1s against Mane and Salah that have more pace.

A hybrid of 3-4-2-1 is needed and I think that a formation like this can do the trick because while we attack Ziyech and CHO act like the full-backs but they are more conservative otherwise and we can still press. Substituting later on Pulisic for either Mount there or rotate Mount to help out Alonso defensively and put CHO out for Pulisic that would be behind Lukaku since Mount anyway naturally goes to the left hand side. Also Jorginho for Kovacic if there are some problems with a yellow card.

Other thing I can think of to play a full open game and hope we score more:

         Kante Kovacic

Ziyech   Havertz   Mount
             Lukaku

Score 2 goals early on as a total surprise and then get Lukaku out and put Sarr, play Havertz up top with Pulisic instead of Ziyech and defend with the rest...

Something has to change. I think now is the time to go into a back four, and four in the middle, give up the wings, and lock up the middle, with 2 up top on the counter.

                    Mendy

    Caesar Trevoh Toni Marcus

         Ross    NG   Kova
                  Mason

             Rom    Pulisic

The thing we need to do is let Liverpool have the ball in their half largely unopposed and forget the high press for now.

 

3 minutes ago, abramovich said:

 

I hope Thiago is t being rushed back because of our injuries. 

24 minutes ago, TheGermanOne said:

I simply cannot figure out how Salah and Mané can be stopped by Azpi and Alonso.
So hopefully Tuchel can do the miracle and find a solution.

If Thiago is fit then it’ll be more on Rudi/Chabs to deal with them and Dave/Alonso dealing with their full backs if wager. Hopefully we can get something on the counter. 

                          Mendy

         Chalobah   Silva    Rudiger

       Azpi     Kante    Jorginho   Alonso

                 Ziyech    Mount

                       Werner

Christensen > Chalobah if he's fit.

Apparently Liverpool now have several players out with Covid and there may be more tomorrow. Not enough to get the game called off yet, but it might happen if they have more positive tests tomorrow.

We're going to batter them on most of the metrics.

I'll go for 1-1 though :-) 

1 minute ago, Sexyfootball said:

We're going to batter them on most of the metrics.

I'll go for 1-1 though 🙂

we will probably beat them on missed chances for sure 😉