Reinhard

For me, Arsenal plays without a system. They are exactly as good as their postiion on the table. I am pretty sure, we will win and Arsenal will replace the manager aferwards. At least a draw.

I understand. So if we beat Burnley we can beat everyone :-) Seems to be an interesting game next weekend.

Anyway - we could upheld our performance more or less. We play on a much higher level consistently than at season start. And we complain about not taking something from LV or Tottenham, that is a good sign! We are not (yet) top four, that is obvious. It is not a drama to loose against such teams this season. The other clubs started to analyse our game and our defense, but nevertheless we still put our good performance on the pitch. With the new RB, JWP again on his position and Boufal getting better step by step we should have a good run in the updoming games.

Exactly this!

Maybe they beat us, but definitely not "without breaking a sweat".

When Mané went to Southampton from RB Salzburg, he played a dirty trick on his team. Salzburg was about to play an important Champions league game but Mané was absent, nobody knew where he was, so he did not play. He wanted to enforce his move to Southampton - what finally happened, but first he betrayed his fellow players in Slazburg ...

Only saw the last one. West Ham's team was kind of shy most of the time, didn't much believe in themselves. Maybe this is part of the last game's success of LV - that the other sides considered themselves as victims from the beginning. I am pretty sure Southampton won't play the role of victims but be aggressive and LV will not be familiar with such a dedicated other side.

I have betted on a draw or a win. So I have to be optimistic.

They are as good as they are allowed to be good. As I stated already above, they are maybe not used to get pressed themselves. They will make mistakes, relying on their CB-CB-keeper-CB-CB play. But Klopp is clever and will try to avoid pressing. RH on the other side will know that Klopp is clever and will react to Klopp's reaction and so on ... Football is sometimes very easy - LV will underestimate us whatever warnings Klopp will say to his players so I expect a pleasant surprise.

"Southampton"

Remember the 4-3 of Liverpool against Salzburg in European Champions-League in autumn. LV got 3 goals within minutes or so. Salzbug played a similar style to Southhampton, but had a weaker defense. Let's see ...

Saw their game against West Ham. Kind of boring. Liverpool's defense is not used to pressing from the other side. Not at all. Westham pressed in total 2 and 1/2 minutes or so and even in this minor time span they could win the ball several times. So their defense will have a hard time with us on Saturday! On the other side their forwards are extremly clinical, as we know. Our RB position will have no problem, whoever plays in our team there, because Mané will be out. Our midfield and the defenders will be crucial for the result of the game. Both teams will make goals. 2:2 or 2:3 for us.

IF we perform as we did in the recent weeks, or even better (RH: "We are getting better each week") then 1 or 3 points can be taken from Liverpool. But they are so strong, will be a challenge for the defense. Maybe a fast goal from Ings and, when they attack for the equalizer, make another one or two :-)

I don't know the real considerations then, and the financial situation of the club. Danso played in German Bundesliga always as a CB as far as I remember, as well as in the Austrian national team (never as a RB). Sometimes, in U23, he was used as a defensive midfielder. There were 4 CBs in the summer already. Maybe RH was not sure of their quality for his systems. Or maybe in summer he wanted to stick to 3 CBs on the pitch, then it would have made sense to have a 5th one for rotation. Image Stephans, Yoshida, Bednarek or Vestergaard were used as RBs and/or LBs. Had they been so much better than Danso?

The idea of the club and RH is to develop young players and, after some years, sell them for much money. Therefore, a complete CB of 26 or 28 years would make sense in another philosophy. Danso is there for the future. That was the idea I think. But RH changed his mind a bit - the struggling season start did not allow him to give match-time to youngsters. (Even top-talented Djenepo comes from the bench ...)

Bednarek was responsible for causing some goals at season start, wrong positioning, back oriented, a liability. But RH was loyal to him and improved him to a good player again. So the same can happen with Danso.

I totally agree. If Vestergaard and, to some degree, Bednarek, start to make vertical passes only, the game will be even more accelerated. But Bednarek improved already markedly compared to the beginning of the season. It is not only the presence and the passes in the opponents# half, it is also the ambition to make a goal fast after winning the ball.

The point was that the team upheld the pressure and aggressiveness for 94 minutes. We almost never did this a whole game long under RH. But that is what he wants. Contrary to the opinion of some experts who say that a team cannot press for 90 minutes.

The game on Saturday will let us know if we fall back into old patterns (similar game to West Ham) or we will change the old pattern and show a brilliant performance again.

I agree totally, good analysis!

That is true to some extent. We should not forget that defending in the last 8 or 9 games started with the attackers. Then came the midfielders and only then the CBs. Therefore the other side's attacks were not such overwhelming for the CBs because all helped to weaken the other attack already. The whole team is defending when necessary and so it is easier for the CBs.

Ralph did not come with the target to finish a season between 10th and 14th. He wants to be near the top with his teams. He will not say this aloud, but you can be sure. Being a manager in Southampton/PL is different from being a coach in Bundesliga, because in the PL he has a wider sphere of responsibility and for me it seemed that it took time for him to cope with that. What surprised me was that he actually improved some players compared to last season and compared to this season start. E.g. I was very critical of Bertrand, Bendarek, JWP, and Redmond, to name a few. They all became better, as playing indivdiuals. That has nothing to do with 4222 or anything else. Somehow he improved them on an individual basis and now they fit very good into his system. Also the automatisms start to show results (e.g. how you play the ball from the defenders to midfield and bypass the other side's pressing).

I understood that somehow because Bertrand was apathetic at that time, only back oriented and a liability for the team. I was very critical about Betrand but now I am a kind fan of him due to his change to the better.

Agree. Or even clean sheet.

It won't be too easy with the other clubs just above us. The more clever ones will study us and try to overcome this pressing on the front. One possible solution of them will be long passes to their forwards, like Burnley did against us at season start. But I am confident that Hasenhüttl will take this into account and train and drill to handle that. Meanwhile our defense is much better and more solid, also in the air, therefore I am sure we will have the right answers. The clubs underestimated us up till now due to the 0-9, now they will start to take us seriously. Hasenhüttl stated in one interview yesterday or so that the team gets better each week, so lets look forward ...