This is the thing I would fear most as a Liverpool fan; let's face it, you're not going to score 3-4+ goals every game - it's not La Liga... so are Liverpool able to grind out a 1-0 like champions when the ball isn't going the rattle the net on average every 20 minutes? Scoring 2 goals at home against a bottom 4 side at home should guarantee 3 points. Should West Ham & Bournemouth be scoring 6 goals in 2 games against a team that fancy their shot at the title? Is your back 5 (including Karius) solid enough to keep clean sheets when they're being posed questions in games in which you're not going to steamroll? I've yet to see anything to be confident of that.
We've actually ground out, or closed out, 4 or 5 wins this year.
Opening day at Arsenal, we had a mad 10 minute or so spell from 4-1 when they got back to 4-3 on 75, then we comfortably shut the game down and they never had a sniff of an equaliser. Same at Chelsea when Costa pulled it back to 2-1 with half an hour to play, the game was closed out with barley a scare to our goal. West Brom got back to 2-1 with 8 to go but didn't have a sniff after that as we comfortably closed out the win. Palace we relinquished the lead twice at a very difficult place to go (enjoy that Wednesday. Palace are a wholly different prospect down there), but battled back for a 4-2 victory. 'Spurs the League Cup got back to 2-1 with 15 to play, with little else to follow. I'd even throw in going one down at Swansea after 8 minutes, riding out the pressure until 10/15 before half time, then flipping it around to a 2-1 win in complete control bar one mighty scare injury time they never capitalised on.
Closing out/ winning tight games/ battling and grinding out the win hasn't been an issue for this side this season outside of the last 2 games.
The first choice back four and Karius have played a grand total of four and a half games together. Through which they've kept 3 clean sheets and conceded 3 goals. Make of that what you will but it's WAY too early to make a judgement on such an embryonic unit that Karius couldn't even train with for the first 2 months of the year down to a broken hand.
I know I've seen comments on this thread about clean sheets being overrated and what not, but I disagree. It's a massive factor as to why Chelsea are top of the table at the moment and now 6 clear of you lot.
We have actually had 6 clean sheets this year, with 3 on the bounce a mere two games back. Today was only the fifth time in 19 games this year we've conceded more than 1 goal in a game. (1x 4/ 1x 3/ 3x 2.).
Prior to today (which may or may not still be the case) we had the best record in all the top 5 leagues in Europe for the fewest number of shots from open play on our goal this season.
The defence isn't half as big a problem as people lazily try infer.
Cech, Terry, Carvahlo & co were massive in Mourinho's dominant spell at the bridge... Van Der Sar, Vidic & Ferdinand & co were massive in United's dominant spell, I just don't see anything like that when I look at Liverpool's back 4, just a nervy keeper that saves very little and has 0% confidence (I actually feel for him, I think Klopp has to act in some way), a workhouse midfielder switched to left back because the other one is a car crash, a Croat centre half who almost has a bad piece of play to follow every good piece, I don't know too much about Matip but that was woeful defending by him for Antonio's goal, but I'll give Clyne credit, he's a decent full-back.... but that's really all I see.
Not going to debate individual players as it's all subjective. All different opinions are welcome and interesting. Even if I wouldn't agree.
Need a left back, a proven centre half, and this keeper issue SORTED BIG TIME. Whether it's having a word with Karius, getting him to do something extra at Melwood, or just take him out of the firing line for a bit, either way something needs to be done. I know I've used De Gea as an example of defence with the German, but Carragher made a good point; With De Gea it was just problems with his physicality and reacting to crosses, adapting to the physical bearings of the Premier League, but with this kid he's actually having trouble catching the ball and stopping shots, which is the same as he'd have to be dealing with in Germany or Italy or Spain, etc.
I do completely disagree here on a few things however. Milner has been great at LB this year and was arguably the best player in red out there again today. Solid defensively. Fantastic going forward. He's been our main playmaker in a lot of games. Which given the quality of those further ahead of him speaks volumes on him. He's the very least of any L'pool worries. Karius I won't even attempt to defend today. But again, as last week, I wouldn't put much stock at all in anything Carragher says directly after a L'pool game or even the day after. He's still too invested and too emotional as a fan to give a rational judgement on most anything. Being back in the pub and hearing him say Randolph's howler was just the life of a 'keeper, but he made up for it with the Worldie save whilst continuing to lambast Karius (how does this help the lad again Jamie? It's going above and beyond punditry now) is a prime example. He normally levels out later in the week.
Could we upgrade on Lovren a a starter alongside Matip? Definitely. But unfortunately Joe Gomez is just recently back from 14 months out so it's a mix and match right now. Klavan was one of the few notable ones today second half and Lucas has been very impressive stepping in. Last week's horror game aside from him.
It is what it is but the middle of our defence isn't nearly as big an issue as it's perceived to be. The way we play, the chances we take, they're always going to be exposed. You could hand pick your ideal goalkeeper and back 4 from around the World and you'd doubtless still concede goals the way we play. But then when today was the 49th goal we've scored this year, and we're running at at 2.6- 1.1 goals per game average scored/ conceded, we're going to win/ come out on top FAR more times than we aren't.
Very interested to see what happens midweek, I doubt he'll drop him, but interesting to see if he will weigh in with a performance, as no doubt 'Boro will have their moments against that back 4.
There's no way Karius gets dropped. He was bought for both the here and now and to develop for the long haul. Just because he's struggling now isn't going to change that.
He's not gone from the second best goalkeeper in the Bundesliga last year as voted by his fellow professionals, a man watched countless times by our scouts and not least Klopp, at his team Mainz; to utter ***** as the common narrative all over the place is based on 11 games and so called experts views on the TV/ in the press.
It's a complete non-debate as the manger has full faith in him.
He's struggling but it's something that he and we will just have to ride out.
Wilhelm
Coutinho is a huge miss. Karius nervousness will spread like a disease through Pools backline!