Midfield

A Tactical Look at Emre Can Against Crystal Palace

If you were to ask Liverpool fans for a review of Emre Can's season the answers would vary from uninspired and lacklustre to commanding and captain-in-waiting. This isn't because Emre Can has been inconsistent, make no mistake about it his performances haven't been consistently good, but more so to do with the fact half...

A Disservice To Henderson

At the risk of sounding too negative here, but am I the only one that feels that since Jordan Henderson has returned from injury in January Jürgen Klopp has done him a great disservice by playing him as often as he has? (I am not having a go at Klopp, he is the Liverpool...

Can or Lucas? Capital One Cup Starting Spot Showdown

With the dangers of Manchester City’s attack and the energy needed in Liverpool’s midfield, who starts in midfield on Sunday will play a pivotal part in Liverpool’s fortunes. Emre Can is expected to appear in the middle, but calls for Lucas Leiva’s inclusion have increased, with former Red, Neil Mellor, saying the Brazilian should get...

Hot and Cold; why are Liverpool so inconsistent?

Inconsistency has been a hallmark of Liverpool's performances since the start of Brendan Rodgers' tenure in 2012, but why do Liverpool still struggle to put together a string of successive good performances, or put a small handful of fantastic performances in between a sandwich of dull, slow and rather boring ones? There is no clear answer...

Making the Case for Cameron Brannagan

Jürgen Klopp’s debut season has brought a lot of positives so far, one of those being the use of Liverpool’s young players. He started this process by bringing back many of Liverpool’s promising loaned out players, now he has been using a team in the FA Cup composed of mostly inexperienced players with of...

Observations From the Win That Sends Us to Wembley!

"Man City or Everton, it doesn't matter. We'll win the Cup." - Jurgen Klopp Our manager is fanning the flames. He's bringing back a trophy in his debut season. It wasn't particularly pretty and it won't be remembered as a spectacle but Liverpool once again dug deep to take something away from a disappointing performance. It's been...

Emre Can – Vorsprung Durch Technik

If you could design the perfect central midfielder, they'd be tall, athletic, with raw power and pace. Then look at Emre Can and tell me he doesn't fit the model?! He, by design, is the perfect midfielder. His attributes are made to dominate football matches in the Premier League and go on to become...

Rise of “Die Maschine”: Consistency, Leadership, and Emre Can

I remember it well. The final game of a legend, of a man that had exemplified what it meant to wear the Red on Red kit for a generation and embodied the spirit and mystique of Liverpool Football Club for a certain, young American fan discovering this wild world of English football for the...

The Coutinho Conundrum

In recent weeks, Liverpool have put on three stellar displays: dismembering Chelsea, Manchester City and Southampton all away from home, and yet there have also been some dire, and rather boring affairs - the Newcastle and Sion matches, and to an extent the Swansea match were all too familiar and brought back bad memories...

Liverpool 2 WBA 2 – What Went Wrong Tactically

I recently wrote a piece inspired by the positivity of the 6-1 victory over Southampton in the Capital One Cup. In that match there was a real feeling that Jurgen Klopp was starting to introduce his tactical concepts to the squad and that we would see the team go from strength to strength. Since...