there was a small period there where he dominated, and most games, even his poorer ones, he kinda moves around and creates moments.
Dom, for me, is the one window dressing his performances with alot of huff and puff, running into areas he doesnt need to, then performative theatrics to show how much he cares…
if you look at the pure footballing contributions, then i dont see how Dom is rated above Wirtz.
VVD is a decent shout, even though hes not at his highest level, Alison im happy to entertain.
Ekitike im not though, hes alot of fun to watch and i love that type of footballer, and when hes on, hes on, and its fun ( i was at the derby and then the Soton game where he held his shirt up-), id love to agree, becuase hes a bit of a fave for me, bt hes too immature footballwise, and hes not good enough (yet) in the graft department… his link up with Wirtz in that short 5/6 game stretch is the reason football is fun though, just a joy to watch when on song.
For me, it’s more our collective behaviour off the ball for large parts of this season. Dom really is one of the best pressing players in the game. When it’s not done in an organized way and other offensive players (Wirtz included, at least vastly this season) can’t follow it intensely enough, then yes, it can look like a bit of a mess. Also if the defensive transitition isn’t good enough either. But yes, pressing means certain individuals going beyond their positions and almost “cheating” a bit. Hendo used to do that a lot for us. But with collective support.
During pre-season (although I saw immediately some collective flaws that just continued into the season), I though Wirtz would not need a lot of time to settle and become a key player here. My friend (also a Liverpool fan) told me otherwise after the CS defeat to Palace. After a few weeks, I realized he was right and I was wrong. There was some improvement and then also numbers started appearing also after longer than everyone expected or hoped, but overall no… clearly not enough for me. Even if we agree that he’s one of the (if not THE) most “naturally gifted” players we have all that.
We are an absolute mess of a side with no coherent pattern of play or identity. It just feels like barking up the wrong tree to point to any of our players individually and be critical of their inconsistency or seeming confusion of their play.
Dom has run his arse for us this season and that has earmarked him for special praise. But I think it also needs to be pointed out that he is a remarkable natural athlete. If the team is suffering from being under prepared the way many believe then Dom is the sort of player who will, at least for a period, be a little more protected from the negative impacts of that and able to put in a hard shift more than those other players will.
It’s due to the club experiencing so many problems. Last season, we’d have given him a 7+ for his overall performance over the season. A bit like last season. Good things and at times, not so good ones.
If anything, I’d give it to Ekitike anyway. For a new player in a club in crisis, first season in this league, he has done fantastically well. Before he did his achilles heel, that is…
But at least, we can recognize that Szobo is one of the few from last season’s team who hasn’t become worse. That is already a lot, given the circumstances.
Wirtz has improved a lot but he was almost irrelevant in big parts of the first half of the season where it’s Dom who carried us in games. As I mentioned it’s a strange season where everyone pretty much underperformed, Dom not excluded but considering everyone over the season, it’s hard to see beyond Dom.
