Bradley BARCOLA: 2026/27

Posters writing a player off after 3 games. 12 hours later he bags a hat trick :ok_hand:

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I know it´s only LASK but he seemed more willing to try things today.

More of that please.

Should’ve scored at least four.

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Can you keep writing him off :ok_hand:

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First career hat-trick.

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Will he be able to do it at Brentford at 3.00 on a Saturday in October though…?

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I have made some poor predictions on here over the years but have never written a player off after 3 games. Amazing comments just 24 hours ago by some in this thread. I understand the transfer fee does mean higher immediate expectations but cmon.

Really pleased he eased a little pressure and hopefully the start of good things ahead.

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Are people wrong to expect players to perform immediately when they have a 100M+ price tag, though? That said, it’s not their fault that the buying club decided to pay that much for them but, regardless of the price tag, our best attacking signings over the past 25 years were people who started delivering the goods from the first day.

I don’t know if it’s the pressure that comes with playing for Liverpool or some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy but I can’t remember the last time an attacking player started slowly here, only to become a club great - and before people say “Firmino”, the reason behind his slow start was the manager that preferred another striker over him and generally didn’t know how to make the most out of his qualities.

That said, neither Barcola, Wirtz, nor Isak are helped by the constant flux of players, lack of squad balance, injuries, and one manager getting sacked and a new one coming in, all in the space of 15 months or so. I wish all of them found their feet at Liverpool soon, so we can put the last fifteen months behind us but I’m genuinely afraid that these huge price tags will eat into their self-confidence and cost them their Liverpool careers.

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@Nikola, one swallow doesn’t make a summer as they say, but yesterday night, Barcola showed the full extent of his potential. There is absolutely no reason to believe that he won’t deliver similar performances in the PL after an adaptation period. We have several rational explications why it was almost impossible for him to immediately hit the ground running: lack of a proper pre-season (just like for Isak last year), and as you say, manager changes and general instability on and off the pitch. But you can see now that with the squad getting into form, the individual quality starts to shine through.

This is valid for Barcola, but also for Wirtz and Isak: the better oiled the machine will be, the more these players will shine. Or to paraphrase Shankly’s words, when the piano carriers will have learnt to carry it well enough, the piano players will eventually be able to express themselves. Yesterday night wasn’t the first time we could see that something serious is starting to grow here, but the signs are starting to accumulate.

Despite a big number of absentees, a clear style of playing football is appearing, and the big players in the team will only benefit from that to express themselves. I can foresee a lot of joy for us in the coming months.

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Im not worried about Barcloa.

Had no pre-season. No friendlies to get used to team mates. New country and language. Just getting started then 3 week international break. Comes back v City and no forward to hit.

Last night showed some great touches and passing.

He’ll be fine.

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Did you see the interview with Robertson on the overlap? tI did explain a lot about the signings from last season and the difficulties that they came into. It was a bit of an eye opener.

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Crouch!

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300 games to get his first shot on target? okay okay.. bit of an overstatement. it was 298

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My concern is that the team doesn’t have enough piano carriers and that there’s no balance - we went from prime Trent and Salah to playing Araujo out of position and whoever is fit at right wing.

I really hope it’s a case of short-term pain for long-term gain (and this is probably a discussion for another thread) but I’m afraid that some “sacrifices” will have to be made in order to make this unit a cohesive one. To make the most out of Barcola, Isak and whoever we eventually buy to play on the right, we’ll have to get the midfield mix right and I think that it’s the case of either Wirtz or Szoboszlai + two rather complete midfielders behind one of them. But, like I said, that’s for another thread, it’s something that’s been going through my mind for weeks now.

As for Barcola, I liked how he was able to get his shots off last night but his decision making in dribbling left a lot to be desired against both Man City and LASK. Hopefully that will improve with time - Salah, Mane and even Ngumoha base(d) their game on leaving defenders guessing and since our current fullbacks don’t provide any real danger to opponent’s box, the onus is on wingers to provide as much threat as possible with their runs.

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