13/1 - 15/1 Weekend Game Thread

Cellar-Door

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Aug 1, 2006
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How tight is everything outside the top 6?

West Ham thumped Huddersfield and moved from 15th to 11th, had been 19th 3 matches ago. Getting 7 of 9 moved 8 spots in the table.
 

Kliq

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Mar 31, 2013
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Terrific turn by Son to create that second goal. Not many attacking duos better right now than Kane and Son.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
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The 718
Everton need to put Sigurdsson in the middle of the park and put Rooney on spot duty.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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VVD out against City. Tight hamstring.

If this is because he shook Sturridge’s hand at some point I’m going to be ripshit.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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What are we missing? Karius is awful with the ball at his feet, he’s a shady shot stopper, and it’s clear his defense has no confidence in him. What the fuck?
 

SocrManiac

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Even if he’s showing something better than Mignolet in training, he sure as shit doesn’t show it on match day. I don’t think this is subjective. Karius has proven to be a significant downgrade under the spotlight.
 

Mighty Joe Young

The North remembers
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What are we missing? Karius is awful with the ball at his feet, he’s a shady shot stopper, and it’s clear his defense has no confidence in him. What the fuck?
From what I've seen the only thing he does better than Mignolet is his distribution. That being said I can't recall any games this year where Karius has actually had much to do.

I think Klopp has finally decided Mignolet is not good enough. But before they spend a pile of cash on an upgrade they have to find out if Karius IS.
So he will be first choice until he proves he shouldn't be.

He had an excellent reputation in Germany. This is clearly his final chance. If he spits the bit then they will bring in a replacement.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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Karius has been pretty consistent in knocking the ball directly out of bounds for LFC. We’ll see.

Sterling is still a bitch.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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Look, stop with the near post stuff. Goalkeepers are not trained to “never get beaten near post.” That is a media fabrication. Goalkeepers are trained to not get beaten, period. Top level strikers will punish your far post if you cheat near. You play the angles.

Karius cheated. He started reacting away from the shot. He lost. Badly. Mignolet doesn’t let that in.
 

Mighty Joe Young

The North remembers
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Look, stop with the near post stuff. Goalkeepers are not trained to “never get beaten near post.” That is a media fabrication. Goalkeepers are trained to not get beaten, period. Top level strikers will punish your far post if you cheat near. You play the angles.

Karius cheated. He started reacting away from the shot. He lost. Badly. Mignolet doesn’t let that in.
Agree completely. That being said Mignolet makes his own share of mistakes. They need a new keeper.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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Mignolet absolutely makes his own share of mistakes. He’s not a top class keeper.

He’s vastly superior to Karius, however, and you need to play your best.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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I thought both goals, while very good shots, could/should have been stopped.

Fun half of football.
Both absolutely should have been stopped. Coincidentally, Ederson did cheat near post and Ox took a fairly shitty shot at the far post. It wasn’t even close to a precision strike and beat him anyway.
 

Dummy Hoy

Angry Pissbum
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Jul 22, 2006
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I thought Ox’s shot was decent. He had some power and it came off his foot pretty quick.

I’ll bow to your expertise here though.
 

SocrManiac

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I’d rather I explained things intelligently enough than have people take my word as truth.

https://www.clippituser.tv/c/dwxvap

As Ox is coming in, Ederson is slowly sliding left. One of two things happened. He either misjudged his angle due to Ox’s advance or he was consciously prepping his near post.

The first I would like to think less likely of a top flight keeper, but it seems to fit the evidence. One of the most difficult skills to learn is to track your angles as a player is moving quickly. The instinct is to make large movements as a player accelerates. You instead need to maintain the angle. It looks to me like Ederson is fooled by the speed and moves too quickly tooward his near post. His weight is also shifted for another slide to his left when the shot goes toward his right. As a result, he can’t generate and power into his dive and comes up way short. I think we’ve all seen that, regardless of the neck tattoo, Ederson has a fairly decent dive range that he didn’t come anywhere close to achieving on that shot.

In terms of the “cover the near post” argument, just let evidence be your guide here. Watch how goalkeepers set up. I’d challenge folks to find keepers cheating the near post on a regular basis unless it’s based on a striker’s tendency or a particular situation.
 

SoxFanInPdx

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Karius is absolutely clueless as a keeper. This is a huge issue and they need to just cut bait with both and sign a top keeper this window or Top 4 and CL will be done.
 

Dummy Hoy

Angry Pissbum
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Jul 22, 2006
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I always appreciate your insight...taking you at your word is fine, but the explanations are always helpful.

And I agree, Ederson just missed the angle.