Rice is terribly overrated if he wasn’t English this would be mentioned even more. Even though ive never been Konates biggest fan as pure defender hes better than Saliba. Saliba just looks silker on the ball. Saka has got age on his side over Salah. As for Odegaard i wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole look at the clip from the weekend when he runs away from the Trossard break Dom does that here goes into meltdown.
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I think his move forward was an interesting experiment that gave them some benefit, but looks like to outlived its usefulness and is now contributing to their toothlessness.
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Saliba ahead of Konate. Marginal but yeah.
Ibooooooo to that
Love Konate. But it is what it is.
Also someone say this to Arsenal fans who are friends.
Spend close to a billion and their first team is still nowhere close to being as good as Liverpool’s first team.
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I can’t remember if I wrote it here but I said to all of my Liverpool-supporting friends: if Trent leaves for Real Madrid on a free, I can only wish him that he defends there like he’s been defending at Liverpool since the end of 2021/22. My opinion is that his overall form since then has been disappointing compared to his form up until the end of that season - just to be clear that I’m not referring just to his recent games.
I also said that I consider him an elite football player but not an elite right back. He switches off too many times for my liking, it’s little wonder that opponents target him most of the time. It’s not like he’s getting caught high up the pitch - he simply switches off. Again, I hope from the bottom of my heart he signs a new contract with Liverpool and plays the best football of his career but it’s a hope that’s dwindling with every passing day.
I didn’t give it a thought until now but off the top of my head… Saliba in Konate’s place, Odegaard in Szoboszlai’s place? Saka and Rice are immense but Salah is one of rare PL players who’s superior to Saka (if there are others at all) and I prefer what Mac Allister brings to the table compared to Rice. Also, they’ve been chopping and changing at left back but I think Lewis-Skelly and Calafiori are having a better season than Robbo.
The former is a walking red card and the latter walking wounded. We’re likely swapping out Robbo this summer for someone better than all three.
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On this I agree but that’s how low Robbo’s stock has fallen in my eyes… As a side note, I think Lewis-Skelly is a midfielder by trade, rather than a left back. Still, it’s an area that Slot and co. have to get right in the summer.
I think he’s always been this guy, the period you’re talking about he was just essentially a winger playing in a deeper starting role and had really nominal defensive responsibilities. That midfield three of Fabinho, Henderson and Wijnaldum were tasked with protecting Robbo and Trent. Now that our midfield is more productive and less protective it can leave both of them a little more exposed.
I still don’t see a single RB anywhere in the world who is even close to Trent. Yes he has flaws but what he brings to the table in his passing ability is just lightyears ahead of anything else out there.
There was a point yesterday where City had a decent press on us and Trent looked to pass through but couldn’t - so instead he pinged a 60+ yard cross field ball that stayed beautiful and flat. It dropped right over the City players head and into Diaz’s stride, who barely even needed to slow down before he was on the attack. There’s no one else who can do that.
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I have played with guys whose head wasnt in it or who thought they were too good to do what was asked of them. If you watch the way he and Dom engage with each other after the second goal when the celebration has died down, that is not how you respond to someone you think isnt pulling their weight and cannot be arsed to do his job. It is the exchange of two top players who deeply respect each other and what they bring to the side
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My take on Rice does he influence games like great midfielders have Keane, Viera, Fabregras, Gerrard, Lampard. If Arsenal don’t play well Rice doesn’t.
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That natural technical ability, coupled with the fact that he’s a product of club’s academy, is the main reason why I want him to stay.
I don’t think his downturn in form is just due to the system change - there are one-on-one situations where he behaves like the gamepad controlling him on video game got stuck, even though his starting position was a good one, and there are some other situations where he absolutely dominates the guy trying to go past him. In my opinion, it’s a matter of focus.
I don’t think that Slot will give up on this type of midfield (and Real Madrid’s midfield might offer much more protection to him), so that might be another factor in his decision to leave… But I hope he really listens to what Slot has to say.
No doubt he can get better at 1v1 defending, I just think it’s always been a weakness of his even during the peak Klopp years he is just asked to do it a bit more often now. It would be nice if he was an excellent 1v1 defender as well as essentially being Kevin de Bruyne at RB but you pick your poison and it’s easily worth the trade off to have a slightly poorer defensive RB who is as good as he is.
I think he’s a much better footballer today than he was a few years ago. Yes he gets attacked more but he is the only RB in world football right now who can go and win a game. I don’t even mean with assists and goals but just by taking over with his ability. Look at Brentford away this season, Nunez gets the headlines but it was Trent who won us the game - he was relentless over the last 20 minutes or so and eventually unpicked the lock with a clever run and cross. Newcastle away he did the same off the bench.
We’ll be a poorer side without him if he leaves. Conor Bradley is a good player in his own right but there is no RB even close to Trent anywhere in the world.
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Seems legit
I’m not sure about that…
If you gave our team to Arteta, we would probably be out of CL spots. Vice versa, I do believe Slot could have the Arsenal team in first.
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